the-church-reinvents-its-past-with-a-three-album-live-set

Do not miss this special experience. Tickets are on sale now – see our Calendar for tour dates.

During our US tour we will be stopping in Greenville SC to perform a special acoustic show  at the following venue.  Then join us in Atlanta the following day for the electric format!  Check out our Calendar for more details.

Mon Feb 21 – The Handlebar, Greenville SC at 8.30pm. Tix $20 includes the free ep and souvenir program.

The Church- Thornbury Theatre – Dec 19th 2010

” ……If you live in the States go and see them play! You wont be disappointed. Tell them the Wollongong boys sent you! …. the church hit the stage, and without going into massive detail, this ends up being MY GIG OF THE YEAR! When did Steve Kilbey become such a chatter box, he was so funny and the band just bounced off each other. They played so so SO well. We’ve been to some great gigs this year and who would of guessed at the 11th hour it would be the church that would race up the straight and steal the prize for best gig. Better then Crowded House, better then U2. I was saddened it was the last show for Australia, I would of flown interstate for another show as mighty as this. All 3 of us were blown away. …All the way in the car we rave about the show…. that’s always a good sign. … We arrive home musically full (burp) what a show. America GO AND SEE THE CHURCH in February.” – Peter Green

Read the whole blog entry here – http://www.frenz.com/16min/

http://www.tonedeaf.com.au/news/tournews/59036/the-church-the-thornbury-theatre.htm

The mood is celebratory as the church play the final show of a virtually sold out national tour, capping off what’s been a remarkable year for the band. There was the ARIA Hall of Fame induction and THAT amazing speech by front man Steve Kilbey, the release of a tie in best of record and a real feeling that after 30 years in the music industry, the band are in not only peak form but have few local peers in a stunning back catalogue.

Onstage in the dinner and show setting of the slightly faded grandeur of the Thornbury Theatre, the church are working their way in reverse order through their back catalogue playing one track from each release. Opening with ‘Pangaea’ off Untitled #23, the band appear relaxed and drummer Tim Powles steers the ship with his mallets on the kit. ‘Space Needle’ represents Uninvited Like The Clouds, while a smoky, almost jazzy version of Reptile represents the acoustic song re-workings of 2007’s El Momento Siguiente.

It’s at this moment that Kilbey’s increasingly shining reputation as a showman comes through, with guitarist Marty Willson-Piper playing Abbott in his correct pronunciation of the album’s title to Kilbey’s Costello. As much as ‘The Unguarded Moment’ may have been an albatross around the band’s neck in Australia, in this version off 2004’s second Liberation Acoustic series El Momento Descuidado album ,they now appear to play it without resignation; the occasionally gauche but nonetheless iconic lyrics a cipher for another time and place. Peter Koppes takes to the guitar to sing ‘Appalatia ‘off Forget Yourself, his smiling zen like manner contrasting against the exuberant Kilbey.

Introducing ‘Louisiana’ off 1998’s Hologram of Baal, Kilbey makes a sly reference to his then opiate addiction, and notes that the studio outside a Swedish country town in which it was recorded, ‘was near a train line and that ‘if you’re lucky you can hear the trains run over the tracks’. The pause prompting nervous laughter from the audience shows a deep vein of self laceration at the base of  the showmanship. ‘Comedown’ off 1996’s Magician Amongst The Spirits reflects a low point in the history of the church, where the band almost in effect split, and Kilbey declares it to be ‘an album [euthanasia campaigner] Philip Nitschke approached us about;’ while Willson-Piper declares it ‘the album that made Nick Cave seem like John Farnham … Whispering Nick.’

‘Metropolis’ still retains its beauty from 1990’s mixed Gold Afternoon Fix, while ‘Under The Milky Way’ off 1988’s Starfish is introduced as the ‘song they HAVE to play.’ In many ways they’re right – a ‘song about nothing’ has become an Australian icon that the church merely remain parents of. It’s long grown up, moved out of home and taken on a complete life of its own. After a hilarious false start involving a note from a fan being thrown on stage informing Kilbey that he had a shirt button undone, the song is given a nice bluesy twist, with harmonica replacing the infamous e-bow guitar solo.

‘Already Yesterday’ features off Heyday, a period of which Kilbey isn’t afraid to lampoon the band’s fetish for paisley shirts, pointy boots and Persian carpets, while by the time 1982’s The Blurred Crusade is reached, contemporaries Hunters and Collectors are ragged on for their sudden rise to fame. Single ‘Almost With You’ off the album, with its simple yearning ‘I’m Almost With You – is this the taste of Victory?’ refrain amplified by the bass anchor is a highlight of the night. The show proper is completed with ‘Tear It All Away’, a curious choice as it was not included in the Australian release of Of Skins & Heart, rather appearing on the now hard to get EP Too Fast for You.

Although the band have performed two sets in an epic night, they return for their now oft covered version of The Smashing Pumpkins’ ‘Disarm’, a song perhaps originally covered in return for the Pumpkin’s cover of ‘Under The Milky Way’, with Kilbey’s rich timbre far more dignified than Billy Corgan’s now middle aged whine.

There’s a real sense that the church – having ably proved that they are still a creative force over the last few years – are now undergoing a renaissance with the gig going public , who are lapping them up. The transformation of Steve Kilbey into a powerhouse showman and entertainer is welcome and as they prepare for another US tour which is creating much media and fan interest, you could be forgiven for feeling that 2011 will be 1981 all over again, and they’re suddenly one of the hottest bands in the country.

Jim Murray

An Evening with the church

Future Past Perfect. Winter Tour USA 2011

Three decades of the church in three classic albums.

Untitled #23, Priest=Aura and Starfish performed in their entirety in one night. In an unprecedented touring event the church return to select cities in the USA to play not one, but three classic albums in one night!

The band, recently inducted into the Australian Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, will begin the night in the present, covering the last decade with the critically acclaimed Untitled #23. Proceeding backwards into the ‘90s the band will then perform perennial fan favourite, Priest=Aura (an album not supported by a tour when originally released in the USA).  And, what better way to conclude the evening than with a performance of the all-time classic album, Starfish.

Come early, leave late and enjoy three great albums in succession played live and electric from one of the great inventive rock bands of our time.

Reissues of the band’s early albums will also finally be available in the USA alongside contemporary releases, all on the Second Motion Entertainment label. The reissues will come in luxurious digi-packs with rare photos and exhaustive sleeve notes written by Marty Willson-Piper.

Constantly releasing new challenging material, embracing their past and reinventing themselves in the present, touring across the decades, performing their music in many different ways, the church continue to evolve into a unique musical entity.  This event is an experience not to be missed for music lovers of all ages, creeds, denominations and persuasions.

the church US Dates February 2011

2 – Los Angeles, CA. – El Rey Theatre
4 – San Francisco, CA. – Great American Music Hall
7 – Seattle, WA. – Triple Door
8 – Seattle, WA. – Triple Door
11 – Chicago, IL. – Park West
13 – Alexandria, VA. – The Birchmere
15 – Philadelphia, PA. – The Trocadero
16 – New York, NY. – Highline Ballroom
17 – New York, NY. – B.B. King’s
18 – Foxboro, MA. – Showcase Live
22 – Atlanta, GA – The Variety Playhouse

* Please note that Feb 21 will be a special acoustic show at The Handlebar in Greenville, SC.

http://www.bmamag.com/articles/features/20101123-church/

Hallowed Halls

the church were recently inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. On the evening of the ceremony, the band’s lead singer, Steve Kilbey, stole the show with a rambling and hilarious 30 minute speech that even managed to prompt Tina Arena to heckle from the floor. At the conclusion of Kilbey’s show-stealing performance, Marty Willson-Piper – the man largely responsible for the band’s signature ethereal, chiming 12-string guitar sound – mock-chided his colleague for destroying the mystique they had worked assiduously at developing over their 30 year career. As for the award itself, Willson-Piper is gracious but wary; “Awards are a funny thing. The problem with awards is in the end they have no bearing on what you do creatively. I mean it’s great someone has come along and said ‘you are worthy’ and it’s nice to have people show their appreciation. But it has no bearing on what you do.”

Walking ever more delicately around the subject the guitarist concludes, “You don’t want to be ungrateful but you can’t really incorporate it into your work. The thing with awards is you just have to treat them with a healthy distance. You just say ‘thank you for bestowing the honour upon me’ and just leave it at that. It has nothing to do with how you move on as a band.”

And they have been doing plenty of moving on over the last 30 years. Willson-Piper joined Kilbey and guitarist Peter Koppes in a lineup that would eventually morph into the church in early 1980. Little under a year later they scored their first major radio hit with the pysch-pop jangle mini-anthem The Unguarded Moment. As the decade wore on, the dream-pop neo-psychedelia scene, of which the church are widely regarded as one of the most influential flag bearers, even secured its own media friendly label – Paisley Underground. Then there’s the ghostly Under The Milky Way (from 1988’s Starfish) – a song that kicked down many a door internationally and was recently voted by The Age newspaper as the best Australian song of the last 21 years.

For a band with such a nigh-on unimpeachable legacy, you could probably forgive them for dwelling on the past and perhaps even allow a surrender to the now drearily inevitable ‘play the whole album all the way through’ thing. For Willson-Piper and co. that’s on the agenda. “No it’s not, really. That’s the thing we have to be careful of; things like that they tend to suggest. And it’s just like the Hall of Fame thing, when you get honoured at a thing like that it’s like a full stop, it means it’s the end. And it’s not really. We’ve continued making records since we started and we’ve never stopped.”

Yet for all these years of activity, critical adulation, commercial success and touring, life in a Hall of Fame band isn’t as financially rewarding as you’d expect. Statues and industry votes don’t pay the electricity bills. “No, not particularly. Everybody’s always hurting for money. It’s an expensive world we live in and I find that everyone’s trying to find ways to pay bills… to buy that CD… to go out to dinner … to go to the movies and even buying your kids a present and eating! People think that bands like us run around flush, just because we’ve been around for a few years.”

For the current 30^th anniversary tour, the band decided on a small scale, acoustic approach eschewing larger plugged-in theatre shows. Each show will be a reverse overview of their career where they play a song from each album in reverse chronological order from the last album all the way through to the beginning. Willson-Piper is happy with this compromise. “It’s a cool thing and it’s a good overview without it being too bombastic and self-aggrandizing. We just felt a low-key version of what we had done over the years is the best approach.”

This approach means we’ll be getting a unique perspective on how the band themselves see their place in the recent history of Australian rock, and you’ll also get at least one song from the oft-criticised – especially by the band themselves – Gold Afternoon Fix, the 1990 album that represented the church’s big chance to capitalise onStarfish’s international success and also saw the departure of drummer Richard Ploog and the arrival of drum machines. Willson-Piper is currently writing the liner notes for the album’s pending re-release and fronts up to the challenge.

“It’s gonna be a difficult one to write because it was the album where Richard parted ways with the band and it sounds like a drum machine and it really ruins the songs – all you can hear is that stupid drum machine which is so frustrating and I don’t know how the hell we let it happen. Whether Richard was going to be in the band or not is another issue… but you know why didn’t we get another drummer? Why were we doing it with a drum machine? For all the sadness of Richard not being in the band and whatever the reasons were is irrelevant. The point is if he wasn’t going to be in the band why didn’t we get another drummer? Why did we substitute him with a crap drum machine? So that is always eternally disappointing for us that it ended up being that way.” So in a few weeks time when the church play at Tilley’s, come see them kick the boot into drum machine once and for all.”

the church
“A Psychedelic Symphony”

Celebrating their 30th Anniversary At The Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

Ladies and gentleman – IMC in association with MAX are both excited and honoured to present this important and special news announcement, December 2010.

‘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’.
Mike Joyce / Johnny Marr – The Smiths, Mojo Magazine

To celebrate the milestone of their 30th Anniversary, the church, one of Australia’s and the world’s most prolific and creative bands will perform an exclusive concert with the magnificent George Ellis Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall on Sunday April 10th 2011. This tantalizing prospect will see Steve Kilbey, Peter Koppes, Tim Powles and Marty Willson-Piper perform a selection of their greatest songs in a unique ‘best of’ event that simply cannot be missed. Rapturous arrangements, rich tapestries, raw power and sublime beauty revealed in the aesthetic surroundings of an iconic architectural masterpiece

The recent induction into the 2010 ARIA Hall Of Fame, has allowed the band to reflect on their huge body of work as they continue to pursue their artistic aspirations both live and in the studio. Their last album
Untitled #23 on their own Unorthodox Records label was lauded by the press as the best of their career, attaining a 5 star review in Australian Rolling Stone. To mark the 30th Anniversary of the band, EMI have re released their first four albums, (with the next four to follow shortly) in luxury packaging with extra tracks, rare photos and detailed sleeve notes written by Marty Willson-Piper. A career spanning compilation is also available.

Alongside timeless classics such as ‘The Unguarded Moment’, ‘Under The Milky Way’, ‘Metropolis’ and ‘Almost With You’, the church continue to redefine what it is to be a band, evolving without compromise from hit makers into one of the world’s most acknowledged and inventive rock groups. With a combination of chemistry, talent and a desire for excellence, their unique and distinctive guitar sounds and thought-provoking lyrics have succeeded in inspiring both the audience and the critics’ imagination on a global level.

“A Psychedelic Symphony” will see George Ellis lead his orchestra into dynamic crescendos and sensuous odysseys. This ubiquitous conductor and musical director has worked a diverse range of projects highlights include the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games, the Athens Olympics, the Jakarta Arts Festival, and many concerts at the famous Spiegeltent. George has worked with a myriad of distinguished musicians including Lou Reed, Alex Lloyd and Augie March to name but a few. He has toured internationally to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and London. He has lectured at prestigious music institutions including the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Canberra School of Music and has presented workshops in Music Theatre and Conducting for NIDA and the Australian Society for Music Education. He is the Musical Director of the Sydney University Symphony Orchestra.

“A Psychedelic Symphony” is a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience the music of the church
as they celebrate their illustrious 30-year career at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall,
Sunday April 10th 2011.

Tickets on sale December 10th 2010 from the Sydney Opera House or Ticketek

http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/whatson/the_church.aspx

www.thechurchband.net
www.myspace.com/thechurchbandofficial
www.facebook.com/thechurchband
www.twitter.com/thechurchband
www.georgeellis.com.au

Accommodation options online :

http://www.wotif.com/hotels/australia-sydney-hotels.html

http://www.booking.com/

http://www.ratestogo.com.au/

http://anotherlostshark.com/2010/11/28/electricity-atmosphere-an-evening-with-the-church/

Electricity & Atmosphere: an evening with The Church

“Last night at The Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, a packed house walked out into the still-warm night, with their synapses well and truly lit. In the 2 and a half hours that had passed, The Church had hand picked the soundtrack to the last 30 years of our lives.

For me, the long-term memory was in overdrive… I have not missed the band in QLD (and have traveled many times interstate) since 1990, when I donned my green, pink and black paisley shirt (that one still hangs in the cupboard), black stovepipe Lee’s and Ripple-sole shoes and stepped excitedly into Transformers (on Elizabeth St., now some British Pub I think…) to see The Church supported by another local hero of mine, Grant McLennan. Memories like this were constantly flashing through my head last night as the band played a song from each album in their heady career, starting with Pangaea from last year’s Untitled #23, which recalled a hellishly steamy November night at The Zoo, when the band tore through an epic set to launch the album.

Then it is the fluid groove of Space Needle from Uninvited Like the Clouds (2006), that fires up memories of a night at The Troubadour, where we all walked out smiling with a copy of the limited edition album Tin Mine in our hands, followed by Ionian Blues from the seriously underrated Back With Two Beasts album, which never really got an official release.

We then get a language lesson from the ever dapper Marty Willson-Piper as the band dips into El Momento Siguiente and pulls out the gem that is Reptile. Even in stripped back, acoustic mode, Kilbey’s bass line snakes its way into your chest to delivers its venom.

Peter Koppes then takes the mic for Appalatia from Forget Yourself followed by the timeless opening riff of Unguarded Moment from the first of their acoustic albums, El Momento Descuidado. The band are well into their stride and Kilbey is in raconteur mode, regaling the crowd with stories of playing Warnambool and the manager racing upstairs after a gig to tell them to get back on stage as the crowd were rioting as they had not played said song.

We are then treated to the epic Invisible from After Everything Now This, with the band rising to a glorious crescendo and Kilbey riffing on Kevin Ayers’ Decadence, which the band covered on A Box of Birds, followed by the lush guitar sounds of Louisiana from 1998’s, Hologram of Baal. An album that has a very special place in my heart… the first time I heard this album I was to say the very least, ‘relaxed’, and it has forever worked its way into my fabric.

The mid-to-late 90?s was undoubtedly a difficult period in the band’s history and Kilbey is not backward in introducing Magician Among The Spirits as a miserable album, but tonight’s version of Comedown is absolutely joyous. The first half of the set is then rounded out by My Little Problem from Sometime Anywhere… and I am back in 1994 at Grand Orbit (what a shortlived venue that was), excitedly watching Steve & Marty in acoustic mode, thankful that they were still making music after threatening to split a couple of years earlier.

The second half of the show opens with the gorgeous Mistress from my all time favourite Church album, Priest = Aura. After seeing the band tour on this album at the now sadly defunct Metropolis (I think the last time I saw Kilbey play his famed milk-white electric bass), I wondered whether I would ever see them again, which makes tonight even more special. And speaking of Metropolis, this song followed, with Marty giving it some Spanish flair.

It was at this time (with tongue firmly in cheek) that Kilbey started to discuss the success graph of the band and the next album, 1988?s Starfish, definitely saw the graph skyrocket. And tonight they give us a classic version of the anthemic, Under the Milky Way. To put it simply… Starfish got me through Year 12. In the head of a 17 year old at odds with the societal pressures of school and becoming a man, Starfish provided much needed solace. Can’t ever thank them enough for what it did for me.

Then it’s headlong into the paisley era of Heyday. The set list has had its surprises, but none bigger than Already Yesterday, which after some on stage chatter, they agree, they may never have played before this tour. It sparkles, still possessing a youthful shimmer.

The Remote Luxury LP is next and this time it’s Marty’s turn to take the lead vocal, on 10 000 Miles Away. The 3 strong guitar/mandolin sound is sublime, stirring the crowd for the final numbers of the night.

From Seance its the sublimely gothic Fly and then its straight into another Church classic, Almost With You from their second album, The Blurred Crusade. Peter’s guitar solo is as sharp as ever. Anyone that hasn’t played air guitar along to this just hasn’t lived!

And finally, we are back in 1980, delving into Of Skins and Hearts. We know it’s not going to be Unguarded Moment, so it is a real thrill when the band lock into the slick bass groove and jangly guitar of Tear It All Away. It’s a classic way to finish off 30 years of time travel…

But the band are incredibly generous, coming back to treat us to a cover of The Smashing Pumpkins song, Disarm, a rocking version of Space Saviour and finally a full-tilt jam of their 1990 classic, Grind. This has always been a live favourite and tonight they don’t disappoint. Steve and Tim, providing the rhythmic engine, for Peter to lay down a luxurious bed of keys and for Marty to cut loose (I am sure he was finding new notes on the fretboard), before tonight’s journey reaches its conclusion.

Great art is an amazing thing… it changes you, becomes part of you, so while tonight’s show is over, the life of each of these songs (and the countless others that weren’t played) have taken on a new meaning. I know my stereo at home  (and in the car) is about to become very familiar (again) with the atmosphere and electricity of The Church… ah yes, there are many new memories to be created.” – G. Nunn

http://www.last.fm/user/MaxFactor81/journal/2010/11/26/42g8t4_the_church_@_judith_wright_centre

Tonight’s sold out show sees Australian legends the church take us into An Intimate Space, playing one song from each album in reverse chronological order as befits the opening of their 30th anniversary acoustic tour. The band – currently riding a new wave of recognition following Steve Kilbey’s notorious ARIA Hall Of Fame acceptance speech – are having a ball, engaging with the audience in a warmer-than usual manner and playing their hearts out (later, we even get a non-rehearsed Girl From Ipanema).

Starting with Untitled #23’s Pangaea, the song selection is near-impeccable, spanning acoustically re-envisioned fan favourites and certified classics including the jazzy Reptile, The Unguarded Moment, Under The Milky Way, Metropolis, Fly, Almost With You and the church‘s first EP highlight Tear It All Away. In great spirits tonight, Steve’s banter brims with trademark comedy gold (“That T-shirt design and the church condom were a mistake”, he quips before launching into Hologram Of Baal’s Louisiana), with Marty Willson-Piper and the normally-reserved Peter Koppes not far behind.

Yet it’s the four-piece’s stellar music that ultimately steals the night. A stone-cold cult gem, Ionian Blues is given a stripped-down piano treatment; Peter sings the mantra-like Appalatia and Steve takes After Everything Now This’ Invisible to the moon and back. From 1992’s “magnum hopeless” Priest=Aura, Mistress tugs on the heart strings while an upbeat Comedown and the gorgeous My Little Problem get respectively plucked from the mid-’90s “wilderness” albums Magician Among The Spirits and Sometime Anywhere.

As we enter the pre-Starfish domain during the second half, a magisterial Already Yesterday takes hold of one and all. With drummer Tim Powles unleashing some levitating percussion work, Marty and Steve create a dense 12-string storm on the former’s 10,000 Miles. Because we don’t want the the church to leave just yet, we get a killer cover of The Smashing Pumpkins’ Disarm, a rocky Space Saviour and the cathartic, “Elizabethan” Grind for the encore. A truly magical evening at the Judy.

Rave magazine