Here Tim talks about the festival and his last year with Delirious? before they part ways.
CT: How did you actually get involved with TheBigChurchDayOut?
TJ: Years ago when we did the Cutting Edge events down in West Sussex we used to do an open air event once a year on the seafront in Little Hampton and around 10,000 used to come to that. I’ve always been excited about the church coming together and people still talk about those events even though they were some years ago.
I also had the really fortunate chance to meet a guy a few months ago who is one of the largest landowners in West Sussex. And we got chatting and it turns out he is a Christian with a huge vision for seeing the church come together and that really got me excited again about the possibility of having an event in the south of England cos we don’t really have anything like this where the whole church of all ages can come together for one day.
Then I got the news that the band would be winding down in the next year so I knew I would have a lot more time on my hands, I might as well throw myself into this and see where it goes and it’s turned out to be a very exciting project to work on!
CT: You stress that TheBigChurchDayOut is not just an event but it’s about bringing the whole church together. Why is that such a big emphasis for you?
TJ: Well in my DNA, in the church us guys have all been part of for many, many years we have a real family emphasis and we are all family guys ourselves – I’ve got four children – and on our Sunday meetings back at our home church all the family is together for the whole meeting every Sunday. So it’s in our blood, if you like.
But also I think there are lots of great events going on around the country but they are often aimed at young people. And they are such great events but we just thought wouldn’t it be great to open this up to people of all ages. So we really wanted to try and give something in terms of the artists we have there and it is such a beautiful location in the country on this estate and anyone can come along who just enjoys being in the countryside for the day.
CT: Were you part of the decision to wind down Delirious?
Well, that really came from Martin. He made the decision that it was time to hang up his boots and obviously we didn’t want to carry on without him because it has always been very much a team thing.
So 2009 will be the last year we do things together and TheBigChurchDayOut will be one of the last things that Delirious? ever does in the UK and probably the last kind of festival event where people of all ages can come and see the band. We’ve actually had families writing to us and saying they are really excited because they can bring their children to see Delirious? before they finish.
CT: Do you think it’s going to be quite emotional for you on the stage doing your last gig?
TJ: Well, I think it will be one of the last things that we do but we are still talking about doing some kind of farewell thing at the end of the year and that can still happen. We haven’t quite worked that out. But the whole year for us is emotional because pretty much every place we play from now on will be the last time we play there. So it’s a big year for us.
