Mike Rimmer reflects on the music of Chuck Girard, Larry Norman, Bryn Haworth, Seawind, After The Fire, Ishmael United, Cliff Richard, Writz and Bob Dylan.

anarcho music scene declared itself the start of something new, then really looked like it would finally start making an impact. It isn't that British Contemporary Christian Music started that year, it had to get more serious!

There was a sense of anticipation that maybe it was time that music made by Christians would make a wider impact. And it did! For awhile.

I was only six months old spiritually when 1979 started. I'd become a Christian the previous June, joined a Methodist Church in Newcastle enjoy. Well, enjoy a lot of it but not everything.

Just like today, discovered that you had to search hard for some of the good stuff!
hearing was Chuck Girard. I'd been the victim of some serious prayer!

round. Every night I would deliver papers on a street where four female Christian students shared a house. Every night they'd watch me Christian.

I, of course, was completely unaware of this!
for a coffee which became a meal and a bit of a chat about God. I drew me back for the next few evenings for more chats.

OK, maybe it was because they were girls! During one chat, one of the girls played speaking to me spiritually. The song described an empty life searching and although I didn't admit it, it sounded like mine.

The song encounter with God and God used it to speak to me.
with Jesus. Soon I was looking for a soundtrack for that journey as I my brain much good.

It didn't take any well meaning dears at church devotionals.
I have to admit to being a long haired, denim-clad rock fan! Newcastle the Mayfair Ballroom.

Even as a teenager I was constantly going to gigs and discovering new bands. I had also developed quite a serious vinyl habit, starting my record collection in 1975 when I got my first record player. And when I couldn't afford to buy something, I would steal it or steal the money to buy it.

I was a music addict and I liked my music loud!
However I soon discovered that a musical diet of Led Zep, Deep Purple, AC/DC, Motorhead, Sex Pistols and The Clash was not doing me much good spiritually. About the same time as this I started hanging out with a albums and told me about some of the artists that were around.

However he also played me Cliff Richard and as a 17 year old long hair, this was too funny for words! Little did I know that within a year I'd buy my first Cliff album!
century, you'll know that this is the main outlet for buying Christian music.

These days there are hundreds of releases a year, will help you find what you want. With Christian radio stations playing the music and websites like one this reviewing the music, it's very easy to find Christian music now.
But as Year Zero dawned, I was discovering that finding Christian music was going to be a challenge!

Being a veteran of record shops, this didn't daunt me. Vowing to get some new music that would be good for my soul and knowing I couldn't now steal it, I decided to sell the music that was getting me down. Over a period of weeks I slowly took and each week exchanged it for a fist of fivers.

And to make things even better, the Word Record label (the main scheme. Buy five albums and get the sixth free! So that's what I'd do each Saturday afternoon.

I'd take a trip to my local CLC bookshop and delve into the racks of albums to see what I could find.
what the cover could give away about its contents. There was no real way to hear this music unless a mate had a copy!

Back in those days Bibles. At least that's how it seemed to my teenaged self. Either that or appalling MOR worship albums or songs by The Fisherfolk, a thankfully long gone folk worship group.

I developed a tactic! I would not buy an album unless I was allowed to hear a little bit of it. There wasn't any kind of listening post at Now in those days, Christian book shops were manned by women of a on his purchases.

It would disrupt the calm spiritual atmosphere of the shop as I dared to get them to play rock music! Still, they couldn't complain, I rarely left without six albums under my arm and on the bus on the way home, I'd open up my purchases and start reading lyric sheets. One of the real joys of 12 inch vinyl albums is that they are a thing of great beauty.

Not like CDs! Mind you, I was an addict so maybe my perspective was a little skewed!
be carefully negotiated.

I obviously started with Chuck Girard that bought all their albums too. There was a blonde haired singer called been recorded seven years earlier and sounded completely different. I was confused.

Friends had older Larry Norman albums that were deleted so it took me a while to track them down.
rocky. Not as rocky as I'd have liked but good enough and he wrote cool songs.

I quickly tracked down artists he'd produced like Randy I discovered at this time have become lifelong favourites.