Trevor Kirk looks back over the decades to highlight important Christian music events
November/December 1972

The continuing musical odyssey of Keith Ryecroft, John
Paculabo and Sue McLellan, aka Parchment, continued on the front cover
and pages 12 and 13 of the November Buzz. Their single "Light Up The
Fire" had peaked on the BBC chart at 31, the New Musical Express chart
put them at 26 and Radio Luxembourg at 21, and they had been
interviewed both on Radio Luxembourg and Radio London. Despite this,
the band refused to be carried away on a tidal wave of hype,
preferring to prepare for the release of the song overseas (Pye
Records put out the single in 18 other countries), and consolidate
their position in the UK with a follow up single and the release of
their first album. Today, of course, "Light Up The Fire" is still
hugely popular as a worship song and is a permanent fixture in the
Christian Copyright Licensing Top 100 Most Used Songs in UK churches.
v Parchment were from Liverpool and another band from the north of
England featured in Buzz in November were Fylde Coast-based country
rock band Canaan. Gus Eyre, Dave Lloyd, Bob Fraser and Dave Lewis had
got together in 1969 to play their own brand of Crosby, Stills &
Nash-style music and had featured in concert with Graham Kendrick
earlier in the year. Two albums followed during the 1970s before
Canaan folded, but Bob Fraser is still in Christian music, having
released a couple of his own CDs in recent years. v Upcoming events
for the Christmas period included Start The New Year With Jesus on
January 6th, 1973 at the Albert Hall, with Larry Norman, Parchment,
Malcolm & Alwyn and Graham Kendrick on the bill, plus a special
pre-recorded message from Dr Billy Graham. Due to high demand, the
evening performance had sold out by mid-October, so an afternoon show
had been hastily arranged. v A band in the front line in every sense
of the word were the Advocates. The Lincoln-based British Youth For
Christ associate evangelists had spent two weeks in Belfast during the
autumn, working with Northern Ireland YFC and had played to packed
audiences every night.
November/December 1982

After the impact made at Greenbelt 82 by acts such as
Paradise, Maxine & The Majestics and Clarity, Tony Cummings, newly
appointed assistant editor of Buzz, investigated the rise and rise of
British black gospel. Having absorbed the principles of the genre from
Andrae Crouch, Jessy Dixon and the quartets of the Golden Age, UK
black gospel was adding a dash of Earth Wind & Fire-style funk and
(horrors!) a chunk of righteous reggae, to the outrage of some of the
more conservative black church elders. Although Paradise and the other
early Greenbelt stars faded as the 1980s wore on, their mantle was
handed on to other outfits such as the Wades, the Escofferys and a
superbly named London outfit, The Latter Rain Outpouring Revival
Choir. That choir (sadly unrecorded) was led by Bazil Meade who, of
course, went on to form the London Community Gospel Choir. v 'Age To
Age' by Amy Grant was reported to be the fastest selling album ever in
Word Records' history. v Chris Eaton was reported to have been
seriously considering taking over cash-strapped Wolverhampton
Wanderers Football Club's Molineux stadium and converting it into a
Christian outreach centre. Fervent Wolves' fan Chris, at the time
still a member of the Mark Williamson Band, had been achieving a
certain amount of mainstream musical kudos in 1982 by having several
of his songs recorded by Cliff Richard. v Speaking of the great man,
Buzz in December printed a debate between Cliff Richard and the now
discredited pop impresario Jonathan King. Flagged as a Battle Of
Beliefs, it turned out to be rather one-sided; King satisfied himself
with statements such as "It's totally unimportant whether there's a
God or not," to which Cliff replied, "Somebody who believes there is
no God has got more faith than me." v Buzz magazine reported in
November that, despite Keith Green's death earlier in the year, his
widow Melody was continuing the work of Last Days Ministries. She was
fulfilling Keith's engagements, with the remaining elders looking
after the administration of the community.
November/December 1992

Still struggling for survival, Cross Rhythms' next
issue, number 13, was not published until February 1993, so let's
concentrate on the US scene. On the cover of CCM magazine for
November, Toby McKeehan, Michael Tait and Kevin Smith (as he was
then), aka DC Talk, celebrating the release of their album 'Free At
Last'. Back then the band were still to discover the rock guitar and
were described as "pop hip-hop" by CCM. Said Toby McKeehan, "The
hip-hop generation, 1992, is a culture that has a chip on its
shoulder. I think that there are a lot of underground rap records
selling millions that are sowing seeds of anger." The November 16 CCM
Update reported that ForeFront had clocked up advance sales of 'Free
At Last' of 175,000 units. v Also in November, news that EMI Music had
agreed to buy Sparrow Records for an undisclosed number of dollars,
and that the world's largest publisher of Bibles, Thomas Nelson, with
reported annual sales in excess of $93 million, had paid $72 million
in cash to acquire Word, Inc. v Still on the business front, after
years of speculation, the Zondervan Corporation, owners of Benson
Records, had decided to put the label up for sale. Benson was
reportedly suffering after the loss of their deal to distribute
ForeFront product, and the defection of Carman, plus his entire back
catalogue, to Sparrow; the combined loss of revenue was being
estimated at $8-10 million per year. v Amy Grant was the featured
artist in December's CCM magazine, on the release of her second
Christmas album 'Home For Christmas', the one featuring her re-write
of Chris Eaton's "Breath Of Heaven". The reviewer in CCM raved about
it, "one of her finest performances on record", he/she said. Amy was
also a new mom, her third offspring Sarah having arrived in October. v
To celebrate his seventh number one single ("Sometimes By Step") and
his first number one selling album ("The World As Best As I Remember
It Vol 2"), Rich Mullins was given a new hammered dulcimer by Reunion
Records. Said Rich, characteristically, "I appreciate receiving this
as a gift, because I hate spending money on musical instruments, but I
love having them."
Does anyone remember the black gospel-funk group paradise and do they still own a copy of their album 'Worlds Midnight'?