You Praise Me Up

While it's still online, I suggest you check out an excellent documentary, made by a Radio Ulster colleague, Paul McClean. Rock Of Ages was broadcast on New Year's Day, and it followed the influence of the Christian Fellowship Church on the NI secular music scene.

It's a theme that people have commented on before, but the programme filled in a lot of the details, complete with quotes from the likes of Duke Special, Brian Houston, Paul Archer, Two Door Cinema Club and Robin Mark. The CFC church in east Belfast was their inspiration, training ground and support system.

Just as many American soul singers have been birthed in a gospel tradition, so the CFC has been an evangelical base, using music as a focal part in their services. Not all of the songs that have travelled out of those walls are palatable to the rest of us, but the documentary suggests that Snow Patrol's 'Run' is essentially a spiritual anthem, with some of its origins in Belmont. It's a pity that CFC regulars Iain Archer and Johnny Quinn weren't on the record to give their thoughts, but the context still makes sense.

When I returned home from London in 1996, I was bemused by the early stirrings of this scene. When the CFC artists played in a rock venue, they brought their audience with them, wide-eyed and zealous, applauding even the most banal songs. I thought that the music was often plodding and unambitious, and the lack of any artistic critique was a poor show. It was symptomatic, to my ears, of Northern Ireland's ingrained conservatism.

So why are some of those acts now valued parts of my music collection? There's a telling part of the doc when Duke Special says he regrets not listening to worldly music earlier in his career. This is the guy who once burnt his sister's AC/DC records because he had been conditioned to fear backward masking and coded Satanic messages.

Many of those artists simply had to get into the world to make their way. And on that journey, they cottoned on to Tom Waits, Rufus Wainwright and Sufjan Stevens, to dance music and the challenge of alternative culture. Some of them still reserve the right to preach and give testimony, but they're also hip to Bono's strategies of stealth and subterfuge. In short, they're getting more interesting as they grow older.

It's a rare story and no doubt, our music will be affected by those CFC emissions for some time.