BIGSONG:
Delirious? (formerly known as The Cutting Edge Band) were an English contemporary Christian band. For the majority of their career, the lineup featured Martin Smith on vocals and guitar, Stu G (full name Stuart Garrard) on guitar and backing vocals, Jon Thatcher on bass guitar, Tim Jupp on keys and piano, and Stew Smith on drums and percussion. During their final two years, drumming duties were assumed by Paul Evans.
They are perhaps best known for their modern worship songs “Rain Down”, “Majesty”, “Lord You Have My Heart”, “Thank You for Saving Me”, “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?”, “What a Friend I’ve Found” and their 1994 song “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever”, which has been called a “modern worship classic” and is their most popular song in the United States.
Taking the band full-time: King of Fools & early success (1997–1998)
The turning point came in 1995 when Martin, his wife Anna and Jon Thatcher, were involved in a serious road accident. Jon and Anna were unhurt, but Martin was hospitalized for several weeks with broken bones.While in the hospital, Smith went through a period of depression,before making the decision to become a full-time musician. At this point, Delirious? was conceptually born. The band changed its name in January 1996, and they began to start work recording their new album.
They gained unexpected mainstream success in 1997 following the release of King of Fools, the first studio album released under their new name. King of Fools eventually went ‘Silver’ in the United Kingdom, and Delirious? became one of the most popular and well-known Christian rock groups both in the UK and the United States. Songs such as “Deeper” gained anthemic status and still surface regularly at Christian youth events. Delirious? also released four singles to the mainstream UK Charts – “White Ribbon Day”, “Deeper” (twice), and “Promise”. ‘Deeper’ and ‘Promise’ both reached number twenty with very little radio airplay; For the majority of their career, “Deeper” was the band’s best-selling single with over thirty thousand copies sold. The album also contained the song “History Maker”, which arguably became one of the band’s most popular anthems. The song was played regularly at gigs throughout the rest of the band’s existence, and was eventually released as a successful UK single in 2010. During the summer of 1997, Stewart Smith and his wife lost their unborn baby through a miscarriage, inspiring the song “Summer of Love” on the “DeEPer EP”, a re-release of the “Deeper” single. The re-release attained number thirty-six on the UK Charts.
The group signed to EMI for its British releases but in 1997 the group signed to both Virgin and Sparrow Records for distribution in secular and Christian markets in the United States.
The success of the King of Fools album allowed the band to tour the UK for the first time comprehensively in 1997’s ‘d:tour’. Delirious? chose to tour without a support band, instead using a DJ and a large visual aspect to the performance. In 1998, the band released their second live album, d:tour, which featured many of the songs from the King Of Fools album in addition to some songs from the Cutting Edge period. It was recorded at Southampton Guildhall on the final night of the ‘d:tour’.
The Cutting Edge Band had various members from 1992 to 1996 before the decision was made to take the band full-time as Delirious? with an established lineup. Between 1997 and 2001, the band targeted the majority of its work towards a mainstream audience, with several singles reaching the top 20 on the UK Singles Chart. However, between 2003 and 2009 the focus was mainly placed on the CCM market, although occasional singles were still released.
In the final years of their career, Delirious? began to place a strong focus on humanitarian issues in their music. Both Martin Smith and Stu G started charities. Drummer Stew Smith left the band at the end of April 2008, and it was announced via a press release on in July of the same year that Delirious? would soon embark on an indefinite and probably permanent hiatus from recording and touring in order to focus on these new projects. On 29 November 2009 they gave their final performance for a sold-out crowd at London’s Hammersmith Apollo and have now officially disbanded.
The origins of Delirious? stretch back to 1992. The band began life as a collection of musicians, known simply as ‘The Cutting Edge Band’. The group’s function was to be a Christian worship band for a youth outreach event called “Cutting Edge”, instigated by the Arun Community Church in Littlehampton, West Sussex. The first members were Tim Jupp and Martin Smith, who became friends while working together at a recording studio. There they decided to form a band. Jupp had previously released an instrumental album titled “Hooked On Ishmael”. Originally, Jupp fronted the band, which also contained youth worker and drummer Stew Smith. Several different musicians filled the role of guitarist and bass player. The events became popular via word-of-mouth, leading the band to play at other ‘Cutting Edge’ events along the south coast of England – monthly events in Portsmouth and Southampton. The events in Portsmouth only lasted a year but the events in Central Hall, Southampton were to run for three years, the duration of the Cutting Edge events. The group remained as the house band for Cutting Edge for several years, and they began to record and release the ‘Cutting Edge’ cassette tapes.
“Martin was this really shy, almost withdrawn character. I can remember times actually, this will make people laugh, when I was the one. I would end up leading the worship in the meetings.”
Tim Jupp, on the early days of ‘The Cutting Edge Band
The turnout at the events grew so much that the regular venue (a local school hall) had to be replaced with the school’s sports hall, whilst the organizers had to charge a small fee to control the numbers attending. Similar challenges took place at the Central Hall in Southampton where up to 1200 people would gather each month. In 1996, an event was held in the open air, on the green next to Littlehampton’s beach. An estimated 4000 people attended, while Channel 4 filmed it for a documentary.
The band were able to release their increasingly popular material thanks to lead singer Martin Smith and keyboardist Tim Jupp’s roles as recording engineers and producers at a local recording studio. During this period, the lineup of the band began to take shape. Permanent guitar duties were taken up by Stu G shortly after the release of the band’s first EP, whilst Jon Thatcher became permanent bassist for the band’s fourth release, ‘Cutting Edge Fore’. In total, four EPs were released under the “Cutting Edge” name, in addition to a solo EP from guitarist Stu Garrard, which featured the entire band. Many of the band’s most famous songs were written and recorded during this time, including possibly their most famous: ‘I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever.’ Others included ‘The Happy Song’, ‘Lord, You Have My Heart’, ‘Thank You For Saving Me’, ‘Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble?’, ‘I’ve Found Jesus’, ‘I’m Not Ashamed’, ‘Find Me In The River’, ‘Shout To The North’, ‘All I Want Is You’ and ‘Obsession’. The music became well known in Christian circles, and demand grew for recordings. By 1996, they had sold over seventy thousand EPs by mail order. These EPs were later released as two albums in the UK, and one double album in the US. A similar composite edition of Cutting Edge was released to retail and achieved ‘Gold’ status in Canada.
