Live comeback concert and several new albums for Larry Norman.

CHRISTIAN rock pioneer Larry Norman, recovering from major heart surgery, recently played his first concert in almost two years. A local church organised the concert to help raise money for Larry's medical fund and to celebrate 45+ years in ministry. The concert was organised at a few weeks notice and held at a time when Larry was feeling well enough to perform. It does not signal a return to full health as for the time being Larry is unable to travel or to be sure that he would be well enough to do a concert in a few months time. He was joined on stage during the evening by various friends and family members including his sister Nancy who sang some duets with Larry, and Michael Larry's son and some members from younger brother Charles's latest band Softcore. The evening was recorded and filmed for a future DVD release by Larry's Solid Rock company.

After recently issuing three live albums, at the start of November Solid Rock released three new compilation albums - 'Road Rage', a compilation of material from Larry's two 'Live At Flevo' albums with Q-Stone and Beam 'The Best of Larry Norman Volume 1', a compilation of previously available material written between 1956 and 1975 and 'American Roots' which features some cover versions from 1998's 'Copper Wires' CD plus some previously unreleased songs from the abandoned 1976 bicentenial albums. The news which has however caused the biggest stir is that the Jesus Music veteran has felt well enough to record a new studio album which is now being mixed down and slated for release around Christmas time. As well as this project, work on the rare 'Sessions' CD for those who donated over $100 to the medical fund is also nearing completion. Also making progress is the double CD of rare recordings from Larry's 2001 UK tour. Compilers Paul Shaw and Dougie Adam are waiting receipt of some soundboard recordings of a few concerts before taking selections from those and adding them to the tracks and stories they have already compiled from the concerts in Harpenden, Edinburgh and Belfast.