Donna Matthews from Elastica ELL OH ELL (1 Viewer)

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Donna Matthews who was part of the massive Indie Band ‘Elastica’ is now head of the Christian Union at Dartington College of Music and Arts and attends the Ichthus Link Church : Totnes United Free Church. In this Issue of Evangelism News she shares her story of finding and sharing Jesus.

Donna Matthews is a very creative musician, her talents being honed at a very early age “I absolutely knew what I wanted to do with my life from when I was very young, I knew I was going to be involved with music.” Donna was already messing about with guitar from the age of six.

Donna grew up in Newport,” a working-class industrial town. My parents weren’t Christians. My dad spent a lot of my youth in prison for drug-smuggling. His disdain for authority and his rebellious attitude had quite an impact on me.” Her rebellions at school didn’t go unnoticed, Donna was now infamously expelled aged 14 for supposedly for cutting her hair into a Mohican and dying it orange!

After joining several bands she later left her native Newport and moved to London at nineteen when the band she was in split up. “I was crashing on floors and going for auditions all the time.” She joined Elastica after answering a Musicians Wanted advert in the Melody Maker. In time Elastica’s band’s reputation grew and their self titled Debut Album Entered the charts at number one, becoming the fastest-selling debut in the U.K., beating the record Oasis' Definitely Maybe set only seven months earlier.

“Elastica started out as a new-wave art rock band on an independent label. The idea wasn’t to sell lots of records; we wanted credibility and creative control. I suppose the success that I wanted was to be respected – to be taken seriously as a musician and songwriter. We were all quite surprised when we crossed over to the mainstream.”

“The more successful we became, the more money we made, the more drugs I took, and the more bizarre my behaviour became. I had always fed on praise, but I began to need it continually. I had to be successful at any cost. I didn’t realise my soul was starving. I became a heroin addict. I spent the next five or so years trying to get clean and failing. I left elastica in 1998.”
Donna’s spiritual search was beginning and she searched everywhere for spiritual truth. She read books by Kerouac and Burroughs who were searching for spiritual reality in rejecting society, whilst reading other Buddhist literature. She knew that a full revelation of God was eluding her even though God was speaking to her in dreams, eventually after a few years of sincere God searching she attended an Alpha Course at Holy Trinity Brompton. “I was still really sceptical about believing that Jesus was the way and I kept challenging God to show this to me. He had to be clear that Jesus was real, it was at the Holy Spirit weekend away that Jesus became real to me soon after I became a Christian.”

Music is still a massive part of Donna’s life but here priorities have changed completely, where she idolised music and the fame it brought her, she now desires to put God first in everything.

“As an artist you can’t be searching for the world’s approval and be seeking God sincerely… I’ve realised my hunger for God and how I’m desperate to get closer. I love music because it has the capacity to bring me into God’s presence, but I also know I need to be around people who have the same hunger for God, and who can teach me more about Him.”

Today Donna leads the CU at her University whilst pursuing her passion for music on a new level. She came to join Ichthus for the Summer Project this year to develop her gifting in Evangelism. “The bottom line is this; God just keeps loving me so I just can’t stop telling people about Jesus...I look for opportunities and God just open doors. So if you are filled with Jesus love you will naturally tell others, but conversely don’t just sit there waiting to ‘feel’ filled so you have to tell others, I have found that you discover a connection with God when doing evangelism as you depend on Him in those situations.” Donna had an amazing time on the Summer Project and hopes to return next year!


from - http://www.ichthus.org.uk/Publisher/Article.aspx?id=57178

ah no, good for her!
 
wow, so someone who wasn't given enough attention as a child becomes an egotistical rock star, a heroin addict, and a born again evangelical christian. what are the chances
 
Should I ask why you were reading the Christian Fellowship website?
 
nah, that picture is from way back at the start of elastica.
The newest picture I can find is from her project after Elastica, Klang, in 2003

moritz-ri-2.jpg
 
I just downloaded all the old elastica b-sides I missed, woo
 

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