The Church reissuing first 8 albums, touring Australia to mark 30th anniversary
To mark its 30th anniversary, Australia’s The Church this fall will embark on a major reissue campaign, releasing digitally remastered editions of its first eight studio albums — 1981’s Of Skins and Heart through 1994’s Sometime Anywhere — along with four early EPs and a new 2CD singles compilation.
Those releases come as the band this week announced it will take its “An Intimate Space” 30th anniversary acoustic tour — which hit the U.S. last April and March — across Australia in November and December; the 11-date tour opens Nov. 25 on the Sunshine Coast and wraps up Dec. 19 in Melbourne (Editors note: updated 19/11/10).
As for the forthcoming reissues on Second Motion Records, the first pair — Of Skin and Hearts and 1982’s The Blurred Crusade — are due out Oct. 19. Each are single-disc releases packaged in “vinyl-style soft-pack” sleeves with 12-page booklets filled with photos, lyrics and new liner notes by guitarist Marty Willson-Piper.
Those first two reissues each have two bonus tracks tacked on — significantly less extra material than was included on the 2002 double-disc reissues. While the product description for Of Skin and Hearts on Amazon.com describes that reissue’s extra songs as “never-before released tracks,” that’s not true: “In a Heartbeat” was the B-side to debut single “She Never Said,” and appears on the compilation Hindsight 1980-1987, while “Busdriver” was the B-side on the “This Unguarded Moment” 7-inch.
As for the Blurred Crusade reissue, that album features as bonus tracks “Life Speeds Up,” the B-side to “Almost With You,” and “The Golden Dawn,” the B-side to “When You Were Mine”; both tracks also appear on the Hindsight compilation.
Neither the Church nor Second Motion have announced a release schedule for the reissues, but Amazon.com shows a reissue of 1983’s Seance set for release Nov. 16. The other albums due for reissue, according to Second Motion, are Heyday (1986), Starfish (1988), Gold Afternoon Fix (1990), Priest=Aura (1992) and Sometime Anywhere.
Also due out at some point: reissues of the Tear It All Away (1981) Singsongs (1982), Remote Luxury (1983) and Persia (1984) EPs, plus there will be a “definitive singles collection” that spans “the band’s entire 30-year career from their first single to their latest, “Operetta,” off 2009’s critically acclaimed album Untitled #23.” No tracklist has yet been announced.”
Editors Note: The Best of the Radio Songs tracklist as follows :
1. the unguarded moment
2. tear it all away
3. almost with you
4. electric lash
5. constant in opal
6. tantalized
7. under the milky way
8. reptile (single version)
9. metropolis
10.ripple (single version)
11.loveblind
12.comedown
13.louisiana (single version)
14.numbers
15.don’t you fall
16.easy (sliced mix)
17.deadman’s hand