It's more than 10 years since "San Damiano (Heart And Soul)" made Britain's Top 20 and Christendom awoke to the phenomenon that is SAL SOLO. Now with an intriguing album out via Nelson Word, the singer/songwriter spoke to Francis Blight.

Sal Solo

The new album Through Ancient Eyes' by Sal Solo is another totally individualistic musical experience. A flavour of sanctified dance pervades some of the tracks though 'Through Ancient Eyes' still carries the meditative Scripture-inspired atmosphere that made 1991's 'Look At Christ' such a groundbreaking album.

All of the songs on 'Through Ancient Eyes' are based on Old Testament stories and they immediately strike you as having been written to open your ears to what the Bible says. Sal explained that he sees the main reason for reading the Old Testament as being to understand more about Christ, therefore the album should really be titled 'Look At Christ Through Ancient Eyes'. He feels that many Christians find that the Old Testament has little meaning for them because they aren't looking at it with this perspective.

Sal is clearly committed to making us look more closely at Christ. At his concerts there are no spotlights on the band but instead the audience focuses on slides of paintings depicting Jesus and biblical stories many of which are Sal's own work. The idea is that as the audience's attention is focussed on Christ they will be drawn closer to him. At the end of their concerts when people who would like prayer are asked to come forward, often as many as 40 per cent of the audience responds.

Sal quotes Don Bosco, a saint from the last century who worked with young people. "'First you must learn to love what they love, then maybe they will come to love what you love.' I don't have any difficulty with this as my favourite programme is Top Of The Pops and has been for the last 30 years." He even confesses to being a fan of East 17! Shame on you Mr Solo. However, although Sal wants to reach young people who don't normally get to hear the gospel, one excellent feature of Sal's music is that it appeals to people of all ages and doesn't alienate older people. Apparently the age of the band's audience has ranged from two to 92!

It has become very clear to Sal that as music is the international language of young people it must be used to proclaim the gospel. "The Devil recognises its power, why is it that the Church doesn't?" asks Sal. "When we play in a church many people will come who would never go to hear a preacher."

Last year when the band were in Italy they were asked to play at some of the annual church festivals. "Each year the churches have a budget to spend on an outdoor festival. Normally they just booked popular bands, but as so few people are now going to church over there they thought that perhaps they should be using this as an opportunity to teach the people. So they booked us. I was a bit embarrassed as this was in the town's busy market place with people drinking coffee and cars were going by. No one was expecting a Christian band, so before we started I said that anyone who wasn't interested in having their lives changed could leave now. Well, when it came to the end of the concert about 200 people came forward for prayer." But when the band went to the church the next day they found that there were fewer people there than had come forward the night before. This clearly shows how effective proclaiming the gospel through music can be.

Yet one of the problems he is finding is that the Church (universal, not local) just isn't supporting the band and Sal is having to call into question how much longer they can continue. The offer has come to do a tour in Poland where Sal was really famous with his early 80s band Classix Nouveaux. They have also been asked to do a tour of Uganda, but the money needs to appear before they can go to either of these places. Someone, please give the man some cash!

Sal has no desire to be a Christian rock star playing in huge stadia. Instead, he wants to go to small hidden places that other bands never bother to go to. He has had the opportunity to be a high-profile Christian, resulting with interviews in lots of national publications. But he is not aware of a single person coming to Christ through his testimony in the press. He gave up being a musician for three years and was actually quite reluctant to return to it being quite happy where he was, working as a radio presenter. But since his return to music as an evangelist rather than as a pop star, he has seen much fruit; including healings which started while the band were in Ireland. "The whole of our healing ministry began there one night at the theatre in Tralee in Kerry. I had been inspired to pray from the stage and one man who stood up said he had been suffering for eight years with back trouble from a slipped disc and God healed him that night. The very last night we played in Dublin, one man suffering from spinal cancer stood up from his wheelchair and was healed."

Sal Solo has also had the opportunity to perform in prisons where they have found that many people are really looking for forgiveness. Recently a woman came up to him in a bookshop who recognised him. She said that not only had the 'Look At Christ' album really blessed her while she had been in prison but it had also had quite an effect on several other women in there who were not Christians.

Sal is concerned about the motivation and priorities of many Christians in the music business. This concern stems from various things, such as the difficulty that Sal has had in finding committed band members because of the lack of money that the work offers and through meeting CCM artists who want to be treated like stars when they are simply big fish in a tiny pond. On top of this he sees very few bands using their music for evangelism with most either producing praise and worship or a polite version of what the world is doing.

Whatever the future holds for singer / songwriter / painter / evangelist / broadcaster Sal Solo, one thing is certain, it will resonate with creative freshness and a passionate zeal for the Gospel.