The Time Being | Steve Kilbey

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=191564417556192

http://lifemusicmedia.com/?p=17069

Tour dates are in our calendar. Please note that the Melbourne show will now be at the Cherry Bar in ACDC Lane.

Steve & Ricky will also be at The Espy, St Kilda on Sat 23rd July w/special guests The Demon Parade, Lady Strangelove  & Crooked Saints – event invite here

View gig photos  by Cai Griffin in Tone Deaf’s gallery – click here

http://www.theaureview.com/interviews/the-au-interview-steve-kilbey-of-the-church-sydney

June 22, 2011 – 3:12am — Larry Heath

Tomorrow night, Steve Kilbey is joining Peter Koppes and Tim Powles from The Church for a one-off intimate performance at the Red Rattler in Sydney, to raise money and awareness for Autism Spectrum Australia. I had the honour of catching up with Steve last week to chat about the initiative, his work with Ricky Maymi from The Brian Jonestown Massacre and some of his collaborations from over the years – including the recent GB3 with Glenn Bennie.

You’re about to play some shows with Ricky Maymi on the back of the mysterious album The Wilderness Years, By David Neil – how did your relationship with Ricky come about?

I don’t know how you’d describe our relationship – it’s a bit father and sonish. He’s been a mate of mine for a long while now, we like a lot of the same music. He was in Sydney and I had this concept about this dead rock star who’d never really done anything, only released some very obscure records, and so Ricky and I said – let’s try and make the records that this guy might have made. It’s always good to have a premise when you set out to do something. It’s very difficult just to sit down and say, I’m going to write a song. It’s much easier to say I’m going to sit down and write a song that gives you this feeling, and these are the background details to it…

Well we’re excited to hear it! You’re touring throughout Australia and New Zealand in July and August. But you did do a few shows together last year?

Yeah. We’ve got a band, we’ve got a father and son bass player and drummer.

There you go! It’s almost like a double father and son act!

*Laughs*…. Exactly.

And this comes shortly after you performed shows as GB3, with Glenn Bennie, you’re definitely jumping between the projects at the moment!

Yep. On the go!

How did that show go?

This GB3 record is an amazing record. It’s definitely up there with anything I’ve ever done. I’ve always wanted much more for it than it ever gets. Bigger venues and more people and more reviews. All the guys in the band have day jobs, and you can’t get Glenn to understand how amazing he is. If ever I compliment him on stage, and say ‘The Amazing Glenn Bennie’, he gets a bit angry. He’s lived a career of modesty. So I’ve always wanted more for that band and that record. It’s been a struggle to get it out there.

You released the record back in October if last year – what was the cycle like getting it to that point? From the time you and Glenn first had the idea to work together on the project, to the time it was released in stores…

Some cycles for my projects can be quite long. GB3 took a couple of years. David Neil is about three years, since it started. Others happen reasonably quickly.

There have been plenty of these sorts of collaborations over the years – from your Jack Frost project with Grant McLennan to Isidore with Jeffery Cain of Remy Zero.

And Martin Kennedy – he and I have started working on album number three. Always juggling a lot of projects.

But it always comes back to The Church, and today we’re talking about the Autism Awareness and Benefit gig you’re playing at the Red Rattler on the 23rd of June. How did this event come about?

The Church have an executive producer slash patron who is a wealthy professor from America. A fan of The Church who has helped us finance projects for 14 or 15 years. One of his daughters is autistic and it is his cause. It was his wish that The Church take up the cause as well. It’s really the only thing he’s ever asked of us in return. So we’ve been looking for an opportunity to raise awareness of this condition.

On a personal side, I have a nephew who has Asperger’s Syndrome, which is a mild form of Autism. Now our patron’s daughter has the sort of Autism where she is locked into her own universe, she’s inaccessible. Where as my nephew, in some ways he’s completely normal, and looking at him you wouldn’t know. He actually has a brilliant mind, he’s interested in arcane things like magic and the middle ages, chemical symbols and stuff. On the other hand, he can’t say hello and goodbye and thank you. He can get frustrated and upset quite easily.

When he first came into our extended family, everybody was quite confused. I thought he was just a naughty little devil… thought that my brother was letting him get away with too much! But once it became apparent what was going on, it changed everything – it’s a completely different thing. It became so much easier to approach him knowing that he had Aspergers. So I think that raising awareness is very important. This charity we’re involved with for this event, their specialty is in working to re-educate siblings of Asbergers and Autistic children, to be able to accommodate them in their lives.

My nephew has a sister that’s older than him and a brother who’s younger, they really had to learn to sacrifice a lot. If he comes into a room and he wants to sit on a chair that they’re sitting on, they’ll have to get up and let him sit there. They can’t do what a normal kid would and say ‘that’s not fair’, because his mind doesn’t work in those terms. And that’s where this program comes in to help the siblings understand that. I believe it’s a very worthy cause.
I’m not an expert in it, but I believe that the incidences of Asbergers and Autism are on the rise – but maybe that’s because we have a name for it now. Years ago you were just a naughty little bugger! Like my nephew, always wanting to sit in the same chair and things like that, but at the same time he’s got an absolutely brilliant mind. He’ll end up with a really important job, because he’ll be able to sit there and focus hour after hour on a task – far beyond what you or I could do. You look back at the geniuses of history, and hey’ve often said that people like Einstein and Newton had signs of Asbergers for that very reason.

It’s brilliant that you have this opportunity to bring light to the cause – what can people who attend expect from the performances?

There’s a Church side project called The Refo:mation, which is the band minus Marty. For the first time ever we’ll be playing songs off an album we released a while back. Ricky will be there playing guitar. Some other musicians will join us, some who have Asberger’s themselves and others who have been affected by it in their families.

Our MC is from a band called The Camels, and he has a brother who has been rated the most Autistic person in the Southern Hemisphere. That’s the private universe. Nothing’s coming in and nothing’s coming out. It’s like having a computer with all these files in it that you can never open.

———

INFORMATION ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE:

There will be no door charge on the night. Instead, punters are asked to be generous and dig as deep as they can by leaving a completely tax deductable donation on entry of around $60. (Tax deductible receipt can be issued)

For more information on Autism spectrum disorders, visit: http://www.autismspectrum.org.au/ or call the Autism Information Line on 1800 069 978 or 02 8977 8377.

UNIVERSE WITHIN: Autism Awareness and Benefit Gig with members of the church and special eclectic guests.

Thursday June 23. Red Rattler. 6 Faversham Street, Marrickville.
Doors Open at 8pm.
Entry via $60 donation to Aspect being collected at the door.

http://www.heyheymymy.com.au/2011/06/19/steve-kilbey-interview/

“the church are one of Australia’s most enduring bands simply because the never went away. It’s a definitional thing. But for their many fans it’s also a devotional thing. Especially for one professor in America. In this interview Steve Kilbey explains what all that means and why his ARIA Hall of Fame speech was a happy accident.

HHMM: Firstly let me ask you about the benefit show The Church are doing. It’s called a Universe Within and it’s being held at The Red Rattler in Marrickville in Sydney on June 23, and will donate money raised to the not-for-profit organisation, Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect). Is Aspect and Autism a cause close to the bands heart?

SK: It is our cause. We have an Executive Producer/Patron. He’s a professor from America, he’s rather wealthy and 12 or 13 years ago he popped up at a gig at a time when we were struggling a bit and he offered to help us finance projects and tours and underwrite costs. He was as good as his word and really The Church would not exist without this guy at all. We wouldn’t have gotten through the hard times. One day we said to him, “You’ve done so much for us, what can we do for you?”.  And he said that he wanted us to get involved in the Autism cause because he had a very autistic daughter. Sometime after that my brother had a son who has Asperger’s Syndrome, so now there is a double connection for me into this. Autism is a strange problem. I’m not an expert but I believe the incidence of it is on the rise and I believe we don’t understand a lot about it. I also know that families have a lot of problems when autistic and Aspergers kids come along, and siblings often have a lot of problems, because you have to be very understanding and all the old rules suddenly don’t apply. You can’t often reason in a normal way with these kids and Aspect has been doing some re-education of siblings and helping them to live with this. Just because an autistic kid arrives in a home doesn’t mean the family knows how to deal with it.

HHMM: I guess there’s the problem of the siblings not understanding why the autistic child gets special treatment…

SK: And these do get special treatment. You cant say, “No, its’ not your turn now”, because it doesn’t work like that. So it’s great that if you are having troubles adjusting to this thing that you can go away and learn all about it.  I know that by brothers son has a younger brother and an older sister and they’ve been very understanding but they have to sacrifice a lot. The whole family does. If the kid wants to sit in the first seat in the car, he sits there. It’s not because he’s naughty, it’s just because that’s how his mind works. So there is a real need for re-education, I think.

HHMM: You remain very busy. Is being in The Church a constant process of re-invention or is it not as deliberate as that?

SK: We are always plotting our next move. There are fucking emails every day from and about The Church every day.  I stopped reading them and replying to them and then I find myself saying “Why are we doing this?” and I’m asked “Didn’t you read the email?” If you don’t read the emails then don’t complain! It takes up a lot of time and a lot of work just keeping track of The Church and all our creditors and debtors and merchandise and all our records and publishing deals. It’s like this huge on-going load of malarkey and it takes up a lot of time and energy. And that’s forgetting the actual creative process of playing guitars – that’s just running the industry of it. It takes up lots of time and nothing’s ever easy with The Church. It’s never a simple thing. It’s not like we are Mental As anything who are happy just to turn up and play whenever someone asks them.  With The Church there’s always a lot of second guessing and it always involves a lot of complications.

HHMM: Does it amuse you to see other bands announcing reunion tours and album anniversary shows, when The Church have never actually gone away?

SK: Some of those tours when the band gets back together are very lucrative and because we didn’t stop it’s no so lucrative for us, because it’s not that unusual to see us play.  When Divinyls  got back together a few years ago we ended up opening for them because they had a novelty value, but I think The Church were a far more important and superior band. They were like a pop band with hit singles but because they were getting back together they had the novelty that we couldn’t compete with. If we had broken up in 1985 we’d probably be doing the Megadome now! But you can only do it once.

HHMM: At what point in that process did you realize or accept that The Church was a life sentence?

SK: That’s an interesting question. I think it is now. I think we will all do it until we die. And when someone dies we might even replace them and keep going, unless it’s me. But I’ve always said to them that if I die they have my permission to replace me and please don’t stop. So it might end up being like Phantom and in 300 years time The Church will still be playing gigs with all these new members. So I don’t know about it being a life sentence. I know that if someone had said to me when we got together that we’d still be together in 30 years I’d have laughed, but it just seems to go on and on and on…

HHMM: Is the creative process a lot different know that you don’t have to give a thought to which song is going to be a the single or which song is going to get radio airplay?

SK: It’s much easier now that that whole pressure has gone out of it. Back in the 80’s you could have a brilliant album and if it didn’t have a hit no-one would hear it. Everything was about that one song that was going to be a hit. Now we know that we are never going to have a hit and that none of our singles are ever going to be played on the radio and its kind of a great relief.

HHMM: You know how people post videos on their Facebook pages? Well someone posted the video to Under The Milky way and described it as “The Church’s biggest hit so far.” I thought that was optimistic!

SK: (laughs). That’s  unbelievable optimism and naivety!

HHMM: You are also a serial collaborator. What do you look for in a collaboration?

SK: Usually when I collaborate its as a lyricist and a singer and I look for a brilliant atmospheric piece of music that I can sing over. When I first heard what Martin Kennedy was writing, it was just obvious that it had been written for me. So I look for something that I can do my thing over the top of. Sometimes people send me stuff that is good but there is no room in there for me. I need something that will spark my imagination so that the images for the lyrics start coming to me and with the people that I have chosen to work with, that’s always been the main reason.

HHMM: So could you explain “The Wilderness Years by David Neil”?

SK: I started writing on my blog – for no real reason – about my adventures with this dead Canadian folk singer. He’s called David Neil because he’s a cross between David Bowie and Neil Young.  He existed for a short time in the 1970’s and he died, shot by a jealous husband in a plane crash while having an OD, all at the same time. He left behind some tapes that because of my association with him back in the 70’s would be left to me to curate. So Rick Maymi (from the Brian Jonestown Massacre) and I decided to sit down and actually create this record that I had been writing about. When I write about him in my blog I always put snatches of lyrics and snatches of songs, so we actually sat down using those as bases, to create this record that could have been made in the 1970’s by this guy who had no fame or fortune. I sing in a totally different voice and it’s not normally the kind of music that I normally do. It’s very poppy and rocky and I reckon it’s interesting.

HHMM: You mentioned your patron earlier. For a number of bands and artists of your vintage, everyone is finding their own way to survive.

SK: You have to. The old ways don’t work anymore. There’s no big record company out there to pay for everything. For a while we were on big labels and when you tour they pay for it.  We had a record company underwrite a tour of Europe in 1990 that lost 200,000 pounds. Our record company paid for it but we will never get any royalties from any record because of that 200,000  pound loss and others. They would pay you to make records and they would fly you round everywhere and suddenly that all ended and you have to find another way of doing things. We would not have been able to make any records, or do anything without our patron. He is everything to us.

HHMM: It’s come the full circle, because that’s how arts used to be paid for. The term, “a patron of the arts”, exists for a reason.

SK: Exactly. It’s not a bad thing. If I was a zillionaire and I met and artist I really admired, I’d be happy to say “here’s 10 grand, go and make another record”. What else do you do with your money once you’ve bought the Ferrari and the yacht then you can look around and realize you can help a favorite singer or a favorite band. It’s a great thing and its an age old tradition. I would be completely happy if some geezer turned up and said, “Hey Steve I’m going to put you on a hundred grand a year and you are going to write songs and paint and write poetry for me.”. And usually the bolder and more original and strange you are the more you need a patron. Thank God they are out there.

HHMM: I had to ask about your speech at the ARIA Hall of Fame. People’s reaction to that speech has been fantastic and they found it so refreshing. Was it simply a case that people weren’t expecting the unbridled enthusiasm from someone like you and it was just time to shatter the serious elusive mystique?

SK: I didn’t expect it either. I didn’t know what I was going to say, what I was going to do. It was just like being on a bus. You sit there and get talking. That’s the sort of bloke I am. When I find a subject I’m interested in, I just let it all out. That’s what happened that night. On another night I could have tried to repeat that form of stand up and it wouldn’t be funny and I would be insulting people or I would be too highbrow or too aloof. Luckily for me that night all the stars came together and I just stood there like a naive guy and gushed it all out without any kind of mask. I was just saying things that came into my head and I just got on a role and I’m just very, very lucky. I think that speech impressed people more than my thirty years of music.

We had agreed that we wouldn’t have a speech and that we’d “let our music do the talking, man”. And as each person got up and thanked people and I realized it would be churlish to get and award and just stand up and mumble ‘thank you’.  At a thing like that somebody wants to hear you talk about your career and the people who helped you do it and you adventures and your take on the whole thing and as the evening wore on that I had better think of something to say and that our plan of not saying anything was not going to work at all.  But I was incredibly lucky. It was like pulling a poker machine and I got a payout. On any other night I might have got two lemons and an orange.”

UNIVERSE WITHIN Autism Awareness Benefit Gig
Thursday June 23. Red Rattler. 6 Faversham Street, Marrickville.

Doors Open at 8pm

Entry via recommended $60  donation to Aspect being collected at the door.
Exclusive items for silent auction on the night.

UNIVERSE WITHIN

Autism Awareness and Benefit Gig

with members of

the church

and special eclectic guests

JUNE 23RD , 2011

Universe Within flyer

Press Release date – Wednesday June 1, 2011

Steven Kilbey, Peter Koppes and Tim Powles announce UNIVERSE WITHIN, an Autism Awareness and Benefit Gig. This very special one-off performance, which sees the three taking the stage with an array of special guests, will be held at The Red Rattler in Marrickville on June 23, and will donate money raised to the not-for-profit organisation, Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect).

Autism spectrum disorders affect at least 1 in 160 people.  Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that remains largely misunderstood by the community, despite its prevalence and far-reaching consequences.  Early intervention and treatment of the disorder opens up the best opportunities for progress so that many people with Autism can lead productive lives.

Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect) works in partnership with families and service providers, offering evidence-based interventions for individual needs, including early intervention services, assessments, workshops, volunteer support, and outreach programs.  Aspect also offers services for adults with Autism spectrum disorders.  All programs rely on community support and aim to maximise learning potential, participation, and independence by increasing capacity and confidence.

As well as musical performances,   the UNIVERSE WITHIN Autism Awareness and Benefit Gig will also feature artworks and photographs for sale and/or auction and involvement from Aspect representatives.  What’s more, we are told that “a special treat may be in store for some Church fans hampering to hear some songs from the Refo:mation” (Tim Powles).

There will be no door charge on the night.  Instead, punters are asked to be generous and dig as deep as you can by leaving a completely tax deductable donation on entry of around $60.

(Tax deductible receipt can be issued)
For more information on Autism spectrum disorders, visit: http://www.autismspectrum.org.au/

or call the Autism Information Line on 1800 069 978 or 02 8977 8377.

For more information, contact Reckoning Entertainment

http://www.facebook.com/reckoningentertainment (02) 80842007

For print and television inquiries, contact: Alissa Cronau

alissa@reckoningentertainment.com 0408 873 892

For online inquiries, contact: Michelle Mossfield

michelle@reckoningentertainment.com 0451 177 362

For radio inquiries, contact: Nik Tropiano

nik@reckoningentertainment.com 0433 566 997

Reckoning Entertainment

PO Box 835

Petersham NSW 2049

Update 18/6/11

UNIVERSE WITHIN

Autism Awareness and Benefit Gig
with members of the church

Steve Kilbey, Peter Koppes and Tim Powles  (also  appearing at this one-time only
as The Refo:mation)

and special  guests (in no particular order) including

Phil Hall (Lime Spiders)
Stan Holroyd
Craig Wilson (astreetlightsong)
Jak Housden (The Whitlams)
Thom Moore (Mercy Arms)
Ricky Maymi (Brian Jonestown Massacre)
Jimmy Hilbun (San Franciscan Lover)
Brendan Gallagher  (karma county)
Suzi Connolly (Butterfly 9)
Russell Kilbey (songs from the Crystal Set)
Nick Kennedy (Kneivel)
Sandi Chick
Daniel Darling
Mark Moldre (Hitchcock’s Regret)
David Skeet

Intermission : showing of Russell Kilbey and Amy Scully’s award winning doco Rainman Goes to Rockwiz’

MC – Jamie Holt (The Camels)

Thursday June 23. Red Rattler. 6 Faversham Street, Marrickville.

Doors Open at 8pm

Entry via recommended $60  donation to Aspect being collected at the door.
Exclusive items for silent auction on the night.

http://www.deadcoolshop.com/music+cinema/recommended-albums/the-church-refomation/

Some of the Refo:mation songs will be performed during the June 23rd church gig (Steve, Peter  & TimEbandit) at  The Red Rattler Marrickville (Sydney). A special one-off benefit gig to raise awareness and funds for Autism… .details coming soon

the church members in Australia (Steve Kilbey, Peter Koppes and TimEbandit Powles) will be performing a special one-off charity gig to aid Autism at The Red Rattler in Marrickville, Sydney on Thursday June 23rd 2011 with other special guests. Admission will be a $60 donation towards ASPECT. More details will be posted when to hand

Update 21/6/11

UNIVERSE WITHIN

Autism Awareness and Benefit Gig
with members of the church

Steve Kilbey, Peter Koppes and Tim Powles  (also  appearing at this one-time only
as The Refo:mation)

and special  guests (in no particular order) including

Phil Hall (Lime Spiders)
Stan Holroyd
Craig Wilson (astreetlightsong)
Jak Housden (The Whitlams)
Thom Moore (Mercy Arms)
Ricky Maymi (Brian Jonestown Massacre)
Jimmy Hilbun (San Franciscan Lover)
Brendan Gallagher  (karma county)
Suzi Connolly (Butterfly 9)
Russell Kilbey (songs from the Crystal Set)
Nick Kennedy (Kneivel)
Sandi Chick
Daniel Darling
Mark Moldre (Hitchcock’s Regret)
David Skeet

Intermission : showing of Russell Kilbey and Amy Scully’s award winning doco Rainman Goes to Rockwiz’

MC – Jamie Holt (The Camels)

Thursday June 23. Red Rattler. 6 Faversham Street, Marrickville.

Doors Open at 8pm

Entry via recommended $60  donation to Aspect being collected at the door.
Exclusive items for silent auction on the night.

http://admin.moshtix.com.au/event.aspx?id=45742&ref=quakeaid – 21st March 2011

Tim Powles and Steve Kilbey are amongst some of Sydney’s most popular musicians and entertainers who are joining forces to raise much needed funds for the Christchurch Earthquake relief effort. All money raised will go to the Christchurch Earthquake appeal via The New Zealand Red Cross. Click on this link to purchase tickets and help sell it out!

If you would like to make a further donation, please email quakeaid@y7mail.com

One of the biggest worldwide hits for Australian outfit the church was the jangling early ’80s confection “The Unguarded Moment.”

But for rapier-witted bandleader Steve Kilbey, there’s no such thing — even when his group was recently inducted into its homeland’s ARIA Hall of Fame, he was ready with an impromptu acceptance speech, a rambling 10-minute snark-a-thon wherein he wryly noted how he had been kicked off all the best labels and dropped by all the finest ­publishers in the land.

He ended the rant by thanking God for blessing him with so much talent, spurring the affair’s hostess to say, “Give that man a show!”

Kilbey came off good-natured and self-deprecating. And at 56, the Bondi Beach-based singer — who brings the church to  The City on Friday to perform three classic albums, back to back, “Untitled #23,” “Priest = Aura” and the 1988 breakthrough “Starfish” — also looked tan and trim, thanks to his daily workout regimen of yoga and swimming.

“It was a good night, and I was lucky that I thought of that speech on the spur of the moment,” he says of the prestigious ceremony. “And yeah, there was a bit of bitterness in there, but that’s only par for the course — if you hang around long enough, you’re going to see a lot of ups and downs.”

The honoree wasn’t always so Zen-like. Career regrets?

“I’ve got a million,” Kilbey says. “I was cruel, I was nasty, I was horrible, I was selfish, I didn’t listen. I was weak, I used people, I let people use me — I mean, everything you can imagine. I made all the mistakes.”

For example, he recalls an incident wherein he argued with a Melody Maker magazine journalist throughout a daylong interview. Eagerly, he awaited the cover story’s printing, which would vindicate him. ­Surprise!

“They didn’t put us on their cover — or in the magazine — at all,” Kilbey says. “I’d blown a front-page story, blew it into nothing.”

These days, Kilbey is more grounded. “We’re just a little obscure band, and it’s only about the music now for us,” he says. “All that other stuff has disappeared.”

To that end, the church is celebrating its 30th anniversary with the current Future Past Perfect tour, featuring a grand finale in April at the Sydney Opera House; a new two-disc singles anthology, “Deep In the Shallows”; and remastered reissues of its early catalog.

In concert, Kilbey says, “I don’t mind doing the old stuff — I kind of enjoy it.”

Everything, that is, except “The Unguarded Moment.” “I don’t know why, but I never really liked that song. I didn’t even like it when I wrote it!”

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/entertainment/music/2011/02/church-s-steve-kilbey-has-few-regrets#ixzz1CsEVOV00

Special live acoustic performance by Steve Kilbey, Peter Koppes and Tim Powles on “Evenings” with Robbie Buck. Tune in to ABC Sydney 702 tonight (Tues 7/11/10) from 20:40PM EST for two songs live and an interview.

Marty Willson-Piper will be featured in a two-part interview for ‘The Piano Drinkers’ show, on 3d Radio 93.7 Adelaide. The first part airs on 8th December from 7:15AM, SA (7:45AM EST) and listen in for the second part on 15th December at the same time.

Link: http://media.on.net/radio/137.m3u

Tim Powles will be chatting to  Mateo Szlapek-Sewillo on Wednesday 8th December. Tune in to ‘The Range’ Show on Radio Adelaide 101.7FM. Tim will be on air at 16:30PM, SA (17:00PM EST) during soundcheck.

Link: http://radio.adelaide.edu.au/listenonline/

Marty Willson-Piper will be talking to Luke Demetriou on PBS 106.7FM’s “Everything Moves” Show. Tune in from 7:00PM EST on Tuesday 14th December 2010.

Link: http://listento.pbs.org.au/live/

Marty Willson-Piper will be chatting to Neil Rogers on RRR 102.7FM’s “The Australian Mood” Show. Tune in from 8:00PM EST on Thursday 16th December 2010.

Link: http://www.rrr.org.au/programs/streaming/

Steve Kilbey  talking to Genevieve Jacobs on ABC Canberra’s “Afternoons”. Tune in at 14:10PM EST on Thursday, 2nd December 2010

Link: http://www.abc.net.au/canberra/includes/winstream.asx

You’ll be able to listen them stream live over the net.

http://timeoff.com.au/html/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7548:-the-church&catid=11:features&Itemid=29

“CHURCH WITH NO MAGIC

THE CHURCH have just been inducted into the ARIA Hall Of Fame and are about to spend a month revisiting their entire catalogue in concert. MATT O’NEILL catches up with vocalist STEVE KILBEY to discuss the band’s considerable legacy.

If history is kind, The Church will go down as one of the most gracious and idiosyncratic acts to have ever been inducted into the ARIA Hall Of Fame. In a year where the awards ceremony proper was largely ridiculed by the public, frontman Steve Kilbey’s monumental 15-minute acceptance speech – a torrent of wit, gratitude, words and memories the likes of which podiums were practically built for – should stand as a reminder of why musicians deserve recognition in the first place.

“I got lucky. The band had told me we didn’t need a speech and I’d naively believed that because I didn’t know what to say but, as the night wore on, everyone else who was accepting an award had a speech,” the vocalist reflects. “I realised I was going to appear completely churlish if I didn’t have a speech. Why did we even fucking bother to turn up if we were just going to stand there and go, ‘Thanks’ and walk off?
“I realised I had to say something so I was sitting there working it out, [former Go-Betweens drummer] Lindy Morrison comes over and tells me to relax but, each time she says relax, I freak out more. I ended up just standing there and getting lucky. A few vague ideas came to me on the way up but I was mainly just lucky. I could have just as easily gone, ‘Okay…’ and just choked – but I seem to have gotten more attention for that speech than ten years of making music.”

Strangely, though, the moment of truth in the band’s collective acceptance emerged not from Kilbey’s marathon efforts but rather guitarist Marty Willson-Piper’s reaction to them: “I wonder if anybody thinks if Steve has managed to demystify us,” the guitarist quipped with bemusement. “We’ve worked so hard to be aloof and enigmatic – aloof no more. All ruined in 15 minutes….After 30 years.”

The guitarist was, of course, incorrect in claiming Kilbey had ruined the band’s image as mysterious craftsmen but there can be no denying that the band’s vocalist altered the public perception of his band. For the better part of 30 years, The Church have been forced to contend with numerous misapprehensions about their work and philosophies. Depending on whom you ask, the band could be described as one-hit-wonders, art-rock experimentalists or Australian pop legends.

“I would like it if The Church had more attention but, in regards to deserving it, I think we’re a little bit too subtle and left-of-field for most people,” Kilbey reflects of the band’s ambiguous status as under-appreciated luminaries. “I always think it’s a shame, though, because I think there are a lot more people out there who would really like us – people who think there isn’t a band out there doing what we do.

“If they could discover us, they would be a lot happier and we would be a lot happier,” the vocalist laughs. “It’s a shame that it can’t happen. Over the past 30 years, it’s occasionally looked like it’s going to happen and occasionally started to happen but we’ve never managed to sustain it. I always feel there’s got to be more people out there, though. I’ve just run into too many people over the years who have said things like, ‘I wish I’d known about you guys all along’.”

While lamentable, the ambiguity of the band’s public profile is nevertheless not in the least bit surprising. Glancing over their career, one would be hard-pressed to find a unifying theme to the band’s work. There have been pop crossover tunes (1981’s The Unguarded Moment), prog-rock explorations (1994’s Sometime Anywhere album), electronic albums (1996’s Magician Among The Spirits) and, over the past decade, a series of improv-heavy Internet-only releases.

“We have always tried to be more than just a rock band – that’s the way I’m trying to push the band all the time,” Kilbey explains. “But, the forces out there that want The Church to be a rock band and do the things rock bands do, they’re hard to argue with. It isn’t as easy as just being more than a rock band all the time. Sometimes you have to do these other things as well. It simply isn’t always possible for us. I know other bands have pulled it off but we haven’t as yet.

“I wish I was out there in some weird place doing some experimental show every night – never doing any old songs or anything. I wish that was what the demand was for me to do but it isn’t. People appreciate the innovation of The Church but they also appreciate some of our traditional values and they kind of want that as well. You know, a legacy is a good thing and a bad thing for a band to have – it restricts you but it also enables you.”

The perception that Kilbey’s speech altered was that the band’s ambiguity and mystique was in any way deliberate. It’s been easy to believe, over the past 30 years, that The Church’s development has been the product of craftsmanship and forethought – if nothing else, Kilbey is an naturally precise songwriter – but the vocalist’s wild explosion of sentiment and recollection revealed the band’s key inspiration has never been considered refinement so much as chaotic vitality.

“I don’t like to look back on what we do. If I had my way, there would never be any retrospective stuff ever,” Kilbey announces. “It’s not really me. As an artist, I abhor it and I want to keep moving forward all the time. It’s our thirtieth anniversary but, really, I’m not the kind of guy who likes anniversaries either. I don’t like any of that stuff. I’d rather be out there chipping away at the coalface of new ideas rather than looking back at what we did 30 years ago.”

In a way, the group’s forthcoming set of shows is the ultimate demonstration of their restless approach to creativity. While retrospective, the band’s shows will celebrate their thirtieth anniversary not with greatest hits sets but with a set of acoustic renditions of songs drawn from each of their 23 full-length albums – beginning with 2009’s Untitled #23 and working backwards toward 1981’s Of Skins And Heart – performed in venues more associated with classical music than rock performances.

“It’s a wonderful showbiz package. It’s got an intermission and everything. We’re actually importing this intermission from overseas. It’s been designed by Swedish designers and it’s covered in stamps from customs,” Kilbey says with a laugh. “We’re basically taking a song from each album and working backwards – except acoustically. You get a program and a free CD as well, which basically means anyone who doesn’t come to this show should be dragged from their home and executed.

“You know, I don’t like anniversaries, but I feel there’s a pressure for us to do it and I think we’ve done it pretty tastefully,” the vocalist reflects. “It’s weird to think about it. As an institution, The Church has weathered 30 years and the nature of the universe is usually bound up with things closing down or falling apart, so to keep a band of largely the same guys for 30 years is quite a feat.”  – Matt O’Neill