Brought to life at the top

A Christian rock band with a young female singer have gone straight into the charts at number one.

Evanescence, a heavy guitar band from Bill Clinton's home town of Little Rock, Arkansas, knocked R Kelly off the top spot with their debut single Bring Me To Life.

The four-piece are the first Christian rock band to top the British charts, although 62-year-old Cliff Richard has enjoyed success with songs of a spiritual nature. Evanescencefronted by Amy Lee, 21, have been in the top five of the albums chart with Fallen for the past month. They have sold out their first UK concert at the Astoria on 19 June.

But many fans in Britain are unaware of the Christian background which helped Evanescence sell a million copies of Fallen in a few weeks. It has been No 1 in the US Christian album charts since its release in March. A spokesman for HMV said: "They are the first band to cross over - a lot of people buying it are not aware of the Christian background or are not put off by it."

Since their sudden success, the band have become wary of the Christian tag and are distancing themselves from their young churchgoing audience.

But their lyrics have a spiritual theme and song writers Lee and guitarist Ben Moody formed the band after meeting at a church in Little Rock.