Their music is an anarchic wall of sound, their stage act is weird city, but their vision to take the Gospel to the world's alternative youth has few parallels. Mike Rimmer met David Pierce, lead singer of NO LONGER MUSIC.

David Pierce

There are some bands that are destined to become famous in the scheme of CCM things and some bands who are simply destined to become famous in the annals of God for doing great exploits for God. No Longer Music are definitely in the latter category! Playing in places that would make your average Christian band run home to mummy, to audiences more likely to spit on the band than clap politely. There were times when interviewing leader David Pierce that 1 wondered about the band's sanity.

David Pierce's testimony and story of the growth of the band is contained in the autobiography Rock Priest published half a decade ago by Kingsway. If you find a copy, snap it up because NLM are an extraordinary band and their leader is a man of great courage and strange sense of humour! You" 11 see what I mean in a little while.

We met up when American Pierce was recently in the country on a preaching tour and dropped into UCB's studio for a chat, a laugh and to wind up one humble Cross Rhythms interviewer! He began telling his story: "When 1 finished university I decided I wanted to go to Europe, and so 1 was travelling around with a backpack and ended up in Amsterdam. To make a long story short I felt like I was supposed to move there. I was trying to figure out a way to reach the punks and the anarchists and the guys like that in the city. I was at a rock concert and saw this band performing. I saw the kind of influence they were having and I thought, 'I think I should start a band,' but because I couldn't play any musical instruments I decided I would be the singer."

The band's first rehearsals didn't bode well. "Someone was listening to us practice and said, 'That's no longer music,' and we said, 'Yes!', and so that's what we decided to call our band. And so it's been kind of our way of going into these crazy clubs and letting people know that Jesus cares for them."

Listening to Dave's description of NLM on stage, it's clear that they have a rather unique way of reaching those punks. "We do a lot of different kinds of things," Dave explained, and when he said "different" I wasn't quite ready for what he had in mind! "One of the things we'll do is have a wall on the stage, with this red spotlight, and we have this smoke, and the band will be playing off to the side. I'll be behind the wall and I'll have on a gas mask and a chainsaw, and then attached to the chainsaw I'll have a microphone, so then I start cutting through the wall with it, and the crowd goes completely nuts because they think 'this is the best music we've ever heard.""

You can see why their music would appeal to the sort of audience who aren't normally reached by the gospel! David continued telling me stories about their stage act and divulged the revelation that one of the band actually looks like a vampire! Things don't always go smoothly! He explained, "At a certain point we have this animal rights song and it's a song by people who love animals more than people, and during that song we throw these stuffed animals into the audience, and so there's like this big fight with stuffed animals. One time we were doing a concert in Germany and the promoter asked what kind of stuff do you need? I told him we needed about 75 large stuffed animals but he didn't hear stuffed, and he said, 'What do you mean?' and I said, 'You know, like dogs and cats,' and he said, 'Where am I going to get those?' and I said, 'Well, everybody has them at home.' He said, "What are you going to do with them?' and I said, 'Throw them into the audience,' and so we had this kind of bad reputation."

Dave continued describing some of the NLM's outrageous stage show acting out his stage antics. "A bed comes out onto the stage and I put on this night gown and I stand on top of this bed and go 'I believe in sex!' and everyone goes 'Yesss!'. 'I believe you should have sex as often as possible!', the crowd all go 'Yesss!', then I say, 'I believe you should have sex all the time!', they get frantic and shout 'Yessss!' until I shout, 'After marriage!'."

This outrageous behaviour impacts people as David described, "We were playing at a club, called First Avenue, in a recent world tour in Minneapolis and two girls came in and they recognised that because of what we were doing on stage that we must be Christians. They started to laugh at us and to mock us and someone was watching them and said, 'Why are you doing that?' and they said, 'Well, it's just a bunch of dumb Christians,' and so they said, 'Look at the bar tender,' and the bar tender in this club in Minneapolis was shaking so hard because of the power of the Holy Spirit in the club, he was unable to work behind the bar. Those girls were some of the first ones to come up and give their hearts to Jesus after the gig."

Pierce could give countless stories like this because NLM have seen thousands and thousands come to Jesus through their concerts. His passion to see people radically saved merely reflects the spiritual journey of Pierce himself. He described it, "Well, I grew up in a Christian home and I had an intellectual understanding of who Jesus was, but I was the kind of Christian who was always asking 'What can I do and still be saved?'. When I finally went to university I had a friend who was involved in the occult and for the first time I recognised there really was a spiritual world, because of what he was doing. He made me afraid and made me really start to pray and read the Bible for the first time. I recognised that God was calling me to be an evangelist."

Back then Dave never would have dreamed of the places that God would lead him to preach the gospel. Hearing about it, you get the feeling that if David Pierce had known what was ahead he might never have chosen to be an evangelist! He recalled a concert in Germany, "It was in Nuremberg, in a real radical place. This guy came in, he was a skinhead. He wanted to kill our guitarist. Then he and his friends changed their minds and wanted to show us how tough they were. So they took these knives and were carving little things in their arms. It was a pretty crazy scene and I said, 'Did you have fun at the concert?'. He said, 'Yeah, I like to pick my friend up by the waist and swing him around and kick people in with my boots.' I was sick at the time - I had the 'flu - and felt really weak and was afraid at the same time. We went backstage and were praying but I just made the decision that I was going to obey God. I've had to do this at a lot of different time, where I've just said, 'God, I'm going to obey you, I've going to show you that I believe you really are strong.'"

The band's response to such pressure from the crowd? The wildest punk music? Nope. David explained, "We've done this before in situations like this, started our concert on our knees with worship songs, which is really bizarre in a scene like that but the Holy Spirit was so strong in the club that no one moved, they just stood quietly, and I preached for about 20 minutes. They just listened, some people gave their hearts to Jesus then, and we were invited to play back there the following year. We've played there about three times now. So sometimes you need to step through fear if you want to see God's power."

The life and ministry of David Pierce and NLM is littered with testimonies like this. "We were invited to play in Copenhagen," he told me, "and we played in Christiana -it's this real squalid part of the city, and we were playing on the roof of a biker gang called the Bull Shits. That night we played with a band called the Body Bags and afterwards they wanted to know more about Jesus."

Clearly NLM love ministering to 'alternative' people and God has gifted them in being able to communicate to that segment of society. Their albums have all been privately released and have an edgy feel to them. 'No Sex' and 'Hang By Your Feet And Sing' are snappy and energetic but their most recent recording, 'Passion (An Act Of)' is something a little different because NLM step into the world of concept albums! Shock horror! The CD sleeve explains that this is a rock opera and I suggest that NLM could be getting into dodgy territory. After all, aren't rock operas a bit pompous? David laughed, "Yeah, well, we are pompous! How do I describe the rock opera? The story is about a relationship between this couple and a whole lot of modern day kinds of things that this generation faces, and how Jesus is the answer to it, but using a lot of modern symbols. It is Jesus Christ Superstar in the '90s, with good theology, with the added benefit of God's power coming down and touching."

His biography describes that a great deal of his activities were part of YWAM in Europe and I wanted to know if he still worked with them. "Yes, we're still affiliated with YWAM. They endorse the work that we do around the world. And we've got lots of different things going on right now. We've just opened a home for destitute people in New Delhi and that's actually run by the band Vampire, whom I mentioned earlier."

At that point David digressed to tell me the testimony of his fellow band member, which is so spectacularly bizarre that I must let him share it with you! David said, "He used to dress up like a space alien and stuff, and walk round Amsterdam. He was a drug dealer. He had a friend who had a pirate radio station called Radio Death. His friend would just make fun of and be very negative against God. One day he was doing the normal stuff he did and this angel came through the wall of his room and rebuked him for what he was saying about God and about Jesus on the radio."

David continued, "So he came to my friend the vampire and told him about this and at the same time someone came in to buy some drugs and all he had to pay for them was a New Testament! So he traded a gram of speed for a New Testament, and so he and his friend from Radio Death started the Gutter Church in Vondel Park, in Amsterdam, and together in this kind of cellar they read the Bible all alone for two years. During this period of time his whole life changed and God completely changed him and set him free from all kinds of things. They read the Bible and they listened to this Baptist pastor on the radio. He read this part of the Old Testament about not cutting your beards, so he started to dress like an Orthodox Jew. He had this long beard and 10 dogs. He would walk around in Amsterdam in Vondel Park and try to look at people and bring fire down on them from Heaven. He also had this paint can and would write, 'Repent, the end is near' on bridges. Anyway, one day someone told him about our meetings and he joined us. Now he's our special effects guy and when he's not doing that he's out in India, so that's really exciting."

NLM's impact is global because they take the follow up from their live gigs very seriously. "After this last world tour," explained David, "we did follow up all over the world in all the venues that we played. In Singapore, the band's drummer and his wife started something called Core Club. They're having 500 of these alternative guys coming to their events and they've had to change the location of the Bible study three times because of all the people who are coming. Hardcore Islamic bands are coming wanting to know more about Jesus and it's growing like crazy. We're also looking at starting some things in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and there's a huge scene there. The government is very concerned about their young people about the way they're being messed up by the materialism of the west and the kind of garbage that's coming through the media. I believe they're going to help us come in and actually sponsor us to tell these kids about Jesus. So things are happening all over the place. We're also looking at starting a new one in New York City, in Greenwich Village, and we'll be having a big outdoor concert other there next year."

Obviously with all this going on David Pierce is a busy guy! Just before we finished chatting he explained that 1998 will see his latest book published. He went into satirical overdrive describing it: "Dancing With Skinheads And Other Bible Study Topics should be coming out soon. Right now we're negotiating with different publishers here and the band vampire did the illustrations for it. It's got lots of cool illustrations, a main story and inside stories and it's an interactive book. It has a scratch'n'sniff in it - it's going to be a whole new ground breaking thing for books." He paused to find that I am, of course, taking him completely seriously! He continued, feeling sorry for me, "That was a joke! The point of the book is that you can give it to secular kids and they'll read it and it has real clear teaching in it. I think it'll come out sometime in the spring."

Looks like a really good read! Whether you're a skinhead or not, No Longer Music and the ministry of David Pierce is worth checking out if only as a blueprint for how God can use genuinely weird guys to reach the lost alternative communities for Jesus.