Outstanding, conscientious soul band THE CHRISTIANS songs were laden with messages and morals but, crucially, without preaching. Described as adult band making music for adults capable of reaching adult decisions, and as such, were a splendid listen and phenomenally talented but nowhere near as commercially successful as their tunes merited. First single "Forgotten Town" made the charts and two more similarly enjoyable and discerning hits later, and the stunning "Ideal World" ("where we're free to choose") put them in the Top 20 for the first time in '88, a year in which despairing musos could have a lot to thank them for. Perhaps it was those tasteful people's determination to show the nation that we were not all Brosettes (or the male equivalent, er...Brosees?) which finally allowed the Christians to hit the Top 10 later that year with an amazing cover of the Isley Brothers "Harvest For The World", focal point Garry Christian, in possession of as rich and digestible a voice of anyone in the decade, added lyrics to the trad.arr muzac of "Words" ("if I could find words to tell you I'm sorry, and make you understand I mean just what I say") to end the 80s on a typically high, yet paradoxically sombre note, helping the purists by putting all the lyrics on the single's sleeve. They had also contributed to that year's reworking of "Ferry Cross The Mersey" to raise cash for the families of Hillsborough victims. The '90s saw their breathtakingly soulful "What's In A Word" followed by a wonderful cover of Gil Scott Heron's story of a street wino "The Bottle".