James Attlee met up with radical punk band THE IMMORTAL DEAD at the Harry Festival.

"I knew God existed the moment I prayed but it took a long time, three weeks, before I decided to turn to him. Eventually I decided I'd be a hypocrite not to, but I really didn't want to tie my life up as I thought and take on the responsibilities I knew I'd have to."

The band's name is tied up with the faith that underpins their music. 'There's a quotation in the Bible somewhere, I'm not very good at remembering verses and things but it's in John somewhere, where Jesus says 'He who wants to save his life will lose it but he who dies for me will keep it.' That's the nearest Biblical thing we can get but it's a very personal thing why we're called the Immortal Dead. I really believe that in order to be immortal you've just got to die to all the selfishness, the bitterness, the hatred inside you - you've got to give that up - 'give-it-up' isn't a big enough word, you've got to die to it. We have died to that, we've died to our lives and because of it we're immortal."

I asked Titus how this experience related to the well-worn Christian phrase being 'born again'.

"It's similar but we're thinking more of actively changing your compassion - we really believe in 'active compassion'...that's probably one of our main mottos."

This 'active compassion' has been worked out in relationships - the band have lived communally - and in lifestyle. The experience called conversion that they see some Christians go through seems to them to only have effect at a superficial level.

"I think there's a deeper thing it's important people ought to strive for, I think if people have truly taken on the compassion of God eventually they will think about every aspect of their lives and how it's affecting other people - the food they buy from multinational companies and eating meat."

I suppose the immediate comparison I drew with seeing the Immortal Dead's 'punk rhythmic noise' was watching the grandaddies of present day anarcho-punk, Crass, back in the late 70s. Does the influence of Crass linger on in Bradford?

"My main influences, and I can't write songs like the bands I like best, but the main bands I do listen to - which as a Christian I would get a lot of stick for. I don't like the blatantly slagging off religion songs but I do hate it when someone slags off Jesus Christ because he never did anything wrong, even if they don't believe he was the son of God - I love Grass, I love the Subhumans and I like Stiff Little Fingers.that's about it for bands. I like Reggae as well.

The band's recording career has been affected by the usual financial constraints and also by the band's desire never to charge for a cassette - not an ambition that will appeal to money-minded record companies but they have taken original steps to get round the lack of hard cash.

"We've tried to get sponsorship off people - we've written to Cliff Richard and the Archbishop of Canterbury and we had some quite polite letters saying 'You're not a charity so we don't get tax relief off you'," Titus tells me with an ironic grin.

There is an Immortal Dead tape in circulation, a live recording with covers ready for a further batch of cassettes but the money isn't there at present to make more copies. Even though there were copies remaining at the time of this interview they hadn't brought any to Harry 90 because "we thought if we play people might just take a tape because we're different not because they actually like what we sing about and want to take on the convictions that we believe in.

"All the people who've got the tape so far like the music and share some of the beliefs." These are not the words of someone hungry for mega-sales but then Immortal Dead identify with outsiders - those whose values society has largely rejected and who have, in turn, turned their backs on society. Titus, a confirmed pacifist, can sympathise with those Animal Liberationists whose frustration has lead them to use bombs in the face of public apathy to their demands. He admires The Swords Into Ploughshares Movement whose members recently broke into a USAF base in Oxfordshire, symbolically dented the nose of an American bomber, and poured a pint of their own blood over the controls before giving themselves up to face possible 11-year jail sentences.

He is a staunch opponent of the poll tax. "It's totally unjust. I live in the Asian community in Bradford and I know how many people there are living in each house. The average family is two parents, one elderly relative and two daughters over 18 - that's quite a general size. The rates used to be around £220 and the poll tax is £280 each. Bradford's going to get hit really bad." He's not paying. To those who quibble about the legality of such actions he would probably answer in the words of Peter and John to the Jewish court in Acts 4: "Judge for yourselves whether it's right in God's sight to obey you rather than God."

It's the fact that Immortal Dead have remained a part of the community from which they've sprung - and see no desire to leave it for pop stardom or safe 'Christian' conformity - that makes them important. Titus isn't 'down' on churches even though on visiting one he was once asked to remove his CND nose ring as it was an 'occult symbol'!. The band have a good relationship with a C of E church in Bradford.