#287 INVISIBLE WARFARE by Alwyn Wall (1982)

INVISIBLE WARFARE by Alwyn Wall (1982)
Star Song/Solid Rock/Chapel Lane - SSR-0040

Producer: Larry Norman

File Under: British Rock and Roll

Time Capsule-Worthy Track:

Doctor, Doctor

Something new is happening to our music. Something has happened in England that is exciting and revolutionary. England has exploded with a new sound and a new direction.

Alwyn Wall was the spark of quiet genius behind Fool's Wisdom and all the other songs Malcolm & Alwyn sang in the Seventies. Alwyn wrote all of the songs for the duo and was the main British figure in the European Jesus Movement. His were the songs which other people performed and recorded. His songs summed up the feelings of the times and his bold witness to different members of The Beatles and his 'everyman' approach to life and lyrics made him an endearing fixture of Christian music for the last ten years. It is perhaps rare for any one artist to be as relevant during a second decade, but Alwyn has grown stronger and full of insight into both Christianity and culture. Time has proven him to be a conscience of his generation, and a poet for The Eighties.

-Larry Norman, 1982

Ah, Larry was ever the promoter. That press blurb was overstated a bit in spots (Wall did not, for example, write all of the songs for Malcolm & Alwyn; that was a joint effort with Malcolm Wild). But for the most part it rang true. Whether in Malcolm & Alwyn, the Alwyn Wall Band, or through his solo efforts, Alwyn Wall's music did indeed sum up the feelings of the times. And although his recorded catalog was somewhat sparse and limited...when he did record an album, it was always relevant. 

Alwyn Wall and his friend (and future brother-in-law) Malcolm Wild were in a band together as school mates. They called themselves The Zodiacs. After becoming Christians within two days of each other, the duo adopted a new focus and became a "British Gospel beat music group." Comparing favorably to Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, the two recorded an album in 1973 that would become an all-time classic: Fool's Wisdom. Wild's autoharp was a fixture in the group's music and made them unique. The authentic British accents also set them apart. 

They came over to the United States and found a spiritual home at Chuck Smith's Calvary Chapel church in Costa Mesa, California. Using that church as sort of a home base in America, the duo traveled all over the U.S., sharing Jesus through their music in concerts at churches, schools, coffeehouses and festivals.

Their sophomore release, Wildwall, took a harder-edged approach and found the fellows experimenting a bit. Instead of building on the success and popularity of Fool's Wisdom, Wildwall alienated some of the duo's devoted fans. The two then went their separate ways but reunited to record a live album several years later.

Alwyn Wall then formed a band with some excellent British musicians and released a stellar album that has always been somewhat underappreciated. The Prize featured Wall along with guitarist Norman Barratt, bassist Tony Hudson, drummer Nick Brotherwood, and keyboardist Phil Holmes.

Meanwhile, Malcolm Wild released a solo album called Broken Chains on Maranatha! Records in 1980. The album featured performances by John Mehler (formerly of Love Song), Darrell Mansfield, John Pac (formerly of Parchment), the aforementioned Norman Barratt and Alwyn Wall himself.

The early Eighties found both gentlemen still alive and kicking, musically speaking. Now it was Malcolm Wild's turn to form a new band. Malcolm & the Mirrors released an energetic (and somewhat paranoid) album of new wave music in 1982 titled Red Alert. At roughly the same time, Alwyn Wall finally decided to go it alone. Longtime friend Larry Norman helped him put out a record of solo material...and it did not disappoint.

At this point, Larry was at the tail end of his most productive years, musically. The first incarnation of Solid Rock Records had splintered and pretty much blown apart. Larry was now focusing on a group of British artists, with Alwyn Wall being one of the better known of the bunch.

Larry Norman

In a recent interview with veteran Jesus Music radio host Jerry Bryant, Alwyn Wall talked about his high regard for Norman. 

"Larry Norman was an influence to me in that he emboldened us to speak and to communicate," Wall revealed. "Larry was a great writer, but his greatest gift was the gift of communication with the audience. And because we were on tour with him, we learned a lot from him about just being very natural on stage and trying to just be guys who loved Jesus and weren't afraid to speak the name of Jesus. And he kind of emboldened us. We grew in that ability. And he was the one who kind of pushed us more into that area of just trying to communicate and just say things that could really connect with people. He was a great influence, he had great songs. At that time, in those early years, he was a really good guy to be around. He'd been a professional musician for years. He knew the ropes when it came to being on stage and stuff like that, so we did learn an awful lot from him."

Larry is listed in the credits as producer, arranger and engineer for Invisible Warfare. 

The entire first side of Invisible Warfare is classic. In fact, if we were giving out trophies for album sides, this record would rank a lot higher on this list.

The opening track is undeniably a highlight of the album. Lyrically reminiscent of Doctor Jesus by Michael & Stormie Omartian, Doctor, Doctor presents the Lord as a spiritual physician, the only One capable of healing us - spirit, mind and body. 

You are the surgeon
Your Word is the knife
Lay me on Your table
Cut Your way into my life, into my life
Into my life


Please, Doctor, Doctor
Don't leave me in distress
I've abused my freedom
And my life is in a mess
I'm in a mess
It's just a mess

I've been to healers
But nobody could cure my ills
All they ever gave to me was
Medicine and pills

Please, Doctor, Doctor
Free me from this curse
If You can't help me then I know
I will get worse
So much worse

Someone told me 
That You could help me
You're the one to turn to 
If I wanted to be healthy
So here I am, whoa, whoa
So here I am

Put me on Your life support
My condition is much worse
Than I first thought

There's an attitude and a swagger about this song that's very appealing. It's got a punchy, slightly new-wave groove that sticks with you. And the late, great Norman Barratt delivers a blistering lead guitar break.

The new-wave sensibilities continue on the next song, On Your Marks (Are You Ready). It's another standout track on Invisible Warfare, and it presents the Second Coming of Jesus as relief for a litany of ills that plague modern man. 

Let the Light Come is another good one, this one co-written with Norman Barratt. Discerning listeners will be able to distinguish Larry Norman's voice as part of the backing harmonies. In fact, this track would've sounded right at home on one of Norman's solo albums.  

A rocker titled Hold On wraps Side One...and, yeah, it's yet another favorite from this album (we're 4 for 4 so far). Barratt puts on a clinic on lead guitar here. Like the first three tracks, this song gives somewhat of a nod to the 80s and to the new wave style that was becoming more and more popular, but without betraying who Alwyn Wall really was, musically speaking.  

After such a great Side One, the odds that Side Two would keep up were not good. And, alas, it did not. It's not that the songs on Side Two are bad...it's more that the songs on Side One were just too good, I suppose. 

The autobiographical ballad Someday has an unimaginative melody; a rocker called I'm Alright Jack (the Greed Song) suffers from the same malady, and the chorus on (You've Got To Be) Doers is annoyingly childish. It's not that these are terrible songs...it's just that Wall had raised the bar so high on Side One.

Side Two is rescued somewhat by The Greatest Show on Earth - a song that might've fit in quite nicely on The Prize by the Alwyn Wall Band. It's smartly written and scored.

Open the door
And let the people in
Turn down the lights
Let the show begin
We welcome you
To the greatest show on earth

He makes you laugh
He makes you cry
His act is hard to follow
No matter who may try
We welcome you
To the greatest show on earth

Rock and roll singers
They come and they go
Everyone trying to steal the show
But there's a performance
The whole world is waiting
To see

The art of diplomacy
It's the art of deceit
And there's too many voices
Tryin' to tell you what you should be

We want to be with you
Oh yes we do
We want to see you
Oh yes we do
And we waited
Yeah, we waited such a long, long time

The time has come
The stage is set
All have been invited
But they all will not get to see
It's the greatest show on earth

Bonus points for very effective use of sound effects at the end of the song.

Greatest Show on Earth crossfades into the next song (one of Larry Norman's favorite production techniques). The album's final song, Jesus I Love You, written by Monroe Thompson, is a simple repeating of that phrase over and over. It reminds one of the types of simple worship choruses that Malcolm & Alwyn might've heard when they first visited Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa back at the height of the Jesus Movement. 

When their music careers were over, Mr. Wall and Mr. Wild both became pastors in the Calvary Chapel movement. Wall headed up a church in his beloved U.K. (Calvary London), while Wild pastored in the state of Florida (Calvary Chapel Merritt Island).

Not long ago Jesus Music radio host Jerry Bryant asked Alwyn Wall about the transition from CCM to full-time pastoring. "It wasn't really a transition," Wall said. "Music is still a great part of my life. I practice music every day, I study music, I love music. So I'm not an ex-musician. I'll always be a musician until the day I die, you know, and maybe afterwards! But the emphasis shifted, that's for sure. It was God's call, really. After being on the road for many, many years I was really weary of traveling and being away from my wife, but I just wanted the Lord to use me. So, instead of traveling a hundred miles to an audience, I just said, 'Lord, use me where I can be at home more.'" 

Pastor Chuck Smith

Alwyn Wall still gives a lot of credit to his spiritual mentor, the late Chuck Smith. "I did have a real desire to open up the Scriptures like I'd seen Chuck Smith do," Wall said. "I looked at him as my inspiration in that, how he simply opened up the Scriptures and just ministered verse by verse by verse through the Bible. I just thought, 'I want to do that.' That's what really settled me as a Christian, it's what really grounded me. By going through the Scriptures like that, it's kind of like the missing parts of the jigsaw puzzle, or what you don't understand about the Lord or about the Bible, slowly all the pieces begin to fit. And I got a bigger picture of what was being said in the Bible, because of that kind of ministry that Chuck had demonstrated. And I thought, 'You know, I'd love to do that.' And so we started little Bible studies, and then that kind of grew, and I was still doing worship. And I believe that it was the call of God upon my life at that time, that God had kind of led me into that, and led me to where I am now with pastoring here in London."  

Alwyn Wall

At the time of this writing, both men appear to still be pastoring. They teamed up as recently as 2013 and played a lot of their classic songs at Malcolm Wild's church in Merritt Island, FL (there's a video of the entire concert on Vimeo to prove it). I think it's very cool that both Malcolm and Alwyn have served the Lord and the body of Christ for well over four decades now. With no plans to retire and ride off into the sunset anytime soon.  

"I'm still working on music and writing songs," Alwyn Wall says. "My son's writing songs, we've got some nice music together. We're actually right now in a bit of a creative time. You see, when God gives you a gift He doesn't take it off of you. He just sometimes pushes it in another direction. And so here we are. We're still working hard with stuff and God is good!"