1980 the church play their first gigs in Sydney, Australia.
1981 Debut album Of Skins And Heart makes the Top 30. The Unguarded Moment single hits #22. Original drummer Nick Ward leaves, Richard Ploog joins the band.
1982 US debut combines Of Skins And Heart and Too Fast For You EP. Sing Songs EP released. Classic second album The Blurred Crusade hits Australian Top 10. Almost With You is another hit reaching #21.
1983Seance album serves notice of more experimental, atmospheric intent.
1984Persia and Remote Luxury EP’s released in Australia. Remote Luxury album released outside Australia.
1985Heyday album breaks Australian Top 15, becomes global cult classic.
1986 Steve Kilbey releases first solo album, a precedent Marty Willson-Piper and Peter Koppes soon embrace with gusto.
1988Starfish LP #11 in Australia, marks new worldwide commercial peak. Under the Milky Way, #24 in US, #22 in Australia wins Best Single ARIA 1989. (Australian Recording Industry Association Award)
1990Gold Afternoon Fix LP. Richard Ploog leaves the band. Metropolis single reaches #19.
1991A Quick Smoke At Spot’s rarities compilation.
1992Priest = Aura, Jay Dee Daugherty long time drummer from The Patti Smith Group temporarily joins the band. A new career high as the album becomes fan favourite and signals the end of an era.
1994 Kilbey and Willson-Piper reconvene for epic Sometime Anywhere set with guest drummer Tim Powles on some tracks, then tour as acoustic duo.
1996Magician Among the Spirits. Koppes makes guest appearance that leads to full band tour, with drummer / producer Tim Powles completing most cohesive church line-up.
1998Hologram of Baal cements new line-up, Bastard Universe first 70-minute improvised album.
1999A Box of Birds covers album.
2001Under The Milky Way features in cult classic film Donnie Darko
2002After Everything Now This achieves biggest international success in almost 10 years. Parallel Universe remix album.
2003 Forget Yourself sparks another sweeping world tour headed by a stunning launch at the Sydney Opera House.
2004 Three albums find the band at a new peak of creative health: Jammed is second 58-minute improvised album, Beside Yourself a second B-sides compilation, El Momento Descuidado first Liberation Blue acoustic album, the latter featuring re-invention of classic songs alongside new material initiates trading of instruments as an element of live performances.
2005Back With Two Beasts, outtakes album with another selection of strong songs. El Momento Descuidado nominated for ARIA Award for Best Adult Contemporary album.
2006Uninvited, Like The Clouds released to rapturous reviews, band performs Under The Milky Way with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra to open Commonwealth Games.
2007 Tour with The Pretenders in Australia, EMI release double CD Deep In The Shallows – The Classic Singles Collection.
2008 Collaboration with renowned American Science Fiction writer Jeff VanderMeer unleashes the eerie, Shriek: Excerpts From The Soundtrack, a companion soundtrack to his latest book.
2009Coffee Hounds EP released. Untitled #23 and two EP’s from the album Pangaea and Operetta released with extra tracks. Double vinyl version of the album sells out quickly. Yet another major international tour follows. The “So Love May Find Us Tour” kicks off in Australia and continues into North America. The band establishes its own Unorthodox label through MGM in Australia to release their music.
2010 EMI re release the first four albums in luxury packaging with extra tracks, rare photos and detailed sleeve notes written by Marty Willson-Piper. EMI simultaneously release a new compilation, The Best Of The Radio Songs. The unique “An Intimate Space 30th Anniversary Acoustic Tour” with 28 page program and EP of unreleased material included in the ticket price, begins in the USA and rolls towards Australia, performing a song from each album in reverse chronological order. The band are inducted into The ARIA R’n’R Hall Of Fame.
2011 the church take the 30th anniversary tour ‘Future Past Perfect’ to the USA playing 3 whole albums Untitled #23/Priest=Aura/Starfish in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Alexandria, Philadelphia, New York, Foxborough and Atlanta selling out all shows. In April the band perform A Psychedelic Symphony with the George Ellis Orchestra to a sold out 2000 + capacity crowd in the Concert Hall at the Sydney Opera House, Australia. They finish the year off taking the Future Past Perfect shows to Australia, bringing their USA sound engineer Robin Danar over to re-create his sound. The Enmore Show in Sydney is filmed by Moshcam.
2012 late January sees the church perform a selection of songs (including hits like The Unguarded Moment) for an appreciative crowd at the Taronga Zoo as one of the Twilight Series shows. Live footage of the Future Past Perfect Show at the Enmore Theatre last year goes online for a short time. The band then hit the road with Simple Minds, Devo and Models for a select set of shows for A Day On The Green as well as indoor theatre shows finishing up on Dec 15 in Auckland NZ. During this tour they do two “Art Rock’n’Roll” side shows – one at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne and another at the Factory Theatre in Sydney – choosing 4 songs each interspersed with a collection of songs from their back catalogue.
2013 the church headline Canberra’s 100th birthday Centenary concert on the lake at Regatta Point with Paul McDermott as MC and other bands performing including The Falling Joys, 78Saab and the Gadflys.
2014 the band release their 25th album Further/Deeper in AU/NZ and in the US Feb. 2015. For AU dates, they played the album in it’s entirety.
2015 the church tour North America featuring Further/Deeper. Numerous shows sell out.
