They have been reviewed in national newspapers, gigged at Our Price and are playing Cross Rhythms '97. Tony Cummings checks on the Belfast phenomenon that is HALYCON DAYS.

Halcyon Days

Momentum is building, building, building for Halcyon Days. Despite only limited distribution for their own Kingfisher label, the band's thrilling 'Sometimes' Brian Houston-produced CD debut was enthusiastically reviewed in The People Sunday newspaper (no lies!) and reached number 7 in Belfast's secular chart being featured on Our Price's Listening Post with the band invited to an in-store gig. They have in the words of drummer Stephen Orr, "Done the Christian scene in Belfast very well and the secular scene fairly well. Now we've got Scotland and England in our sights. In May we're doing the Church Of Scotland youth event, in June we're doing three dates in England, in July we've got the Cross Rhythms festival. And in August we're playing Greenbelt." Stephen concludes with masterful Irish understatement, "This summer is going to be a very important time for us."

Things have come a long, long way when four Belfast boys (Richard 'Rick' Johnston, vocals; Garth Black, guitar; Jonathan Gibson, bass and Stephen Orr, drums) joined forces. "There was no grand ministry plan when we set up," admitted Stephen Orr. "Now looking back I would see God in it." Frontman Rick was more expansive when he spoke to the Irish Times newspaper: "We got together a couple of years ago, about January/February '94. Three of us were at Queen's and our bass player, who was at Jordanstown, joined us a few months later. We'd just been sitting about saying, 'We'd love to play music, let's form a band and see what happens.' So we wrote a lot of songs and recorded a seven-track demo tape in May '95 up at Clive Culbertson's place in Coleraine. We did it in about four days, which was a bit rushed."

That demo 'Under The Bright' brought forth the response, "These four are superb," from the Cross Rhythms reviewer. It sold an impressive 850 copies at their gigs. And those gigs kept coming thick and fast. By 1996 the band were creating a buzz on the Irish scene and were heard by Adrian Thompson who, a decade before, had enjoyed a similar buzz when his Split Level had first stepped into the Irish music arena. A plan emerged for Adrian to produce Halcyon Days' first CD. It was not to be. Explained Stephen Orr, "The studio was booked and Adrian was going to come over and produce the album. Then five days before he was due to come he phoned us to say ICC wanted him to look after some folk from South Africa at Spring Harvest and he would have to pull out. As it turned out we were able to get Brian Houston to produce 'Sometime'."

Brian Houston, an established star in Northern Ireland's secular scene, and a favourite at Greenbelt festivals, has been called "Belfast's king of acoustic rock" by the Irish News. He did a sterling job on 'Sometime'. "Brian was useful basically because he'd been there before," said Rick. "He has the experience of getting the best out of a studio - sounds, musical ideas, and arrangements. None of us had really been in a recording studio before so he was almost like a father figure in helping us through the whole process."

The band began to venture further afield. They played some shows in Scotland and Stephen, who'd worked for a while with an Irish Christian distributor and understood the Christian bookshop scene, even got 'Sometime' into some key Scottish bookstores. UCB Cross Rhythms have heavily featured the band and "Thirst" is on high rotation play. And Halcyon Days were recently featured on The Alpha Zone TV series on Channel 5. The next album is already planned. "We have about 20 excellent new songs and this time Adrian Thompson will be producing," reported Stephen. "We hope to begin recording in August."

The band has a more oblique approach to their lyrics than some Christian bands. "The spiritual message is there," commented Stephen, "but we try to be more interesting, more poetic, than some Christian bands. I don't want to be critical but some Christian lyric writing is so trite it puts people off. We try and get an audience on our side through our music."

So are there differences between a Halcyon Days secular set and a Christian one? "None at all as far as out set goes. But if we're playing a Christian outreach event for instance Rick our singer will explain what the lyrics of each song are about. But if we're playing a pub gig we cut out the talking between each song - pubs want music, not talk. Anyway, we've found when we play secular gigs that it's what we do, how we behave with each other, how we react to the management, etc, etc, which speaks more than any words we might say from the stage. Our lives should be our sermon."

Things are definitely on the up for Halcyon Days. And it can only get better. There's some talk that later this year they'll be undertaking a UK tour with Flow and Dissident Prophet. Now THAT would be well worth catching.