BY DEBORAH EVANS PRICE NASHVILLE

On their last outing, "Step Up To The Microphone," Aussie rockers the Newsboys proved they could change lead vocalists, undertake their own production duties, and emerge victorious with a successful project. That accomplishment spawned confidence that is now manifesting itself via an innovative new album, "Love, Liberty Disco," due Nov. 16 on Sparrow, and an upcoming tour in which they will arrive with their own portable arenas. With three gold albums, four Dove Awards, a Billboard Music Video Award, and two International Angel Awards to their credit, the band mem-hers entered the studio to record their eighth album, looking to stretch a few pop/rock boundaries. In doing so they discovered a shared musical influence-disco-that provided grist for the title cut and upcoming tour. "We all grew up on Abba. Down Under, in Australia and New Zealand, they were huge before they were huge in the States," says Newsboy Phil Joel. "The Bee Gees and that sort of stuff definitely is a common denominator in all our musical tastes." The band's members-Joel, Peter Furler, Jody Davis, Duncan Phillips, and Jeff Frankenstein-all con-tributed in writing the title cut. "Thematically the song goes hand in hand with our next tour, the concept, and the whole thing we wanted to create," says Joel. He is quick to add that only the title cut is disco, not the entire rec-ord. "We didn't set out to make a disco record The whole disco thing was born out of discussions we had about the disco era and how dis-cos were the place in the '70s people went for love, I guess, and for liberty freedom, and a sense of belonging, a sort of family "We likened that to the church," Joel continues. "That's how the church should be. The church should be a place where people come and feel loved, feel a new freedom, and to be welcomed, to feel this family So that's what we want to take out on the road. This whole 'Love, Liberty Disco' theme. "Hopefully it will be attractive to not only church people but to the public at large," he says. Joel says he and Furler wrote most of the record, with input from the other band members. As the band has matured, Joel says, so has its music. "Lyrically, if you listen to these records, you can follow what was going on in everyone's lives," he says. "I think now we re moving into a deeper lyrical thing, which shows our faith is a lot deeper." Joel, Furler, and Davis each contribute vocals. Joel says they tried some different approaches on this record. "We did a lot with harmonies," he says. "Jody came on and real- ly stepped up our vocal department. He's been a bit shy about singing on previous records, but this one he just jumped in as bold as brass." The title track is the first single going to Christian radio, and it is already receiving strong positive reaction. "They're a band that always raises the bar and always gives you the unexpected," says Bob Thornton, national PD for KXOJ Tulsa, Okla., and the Adonai Radio Group. Thornton is also looking forward to the Newsboys tour. "What we always get from the Newsboys is innovation, whether it's rotating drums, or concert tours in out-of-the-way places, or the blow-up arena on the next tour," he says. Hugh Robertson, senior VP of mar-keting and artist development for Sparrow Label Group, agrees. He says playing up the band's innovative personality will be part of the mar-keting campaign. "Everything they've done is always marked with some exciting new thing," says Robertson. Even before the album was finished, Robertson says the label was priming the band's core market. "We did a weekly update from the studio where Peter Furler, or Phil Joel, or someone from the band was literally writing an E-mail out to their fans," he says. The Internet will be a key element. "We're doing the first-ever Internet digital download for our industry of a new single, which will happen Oct. 26," says Robertson (see story page 6). Sparrow is also putting a major push on radio through a variety of promotions. There will be a national radio special airing on Christian sta-tions on Nov. 13, the Saturday before street date. On the retail front, Robertson says Sparrow focused marketing reps on 29 markets with custom retail pro-motions uniquely tailored to each market and retailer. Robertson says the label is also promoting "Love, Liberty Disco" with an aggressive print advertising campaign, coverage in retail catalogs, and premium positioning at retail. Robertson says beyond the launch, additional marketing efforts will continue well into 2000. The group has hired a mainstream publicist to broaden the Newsboys' general market exposure, and it is also exploring taking singles to mainstream radio. Most of next year's efforts will revolve around the tour. Robertson says, "Plans around that include cor-porate sponsors, TV advertising, and a festival-style venue atmosphere that creates an unprecedented event in every community they visit. "We are going to take out our own arena," says Robertson. "Our genius managers, Wes Campbell and Steve Campbell, discovered you can buy these enormous inflatable arenas that you can air condition. They are portable. They go up quickly and are huge. So we bought two of them. One gets set up the day before we get there, and then the other [is set up in the next city]. They sort of leapfrog each other." Booked by Vanguard Entertainment, the tour starts in mid February The portable arenas will seat 3,000. In markets where the Newsboys regularly sell out more than 3,000, they will do several nights of shows to meet demand.

From Billboard Magazine 12/04/99