Tony Cummings completes his history of UK Christian music 1965-1975 and the huge part Musical Gospel Outreach played in it



Continued from page 1

Choralerna
Choralerna

By May 1974, MGO were presenting "the first British performance of a new musical based on the Gospel of John, written, performed and produced by Choralerna" at the Royal Albert Hall. Clearly Buzz magazine was thriving. The June issue sported an article The Helmet Of Salvation by Bible teacher and author John Blanchard (who, ironically, in the '80s wrote the notorious anti-pop music book Pop Goes The Gospel) while another article examined the erroneous teachings of the Worldwide Church Of God/The Plain Truth magazine. By now Buzz was up to 36 pages and contained page ads for The Living Bible, Tear Fund, Greenbelt Music Festival, Spurgeon's Homes, Ansvar Insurance and the first, full page ad in Buzz by a record company major - EMI's ad for Cliff Richard's 'Help It Along' and Dave Cook & Judy MacKenzie's 'Thinking It Over' albums. In the next issue, Buzz (which had dropped the "New" bit) indicated that it was now printed by Erreys Printers.

MGO, Buzz and Key Records Pt 3: Pioneers of British Christian
music 1973-1975

Buzz July 1974 also ran adverts for the latest Dovetail Records releases, the eponymous album by Lois Buckley - an old school, middle-of-the-road singer belonging more to the era of sacred solos than the rock of Key's Out Of Darkness and Dovetail's Canaan. Another Dovetail release was 'This Our Sacrifice Of Praise' by 11.59. Jesus music expert Ken Scott described 11.59 as a "seven-person British male/female progressive folk outfit." Another Dovetail album issued around this time was 'The Lightbearers With Esther Tims' from a group then touring the UK. The Lightbearers were a band of musical evangelists from the Netherlands with Esther hailing from Surabaya, Indonesia.

The December '74 Buzz featured a cover story on Choralerna publicising MGO's 1975 New Year Celebration Event at the Royal Albert Hall featuring Cliff Richard, Choralerna and Malcolm & Alwyn. Sweden's Choralerna had been a big hit at Spre-e 73 and their impressive replication of a black gospel choir demonstrated that call and response gospel wasn't dependent on ethnicity. The January cover story was on California's Jimmy Owens ("Come Together's writer talks about his new musical") while the March '75 issue, as well as offering The Buzz Guide To Prophecy and a piece describing "a new weapon in the Christian's armoury" headed The Cassette Explosion, featured an interview with the "Eve Of Destruction" man Barry McGuire.

Dovetail released the second Advocates album 'Here I Rest My Case' but it was Key's release in April of 'Wildwall' by Malcolm & Alwyn which, some broadcasters claimed, took British Christian music to a new level. Mike Wood of BBC Radio Manchester enthused, "This album contains encouragement for the sagging believer, inspiration for the depressed, sensitive humour with music more than a shade influenced by the Beatles at their best." Like its 'Fool's Wisdom' predecessor, 'Wildwall' was issued in the USA on Myrrh Records and, as it turned out, was the first Key release to sell well in the American Christian market.

The May 1975 Buzz reviewed America's The Archers' eponymous album (which was in fact a re-issue of 1972's 'Any Day Now') which Key had licensed from Impact/Benson Records. The review read, "Start with the idea of a middle-of-the-road pop sound. Add a dash of soul, add a little country - and you've at least some idea of what it sounds like." The following issue ran a back page advert for Dovetail's 'Gwen Murray' album. With John Pantry on keyboards, Andy Piercy on acoustic guitar and Len Magee on BVs, it displayed an easy going folk pop style on covers of Ishmael's "The Sixth Virgin (The Parable Of The Ten)" and Water Into Wine Band's "Stranger In The World". Another Dovetail release was the Lightbearers' 'Going Dutch'. It didn't sell particularly well though it and the earlier Lightbearers album were to be the foundation stone on which singer Esther Tims was to establish a lengthy solo ministry in Holland.

The July 1975 Buzz ran an article revealing the inner workings of Key/Dovetail Records. With LPs at that time costing Joe Public £2.50 each it broke down Who Gets What from its UK recordings from the princely sum - 16p for recording costs; 38p manufacturing costs; 12p publicity and promotion; 35p overheads; 27p royalty payments; 27p wholesale discount; 77p trade discount and 18p VAT. The article also announced that MGO was launching a new label, Genesis, "to enable less well-known groups to have access to the same practical resources and advice that is available to those who are more established."

By 1975 Christian music albums were enjoying good sales in all Britain's Christian bookshops. By now there was a constant flow of high quality albums from the US through its Word UK arm resulting in MGO with less market share. Though Buzz benefitted from increased advertising revenue, MGO found itself needing to produce a comparable output to match the US albums and this added strain to its already fragile financial base.

The Buzz 1975 Christian Directory contained an eight-page colour glossy insert advertising Word's ever increasing roster which included Pat Boone, Jimmy Owens, Barry McGuire, Evie, Andrae Crouch & The Disciples, 2nd Chapter Of Acts and Brits Dave Pope and Garth Hewitt. Key Records releases - The Imperials and The Archers - weren't nearly as high profile. But though MGO weren't able to compete with the US-financed Word, they soldiered bravely on.

By the September '75 issue of Buzz Pete Meadows, who up until that time had written most of the album reviews published by Buzz, passed on the task to Roger Hurrell, an experienced musician who had been half of popular duo Roger & Jan. For his inaugural reviews Roger was passed the Parchment album 'Shamblejam' and two Dovetail releases 'Lilly' by Lilly Green and the eponymous Gwen Murray album. In America Lilly had enjoyed a Christian music radio hit with "Satan, I Rebuke You" while another song on 'Lily' became a popular anthem for US Christian weddings. As it turned out the new Buzz reviewer was quite right when he wrote, "Lilly's voice is pleasant enough, but without some personal promotion here in the UK, I can't see this album being a great success."

More significant was the emergence of modern worship music. For MGO the wakeup call to the ever-growing popularity of Holy Spirit-inspired modern worship was the US musical Come Together by Jimmy and Carol Owens. The first inkling this might be something special had come at Spre-e '73, where crowds had gathered round the small screen in a booth promoting the event in the exhibition area. Recalled Geoff Shearn, "I was at All Souls, Langham Place, London in the foyer with Word executives, Ian Hamilton and Norman Miller, where the musical was playing to a packed church. Ian was saying, 'I don't really understand what's going on'. I said, 'Ian, it's a whole new kind of worship that's emerging, it's huge.' Ian said, 'Do you think this is going to last?' I told him I thought it was the future!"

By October '75 Larry Norman was undertaking a new tour of the UK though this time it was organised not by MGO but by a newly set up offshoot of Word Records, Scope. For MGO the big new development was a deal with a record label birthed at the epicentre of America's Jesus Movement, California's Calvary Chapel. Maranatha! Music had grown from its initial success with pioneering band Love Song and, in 1974, two years after the Owens' Come Together, took another giant step forward by adopting a more contemporary approach to congregational worship music. The release of Maranatha's! 'The Praise Album' proved hugely influential and was to be the first in a series of albums - soon titled simply 'Praise' - which was to go on over the next 36 years to an amazing 21 volumes.

In a two-page part-colour ad MGO trumpeted "Musical Gospel Outreach are privileged to introduce to you the ministry of Maranatha! Music - beautiful music - worshipful music - to enrich our lives - and bring glory to God - thank you Maranatha! Thank you Lord. First releases this Autumn." The first Maranatha! albums issued through the deal were 'The Praise Album' (with its Karen Lafferty-penned worship mega hit "Seek Ye First"); 'Maranatha! Four' (a various artists project featuring Children Of The Day, Road Home and Wing And A Prayer); 'Good News' (a loose knit collective whose album featured vocals from such figures as Erick Nelson, Bill Batstone, Bob Carlisle, Chuck Girard and Eddie Espinosa); and 'Remember' (a solo album by Bob Cull).

'Free To Fly' by Cloud
'Free To Fly' by Cloud

The same October '75 Buzz issue also contained an eight page Musical Gospel Outreach Catalogue which listed the Key, Dovetail and Maranatha! Music releases plus a few random "Distributed Albums" from the likes of Johnny Cash, George Jones and Malcolm & Alwyn and a review of the second Greenbelt Festival held at Odell Castle Estate, Bedfordshire. Peter Meadows wrote, "Personal favourites for me were Fish Co, After The Fire, Movement Family and Nutshell." Dovetail's releases reviewed that issue were 'Peace, Joy And Love' (licensed from Impact) by Southern gospel-tinged crooner Dallas Holm and 'Free To Fly' by Cloud, an Anglican folk/praise small choir for which Phil Lawson Johnston wrote most of the songs and whose vocals Hurrell described as "a little shaky."

The following month Buzz's reviewer was getting his teeth into the Maranatha! Music album 'Remember' by Bob Cull; Key Record's 'Essence' by Danny Lee & The Children Of Truth (an American Jesus Music group who'd once released albums through RCA and specialised in slick, Southern gospel-tinged pop); Dovetail's eponymous album by Family Three (an Australian male trio); and MGO's first releases on Genesis 'Freely, Freely' by George Heathcote with Sharon People and 'Here To Stay' by male/female folk duo Cephas. Reviewing the former, Buzz revealed that Heathcote was a pastor at Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Manchester commenting, "not a world beater this one - but British through and through."