Feted by the man most likely to crossover into the big time CHARLIE PEACOCK appears to have retreated from the frontline. Or has he? Tony Cummings finds out.

The torrid guitar licks of Jimmy Abegg better known as Jimmy A, the pumping bass of Steve Griffiths and rock solid drums of Aaron Smith gave Vector a solid foundation and eclectic direction. Part post-punk new wave, part jazz rock, it was Charlie's wheezed, soulful vocals and dazzling synth riffs which gave 'Mannequin Virtue' its excitement. For audiences weaned on 'alternative rock' here at last was such music from an explicitly Christian band.

Released in '84 that album and 'Ping Pong Over The Abyss" by the 77s were the exciting debut releases for Exit Records, a company which was only briefly to stay within the Christian subculture through a distribution deal with Word, before dealing to pitch for the 'secular' big time. Charlie stayed with Vector for less than a year before commencing a solo effort for Exit, which has become acknowledged by the American Christian underground press and Greenbelt/Strait at least as an acknowledged classic. "Lie Down In Grass' is not quite that, but it is a fine album. US critic Brian Q Newcomb has written "Not only was Peacock's scintillating pop, with alternative awareness and a dynamic experimental bent, a breath of fresh air in an otherwise vacuous scene, but his profoundly poetic lyrics launched reality and spoke of a grace in a way that proved you didn't have to lay on the four Spiritual Laws to speak of the way, the truth and the life."

Several tracks had an eerie dreamlike quality with drum box and synths undulating rhythms over which Charlie's laconically understated vocal bluesily intoned memorable lyrics, which were occasionally obscure but more often hauntingly evocative.

The album's critical acclaim came as Exit made the big push for street cred and mega luck and negotiated a deal with A&M Records. A&M replaced 'Lie Down In The Grass' in 1985 adding two strong tracks, supposedly singles, 'Young In Heart' and 'Love Doesn't Get Better". But the album bombed and soon Exit were involved in protracted negotiations to take their artist roster to another secular music giant - Island Records - in the illusive quest for the crossover hit.

Charlie had begun producing excellent albums for other artists both for Exit (the 77s, brash and bluesy post-punk opus 'All Fall Down' and Steve Scott's never released 'Emotional Tourist' - parts of which were eventually to emerge on his "Lost Horizons' album) and Word/Myrrh (the Choir's 60s sounding 'Diamonds And Rain').

After coming to Greenbelt and displaying what a superlative blue-eyed soul singer/songwriter he'd become with a band as tight and funky as any around, pundits were predicting big things for his Island debut. It never happened.

Island's 'Charlie Peacock' album got minimal promotion and though he toured opening for the likes of Let's Active, The Fixx and General Public, Charlie stayed an unknown in the secular scene. Charlie sought to upgrade his contract with Island. "Most of '87 was spent trying to negotiate a contract with Island for me to sign directly, so they could release more money for promotion. We wanted them to spend 175,000 to 200,000 dollars and commit to top-40 promotion, because we didn't feel that I was an AOR artist. I was not going to compete with album rock, and it's possible that I was too sophisticated for college radio, and needed to be in an area where it was a Top 40/AduIt Contemporary kind of promotion.

"We got a producer, Elliott Shiner, who'd done Bruce Hornsby, and Elliott was real interested. We were getting ready to put a record together and Island came back and said they didn't have the money just then, but could we wait another four months. We decided to look for an offer elsewhere." Charlie stepped onto the endless treadmill of showcase gigs where A&R men come and talks begin only to falter. He kept his songwriting hand in and the subsequent demos and master outtakes were 'released' in a semi-private way through Charlie's mailing list: 'West Coast Diaries' Vols 1 (1987), 2 (1988) and 3 (1990) show a master songwriter. His "The Way Of Love" for instance uncannily re-creates the sensuous soul sound of Smokey Robinson either on the original recording (Vol.2) or its more sophisticated new version (The Secret Of Time') while the curse of workaholism is incisively demolished on "Sign Come Up" (Vol.3). The demos, outakes and good-times fun informality of the 'West Coast Diary's' cassettes is taken to its logical conclusion on Volume 3 with a cheery cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs Robinson". But if the 'West Coast Diaries' gave the collector's clique something to search out, they did nothing to stave off the frustration of fruitless hours in the offices of A&R chiefs. Finally in 1989 Charlie and Exit went their separate ways and the singer/ songwriter signed with Sparrow Records. What was almost as surprising as the label was the choice of producer. In fact Peacock sees the influence of Brown Bannister on the ground of "A Question Of Time' as entirely positive." He's got me singing a lot looser, you know, how it is with Volume Two (of 'West Coast Diaries') it's much more like that, much more performance orientated. He's gotten me to accept my voice for what it is." the arrangements are dazzling. Powerhouse jazz funk, raunchy rock 'n' roll and avante-gardist experimentation intertwine in bright, shimmering sounds capes.

Much of the material Charlie has been performing in concert for years either with his dazzling trio (Vector guitarist Jimmy A and superlative black backing vocalist Vince Ebo) or with his pump-it-up band. About 'The Secret Of Time1 Charlie comments "'Big Man's Hat1 is very much our live band arrangement and "The Way Of Love' is built around the trio...We had given "Dear Friend' to Amy Grant for her next album. It's a softer song and, at first, we thought it would pull the record too much in that direction. But I decided, after some coercion from some people, that I'd better record it."

But the piece-de-resistance of The Secret Of Time' is the stunning title track. Charlie exchanges phrases with Annie Stocking before a robotic drum track crashes in like the march of time itself. Spoken lyrics, a haunting keyboard solo and all the hi-tech effects known to man and digital recording desks fuse in breathtaking aural effects. And the lyrics of the songs are as spiritually far reaching as any recorded this decade.

"I see 'The Secret Of Time' as a mystery that's unfolding and that's my understanding of what time is, because really when you talk about eternity, you talk about walking with God in the garden in the midst of eternity. To think about timelessness is just so hard for us. For example, you're wearing a watch on your hand right now and every second that ticks by is a reminder that we are marking time...we get so concerned with it. But I began to look at time, as a gift that's given and that's what this song is about 'The Secret Of Time' is an unfolding mystery.

"If you look at it, God had to create time in order for unredeemed man to be saved. If he didn't, there would be no time to be saved, because there's not time that exists in eternity. So this was a mystery that I began to understand and a secret that was whispered in my ear to understand so I really like that a lot because it has a lot in my heart that needed to come out about that."

Despite uninformed suggestions that because 'The Secret Of Time' has less of the metaphysical obscurities of 'Lie Down In The Grass', and more upfront didactic statements ("Heaven Is A Real Place" and "You Can Only Possess What You Experience"), his Sparrow album is a compromise to simplistic evangelical sensibilities are dismissed as nonsense by Charlie.

"The songs I wrote when shopping for a secular deal are the same which appear on this album. Folks say that this (new album) is too Christian - Christians say it's not Christian enough. I don't need people to tell me that God is pleased with what I'm doing - I know in my spirit that God is pleased, and I've created a record that portrays my Christian experience to this day."

The author acknowledges the use of interview material from 'Charlie Peacock: One Hip Cat' by Brian O. Newcomb in Vol 5, No 1 of Harvest Rock Syndicate'.