STUDY HALL:
The Church
The Church is clearly one of my most favorite bands of the 80's. It seems just like yesterday I was feverishly scouring the kitchen to find a butter knife to sever the security tape and shrink-wrap; the only two things preventing me from playing "Under The Milky Way" in unlimited quantity.
However, it is over 25 years later and The Church is still touring full heartedly and belting out their undeniably surreal lyrics. In 1980 the band consisted of song-writer Steve Kilbey, drummer Nick Ward, and Peter Koppes on vocals and bass. These eclectic Aussies started with small gigs around Sydney and soon adopted a Brit by the name of Marty Wilson-Piper on guitar.
Their first album Of Skins And Heart was low on the radar of many alternative fans at the time until "The Unguarded Moment" hit the airwaves and brought them to the Top 20 on the Australian singles chart. Right before the release of this album, Nick was replaced by a young drummer by the name of Richard Ploog who was a perfect fit at that time with the band's aura.
Their second album released in 1982, The Blurred Crusade was not a blurred crusade for the band. In fact, it was a clear crusade that pushed The Church into classic realm and brought them to Europe and Britain. After a couple of classic releases such as, Seance released in 1983, 2 albums in 1984, Remote Luxury (first album released in the US) and Persia they took a sabbatical to write and record as group and it wasn't until 1986 that they released their next album Heyday which was produced by Peter Walsh.
This album definitely gave me chills as I listened to the singles "Myrrh", "Tristesse", "Tantilized" and "Disenchanted". Unfortunately, this album did not do as well as deserved and sales left them without a record deal. Sales or no sales, I am most grateful they did not stop there, because we were given Starfish, one of my most memorable albums I have in my collection still today, however on CD and not cassette. If this is your first time hearing about The Church, I urge you to listen to several tracks off of this album such as "North South East West", "Hotel Womb", "Destination", "Reptile", and of course "Under The Milky Way". Unfortunately, after the release of Starfish, Ploog left and was subsequently replaced with Jay Dee Daugherty, a drummer for Patti Smith. A couple of years later the band lost Peter Koppes after he decided to bail once they finished their 1992 tour. I remember thinking to myself, well that's just great, The Church will soon be no more. However, in 1994 the now two member band of just Steve and Marty gave us Sometime Anywhere and surprised me. The debut of Tim Powles on drums was a big success in bringing a well connected individual to the bands aura.
As your assignment, I am going to leave it up to you to discover their history between the year 1994 and the present with their current release Box of Birds.
- Kris with a "K"
Guidance Counselor, The Edge 101
Kris with a "K" on MySpace
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