The Message 20 CD: sounds and spirit from two decades of The Tribe, LZ7, TWELVE 24 and more...

No other music ministry of the last 20 years has impacted on real life with more force than The World Wide Message Tribe. No band of this century has changed more lives, sparked social revolution, revived a city, influenced the fate of a generation and offered more dynamic hope for an otherwise grindingly bleak future.

‘The Message 20’ CD marks 20 years of that musical, spiritual and social revolution that began with The World Wide Message Tribe’s 1993 cassette tape ‘Take A Long Hike’. So instantly successful, the Manchester based band quickly acquired the shortened label ‘The Tribe’ and became the vitalistic trade mark sound of The World Wide Message Trust (WWMT).

With Mark Pennells, Zarc Porter and visionary WWMT founder Andy Hawthorne, The Tribe grabbed national acclaim as front band for WWMT’s faith-fired social activism on the poverty and crime shattered streets of Greater Manchester. Rising from humble beginnings at the low-end of the rag trade in a derelict Manchester church, the WWMT model now achieves worldwide acclaim for innovation, inspiration and sheer God-driven dedication.

The blasting street-level drive and blatantly evangelic lyrics of The Tribe’s unmistakeable urban sound exemplified the World Wide Message Trusts’ brand of Christianity in unrelenting action. Two of The Tribe’s original tracks from that first tape (Revival and The Cross) make it onto the Message 20 CD.

Message 20 is no gravestone retrospective for the Tribe. It’s a commitment to the future of openly Christian music in the forward looking work of the World Wide Message Trust. The CD’s 20 tracks includes songs from WWMT’s continuing music evolution to reach twenty-first century city youth.

Songs from WWMT current front bands BlushUK, TWELVE24, LZ7 and Andy Smith pick up the pace exactly where the Tribe left off and continue to push forward. The track by LZ7 and FEAT: and Sammy G ‘The General’ includes a creative remix with the recorded voice of William Booth, Victorian founder of The Salvation Army. Possibly the only other faith based socially active movement with its own bands and the life changing impact of WWMT. But even they never sounded anything like this!