John and Donald Reflect on The Gospel Flames’ Lasting Influence

The Gospel Flames rekindle. John and Donald, two of the four members, recount the years of this historic musical band.

It has been decades since the existence of the group The Gospel Flames. But it made enough of an impact in its relatively short 2-year existence to have left an indelible historical mark in the history of the New Testament Church of God. There have been numerous testimonies from other musicians, and people in general, who simply patterned themselves or tried to emulate the achievements of The Gospel Flames.

John Francis, the drummer, and I Donald Campbell, the base guitarist, traveled back in time to the late 60s, to relive and reminisce of those glorious years that we experienced as four teenagers who gave of our all in trying to make the group a success. Unfortunately, Charles McKIntosh, lead guitarist and leader of the band, and Ivor Harley (now Ivor Laurence) lead singer and guitarist, could not attend this meeting.

I certainly learned a lot from John as to how and why the group was initiated, and the musical bent that we chose to adopt as our genre of music.

Conclusion

It would have been great for all four members of this group to meet up again after half a century, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. However, John and I tried to give a credible explanation in our recollection of how it was all those years ago. It nothing else, we certainly thoroughly enjoyed the moments reminiscing on how it was back in the day.