Heather Bellamy spoke with Paul Poulton

Paul: I loved English; English was good. I was no good at maths. In fact the other day my son said can you help me with this maths problem dad. I said ok; but in the end I said I'm sorry I can't help you. I even looked on the Internet and I couldn't figure it out, so I said sorry but I'll help you with your English.

Heather: Did you leave school with qualifications? Did you skive lessons?

Paul: I didn't skive lessons no, but in those days you didn't even have to stop for GCSEs; you could leave a year early if you wanted to. I wanted to be a musician, but I couldn't get work as a musician; I just didn't know how to. I got an apprenticeship studying engineering, which I did for two years and then found a band that needed a guitar player and I thought this is my opportunity. I left the engineering course that I was on and joined this band that lived down south.

Heather: Through this period of your life were you truly going for your faith, or was it just something in the background and really it was all about music and your friends?

Paul and Lorraine Poulton with their son Isaac

Paul: Faith has always been very real to me. I've never left my faith in Christ. There was a time when I was about 16 that I thought I really ought to start letting people know that I'm a Christian. I went to see a band play called Malcolm and Alwyn and it was a very powerful gig. That day as I was walking home, this was in London, I felt such a presence of God with me; I've never felt that way before. I was thanking God and began to speak in tongues. I'd seen that before, but never had it happen to me. I thought how am I doing this? I didn't realise what was happening to me was what Christians call being baptised in the Holy Spirit. I learnt more about it in subsequent days, but that was a big turning point as well and I started to let people know that I'm a Christian. I talked to people about Bible verses and trying to help people and encourage them, because not everyone reads the Bible. I tried to let them know that God was able to help them through my own experiences; so I started talking to people about God.

Heather: You mentioned when we were talking earlier about a guy called Alwyn, wasn't he part of the Jesus movement?

Paul: Yes. He was an English guy actually, but the Jesus movement started in California in America in about 1971 and we got to hear about it over in England and it did affect us. Some of the Americans came over.

Heather: During that time there was a focus on sex, drugs and rock 'n roll, but was there also more freedom for expressions of faith too?

Paul: In the church there wasn't. The church people didn't like it too much because it looked as if you were going to become worldly, because these Jesus people had longer hair and they played guitars, when really it was piano that you used in the church.

I think God used the Jesus movement to speak to ordinary people, because the music did reach out to people. There were festivals around the country. It was a time when Christians really moved out into the world. I remember once we had this concert at Trafalgar Square with loads of people there. There were different singers that came and sang and then at the end of it they gave us this big loaf of bread and we all had this massive loaf of bread and they said ok now go and share the bread with people around London. We all went off walking around saying would you like some bread to people? They said wow that looks nice bread yes. We shared the bread and talked to them about why we were doing it. It was a time that Christians really started to move out. It wasn't such a church based thing as something that was out there in the streets, in the concerts halls and in the clubs.

Paul and Lorraine Poulton

Heather: Did people like Alwyn have a big affect on your life?

Paul: It wasn't a big affect I don't think because there's a load of musicians I love and Alwyn is one of them. He's got something special because when he plays guitar he's got this kind of percussive thing as well and he'd hit the guitar, which had this driving effect; he'd hit the guitar with his thumb and I used to love that. There's another guy as well who came over from America, Larry Norman and he had a similar thing. He just played a battered classical guitar and he also had this same kind of style. It was as if the Christians had got their own style of music and God was saying, ok we've got all these bands like T-Rex, David Bowie and Roxy Music, well how about these other guys? I remember Larry Norman got played on Radio One. I first heard Larry on Radio One actually. God was putting people in place in the regular music scene to speak out. I think God's always done that; he's got people around the place that will speak his word even in dark situations.

Heather: As a young guy you had quite a trial in your life with illness didn't you?

Paul: Yes, that was when I was about 21. I was playing football one day and at half time I went off to go to the toilet; it was the bushes actually and I noticed that I was passing red blood in my water. I thought wow that's not right. I told the manager and the manager said you mean you can't play the second half? I thought isn't that just like football managers? I said no, you better take me up the hospital and he said ok ok ok. I missed the second half of the game and he took me up the hospital. They started to do tests because they said, no that's not good. At the same time over the next few weeks I started to feel so week and dizzy and the hospitals did loads of tests and they were most uncomfy as well, because they had to look at my bladder. It was like I'd been abducted by aliens and they were probing me. It was horrible. They said we've got to do it to check out the situation and make sure there's nothing gross wrong; that was the word the surgeon used I remember. They didn't find anything, but I still didn't feel any better. Some mornings I couldn't even get out of bed; I'd just lie there, but I was ill for about two years.