sydney opera house concert

Tone Deaf reviews ‘A Psychedelic Symphony’ Concert, Sydney Opera House

http://www.tonedeaf.com.au/reviews/gigs/68695/the-church-7.htm “As popular as they may be at the moment and so dear to the hearts of music fans in Australia, it was none the less an audacious move for The Church to celebrate their 30th anniversary as a band with a one off performance with a symphony orchestra at the country’s best known music venue, entitled unsurprisingly, A Psychedelic Symphony. Taking the safe path has never been the band’s shtick, however, so it was little surprise that the 2,000+ capacity gig sold out quickly, with fans flying in from far flung parts of the world to make it. But could they pull it off? It’s one thing to go from subtle reworkings of your songs to the potential bombast of a 67 piece orchestra backing you up. However, despite the sense of risk inevitable with any ambitious and left of centre rock band performance, front man Steve Kilbey, guitarists Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper and drummer Tim Powles – joined by a stellar cast of accompanists in addition to the orchestra – pulled it off with aplomb. As the cameras begin rolling for the live DVD and TV special the evening’s performance will become; appropriately, the band are introduced by TV news identity George Negus, who fulfilled a similar role in inducting the church in to the ARIA Hall of Fame last year. The band takes the stage as the orchestra’s overture of ‘Metropolis’ reaches a crescendo. ‘Lost’ off Starfish is purely guitar driven and the orchestra seems like a third wheel, before a few tears are shed in the audience during ‘Almost With You’ and the orchestra suddenly fits cohesively in the mix, a subtle and uplifting embellishment but never overbearing. The performance treats fans to a number of lesser played numbers, with ‘Anchorage’ an early highlight. ‘The Unguarded Moment’ […]

http://www.tonedeaf.com.au/reviews/gigs/68695/the-church-7.htm

“As popular as they may be at the moment and so dear to the hearts of music fans in Australia, it was none the less an audacious move for The Church to celebrate their 30th anniversary as a band with a one off performance with a symphony orchestra at the country’s best known music venue, entitled unsurprisingly, A Psychedelic Symphony. Taking the safe path has never been the band’s shtick, however, so it was little surprise that the 2,000+ capacity gig sold out quickly, with fans flying in from far flung parts of the world to make it. But could they pull it off? It’s one thing to go from subtle reworkings of your songs to the potential bombast of a 67 piece orchestra backing you up. However, despite the sense of risk inevitable with any ambitious and left of centre rock band performance, front man Steve Kilbey, guitarists Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper and drummer Tim Powles – joined by a stellar cast of accompanists in addition to the orchestra – pulled it off with aplomb.

As the cameras begin rolling for the live DVD and TV special the evening’s performance will become; appropriately, the band are introduced by TV news identity George Negus, who fulfilled a similar role in inducting the church in to the ARIA Hall of Fame last year. The band takes the stage as the orchestra’s overture of ‘Metropolis’ reaches a crescendo. ‘Lost’ off Starfish is purely guitar driven and the orchestra seems like a third wheel, before a few tears are shed in the audience during ‘Almost With You’ and the orchestra suddenly fits cohesively in the mix, a subtle and uplifting embellishment but never overbearing. The performance treats fans to a number of lesser played numbers, with ‘Anchorage’ an early highlight. ‘The Unguarded Moment’ takes after the live version performed on recent tours and is given the adagio treatment, the delicacy of the orchestral backing taking it in to the realm of a film score.

Led by conductor and arranger George Ellis, the orchestra remains entwined with the band on ‘Myrrh’, giving the space rock guitars on the Heyday version a heightened sense of ethereality, while ‘Grind’ is elegiac, the orchestra making their way off stage during the song and as the orchestral backing dissolves, the band explode in to a full rock tilt for the remainder of it.

An interval proves that no matter the elegant and iconic surroundings, there’s always a scramble for the bar, but as the audience re-enters for the second act they are greeted by an orchestra devoid of the previous all black ensembles – rather they are resplendent in outfits ranging from gypsy to pirate to circus clown – a psychedelic symphony indeed. As the backing projections begin, the band can be seen watching them from the wings like inquisitive schoolboys as the overture of ‘Happy Hunting Ground’ reaches its apex. A cover of The Dave Miller Set’s 1960s psychedelic classic ‘Mr. Guy Fawkes’ is welcome, if not unexpected; Kilbey having name checked them at the ARIA Hall of Fame Ceremony. ‘Ripple’s continues the psychedelic swirl engulfing the auditorium and the brass section adds to a particularly effervescent crescendo.

‘Reptile’ is a given a killer rendition, the lick almost written in anticipation of melding it with an orchestra one day. A live revelation is Willson-Piper and Kilbey trading vocals on ‘Two Places At Once’, with Willson-Piper on 12 string and Koppes on keys, again the subtlety of the orchestral arrangements coming to the fore. ‘Spark’ with Willson-Piper on vocals trades reverb and delay for the 67 piece guitar pedal tonight known as the orchestra providing effects, while Kilbey hams it up for the cameras filming for a mournful ‘On Angel Street’. ‘Under The Milky Way; is introduced as ‘the most popular Australian song of the last three million years’, whileUntitled #23’s ‘Space Saviour’ brings the set to a close and The Church are effortlessly given the venue’s highest accolade whether it be for classical or rock music – a standing ovation.

An encore of ‘Already Yesterday’ is followed by ‘Invisible’, which briefly segues in to the Velvet Underground’s ‘Heroin’, while in the final encore promoter Joe Segretto is thanked by Powles, and Kilbey’s tongue is firmly planted in cheek when he thanks ‘God for giving us so much fucking talent’. It’d be ‘un-Australian’ to allow that comment to pass, but many in the audience would have a sneaking suspicion that they agree with the sentiments entirely.  If final proof of the band’s worth is necessary, an epic finale of ‘Tantalized’ has the crowd in awe, and as the band receive their third standing ovation of the evening, it’s clear that 30 years on they’re still at the peak of their abilities and with whispers of taking the show overseas to various major cities, the world stage still awaits them.”

Jim Murray
Photo by Sue Campbell

 

The Courier Mail : Still Popular after 30 Years

http://www.couriermail.com.au/entertainment/music/still-popular-after-30-years-the-distinctive-music-of-the-church-will-be-heard-at-the-sydney-opera-house-on-sunday/story-e6freqgx-1226035125571 STILL POPULAR AFTER 30 YEARS, THE DISTINCTIVE MUSIC OF THE CHURCH WILL BE HEARD AT THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE ON SUNDAY – by Noel Mengel April 07, 2011 “RIGHT from the start The Church had their own sound. Hear them play a few bars of a song and you know who it is straight away. “That’s the hardest thing to get,” says Steve Kilbey, the band’s singer and bass player. “There are a zillion guys out there playing guitar, but only 100 might have that original take. And luckily we stumbled on it. I had been in bands before, writing the songs and singing, and that didn’t sound original at all. “Suddenly, The Church came along and we sounded like The Church.” Which is why, 30 years on, people are still listening . . . to their concert this Sunday at the Sydney Opera House, where they are playing with an orchestra for a DVD recording, or to their excellent 2009 album Untitled #23. Or to the reissues of the band’s ’80s albums. The latest of these is Starfish, the 1988 album that was biggest for them overseas and contained the classicUnder the Milky Way. It was only by a stroke of fate that the song even made the album. “The producers didn’t even think the band should waste their time rehearsing it,” Kilbey says. Instead, he went to a studio up the hall and recorded it. “There was a guy there with an instrument called the synclavier. We recorded the song there and it had artificial drums, recorded to a sequencer and a click track. Because no one wanted to spend the time recording it, it came out sounding the way it did and it was a big hit.” Kilbey is a big believer in the random element and instinct. […]

http://www.couriermail.com.au/entertainment/music/still-popular-after-30-years-the-distinctive-music-of-the-church-will-be-heard-at-the-sydney-opera-house-on-sunday/story-e6freqgx-1226035125571

STILL POPULAR AFTER 30 YEARS, THE DISTINCTIVE MUSIC OF THE CHURCH WILL BE HEARD AT THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE ON SUNDAY – by Noel Mengel April 07, 2011

“RIGHT from the start The Church had their own sound. Hear them play a few bars of a song and you know who it is straight away.

“That’s the hardest thing to get,” says Steve Kilbey, the band’s singer and bass player.

“There are a zillion guys out there playing guitar, but only 100 might have that original take. And luckily we stumbled on it. I had been in bands before, writing the songs and singing, and that didn’t sound original at all.

“Suddenly, The Church came along and we sounded like The Church.”

Which is why, 30 years on, people are still listening . . . to their concert this Sunday at the Sydney Opera House, where they are playing with an orchestra for a DVD recording, or to their excellent 2009 album Untitled #23. Or to the reissues of the band’s ’80s albums. The latest of these is Starfish, the 1988 album that was biggest for them overseas and contained the classicUnder the Milky Way. It was only by a stroke of fate that the song even made the album.

“The producers didn’t even think the band should waste their time rehearsing it,” Kilbey says. Instead, he went to a studio up the hall and recorded it.

“There was a guy there with an instrument called the synclavier. We recorded the song there and it had artificial drums, recorded to a sequencer and a click track. Because no one wanted to spend the time recording it, it came out sounding the way it did and it was a big hit.”

Kilbey is a big believer in the random element and instinct.

“Yes, we worked with American producers on Starfish and it kind of worked. But we tried it again with (next album) Gold Afternoon Fix and it didn’t work. A lot of the best things I’ve ever done have been me trying to be like something else but not having the chops, to use a muso word, to pull that off and out of that failure to, say, write an Aerosmith song, I’ve written something else. There are a lot of failures that turn into successes.”

Church fans are lapping up the reissues, which feature detailed liner notes from guitarist Marty Willson-Piper.

One of the insightful comments from him: “A band has to be able to not listen to what people say.”

Kilbey concurs: “Critics lavish praise on stuff that’s rubbish or destroy something that’s valid; everyone’s in your ear telling you how great or woeful you are. That’s been one of The Church’s greatest virtues and one of our failings. We never listen to anybody and plough on regardless.”

HEAR Starfish (EMI) out now.

READ Find the full Steve Kilbey interview on The Courier-Mail iPad.

 

 

Facebook : Photos from the Sydney Opera House concert

Click on the link below to view photographs taken at A Psychedelic Symphony last Sunday night. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=282859&id=656260221    

Click on the link below to view photographs taken at A Psychedelic Symphony last Sunday night.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=282859&id=656260221

 

 

TV : The Today Show 8th April 2011

    http://today.ninemsn.com.au/videoindex.aspx?videoid=6b4046bb-1ee3-44b4-bf5d-dee1a90f1bc5 Entertainment presenter Richard Wilkins talks with the church during rehearsals last week, prior to the Sydney Opera House concert. Watch the video of this broadcast by clicking on the link above.

 

 

http://today.ninemsn.com.au/videoindex.aspx?videoid=6b4046bb-1ee3-44b4-bf5d-dee1a90f1bc5

Entertainment presenter Richard Wilkins talks with the church during rehearsals last week, prior to the Sydney Opera House concert. Watch the video of this broadcast by clicking on the link above.

Daily Telegraph : 8th April 2011

“Using their god-given talents”

Daily Telegraph Fri 8th April 2011

Using their god-given talents

Tone Deaf news feature: THE CHURCH – A PSYCHEDELIC SYMPHONY

http://www.tonedeaf.com.au/news/featured/67534/the-church-a-psychedelic-symphony “Despite what many would like to believe, being in a band is hard work. You don’t get to knock off at the same time every weekday; the commute varies every day, whether it be to the studio or a far flung part of the world to play a gig; and more often than not the pay is far less than that of a first year apprentice brickie. Even with a modicum of success, most bands only last a few years. The Beatles lasted barely 10 years, Nirvana less. Even those that persevere, such as The Rolling Stones and AC/DC , have endured numerous line up changes and a dwindling of quality in their creative output. Not so the church. Arguably one of the greatest Australian bands of all time, this weekend sees them celebrating their 30th anniversary as a band with a one off performance at the Sydney Opera House billed ‘A Psychedelic Symphony’. Joined by a 60 piece orchestra under the baton of celebrated conductor and composer George Ellis, the band will be playing an epic orchestral set which mines their unequalled back catalogue. Jim Murray caught up with front man Steve Kilbey ahead of the show. The church’s history arguably stretches back to Canberra in the mid 1970s when Kilbey and guitarist Peter Koppes crossed paths playing in bands, but the church itself came in to being in 1980 when both musicians had moved to Sydney. Much has been written about the band’s third ever gig, when a young Liverpudlian named Marty Willson-Piper, possessing to-die-for high cheekbones, came to see them and then joined them after the show; but less is known about the band’s first ever gig. As Kilbey recalls, “The first church gig was at the Metropole Tavern opening for a band called Moving Parts […]

http://www.tonedeaf.com.au/news/featured/67534/the-church-a-psychedelic-symphony

“Despite what many would like to believe, being in a band is hard work. You don’t get to knock off at the same time every weekday; the commute varies every day, whether it be to the studio or a far flung part of the world to play a gig; and more often than not the pay is far less than that of a first year apprentice brickie. Even with a modicum of success, most bands only last a few years. The Beatles lasted barely 10 years, Nirvana less. Even those that persevere, such as The Rolling Stones and AC/DC , have endured numerous line up changes and a dwindling of quality in their creative output.

Not so the church. Arguably one of the greatest Australian bands of all time, this weekend sees them celebrating their 30th anniversary as a band with a one off performance at the Sydney Opera House billed ‘A Psychedelic Symphony’. Joined by a 60 piece orchestra under the baton of celebrated conductor and composer George Ellis, the band will be playing an epic orchestral set which mines their unequalled back catalogue. Jim Murray caught up with front man Steve Kilbey ahead of the show.

The church’s history arguably stretches back to Canberra in the mid 1970s when Kilbey and guitarist Peter Koppes crossed paths playing in bands, but the church itself came in to being in 1980 when both musicians had moved to Sydney. Much has been written about the band’s third ever gig, when a young Liverpudlian named Marty Willson-Piper, possessing to-die-for high cheekbones, came to see them and then joined them after the show; but less is known about the band’s first ever gig.

As Kilbey recalls, “The first church gig was at the Metropole Tavern opening for a band called Moving Parts who one day became Jump Inc. who had that sex’n’ fame hit. We weren’t quite sure what we were supposed to be but someone had said “Cream” and so I imagined myself as Jack Bruce. There were probably 50 people there who didn’t really mind us much either way. I thought we were quite promising.” Promising the band were, for a music exec named Chris Gilbey signed the band on the strength of a few self –recorded demos and released their debut album, Of Skins & Heart in 1981. This spawned the enduring Aussie classic ‘The Unguarded Moment’ and set the band on a path that was to prove that fame is fickle and fortune is relative.

Remembering his first appearance on the ABC’s music TV show Countdown performing ‘The Unguarded Moment’ in mascara which saw the band’s star rise exponentially, Kilbey puts the moment he realised he had become a rock star in to numbers. “I realised after the first Countdown at the next gig because we went from twenty people a night to about six hundred every time we played.”

The number of punters at gigs would rise and fall over the next thirty years, which would see all members of the band bar Kilbey depart at some point, although Koppes and Willson-Piper were to both return. Considering the group had more than the usual level of internal band friction, 30 years is a phenomenal length of time for a band to exist and certainly longer than most marriages. Indeed, being sentenced to be in a band with several other unrelated men for 30 years is longer than many murderers receive. Kilbey doesn’t see the band’s longevity as akin to a jail sentence, however. “Sentenced together for crimes against music ha ha” he muses. “…Actually we just seemed to have the right conditions for longevity, just like some people live to 100.”

Occasional internal strife aside, the church have also had an uneasy relationship with the music business over the years, continually following their artistic vision rather than that of record companies and managers. However, this approach has paid off in spades in terms of the level of respect they are now granted within the pantheon of Australian rock n’ roll. Indeed it could be argued that the music industry in Australia now venerates them. Could this turning of the tables elicit a moment of schadenfreude for Kilbey? “Fuck that’s a big word for a rock interview” Kilbey says in mock indignation . “I had to look it up to get the exact meaning you know…well it’s nice to be venerated. But I guess veneration requires one to let go of petty misgivings and so no, the long years have knocked the schadenfreude out of me.”

Schadenfreude or not, the church now find themselves being name checked and aped by a whole new generation of Australian bands, not to mention cult American bands such as the Brian Jonestown Massacre, members of which frequently collaborate with the church. Kilbey agrees it’s a good feeling. “I love to be name checked – yes that is gratifying!” Indeed, Mike Joyce of no less than the legendary The Smiths has revealed that he only agreed to join the band after going to see the church play a gig in Manchester. He recently told an interviewer “Johnny Marr hounded me to be in The Smiths. One night soon after, we (Johnny Marr & Mike Joyce) went to watch the church and I decided I would”.

Name checking aside, the band are now playing to some of the biggest audiences of their career and there was just the little event in which the band were inducted in to the Australian Record Industry Association Hall of Fame last year. Should anyone have had a doubt about the band, Steve Kilbey’s acceptance speech has fast moved in to Australian music folklore. Kilbey spent a good 15 minutes alternately praising and lambasting the Australian music scene and also reflecting on his career, for which he earned a well deserved standing ovation.

So was his infamous acceptance speech rehearsed? Apparently not. “It was spontaneous yes, though my mind is of such a nature that it is continually putting bits and pieces together for a rainy day. Some of those ideas had been chucked around in my mind starting from the beginning of the evening until when we got up. I had recently been in a play and the character I played tended to ramble on and I think I was a bit inspired by him to keep going on and on. But most of it fell out of the sky that night as I was going, a bit like when you hit a run of good luck in a card game…it could have gone horribly wrong. I understand that I got real lucky and it made them laugh….phew!”

During this infamous speech, music promoter Michael Chugg, who once managed the band, stood up and exclaimed ‘Why couldn’t you have been like this 25 years ago?’ Kilbey’s notoriously reticent manner has noticeably mellowed in recent years, which sees him reaching out to fans on the internet and engaging with people more than ever. However, Kilbey says that the reputation for being aloof and enigmatic is a just a perception that is far from the truth. “The boring troof, is I’m not aloof and anyone who loves my music I’m interested in hearing from them I guess.”

The fans are out in force at the moment, however, as the band have just completed their ‘Future, Past, Perfect’ North American Tour which sold out and saw fans flying across the country to make shows. It has also been described by the church as their ‘best ever tour’. Give or take one Top 20 hit, (1988’s ‘Under The Milky Way’) what does Kilbey think it is that has made Americans such fervent fans of the band compared to say, Germans or the Brits? “I think having that hit in the U.S. exposed us and all our other records to enough people that would realise we were more than that one song,” he explains. “We were building up an entire body of work but not having a hit in Europe it never really properly happened.”

The church have also been prolific as individual musicians in addition to their efforts in creating some of the finest records in the Australian music canon. The list of individual member’s solo efforts and collaborations with other artists could run to thousands of words, and they’re a necessary outlet for the band as musicians. As Kilbey explains, “The outlets are important for people to get things off their chests AND to improve and bring the new improvements back into the church.”

Kilbey has himself been prolific of late outside of his work with the church, collaborating with artists as diverse as Glenn Bennie from the legendary Underground Lovers, Martin Kennedy and Ricky Maymi of the Brian Jonestown Massacre. As he explains, these efforts keep pushing him to excel. “Other artists provide stuff that inspires me in different ways than my own stuff because I know how my own was done. It also inspires me to do better to hold up my side of the collaboration.”

Kilbey, and to some degree his bandmates, were once synonymous with the use of exotic stimulants to explore their muse and drive their creativity, but as these days they’re all clean living parents; fans must wonder how Kilbey approaches his craft now that he’s fuelled by green tea and yoga? Kilbey’s mischievous response is “Not as clean as you might think. My songs are hurled forth regardless of anything else. Whatever is going is the input: yoga, pot of green tea or sheer memory or loneliness or anything at all.”

Capping off a remarkable existence as a band performing their songs with a symphony orchestra at the Sydney Opera house is a career defining moment, but it begs the question: did Kilbey expect that this would be the outcome 30 years after the band’s humble debut at the Metropole Tavern in the same city? He concedes that this show was not part of his band’s original vision. “There never was a grand plan. The Opera House idea is fairly recent, it was never a particular ambition.” Nonetheless, the band is still producing some of their best work to date and playing to some of the biggest crowds of their career.

So what can we expect from the band next? Kilbey isn’t entirely sure of what’s in the pipeline for the church but he’s hopeful that they’ll be able to do a 40th anniversary tour. “What’s next I don’t know? Another album I guess. Do our Past, Perfect, Future tour here and maybe selected European cities. I do hope there is a fortieth tour. I’ve grown fond of the old beast you know. I’ve spent more of my life in it than out of it.” It’s a life that the fervent army of church fans are grateful for, however, knowing that this band, as Kilbey sings on their song ‘Block’; “…will make you all so beautiful”. – Jim Murray

the church – Dead Cool

the church’s Sydney Opera House event “A Psychedelic Symphony’ on April 10th gets a special mention on the very Dead Cool site. The click-thru link is to the ARIA Hall of Fame acceptance speech. http://www.deadcoolshop.com/music+cinema/live-show-picks/a-psychedelic-symphony/

the church’s Sydney Opera House event “A Psychedelic Symphony’ on April 10th gets a special mention on the very Dead Cool site. The click-thru link is to the ARIA Hall of Fame acceptance speech.

http://www.deadcoolshop.com/music+cinema/live-show-picks/a-psychedelic-symphony/

Official Poster : A Psychedelic Symphony Sydney Opera House Sunday April 10 2011

A Psychedelic Symphony Sydney Opera House poster

SMH Article : Resurrection Men

www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/resurrection-men-20110329-1cedt.html “Three turbulent decades after they formed, the Church have resurrected their hits, writes Sacha Molitorisz” Click link to read the full article.

www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/resurrection-men-20110329-1cedt.html

“Three turbulent decades after they formed, the Church have resurrected their hits, writes Sacha Molitorisz”

Click link to read the full article.

The West Australian: The Church Looking Forward, 30 Years On

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/entertainment/a/-/entertainment/9052418/the-church-looking-forward-30-years-on/ Steve Kilbey remembers the first time he was worried The Church might become irrelevant. It was just a few years into a career now spanning three decades. The moment arose in Kings Cross during the early ’80s and his blossoming rock band had just finished playing one of their early shows when a fan accosted him outside the nightclub. “This guy came up and told me about this band called Spandau Ballet and said we’d better get with it or we’d be finished,” Kilbey laughs. “He was persuasively telling me that we should become new romantics.” Thirty years on and The Church are still going strong. Three quarters of its members remain intact (Kilbey, Marty Willson-Piper and Peter Koppes with drummer Tim Powles joining in 1994). They’ve watched by as musical fashions flashed and disappeared. While Kilbey admits to enjoying a brief fascination with another English group, Simple Minds – it drove him to seek out their producer Peter Walsh to record The Church’s 1986 album Heyday – otherwise his band have remained fiercely loyal to their own ideology. “In the early days all the different fads made me feel insecure but as each new thing came along it started to affect me less and less,” Kilbey says. “Most things I’ve always purposefully reacted against, especially grunge, I had not time for that.” Over three decades The Church have remained one of the most inventive and single-minded bands in Australian rock. Founded in 1981, the band have built and maintained a cult following here and overseas on the strength of songs like Under The Milky Way and timeless albums like Starfish and Magician Among The Spirits. Spanning their 70-minute improv jam for 1998’s Hologram of Baal and a collaboration with a science fiction writer in 2008’s Shriek: Excerpts From […]

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/entertainment/a/-/entertainment/9052418/the-church-looking-forward-30-years-on/

Steve Kilbey remembers the first time he was worried The Church might become irrelevant. It was just a few years into a career now spanning three decades.

The moment arose in Kings Cross during the early ’80s and his blossoming rock band had just finished playing one of their early shows when a fan accosted him outside the nightclub.

“This guy came up and told me about this band called Spandau Ballet and said we’d better get with it or we’d be finished,” Kilbey laughs.

“He was persuasively telling me that we should become new romantics.”

Thirty years on and The Church are still going strong. Three quarters of its members remain intact (Kilbey, Marty Willson-Piper and Peter Koppes with drummer Tim Powles joining in 1994). They’ve watched by as musical fashions flashed and disappeared.

While Kilbey admits to enjoying a brief fascination with another English group, Simple Minds – it drove him to seek out their producer Peter Walsh to record The Church’s 1986 album Heyday – otherwise his band have remained fiercely loyal to their own ideology.

“In the early days all the different fads made me feel insecure but as each new thing came along it started to affect me less and less,” Kilbey says.

“Most things I’ve always purposefully reacted against, especially grunge, I had not time for that.”

Over three decades The Church have remained one of the most inventive and single-minded bands in Australian rock. Founded in 1981, the band have built and maintained a cult following here and overseas on the strength of songs like Under The Milky Way and timeless albums like Starfish and Magician Among The Spirits.

Spanning their 70-minute improv jam for 1998’s Hologram of Baal and a collaboration with a science fiction writer in 2008’s Shriek: Excerpts From The Soundtrack, of all the 27 albums arguably their finest was their last, Untitled #23, which won an unprecedented five stars in Rolling Stone magazine.

Last year The Church were inducted into the Australian Rock’N’Roll Hall of Fame. Kilbey delivered a speech that has already gone down in music industry folklore. It would have been the perfect moment to bow out, Kilbey always subscribing to the idea that it’s better to burn out than fading away. But the 56-year-old singer still believes the band have more to offer.

“There’s always more songs to be written and I have things to achieve, to keep getting better and to make that perfect record,” he insists.

“You can never rest, as you do each thing you’ve got to reach for the next.”

In addition to pushing new ground, The Church are revisiting their admired back catalogue. It started in 2004 with the acoustic album El Momento Descuidado recreating a number of well known hits alongside new tracks, then continued with two greatest hits collections, Deep In The Shallows in 2007 and last year’s The Best Of The Radio Songs.

Kilbey is happy to relive the past for fans around the world so long as he keeps his better eye on the future.

“It is a fine line but I can appreciate how going back and reworking things can make the idea of pushing on with new music more attractive and can also help you understand and write better new stuff,” he says.

“Kind of like an ongoing process because no one can go back and rewrite a book or repaint a painting but I guess in music you can go back and rerecord a song.”

Next month The Church will play a sell out show at Sydney Opera House alongside a classical orchestra dubbed A Psychedelic Symphony. The marriage between seminal rock band and multi-sectioned orchestra is being overseen by the arranger George Ellis, a lifelong fan of the band who swears he met Kilbey on a street corner in Balmain in the ’80s. Kilbey can’t remember the encounter but is confident that someone who understands the band’s fluid style can successfully recreate it within the more rigid structures of classical music.

“George straddles both worlds effortlessly,” Kilbey says.

“Most arrangers wouldn’t know how to combine the two sides but he understands the problems and how to overcome them.”

Ten years ago Kilbey might never have entertained such a nostalgia trip. When he was young he’d rather go and see a 19-year-old punk strangle a guitar than delight in a 40-year-old master. Only recently has the singer mellowed his insistence that The Church must militantly look forward.

“I used to think that new ideas meant new songs and that was all I was interested in,” Kilbey explains.

“I’ve come to realise lately that you can have new ideas for old songs and new ideas of representing them to people.”

Part of the ageing baby boomer generation, Kilbey has noticed a shift in attitudes to fifty-somethings continuing to pursue credible careers in music.

As long as middle-aged music lovers comprise a dominant force in the market, and fresh faced kids continue coming to shows, he sees no reason to slow down.

“One of the things you struggle with in life and especially in the music business is growing old.

“But you have to take the passing years and use the experience you’ve gained to create a better thing.

“At my age I don’t traffic in youthful enthusiasm and anger of a young man, I traffic in experience and wisdom and technical excellence in playing and writing, or striving for it at least.”

Three decades of hard work appears to be paying off. The Church returned from the US last month to what band members and critics have described as perhaps their best ever tour. Sell out crowds and standing ovations greeted the band as they spanned their back catalogue to the delight of audiences. Kilbey believes that even now the band have turned a corner.

“It was as if we’d been learning a new language for the past 30 years getting better and better slowly but surely and then suddenly we were speaking the language absolutely fluently.

“Suddenly we were speaking the language of The Church perfectly and instead of being a bunch of rockers thrashing out a song on stage we were actually musicians carefully reproducing things accurately with all the colours of the musical palate being utilised.

“Through every last note, whisper and beat on the drum everybody was perfectly in the moment.”

The Church play A Psychedelic Symphony at Sydney Opera House on April 10.” –
Ross Purdie, AAP Entertainment Writer, AAP
March 22, 2011, 8:49 am