Delirious?

Delirious? (known formerly as The Cutting Edge Band) were a Grammy nominated and multi-Dove Award winning English Christian rock and worship ^{Contemporary worship music} band. For the majority of their career, the lineup featured Martin Smith ^{Martin Smith (songwriter)} on vocals and guitar, Stuart Garrard ^{Stu G} (also known as Stu G) on guitar and backing vocals, Jon Thatcher on bass guitar, Tim Jupp on keys and piano, and Stew Smith on drums and percussion. In 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' and their 1994 song "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever", which has been called a "modern worship ^{contemporary worship music} classic", and it was announced via a press release on 6 July 2008 that Delirious? would soon embark on an indefinite, and probably permanent hiatus from recording and touring. On 29 November 2009 they played their final gig in front of a sell-out crowd at London's Hammersmith Apollo, and have now officially disbanded.

 
Cutting Edge years (1992–1996)


'The Cutting Edge Band' began life as a worship band for a youth outreach event called "Cutting Edge", instigated by the Arun Community Church in Littlehampton, West Sus***.

Several singles from Mezzamorphis gained some British chart success. For example, the first single, "See The Star", peaked at number sixteen on the charts (a career high for the band), following an appearance on television show The Big Breakfast. Despite the success of the single, the song choice was slightly controversial as it was arguably one of the weaker songs on the record.

The second single, "It's OK ^{It's OK (Delirious? song)} ", subsequently reached number eighteen. In the US, "Gravity ^{Gravity (Delirious? song)} " was chosen over "See the Star" as lead radio single for promotion.

Exactly one year later, in 2000, the band released a worship-oriented album, Glo (short for glorious). This album was the number one Christian seller for eight months. Several songs from the album, while not being released as actual singles, gained immense popularity in the Christian-music world, most notably the guitar-driven "My Glorious" and the more introspective "Jesus' Blood". The track "Investigate" eventually became a favourite concert closer for the band. That year, Delirious? toured the US and appeared to an audience of 55,000 at the Creation Festival.
Again they received criticism for "selling out" to achieve success in mainstream markets. Jesus Freak Hideout, and Cross Rhythms all praising The Mission Bell for "Effectively stretching the boundaries of worship music". "Paint The Town Red" was released as a CD and iTunes single in the UK, entering the charts at number fifty-six. Several singles were released to CrossRhythms ^{Cross Rhythms} radio in the UK, all charting at number one for several weeks. The Mission Bell was nominated for the May 2007 Dove Awards, in the Rock/Contemporary Album of the Year Category, although it didn't win (Jars of Clay's Good Monsters won).

Delirious? spent much of 2007 recording and working on their new album Kingdom of Comfort with producer Sam Gibson. It was released internationally in April 2008. This strategically coincided with the launch of the third version of their official site. Several songs from the album were made available as free downloads both before and after release, including 'God Is Smiling', 'We Give You Praise', a new recording of traditional Christmas carol 'Silent Night', and new tracks 'Hallelujah' and 'Mothers Of The Night', which were not featured on the album itself.


Retirement (mid 2008–2009)


When Stew Smith left the band at the end of April 2008, Paul Evans was drafted in to replace him as the band's drummer. Before leaving, Stew mentioned that a live album and DVD had been recorded while still on tour in Brazil, as a collaboration project with André Valadão ^{Diante do Trono} . This was titled Unidos, and has since become available in several countries, although no announcement has yet been made on a possible UK release date.

On the 6th of July of the same year, the band announced via a press release that they would be "taking a break" at the end of 2009 to allow the band to focus on things close to them. Martin said that he wanted more time to spend with his family and devote more time to the CompassionArt ^{Compassionart} project.

{{Quote box
| quote = "Seventeen absolutely fantastic years, and we're still great friends. What a testimony it's been. The chance of us all getting together and playing again is very high. Now it's time to take a rest."
| source = —Martin Smith, on the potential for a reunion. Additionally, a Greatest Hits album, History Makers, was released in November.
Delirious? finished their career by conducting a small farewell tour of Europe which concluded at the end of 2009. They played their final show in front of a sell-out crowd at London's Hammersmith Apollo on 29 November 2009.Martin Smith has hinted that the band may reunite some day.
In February 2010, a campaign to get History Maker into the UK charts for Easter began on social networking site Facebook. In response to this, it has been announced that the version from the final live album will be made available as a single for the week beginning 28 March.!/invadetheairwaves?ref=ts

Away from the band, many of the members have started work on, or announced, future projects that they intended to pursue after the band ended in November 2009. Lead singer Martin Smith intends pursuing the Compassionart project, the decision that triggered the split.
Keyboard player Tim Jupp has launched his own series of one-day Christian music festivals based mainly in West Sus***, England, called 'The Big Church Day Out'. Delirious? headlined the first annual event in May 2009.
Guitarist Stu G and bassist Jon Thatcher have formed a new band with Jason Ingram as lead singer and Paul Mabury ^{Hillsong_musicians#Drums} as drummer. The band is called 'One Sonic Society', and they started work on their debut album in June 2009.
Old drummer Stew Smith has already launched his graphic design company, 'Smeezer', which has designed advertising campaigns for Premier Percussion, clothing lines for high street store Fat Face, and the marketing of 'The Big Church Day Out' festival.
New drummer Paul Evans continues to play for various artists and for Soul Survivor and is currently considering returning to college.The question mark is part of the official name. On the band's early albums, the final s before the question mark was rendered as a 5. According to drummer/bandmember Stewart Smith, this occurred because the keyboard he was using at the time did not have the letter "s" and he improvised with the number 5 on the keypad—a convenient reflection of the band name. In some circles, therefore, the band's name often appears as Deliriou5?. The band's logo changed in 1999, and the glyph was replaced with a character that could be an s or a 5. It should be noted that the name has always been spelled as Delirious? in official, non-graphical literature. This is consistent with the names of the band's record company (Furious?) and publisher (Curious?).
Studio albums

*1993–1995 Cutting Edge recordings ^{Cutting Edge (recordings)}
*1997 King of Fools ^{King of Fools (album)}
*1999 Mezzamorphis
*2000 Glo
*2001 Audio Lessonover
*2002 Touch ^{Touch (Delirious? album)}
*2003 World Service ^{World Service (Delirious? album)}
*2005 The Mission Bell
*2008 Kingdom of Comfort


Singles
Delirious? regularly play at Christian events such as the Greenbelt festival in the UK as well as mainstream festivals such as at the Glastonbury Festival. In the USA, they have played at such events as Acquire the Fire (an event hosted by Teen Mania) and Spirit West Coast. In New Zealand they have made appearances at the Parachute Music Festival, the largest 4-day Christian music festival in the southern hemisphere. They have also been the support act for several notable secular bands/artists, such as Bon Jovi in 2001 and Bryan Adams in 2002. In 2005, they helped lead worship at Soul Survivor ^{Soul Survivor (charity)} and also took part in the closing festivities of World Youth Day to an audience of 1.2 million people, following Pope Benedict XVI's Mass in Köln, Germany. In Singapore, they have played three time so far. twice so far in the inter-denominational fellowship Festival of Praise held in the Singapore Indoor Stadium and one in Faith Community Baptist Church G12 conference on the 12–15 March 2009. The band played a live show on the 14th of August 2004 in Athens, Greece, in the Omonia Square, as a part of the varied cultural activities that took place during the Olympic Games of Athens. At 15 June 2008, Delirious played in front of 30,000 people at EO Youth Day, in Dutch Gelredome Soccer Stadium.

As part of the launch of their new site which involves a members only section called the "Living Room", Delirious? have begun to sell tickets for what they call Living Room gigs. These gigs are presumed to take part in small venues across the UK (and later perhaps the world) in which the band will play to a limited audience and give away freebies. The first of these gigs was at the London Embassy in Mayfair and limited to 100 tickets to the public. The band gave away a special three-song EP of their 2008 album 'Kingdom Of Comfort'.


Tours


Delirious? have performed many UK tours throughout their career, in addition to many high profile tours of the US, Europe and other parts of the world. The full list of UK tours can be found below:


*It should be noted that these are only the UK tours, as Delirious? have played hundreds of shows around the globe. Countries include: Canada, United States, England, South Africa, China, Singapore, Mexico, Columbia, Holland, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Kosovo, Greece, Netherlands, Brazil, Argentine, Peru, Belgium, Italy and many more.

During the d:tour in 1997, Delirious? travelled without a support act. During the History Makers tour in 2009, they supported themselves by playing a short set as 'The Cutting Edge Band' before returning to the stage to perform as 'Delirious?'. 'The Cutting Edge Band' played the songs found on the four Cutting Edge tapes ^{Cutting Edge (recordings)} .
Martin Smith




is an English musician who plays the piano and keyboard ^{Electronic keyboard} for Delirious?. Tim Jupp and Martin Smith ^{Martin Smith (songwriter)} became friends while working together at a recording studio. There they decided to form a band. Before that, he released an instrumental cassette-only album titled "Hooked On Ishmael ^{Ishmael (Ian Smale)} ". Following the band's manager Tony Patoto decision to leave his position and return to his native Seattle, Tim assumed the position of band manager. He is married to Becca and they have four children.


Jon Thatcher


is the bass guitarist of the band. His involvement with the band began as their merchandise salesman, selling tapes at the end of their shows. He began playing with the band on Sunday evenings as part of a youth event known as "Cutting Edge" in Littlehampton, England. Jon uses Fender ^{Fender Musical Instruments Corporation} basses and Ashdown ^{Ashdown Engineering} amps.

Jon Thatcher was the youngest member of Delirious? (before Paul Evans joined), and each of his three sisters married another Delirious? member (Martin Smith, Tim Jupp and Stew Smith). Jon is married to Kristen and has three children


Paul Evans


Paul Evans was trained at the Academy of Contemporary Music and features prominently as a drum teacher on the Musicademy .


Stew Smith


Stew is now running a graphic designing company called . He says that he's having a great time with the wide range of designing, from album packaging to stage design etc.


Other former members


During the 'Cutting Edge' era, several other musicians played and recorded as part of the band before Stu Garrard and Jon Thatcher joined, including: |
|
'Dave Clifton' – Lead Guitar (1993) |
'Jim Bryan' – Bass (1993) |
'Les Driscoll' – Bass (1994) |
'Dudley Phillips' – Bass (1995) |
'Helen Burgess' – Bass(live), backing vocals