Soon to tour with Noel Richards, Newcastle's YFRIDAY are the most anointed new rock worship team to emerge for years. Their leader Ken Riley spoke at length to Mike Rimmer.

I invite him to keep boasting about what God is doing and he tells me about Coll, band's administrator. "She works at a solicitors and there was a lady who apparently had a drink problem and was an alcoholic and ordered the CD. Basically this lady's life had completely fallen apart. She woke up one morning and decided that was the last day she was going to spend on the earth. She was going to kill herself. Fortunately the Yfriday CD arrived through the door and remember this lady is not a Christian. Probably out of respect for the friendship she had with Coll she said, 'I had better play the CD.' Apparently two or three tracks into the CD she didn't know what happened but she was on her face on the floor in her living room feeling very different. It gave her the strength to get up and ring her doctor and book herself in for some rehab. We've had a letter since to say rehab is going very, very well. A song called 'Closer' had really ministered to her. It stays with her and she talks about God in her letters to Coll."

There are some bands that I meet and all they want to do is talk about songs and music and live shows but there's something refreshingly different about this band. Reading the testimonies and talking to Ken about the way God uses them during live events, it would be easy to write them off as untouchable super saints that God has chosen to use. Yet sitting in his car chatting to Ken about the band's ministry, the thing that strikes me so powerfully is that he and the rest of the band are extremely ordinary. So how does it happen that God uses them so powerfully? "I've learnt how to do it by doing it." Ken struggles to explain, "It would be lovely to tell you that I sit and fast for three weeks before every gig and that I'm two hours on my knees in prayer beforehand but that doesn't happen. A Christian faith should be part of your life and it should be entwined with everything you do. I've talked to God driving to work in the morning and at various other times. I have a relationship which is a continual relationship. I have a friend standing next to me. Okay, it's not a super spiritual relationship; it's something that's part of my life. I don't even think I could say that things happen when we stand on the stage because of my relationship with God. I still think that things happen because God purely ordains them to happen and wants them to happen and wants to bless his people."

Ken continues to search for an answer, "There's a Scripture which says, 'The gifting and calling of God are irrevocable.' I think that some people have maybe blown what they've had but at the same time I'm convinced that God uses people purely from grace and for his own purpose. Quite honestly there have been times when we didn't deserve to have God use us and he's turned up massively and there have been times when we've felt much more holy than normal - 'Oh! I'm really right with you this time God,' and he's done very little. But you're right, there's nothing special about us. You've met us Mike, we're just a bunch of guys. There's no difference between us and anybody. I'm just understanding grace more and more and the new songs that I'm writing are really focusing on God's grace."

Ah yes, song writing Perhaps it would be a good idea to talk about the band's music! Given everything he's told me so far, I'm not at all surprised to hear that Ken has an unusual approach to song writing! "I write a lot of songs without any musical instruments at all," he explains. "I spend a lot of time driving around everywhere, the song writing is going on in my head all the time whether it be a lyric thing, a melody thing. Often I'll get back with a song already plotted out in my mind and then find the guitar cords or whatever to fit the song. I'm quite fortunate in one sense because I have a song writing brain!"

Ken gives an example of how his song writing brain works with the song "If". It all started when his church started holding regular early morning prayer meetings. "At the first one my friend Ed opened up the meeting, 'If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and will seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.' That Scripture stayed with me all day and the thing was running through my mind and I got in from work, picked up my guitar and the song literally fell out."

If only all song writing was that easy! Some of the songs are born out of Ken's real life experiences and some songs move him so deeply that he cries when he sings them. "Thank You For The Cross" is one such song. "It's a very personal song and totally focuses on God's grace. It's the fact that he came; he was nailed to a cross. He died to save us, for us to see forgiveness of sins. The version of it you actually hear, I had an incredible time singing the vocals when we actually came to do them. God turned up in such an amazingly big way in the studio. The first take that I did for vocals, I think I sang about two lines when the Holy Spirit turned up and that was me in floods of tears for about 10 minutes. The vocal take that you actually hear isn't perfect because it's the second take and the emotions are still running so high that there's still tears, there's still shaking, there's still all the dynamics that you get when God turns up in a big" way. To me when I hear the track back I can still recollect that time so it's quite special to me, just the fact that I know God was there during the recording of it."

Recently the band have been deciding what to do about gaining wider distribution for the album and have been in discussions with record companies. By the time you read this, it's likely that ink has been added to paper and the deal is done. Certainly record companies are recognising that there's a buzz for the band in the North East. One enthusiastic executive describes the incredible "Holy Holy Holy" as an anthem for this generation. Ken shrugs in the face of such hype and simply says, "That's the oldest song on the album. It's probably the Yfriday favourite actually. The song that people really like to jump up and down to and worship God to. To me it's a very straight praise song. There's no hidden significance, it just declares the truth about God. He is holy. People jump up and down and sing 'Holy, holy, holy' and that's fantastic. It's all about worshipping Jesus."

Worshipping Jesus is indeed what Yfriday are all about. As they head out on tour with Noel Richards, there are going to be plenty of opportunity to leap up and down and sing along. If they're playing near you, you need to get along because this is one band with a Kingdom mentality who are destined to make a difference.