Martin Smith, frontman of DELIRIOUS?, gives an in depth interview to Mike Rimmer.

Back in the '90s when the band began dabbling with making a mainstream impact, there were always fans who were disappointed that the band had abandoned their worship roots. The band itself were working out their identity step by step along the way. The tension between their two different identities seems to have lessened these days. Martin agrees, "I think it has become less of a tension because I think we've grown into that skin. I think we're really comfortable in the skin that we're in right now. If God chose to take one of these songs and explode it on mainstream radio in Australia, that would be absolutely brilliant! It would be fine. We would chase after that and we would live whatever that meant us doing. But also we're really happy doing three weeks at Soul Survivor and taking some of these songs and hopefully pushing the boundary a bit. Inspiring some of those kids hopefully."

He continues, "So I think we've become all of those things funnily enough. And really love it all. I guess we're just unique in that sense. We've done some huge mainstream festivals in Germany last year and then we've done some church things, where people actually give altar calls and come forward while we're playing 'What A Friend'. So I can't work it out, who we are, but we're loving being who we are. It feels like God is in the middle of it all."

It's time for me to test out a theory on Martin. "Delirious? are a great worship band but not a great rock band." Discuss. You haven't quite cut it as a rock band have you? Smith ponders for a second, "Well that might be true." He responds hesitantly before getting into his reply, "That might be true. I think the problem with us is that we want to see the presence of God too much. So just doing a full-on rock and roll show, actually we would come off a little bit dissatisfied. So I think we've got the numbers in the songs to rock for 90 minutes and everybody jump and it'll be a great rock show. I think we know how to do that. Although I've not got an incredibly great rock voice! You know, it's not Liam Gallagher is it?! But I think the thing is, we're always searching for that moment where God can come in the midst of it all and touch people."

Flashback to August 2005. Delirious? are playing a Sunday afternoon show at the Grapevine event but unlike many artists, they don't simply arrive, play a set and travel on. The band have brought their families and are wandering around the site, taking part in the event. I find Martin and his family eating in the refreshment tent and we have a brief chat. Later the whole band and their kids wander past me heading to the skate park on site to have some fun. It's sunny and relaxed and a million miles away from events 12 months before.

On August Bank Holiday 2004, the band were leading worship at the Sunday evening celebration, the band were halfway through their set when the bleachers collapsed and many people were injured. I observe that it must have been a horrible experience for the band as well. "Yeah it was terrible," he recalls. "I remember it was possibly the most extraordinary example of switches of emotion that I've ever experienced within a second. Being completely caught up in that moment of the presence of God being there and you being outside of yourself, to suddenly Bang! And I have some guy running up and saying, 'You've got to stop right now!' It wasn't even a fadeout. It was just, 'Stop right now!' The house lights go on and oh my goodness, there's 50 people over there that could be dead! Now amazingly no one did die but from where we were on stage it really honestly looked like there were people that had died. There were legs coming out here, there were arms, there were people crying, people shouting and screaming. I think we were in shock. We had to clear the stage. Suddenly we're back behind the curtain and thinking, what on earth's going on? We're leading worship and some people might have died! So it was extraordinary and thankfully no one died."

Looking back over the band's journey, I wonder whether there have been times when Smith has found himself in situations where it all seems slightly surreal. "Yeah, especially with some of the kiddies' programmes that you go on," he admits, "like Saturday Morning Live or whatever they call it. You just think, 'What am I doing here? I'm promoting a tin of beans really, into a market that just sees it as a tin of beans! They don't care about me in the slightest!' You've got a product and to them it's a product they're buying and that is it. Next week they get someone else in. So I think there was a period where it was a bit soulless. That whole promotional stuff that we did, traipsing around the country doing this and that. And at times I think we used to ask ourselves, what on earth has this got to do with the Kingdom of God?! But it was a means to an end at that time and we knew we were playing someone else's game. I couldn't necessarily say it was wrong or I couldn't say it was right, but it was just something that season was about."

He continues, "I regret spending money on some of the things we spent money on. Like adverts in the Daily Mirror." He shapes his fingers to indicate a tiny sized box, "A box like that to advertise the single coming out and it's costing huge amounts of money, I think we struggled with that. It's just a machine and you get caught up.'Ahhh! I've got the Daily Mirror! You've got five minutes to decide and it's X thousand pounds. But this is the thing that could actually make the difference of a Top10 or a Top 5. It's amazing the difference it'll make. You just wait and see!' And you just do a few of these things and realise it makes no difference and realise you got suckered a few times. But who cares? It's just money isn't it really? And you live and learn."

'The Mission Bell' is completed and the band are gearing up to do a small tour in the UK before Christmas. As the band take the new songs on the road, they'll inevitably change as they play them each night. Also, the way Martin feels about the songs will change, deeper meanings will emerge. He explains, "The songs do truly become what they are over a year when you're playing them more and more. Some songs that actually sound great on the record, sometimes you get them out and there's just not that connection with the people. That doesn't mean the recording is bad, the bit of art on its own can be fantastic but sometimes there's just not that same connection. And that sometimes works the other way as well. Songs that you didn't really nail on the record, you get out there and then all of a sudden everybody is singing along. It's the ones that they love. But I think we've got better at that, knowing that the stuff we put on the records is going to translate live. You learn a bit earlier on what you think is going to work. I think we've got 12 songs here that, every one of those would work live really well."

Observing the response to 'World Service' it felt like the band were actually gaining a new younger audience again. For them, this is almost like a second Delirious? album that they're experiencing. It must be exciting to carry on winning new fans. "Yeah that's interesting. We've noticed at our concerts that the first two or three rows are 15-16 year-old kids again. And amazingly looking a bit dumbfounded when you do "History Maker".'So what's this song?'.which is extraordinary really, but knowing every word to the new record. They sing along to "Every Little Thing's Going To Be Alright" and then the older people at the back are thinking, 'Oh, what record's this on? I bought 'King Of Fools' and then I had kids and just didn't buy music again.'"

Martin has an important observation to make. 'About a year ago I remember thinking to myself, where on earth are the leaders? That 20-30 age group. There's a huge void of leadership. We call it the 'travelling decade'; the generation that rather than get a job and settle down, chose to travel round the world and do a year out. I think that's had a knock-on effect. People are less committed and don't want to take responsibilities so much. It seems that, without overstating the point, that the 30s-40s age group are being asked again to lead the 15s-20s because there's a gap in the middle. I felt that God said that to us guys - ' This wasn't the intention but I'm giving you another generation. Here's another shot. And now you're a bit older and wiser I'm going to entrust you with these people.' So it's an honour and it's a bit disappointing as well that nobody's come through really. I think our dream was that there would be five or six Delirious?'s come along in all shapes and sizes that would take over. At the moment that doesn't really seem like that's happening in the same dynamic, especially with The Tribe going. So we'll carry on."