America's hottest dance label, N-Soul Records, run by Scott Blackwell, have just released an album of new British dance artists. It will be launched at the Cross Rhythms SW's Sanctified Dance Party where many of the artists on the CD will be performing their tracks at the festival. Tony Cummings spoke to four of these underground dance gospellers.

The Flood's other moniker is Mark Cooper. Mark, from Windsor, got introduced to the club scene while out in Spain. Consequently the balleric sound caught his ear. Unfortunately he also got sucked into drug abuse. By '88 and back in Windsor Mark's tastes had widened to acid house and he began "buying records everywhere" and was soon deejaying. Making contacts he landed club deejay spots in Amsterdam, France and London. But as his prowess and reputation as a DJ increased, so did his drug abuse. "I was really over the top, into all kinds of stuff," remembered Mark. "Then I heard the gospel. I was at a party in Windsor and we were all smoking dope. Suddenly this girl started telling me about Jesus. I took the mick out of her like everybody else. I told her I was into Buddhism. But the next day I began thinking about what she'd said. I had to admit the Eastern side of things was helping me cope with drugs but it wasn't helping me stop. I couldn't stop thinking about what Esther - this girl - had told me. Finally when I was walking home from the pub I prayed a prayer and asked Jesus to come into my heart. I felt this tightening in my chest and I started to cry. I knew I'd become a Christian."

Recounting his experience to Esther, he was told that her church had been praying for Mark that very night. Mark was encouraged to go to a local fellowship, The Kings Church in Windsor. "It was hard. I thought, 'I'm Mr DJ of Windsor, what are my mates going to think?' But I went and sat there the whole service bawling my eyes out." Soon Mark was going to Friday night meetings run by Paul and Ally Matts who had been prophesied over that they were to help young people come out of the drug culture and grow in Christ. As Mark progressed in his Christian life he took some radical moves. He burnt most of his records, they being a symbol of the drug culture of which he'd left. He tried listening to Christian music. "The praise and worship really fed me - but the contemporary stuff did nothing for me. Then a chap who'd started coming to my church, Francis Blight, lent me a Scott Blackwell album. It was a revelation! It was like water to a man dying of thirst!"

Envisioned, Mark began buying dance records and was soon deejaying again. At a wine bar where he deejayed he became friendly with the soundman who owned a recording studio. Offered a reduced rate, Mark booked in and was soon playing with the idea that was to become "Morning Time". "I took in one of my decks, sampled some beats, began playing around with the drum machine and it just grew from there. It took over eight months to complete the track, I'd come out of there bleary eyed. But now it's out there. My friends from the clubs who've heard "Morning Time" are saying, 'Why hide it on an album? Let's get it out on 12 inch.' That's all in the hands of the Lord."

Nessie

NESSIE

Nessie is nothing to do with the Loch Ness monster. Neither is the name a pseudonym for Tony Cummings (as assumed by journo Jan Willem Vink after hearing Nessie's "It's Not A Swear Word" and detecting Cross Rhythms editor's dulcet tones pushed through a vocoder on the track). Nessie is in fact Vanessa Beddow, a 26-year-old singer originally from Wolverhampton but now based in the West Country where she works with people with learning difficulties.

"It's Not A Swear Word", with its Euro techno sound and its vocoder refrain, was actually produced and written by Greybeard Cummings and the sentiments of the song reflect where Nessie is coming from. "In the places where I work the name Jesus is often used as a swear word," she commented. "It really hurts me when people use the Lord's name in vain and the song just points out that Jesus is, for believers, a holy word."

Nessie grew up singing ("I used to sing on the swings") and after going to college and studying art (during which time she sang with the BBC Welsh Choral Society), finally qualified to work with people with learning difficulties. In Tavistock, Devon she worked as a residential worker at Kilworthy House, a home for disturbed young people. But music soon found an outlet again. "I sang with a band at the house, which was therapeutic for the kids but really tough," Nessie laughs.

Nessie is a member of the Kings church in Tavistock, which she describes as an "informal community church who offer an incredible amount of support." Housed as they are in a one-time nightclub, the Kings is also an ideal venue for music events and when at the beginning of 1994 Tony Cummings (also a Kings member), with a team of helpers, put together a series of multi-media outreach events and was looking for some alternative worship/sanctified dance, Nessie fitted the bill. "I've always loved dance music and when I heard the 'Nitro Praise' album I really caught a vision of how God could use this music to worship God with. The series of Kings Reach events went really well, we got 200 plus kids along to some of them. At first it felt strange in a nightclub type situation asking kids to worship God on the dancefloor. But as soon as I started to sing I'd just get lost in praise and worship."

Kings Reach is due to return in the summer and the new series will be launched at Cross Rhythms '95. But of course also being launched at the event is the 'Cross Rhythms' album featuring Nessie's scorching track. Did the singer have plans to launch into a full CCM ministry? "Well, in September I'm getting married to a young man called Richard and I think it important that my energies go into my marriage -particularly in the first year. But I'm already being offered the chance to record an album so I need to hear the Lord about future ministry opportunities - who knows, Richard may come out with me on the sound desk!" Of one thing Nessie is certain - the amazing power of music to communicate God himself to people. "When music and all that creative energy is directed to the Creator himself it's an incredible thing. And looking out on a dance floor and seeing people not lost in hedonism but lost in worship is one of the most wonderful things I've ever seen."