How on earth have I missed this band? For me, a massive Smiths, Bunnymen and Go-Betweens fan in the 80s, this is clearly a huge loss. I listened to Starfish today, and what a wonderful album it is. I’ve seen them mentioned on here a fair bit, so any recommendations or Church related stories to share? Where should I head next album-wise, as there seems a lot to investigate?
The Church (the band)
I can see several site members emerging, meercat-like! “You rang?!”
Quite a few phases, labels and line-ups in the band’s long history, so there’s a lot to choose from, but it’d be a rare soul that listed any albums *not* featuring Marty-Willson-Piper and Peter Koppes on guitar as truly essential. So, working Wikipedia-wise, that’s from the beginning up until 2009’s “Untitled #23” (though some – myself included – might say they’d gone off the boil a little by then). There are a couple of albums among those in the 90s where Koppes had left; I think they were quite interesting diversions.
But Starfish is a very opportune place for you to have started as that was definitely a peak (though the band themselves see the album as overly slick and fussy). If you work backward from there, Heyday and all albums before will fit very nicely into the jangly-lightly psychedelic-overcoat-and-mascara category. Heyday is them at their slickest, but no bad thing. Moving backward further from there, many argue that The Blurred Crusade was their first essential album.
Forwards from Starfish gets very interesting. You’ll hear a band navigating fame, creative struggle, art v commerce, SK’s heroin addiction, poor management and record label business etc from one album to the next.
Gold Afternoon Fix was the post-fame album that the band dislike but I think is underrated. Metropolis was a minor hit. Then to Priest = Aura which is, to my ears, peak Church. Desert Island Church for me. Go here next if you’re not sure; you cannot actually go wrong.
After Koppes left for a time in the 90s, a couple of wilder more loose albums with SK and MWP at the helm. I love Sometime Anywhere but some saw it as a flawed mess. It’s their White Album for me. Worth a look once you’ve got your bearings.
Their then-new drummer/arranged/engineer Tim Powles then basically rescued and organised the original members, gave them a stern talking to, and they made a patch of 2000s albums that are very very good. Not quite peak as a group, but judicious playlisting would create an absolute cracker of a noughties best of once you’ve found our way through them.
Since then they’ve been off and on. I’ve never been truly convinced by any records since MWP left, and the touring line up is basically SK and (admittedly very good) sidemen.
But I envy your journey ahead!
I endorse this message!
I have Sometime Anywhere but never warmed to it. Perhaps I will do as suggested and get my Church bearings before revisiting it.
I have never warmed to it either. Seemed half baked to me. Each to their own etc
Great work, Dan. You’ve really whetted my appetite to explore a little.
The only song I knew was Under Milky Way which I now know is from Starfish.
But what a song it is!
The Blurred Crusade. And then The Blurred Crusade.
I just listened to The Blurred Crusade driving in to work this morning. Oh my goodness!
Indeed! Almost blew my mind first time I heard it, working back from Starfish.
“You Took” live is well worth experiencing. They expand.
What @danp said basically!
Starfish is the big hit album but still sounds fresh and fab. GAF the tricky follow up but one which is a grower. Blurred Crusade is a great jangly slightly psychedelic piece of work and P=A their sprawling meisterwerk.
A bit too much driftage on their recent albums but still decent.
Oh, and Seance has awful 80’s gated drum production apparently but is still top.
I’m not the only AWer who was at their near-legendary Camden Underworld gig about 20 years ago. I was dragged by a German pal who flew over especially. Despite that, the only album I have a proper copy of is Starfish.
I did sound at a SK gig a few years ago and he was a bit crap, tbh. Either jetlag or too much Jazz Woodbine. His keyboard player, the totes amazeballs Amanda Kramer, saved the day.
I was at that Underworld gig. It was the first time I had seen them despite being a fan since the Whistle Test appearance in ’82, and I stood in the front row as stupidly star-struck as any 40-year-old is allowed to be.
I’m with Dan on the album to explore next – it’s definitely Priest=Aura which I go back to over and over. I have some lingering love for Hologram of Baal which is the other end of Kilbey’s heroin adventure and had to be painstakingly coaxed out of him by new drummer Tim Powles. The last great album for me is After Everything Now This, and after that they blur into WTD space rock. I don’t really listen to anything since Further/ Deeper as it’s not the same band any more, but Another Century on Man Woman etc is a cracking track to leave them on.
The Church provided me with every music fan’s dream; flicking through a rack of CDs of your favourite band knowing you’ve already got all their albums, but somehow hoping there’ll be one in there you didn’t know existed. In my case it was in Beano’s in Croydon and the CD was a promo copy of Untitled #23, which hadn’t yet been released. It’s a bit shit to be honest but that doesn’t diminish that feeling of utter joy and childlike glee as I scooped it up like manna.
Fun fact: our erstwhile colleague HP Saucecraft struck up an intercontinental friendship with Kilbey, and there was talk of collaboration. Don’t know if anything came of it. I’m sure he would have mentioned it if it had.
I’m a big fan of MWP’s guitar. I love the albums he made with All About Eve, especially Ultraviolet, even though it only sold about 10 copies (and I have two of them).
I have one of the others!
If this thread doesn’t flush the Saucepot out nothing will.
Was that Christmas time @fentonsteve? @chiz? If so, it was the first time I’d seen them. Played their cover of Silver Machine which pleased a mate who was a big Hawkwind fan
I can’t remember… It was dark, and it was loud, and the carpet was sticky. Was it raining?
You can pick up a copy of the double CD retrospective Hindsight pretty cheaply which covers the essential years* 1980-87.
I think at one point in the late eighties I was in the only covers band in the UK doing ‘She Never Said’ in pubs. To this day our bass player is still nicknamed ‘Kilbey’.
*OOAA
And there is also an acoustic equivalent of the above greatest hits, picked up in Sydney on a visit and seeming an applicable memento of my trip to Oz.
https://www.discogs.com/release/4011521-The-Church-Greatest-Hits-Acoustic
There is definitely a paisley and Marty and a post Marty. All the subsequent guitarists seemed to be briefed to sound jangly like MWP.
I know one song by them, Under the Milky Way, it gets lots of play over here. I like it.
Double your knowledge @Dai
I remember recording that off OGWT back in the day. I’m pretty sure I’ve still got the tape somewhere, although I’m not at all sure I’ve still got a VHS recorder to play it on.
I liked them in the mid 80s and was a fan of Starfish and Heyday, but then lost track of them.
I’m surprised to discover they had continued for so many years.
I saw the Church at The Town & Country Club, Kentish Town in the mid 80s.
The shocking thing about them, considering the nature of their albums, was how loud they were. I think they were the loudest band I ever saw. I recall my ears were still ringing two or three days after the gig.
I was planning on going to see Steve Kilbey a few years back, but found I’d made a mistake about the date and missed him.
Kilbey has released a bunch of albums with Martin Kennedy of All India Radio. Glow and Fade and Jupiter 13 being the cream of the crop.
https://kilbeykennedy.bandcamp.com/
Mr Kilbey is extremely prolific, probably a bit too prolific. I would agree about the Kilbey Kennedy collaborations, pretty decent.
@nick-l
Let us know how you get on with your Church experiences. I have perfectly sane friends with very very similar musical tastes who are not interested at all.
Well I’m certainly enjoying what I’ve heard so far. Starfish and Blurred Crusade are both fantastic, although in slightly different ways. I do like the slightly more lush sound of Starfish but the springy psych of The Blurred Crusade might just edge it. I now wish I’d seen them at the time.
Still very good live even with out MWP and KP. European dates next year hopefully