Me and Larry Norman!

It was 1973, I was 21 and had been saved for about six months. All through my teenage years I’d been involved with music, having joined my first rock band when I was 13. Rock, Soul and Blues were in my background and in my blood. But now I was 21, saved and back living amongst a people who thought Rock n Roll was of the Devil ----- and who was I to object to this line of thinking for what did I know about these weighty matters anyway? I now lived in an uncomfortable church world where they sang songs that seemed oddly quaint and dated. I often felt like the small boy who, after the preacher had preached for more than an hour, turned to his mother and whispered, “Mum, is this the only way to get to heaven?” It wasn’t the preaching that drained me, far from it, I’d have driven anywhere to hear the Word expounded. It was the worship! Having grown up in a Christian home I had been exposed, as a child, to the music of the Presbyterians and the Mission Halls.  But now, years later, on returning to the fold, I discovered that nothing much had changed.  We were all still ‘gathering at the river’ and ‘holding the fort’. The most radical thing that had happened during my absence was that Mrs. Kelly had stopped wearing her hat at the meetings.  How daring!

And Christian concerts were even worse than church services!  They reminded me of a Saturday night out for nerds!  Always advertised as having lively music with bright singing, these events were, to my mind, passé, irrelevant and boring. But who was I and what did know?

One day, however, I found a Christian magazine called Buzz and upon reading it discovered an ad for a guy from America called Larry Norman.  He was, according to this paper, shortly to visit the UK and was going to be available for concerts.  For inquiries one should phone such and such a number. So I did.

“Would Larry Norman come to Northern Ireland to do a concert?”

“Why just one concert?” asked the nasal voice on the other end of the line.

“How many concerts would he want to do?”

“Four! At least four.”

“Four? Brilliant! Send him over!

 The only thing I knew about Larry Norman was that he had invented the ‘One Way’ slogan …remember it, with the index finger pointing heavenward (not the rude version, Larry, being a Christian, had the palm facing outwards)? And then there was his song “One way, one way to heaven” and the other one about some people who said Jesus was an outlaw. Yes indeed, four concerts, that’s the ticket (excuse the pun) for I’m so fed up with gathering at the river and ‘bright singing’.

The venues were booked and Larry duly flew in to Aldergrove where I picked him up. There he stood, long blond hair flowing over his shoulders, clothed and in his right mind, adorned in Levis and t-shirt, guitar case in one hand, suitcase in the other.  Are you Larry Norman? Duh! Who else could he have been? He smiled, gave me his impish grin and said, “Yeah man I’m Larry.” So we drove back to Maghera and there headquartered making ready for the conquest of Ulster.

The concerts came and went and because of the help of a great team of volunteers were a big success. Many were blessed but many were also offended.  Larry, it turned out was the kind of guy who would merrily pluck corn on your Sabbath. Every night he would come off with piercing words pointing out that many Christians lived not according to the Word but according to their traditions. It was a message we all needed to hear.  He was very convicting but always behind the cutting penetrating truths was a huge dose of humour and good will.

He loved to ask the question, “Why should the Devil have all the good music?” And why indeed? Yet the ‘Shall We Gather At The River’ crowd remained unconvinced.

 “I don’t think he’s sound in the faith” said one of them to me.

“Why not?”

“Ach I don’t know, I just don’t know, but I just don’t think he is.”

Maybe it was because Larry had said that when Jesus turned the water into wine, evangelicals saw a second miracle in the story for they were persuaded that he also turned the wine back into water before it got to the wedding guest’s stomachs.

Larry shook a lot of people.  One old dear is reported to have said “If Jesus Christ knew what went on here tonight He would turn over in his grave.” But for many of us, Larry had God’s voice for the hour.  And his music was great! He made us feel like we could speak to our generation in a language both they and we understood.  Some said he was a prophet. Maybe he was but I never thought so.  I just thought he’d been gifted to package the gospel in a way our generation could understand. As far as I’m concerned, he faithfully carried out his commission.

He helped liberate countless thousands in those days.  On top of that, he was fun to hang out with. After the tour he spent a further week in Maghera and later I stayed with him in London. I always found him witty, generous and hospitable.  True, the “‘Shall we gather at the river’ boys” didn’t think too highly of him and he got a lot of opposition from that quarter. A friend of mine once remarked that if Columbus had turned back no one would have blamed him but then again no one would have heard of him. The same is true of Larry! May the Lord bless him richly.  His only problem was that he could never pronounce the word ‘cowboy’ but that’s another story which I’ll leave for another time.

Miles McKee

International Sales Director, Avalon/Lowden Guitars

MD “The Gospel Truth” Radio Ministry