So religion is the new rock and roll, and not just of the radical hellfire preacher/ bearded fundamentalist variety – a sure sign is that cool people are coming out religious. In England original comedy rock and roller Frank Skinner continues to ride the rock and roll wave with religion, and another rock and roll icon Michael Moore beats the drum in the states.

Trouble is, I was never actually a great fan of rock and roll. I used to live in a big house with a rock and roll band on the top floor, a dance collective in the basement and an indi band (well, me) in the middle. How our neighbours loved us.

While the dance collective had the cred, the rock and roll band had the monster record deal and all that came with it, which to me (and the pasty-faced dance boys in the basement) was mostly represented by gorgeous girlfriends in leather trousers.

Rock and roll! But despite the looks, the hype, VIP suites and free champagne, after a while (a pretty long while, admittedly) we began to quietly accept it was all actually a bit… well, dull.

Even the pretty women, once we had become acclimatized to the aesthetic, turned out, much like the band’s songs, not to have very much to say.

Which is why of course rock and roll has not been rock and roll since around 1973. Instead it has largely been manufactured rebellion gauged to generate dough. Beneath the sturm and drang beats a heart of utter conformity.  

Indi on the other hand has always been something else. Indi was derived from the “independent” cottage industry nature of the record labels, often put out at cost (or by the band itself) because no big record company would dream of taking the risk. The highlight of most Indi bands careers was to get airplay on the late John Peel’s show.

John Peel, God of Indi. I’m sure you’re up there somewhere, lining up seven minutes of free-form electronica by a trio from Zagreb.

Indi was art for art’s sake. Words in Indi usually added up to something. Many bands now considered mainstream broke through from Indi – the Smiths, the Cure, Orange Juice, the Pixies, Nirvana etc, despite the Industry. Many more live on in my iPod, played to exhaustion unknown by their creators, most of whom now doubtless have “proper” jobs, mortgages and so on.

So if religion is the new rock and roll, Unitarianism to me is the new Indi. It’s unconventional, sometimes quirky; it’s not afraid to say the unsayable, think outside the box. It doesn’t yell rock and roll, whoop and wave its shirt about in the air. It’s the skinny, dark-eyed kid in the corner at parties who actually has something interesting to say, the kid who’s going to leave town someday and amount to something. Not yet though – it’s wedged against the wall with a few oddball friends, largely overlooked.