First time I heard Petra

[lucianotaz]

1996 - Beat the System in my house. I was 12 y/o. A friend of mine lend it for my brother.

Funny, a american album, at least took 6 months to be released in Brazil after be released in US !!!

[executioner]

Man, you're all making me feel REALLY old and behind the times!

The year was Summer 1992 while driving my car into work with the radio on. I was 30-something.
the song was: Why Should the Father Bother

They didn't say who the artist was, so I had no clue. The next day I had the same station on again - and they played the SAME song at the same time. This time they said the artist - and I wrote it down.

The rest is history.

Boy its strange to see someone sold on that song.

[Jonathan]

My wife was sold on "Breathe In" about 5 years ago. I think Petra was nobody to her until we got hitched. So she probably heard "Beyond Belief" or "Lord I Lift" as a kid, but "Breathe In" was what made her want to hear more from Petra. I had news for her...

[fcollazo]

CITAS and This Means War: 1987. I friend in 10th grade made cassette copies of these two for me. I was excited that such a powerfull band could exist and rock for God, I did not have to envy secular bands anymore. It did not realize there were different singers on this recordings until I discovered Greg's albums and then On Fire arrived, and nothing has topped that album for me since. I mean, they got better with each new album, but for me On Fire is perfect!

[zak89]

I've listened to Petra since I was born actually - when I was 4 or 5 we would sing 'The Coloring Song' during our visits to nursing homes with our church - but the first time I listened to Petra as "Petra" (rather than noises in the background as I built my lego tower of babel) was back in '97 or so (I was 12 or 13). The song was "Chameleon" from NSD (I know, it was already old by then) - even at that point I recognized a lyrical depth and "bite" that I didn't hear very often - when it comes to poignant lyrics, Petra is one of the top in my book, along with Keith Green, Steve Camp, and maybe Steve Taylor (is he still Christian?).

Anyways, I was really into the GXV Petra through my early teens; when I was about 16 (would have been 2005 or so) I stumbled upon 'Beyond Belief' in our CD collection, starting with 'Armed and Dangerous' - I hadn't heard much Schlitt-era Petra yet and I was a bit startled at the new sound (for someone who was totally unaware of Petra's history, it's hard to hear the two as the same band) - I was totally hooked. I loaded every Petra album I could find (both Volz & Schlitt) on the one mp3 player we owned and listened through and through (I still have the lyrics to over a dozen albums memorized). I started learning guitar at the same time and began playing some of the easier songs from a Petra 10th Anniversary songbook. As my skill increased I began playing these songs during our family worship time. This in turned peaked the rest of the family's interest in Petra as a band, and we have since added most of the missing (mostly newer) albums to our collection. My parents had more or less lost interest in Petra after 'No Doubt', but my dad has always respected Bob's songwriting, so he was very open to the new music (especially since Bob was still writing most of the music even during his time off the road).

[ScottyK]

The first time I ever heard of Petra was I was in our church's youth group, back in 1983 or 1984 in Aurora, CO. We were watching some sort of "Christian Videos" movie called Echoes (I still have the cassette!), and they had the video of "Stand Up". I asked who that was, but nobody knew.

Soon after that I went to our local Christian bookstore, bought "More Power to Ya" (on cassette!) and played it non-stop. I don't remember buying "Beat the System" right away, but once "Back to the Streets" came out, I was hooked.

Saw "This Means War!" twice in concert in the late 80's, once in Denver, the other time in Colorado Springs.

[fcollazo]

Man, can you post that Stand Up video from the Echoes VHS?

[bakersfieldpethead]

I think we’ve had this discussion before.

Well let’s see. Sometime in the 1980s a friend of the family brought a cassette over and left it at my parents’ house. Growing up, there was always a box of cassettes in the hall closet and this cassette would always catch my eye, it was Black on one side and White on the other. I never bothered picking it up to play it because I figured it was some preaching tape or something like that.

Finally sometime around 1989 I decided it was time I took a closer look…hmmm “PETRA” ©1972 Myrrh Records, a div of Word Inc. hmmm, I put the cassette in and, WOW!!!!!! About a year later, we moved and a friend of mine from down the street saw my Petra Cassette and said he had one too, he brought it over. …..hmmm PETRA – NEVER SAY DIE. I popped it in and played it and WOW!!!!!!!!

Christmas 1991 or 1992 my house was robbed just before Christmas, my mother bought me dcTalk Nu Thang on CD but it was ripped off with the other Christmas gifts, and so was my CD player. So they rented to own me a new Stereo System, but at some point they couldn’t afford it, so they took it back and got their money back and she took me to K-Mart to buy a couple of cassettes. I saw PETRA – Unseen Power, took it home and…..you guess it, WOW!!!!!

In 1993 on my 18th birthday I was awarded almost $5,000 that was won from a car accident a few years earlier, it was in a trust fund and built up……..you guess it, I hit the Christian Book Store and bought every PETRA album and video I could lay my hands on, as well as other Christian music too. I made 2 trips to one store and 1 trip to another, they all thought I was Christmas shopping until I told them, no it’s my birthday.

Anyway got all the PETRA music home and…….yep……..WOW!!!!!

[adpetrafan]

The first time I heard Petra was live in concert in 1983 or 1984 in Miami, Fl. Someone (I do not remember who...but I owe them!) took me to the show. They had a circular contraption on the stage (lights?) that someone told me was something they had purchased from Kansas after they were done using it on one of their tours. I was 15-ish, and stunned to see so many people go to the front to accept the Lord as their saviour. The music was stunning. The use of scripture in something new and engaging thrilled me. I was hooked.

I proceeded to see them in concert at least 5 more times until they (the now 'classic' lineup) played the center castle stage at Night of Joy in Disney World. I rented a massive video camera, massive tripod, and the accompanying tape deck and recorded what are now fairly poor quality videos of those shows. (This was really before very many people had personal video cameras. I believe it cost me $150 [A LOT] to rent the equipment for two days, and it took three of us to lug it all around. The picture quality was great for it's day, but not much to speak of compared to what you can do these days.) I was very surprised when the folks at Disney World let me take it all inside, and I set it up behind most of the crowd in the circular 'park' like area in the middle of the main circle in front of the castle. I was able to shoot Petra twice, part of an AD show (at the Frontierland stage - and that video is even worse) that included music they never actually got to put put as a band (but Kerry Livgren eventually did himself), and part of a Michael W. Smith show before a Disney employee walked over and asked me if I worked for them. I said no, and they asked me to turn the equipment off. So I did, and enjoyed the rest of the show.

Some time later, I heard there was a new Petra CD out called Back to the Street. I hunted high and low for it and finally found a Christian Book Store that had one. I bought it, popped it in to my new portable CD player and proceeded to wonder what happened to Petra? I liked the album eventually, but that was the shocking way I heard about Greg no longer being with the band. Info was harder to come by back then.

I never saw them live again (not counting DVDs). Until the recent Greg Volz concert I posted a few videos of, the only other related experience I had was seeing Greg with Pieces of Eight in Orlando, Florida in 1986(?). I got to meet Greg and Joe English that night. It was a really amazing concert at the start of their River is Rising tour. I was able to shoot some pretty good pictures (with 1000 asa film pushed to 2000) at this show, and had done the same thing at the Beat the System show in Miami a while before that. I have the negatives for them sitting in the basement... I should get those scanned...

Anyway, enough rambling. I am really excited to see my Petra back together and can not wait to get teh new music,video, etc. HOPEFULLY I will have a chance to take my family to see these guys play live.

[ScottyK]

Man, can you post that Stand Up video from the Echoes VHS?

Sorry, all I have is the audio cassette of it.

Edit - Here's a scan of the cassette. Maybe this will help somebody track the video down.

[prem]

early 80's...the kids who carpooled me to our private school in Tallahassee would play Petra, Rez, Steve Taylor, etc. etc. I heard the self-titled, NSD, and MPTY fairly regularly, along with Rez DMZ and Live! Bootleg and Steve Taylor's Meltdown. We listened to other stuff as well, like Amy Grant's first release. Ah...those were the days! I remember when I saw Petra live at the 'Harvest Festival' in 83 in Tallahassee, I recognized all the songs.

---Prem

[rexreed]

1990 Armed and Dangerous. My brother bought it home from college. I was in high school and by the time Beyond Belief played I was sold. For the day it sounded great and contemporary. Fired up was next, my step brother got it for Christmas awesome as it was. Then came Unseen Power. Sweetness. They were out of order but the sound was similar. Then came WUC and I thought, hmmmm. I didn't get to hear the early stuff until nearly 20 years later. I've gotten to like some of the earlier stuff, but a lot was just mpt up the standards I like.

[loengard]

1981 - More Power To Ya on the radio. I was 7. Quickly became a fan, then a Pethead, and the rest, as they say, is history. One of the coolest experiences of my life came in 1987 with This Means War.... My sister's new boyfriend heard me listing to it in my room one day and said "Hey, thats Petra!", I said, "Yeah!" Then, he told me he was a big fan and we took the tape down to his truck and played it through his kick-butt sound system. That was really awesome.

I can't tell you how many times something happens in life where I end up quoting a Petra lyric, then the associated scripture. Bob, and the others to a lesser extent, do some awesome work in the song writing department.

[Dan]

The first time I heard Petra was live in concert in 1983 or 1984 in Miami, Fl. Someone (I do not remember who...but I owe them!) took me to the show. They had a circular contraption on the stage (lights?) that someone told me was something they had purchased from Kansas after they were done using it on one of their tours. I was 15-ish, and stunned to see so many people go to the front to accept the Lord as their saviour. The music was stunning. The use of scripture in something new and engaging thrilled me. I was hooked.

I proceeded to see them in concert at least 5 more times until they (the now 'classic' lineup) played the center castle stage at Night of Joy in Disney World. I rented a massive video camera, massive tripod, and the accompanying tape deck and recorded what are now fairly poor quality videos of those shows. (This was really before very many people had personal video cameras. I believe it cost me $150 [A LOT] to rent the equipment for two days, and it took three of us to lug it all around. The picture quality was great for it's day, but not much to speak of compared to what you can do these days.) I was very surprised when the folks at Disney World let me take it all inside, and I set it up behind most of the crowd in the circular 'park' like area in the middle of the main circle in front of the castle. I was able to shoot Petra twice, part of an AD show (at the Frontierland stage - and that video is even worse) that included music they never actually got to put put as a band (but Kerry Livgren eventually did himself), and part of a Michael W. Smith show before a Disney employee walked over and asked me if I worked for them. I said no, and they asked me to turn the equipment off. So I did, and enjoyed the rest of the show.

Some time later, I heard there was a new Petra CD out called Back to the Street. I hunted high and low for it and finally found a Christian Book Store that had one. I bought it, popped it in to my new portable CD player and proceeded to wonder what happened to Petra? I liked the album eventually, but that was the shocking way I heard about Greg no longer being with the band. Info was harder to come by back then.

I never saw them live again (not counting DVDs). Until the recent Greg Volz concert I posted a few videos of, the only other related experience I had was seeing Greg with Pieces of Eight in Orlando, Florida in 1986(?). I got to meet Greg and Joe English that night. It was a really amazing concert at the start of their River is Rising tour. I was able to shoot some pretty good pictures (with 1000 asa film pushed to 2000) at this show, and had done the same thing at the Beat the System show in Miami a while before that. I have the negatives for them sitting in the basement... I should get those scanned...

Anyway, enough rambling. I am really excited to see my Petra back together and can not wait to get teh new music,video, etc. HOPEFULLY I will have a chance to take my family to see these guys play live.

adpetrafan I got this email from a zone reader... seems this guy was there and saw you taping...

Hi Daniel,

Just thought I would relate something interesting. In reading a post by "adpetrafan" on the post "First Time I Heard Petra", he made the following comment:

"I proceeded to see them in concert at least 5 more times until they (the now 'classic' lineup) played the center castle stage at Night of Joy in Disney World. I rented a massive video camera, massive tripod, and the accompanying tape deck and recorded what are now fairly poor quality videos of those shows. "

The first time that I saw Petra was during this very performance he is speaking about. My new bride and I had just moved to Florida in the fall of 1982, fresh out of college, in order for me to take a job. We heard an ad on the local contemporary christian radio station for what turned out to be the first "Night Of Joy" in 1983, so we bought tickets and made our way there. We heard on the radio on the way to the park that afternoon, that the Disney folks had only printed up 20,000 tickets for the event, and that they were amazed when it quickly sold out.

We got there and the park seemed to be empty, as you would figure would be the case....they ran all of the regular customers out at around 4:30 before letting the Night of Joy ticketholders in. We went straight to the stage that was set up in front of Cinderella's castle, and watched Petra do their set. I remember thinking how cool it was, being in that setting, listening to uplifting music that was also solid rock, and feeling pretty amazed. I also specifically remember someone who was set up with a video camera on a tripod, back behind the crowd, videotaping the show (not a common thing back then, so that was probably adpetrafan doing his thing).

When Petra got done with their set, the crowd dispersed, and we were able to make our way straight up to the edge of the stage, to wait for the next act....who turned out to be the Phil Keaggy Band. After about two measures of the first song, my jaw literally dropped open and stayed there for most of his set (you might guess, I "play" guitar.

At any rate, we only got to see Petra a couple of more times through the years, once more with GXV, and once with John....after we moved back north to KY in 1984, opportunities to see Petra didn't come our way very often.

Anyway, since the computer still won't let me post (thanks again for trying to correct that, by the way), I just wanted to share all of that with someone.....We were there!!

Charlie (NOJ "Night Of Joy" Petra)

[Jim Hunt]

First time I heard Petra in concert was in Cleveland, Ohio, around 1984. It was the end of the Not of This World Tour. I was a junior in high school. I heard John in 1987 with Petra, This Means War tour. The last time I saw them was at Creation East, 1998 or 1999. Can't wait to see the classic group together.