Se press Release hd steve Kilbey (The Church) New Zealand tour July 07
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| "These are the last shows we're ever going to do," was his sales pitch back then. "One last great album and we're out of here forever." Well, a year on and it appears that the demise of The Church is as far away as it ever was.
TD
They kept true to their word about delivering another great Church album the subtle, slow, dreamy Hologram Of Baal - but during the last couple of months, the band has been working harder than it has all decade. Just before arriving back home for their first post-"last tour" series of shows, The Church travelled through America for a month, visiting cities they haven't seen as a band since the days of Gold Afternoon Fix. "We've been to these cities four or five times before so we know where to eat, we know the best book shops and record shops and we see familiar faces," said guitarist Marty Willson-Piper, sitting in a Thai restaurant in Boston. "And a lot of people who are into The Church tend to come back. They're kind of like, `Oh my God, how could you leave it so long?' And I just tell them, `Well, it wasn't really our fault.' " Certainly, much has changed in The Church during the course of the 1990s. First they lost their drummer (Richard Ploog), then their guitarist (Peter Koppes), there was an album as a duo (1994's Sometime Anywhere), then they got a new drummer (Tim Powles), and ended up with their old guitarist back. "It's all about chemistry between people and something happens when we all get together, which seems really important," offered Willson-Piper. Hologram Of Baal was recorded late last year in Kilbey's old house, in Rozelle, just before the singer packed up and moved to Sweden for good to be with his young family. The guitarist describes it as a moody record, heavily shaped by the studio wizardry of Powles. One of WillsonPiper's friends recently suggested to him it sounds "like it was made on the MIR space-station ". Hologram also goes some way to redeeming the wrongs of its predecessor Magician Among The Spirits, an album Kilbey has publicly written off as a weak effort. His views aren't necessarily shared by the rest of the band. "Well, it's an album Steve isn't happy with," said Willson-Piper matter-of-factly. "My thoughts on it are: when you release an album with an 18-minute song on it, three instrumentals and a cover version, you're going to have a problem with it. "Somehow that album wasn't cohesive. When a Church album really works, it has something cohesive about it." You'd think with the members of The Church permanently scattered around the globe, getting their first full-scale world tour in almost a decade together would have been a logistical nightmare. Not necessarily so, said Willson-Piper. "All you need is someone with an organised mind and it's done." * The Church play The Metro, City, tonight and tomorrow night, and The Sands, Narrabeen, on Saturday night. (c) Nationwide News Proprietary Ltd, 1998. NS
GCAT : Political/General News | GENT : Arts/Entertainment RE AUSNZ : Australia and New Zealand | AUSTR : Australia AN Document daitel0020010922duat012zs SE News; Nightlife HD Smith Has A Taste For Experience BY By Paul Zalunardo WC 447 words PD 9 July 1998 SN Illawarra Mercury SC ILM
PG 19 LA English CY (c) 1998 of John Fairfax Group Pty. Ltd. LP
SHE may have failed her singing classes in college, but legendary Church frontman Steve Kilbey knew what he was seeing when he saw Margot Smith performing. With her powerful voice and songwriting skills she is, as he found out, a great talent to work with. TD
While Kilbey has a reputation of being hard to work with in some circles, Smith, who has worked with him for eight years, said all rumours have proven wrong. ``Kilbey has been a brilliant friend, his approach has always been one of asking how he can help me,'' Smith said. ``The meeting was first arranged by EMI, and from then things have gone incredibly well, any rumours of him being hard to get along with are just not true.'' Smith's second album, Taste was recorded under the most peculiar circumstances, with the experience one she will never forget. ``We recorded the album straight to tape, it was done on the spot,'' she said. ``But we were all so linked up in our minds, Kilbey knew exactly what I liked and didn't like. ``It was a jam, and one that went very well.'' While saying the experience was one she really enjoyed, Smith said her next album would not follow the same path. Recording the new album begins today, with the opportunity to further build on her reputation in music circles something she is unlikely to miss. When asked on her view of herself, Smith said she would much rather be remembered for her songwriting than her voice. She said that as a child she became more and more interested in music as time went along, with her parents always encouraging her to sing. ``I got into acting, went to college, but then got out of it in a hurry,'' she said. ``I actually failed my singing class at the time, but it did lead to a fascination in music.'' Smith also said she does not listen to other bands or singers for a lengthy period of time in order to make sure that she does not become affected by their style or sound. ``I don't listen to much - if you listen to too much you tend to take on their influences, I usually just listen to the music of my friends,'' she said. While music is important to Smith, she said the Australian political spectrum was something of particular concern to her at the moment. She said the whole attitude of people who did not vote was something that needed to change. Margot Smith will appear at the Scarborough Hotel on Saturday night with Dirt and Fifth Sun. AN
Document ilm0000020010917du7900cqg SE ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE HD Amen To All That BY David Saunders WC 624 words PD 24 October 1997 SN The Age SC AGEE
PG 10 LA English CY Copyright of John Fairfax Group Pty Ltd LP
MOODY album artwork, cryptic lyrics and an unsmiling Steve Kilbey as the alluring but aloof front man. That's the Church. Veterans of 12 albums over 17 years, the odd line-up change and at times frosty relations between members, they have decided to draw the curtain on an illustrious, if not always headline-grabbing career. Tonight, they play the Palace in what may be their last-ever gig. TD
Don't expect tears, don't expect a stadium rock-band embrace at the finale and, above all else, don't yell out for them to sing The Unguarded Moment, the pop classic that started it for them all those years ago on Countdown. They banned it from concerts long ago. The final concerts come as the band congregates to record one last album, one Kilbey hopes will let them leave on a high note after his disappointment with Magician among the Spirits. But while fans of their jangly guitars and robust loyalty to the music world's sombre side may be sad at their passing, Kilbey is keeping his emotions to himself. But why do they feel it's time to go? "I think everybody's had enough and you have to try and go out while you're ahead," says Kilbey, who is moving to Stockholm to be with his twin six-year-old daughters and their mother. Kilbey, who is on the wrong side of 40 himself, is conscious that bands can outstay their welcome. "I don't want to die before I get old, but I'm getting pretty old anyway," he says. "I don't think groups should keep going well into middle age. I think the Rolling Stones are horrible, I really do. It would have been so much better if they'd packed it in 20 years ago." In recent times, he's even lightened up, especially onstage, as a rather anarchic (by his standards) solo show in June suggests. In the loungy surrounds of the Continental, Prahran, diehard fans, displaying the sort of affection you might expect at a Bon Jovi or Cold Chisel concert, yelled out lyrics as Steve strummed his guitar and Tim Powles sat nonplussed at his drum kit on the side. Audience participation reached an art form when a bloke came onstage and played Under the Milky Way. "That's been developing over the last couple of years, that sort of yahooish element. When I'm on my own I like it to get silly," says Kilbey. He believes uprooting from Australia will be a wrench, but an unavoidable one. "It's a big bloody tug actually, it's like my daughters versus everything else. I'm not desperate to live in Sweden, I had no option if I wanted to be a full-time father. I have to go and live there. They won out." He looks forward to hanging up the guitar for a while and watching his daughters perform Abba routines. But the music scene that has spawned Benny, Bjorn, Anna and Frida and Europe holds little appeal. "It's a pretty tight, funny little scene over there. With all the years of going back and forth, I've never really understood how it works." But, as the Church's wind-up approaches and the icy, Nordic charms of Stockholm beckon, there's one aspect of Kilbey's move that must trouble fans: will he become a Volvo driver? "No, no, I'm a bit more of a Saab man, but I think I'm going to be a more of a subway man around Stockholm. It's pretty hopeless having a car there." The Church play the Palace, St Kilda, tonight. NS
GCAT : Political/General News | GENT : Arts/Entertainment AN Document agee000020011005dtao00kgg HD Reaching Those Heavenly Highs WC 198 words PD 18 September 1997 SN Canberra Times SC CANBTZ LA English CY Copyright The Federal Capital Press of Australia Pty Limited. All rights reserved. LP While the core members of The Church, Steve Kilbey and Marty Willson-Piper, seem to possess a certain immortality, still making quality albums 17 years on (Heyday (1986), Starfish (1988), Priest=Aura (1992) being the highlights), it was 1982 which captured the band's finest moment. It was a time when the band hit a creative high - combined with way cool 1960s psychedelia imagery as a follow-up to its impressive debut album, Of Skins and Heart. This album caught the perfect balance between the "airy fairy" lyrics and melodic eclecticism of Kilbey (the single, Almost With You, with its indescribably beautiful Spanish guitar solo; and the romantic nostalgia of Secret Corners, Just For You and the heavenly To Be In Your Eyes) and the amazing guitar soundscapes of Willson-Piper (When You Were Mine, Field Of Mars, and the bitter epic You Took). TD
The Blurred Crusade is the personification of The Church's often warped vision, with both Kilbey and Willson-Piper, although embarking on extensive solo projects, still returning to continue the eternal search for their Holy Grail. But more recent sonic explorations will never touch the perfection found here. - MARK LUDLOW AN
Document canbtz0020011005dt9i00bdv HD Church back to lead flock. BY By DINO SCATENA. WC 516 words PD 19 September 1996 SN Daily Telegraph SC DAITEL PG 58
LA English CY (c) 1996 Nationwide News Proprietary Ltd LP "WHAT the hell is going on in town?" Steve Kilbey queries aloud again as we come to another street that's been blocked off by police. Kilbey is anxious, in a hurry to make an appointment on time. TD
Moments ago, we handed him the keys to the car and Kilbey's now hooning about as if he's starring in an episode of Miami Vice. Going by The Church's latest album, Magician Among the Spirits, or for that matter, any of the band's other work over the past decade and a half, this road hazard sitting next to us is nothing like the tranquil guru you'd expect to be the leader of The Church. But there's a lot to get done in these days before The Church go back on the road as a band for the first time in four years. Missing parked cars by centimetres, Kilbey explains that it's likely this will be the final Church tour ever, so he wants to make it as memorable as possible. The album and this tour have seen the return of founding member and guitarist Peter Koppes to the fray. Koppes had quit the band following 1992's Priest = Aura album, but was invited back by Kilbey to appear on the album and has decided to stick around for the shows. This couldn't make Kilbey any happier. "I could see exactly why he wanted to go," said Kilbey of Koppes' original decision to leave. "We'd do a tour and then we'd go to the accountant's office and they'd say, `Sorry, there's no money'. "Peter didn't leave because of the music, he left because of all the other things. He was tired of doing something for 12 years, seeing enormous amounts of money being generated and none of it being ciphered his way. "I don't know if he's back for good. It's hard to know what's going to happen from here on in. We all might bloody hate each other after the tour." Indeed, The Church's future following these shows is completely up in the air, although Kilbey believes there will always be a Church. "I know if I put a record out and it's got The Church on it, a certain amount of people are going to hear it and be interested in it," Kilbey explained. "And it's been a long hard, painful, grind to establish that trademark. It's a hard thing to just walk away from. Plus we still like playing together and there's still life in it. "Obviously we're all getting on but we still believe in what we do and I still think it's valid. "We will stop when we stop thinking it's valid but I certainly don't sit down and go, `The music around at the moment is so great that there's no room for The Church'." The Church play Selinas tomorrow night. (c) Nationwide News Proprietary Ltd, 1996. NS
GCAT : Political/General News | GENT : Arts/Entertainment RE AUSNZ : Australia and New Zealand | AUSTR : Australia AN Document daitel0020011017ds9j00d6f CLM POP QUIZ SE SUNDAY DATEBOOK HD Q &A With the Church BY MICHAEL SNYDER, CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER WC 1004 words PD 29 January 1995 SN The San Francisco Chronicle SC SFC ED SUNDAY PG 41 LA English CY (c) 1995 Hearst Communications Inc., Hearst Newspapers Division. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved. LP
. TD
Despite some setbacks and a major defection, Steve Kilbey and Marty Willson-Piper have decided to keep the Church open. An arty pop-rock outfit from Australia, the Church began 14 years ago as a quartet. "Under the Milky Way," a lilting, bittersweet single from the 1988 album "Starfish," brought the band acclaim and its best record sales in the United States. But a few years later, drummer Richard Ploog left the Church. He was replaced by drum machines and hired studio players. Rhythm guitarist Peter Koppes dropped out in 1992. Undaunted, bass player Kilbey and guitarist Willson-Piper last year recorded the ninth Church album, "Sometime Anywhere," a lengthy, melancholy work that spotlights their singing and songwriting talents. It's a tapestry of soft, somber vocals and lush, layered guitars. Although Australia's Mushroom label remains committed to the band, its U.S. label, Arista, recently dropped the Church from its roster of artists. Yet the duo is embarking on a short "unplugged" tour that will include Bay Area appearances tomorrow at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco and Wednesday at the Edge in Palo Alto. Recently, Kilbey spoke to The Chronicle by telephone from his second home in Stockholm, Sweden. Q: What are you doing in Sweden? A: I have a house and recording studio in Sydney, but I've lived here on and off, three months a year for the last 12 years. I met a Swedish girl and we had children -- twin daughters that are 3 1/2. When she moved back here full time, I wanted to be here more. Now, if I have to go away from the girls on business, I get a little p-- off. Q: How does this affect your relationship with Marty? A: Marty has a recording studio here in Stockholm, where we recorded a couple of the tracks on the last album. He lived here for a bit, and he has a daughter here who's a friend to my kids. Marty was born in England, and he's staying there right now, but he just wanders around the world the rest of the time. Q: What happened with Peter Koppes that led him to quit the group? A: He just had his fill after 12 years. That's twice as long as high school. At some point, enough's enough. We were still enjoying ourselves, so Marty and I went on. There was going to be a different sound. Peter's input is not there anymore. It's less of a hassle now. Instead of a three-way split, it's Marty and me, and we make all of the decisions together. Q: How did your recording technique change without a full band? A: We had a friend of ours put together 30 to 40 different drum loops. We found the ones we liked and jammed with them. After a while, they turned from jams into complete instrumentals -- like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. Then we added lyrics. The music inspired the lyrics, 100 percent. Q: Is the live acoustic duo format comfortable for you after all those years with a rock rhythm section? A: It's really pleasant. It's more delicate. There's more intimacy and subtlety. I can sing better. I'm singing instead of yelling to compete with the racket. It lets me feel closer to the audience and the songs. Q: The current album is darker than your earlier more rock-oriented recordings. Why? A: The music goes where it wants to go. We don't say, "Let's get in a lush mood and move away from rock." We just drift into it. Q: How do you and Marty divide the labor? A: We write the music together. If I write the lyrics, I sing the song. If Marty does the singing, he's written the lyrics. Q: How did you get into a music career? A: I always intended to be a musician. The band came together in Sydney, where I met Marty in 1980. We started off in isolation, playing local clubs and recording demos, but the band took off. There are incredible ups and downs in this life. It's like a wild roller coaster. Sometimes you wish you weren't on it. Q: How do you feel about Arista dropping the band? A: Nothing surprises me in this business. Arista tampered with the song selection on the last album. All over the world, it's the same. A record company mishandles your project, then they drop you when you don't sell. On some records, they put this big push behind you, and it's "Hellzapoppin'." Other times, you're launched, and it's like a slug coming out of a gun with no gunpowder behind it. It just lays there. America's been up and down for us. Now it's down. But if you try to anticipate the market, you're going to go down the drain. You don't want to lose your identity chasing a chimera. Q: "The Maven," a song on "Sometime Anywhere," sounds like an attack on business types who might hamper an artist's progress. Where you aiming at anyone in particular? A: No. It's just that you end up dealing with those types of people and sooner or later it comes out. It's not hurling invectives at random. But we were surprised at how many people from the record company called up and said, with pride, "I'm `The Maven,' aren't I?" Q: How about future plans for the Church? A: After these acoustic dates in California, I'm going back to Australia to produce a couple of albums. We might also do an acoustic tour in Australia. Even if we don't, we'll be recording another Church project sometime this year. ART
PHOTO; Caption: Marty Willson-Piper, Steve Kilbey of the Church NS GCAT : Political/General News | GENT : Arts/Entertainment | NCAT : Content Types | NPEO : People Profile IPD MUSIC BIOGRAPHY INTERVIEW PUB The Hearst Corporation AN Document sfc0000020011026dr1t003u2 SE Agenda; My favorite album HD My Favorite Album WC 139 words PD 24 April 1994 SN Sunday Age SC SAGE PG 6
LA English CY Copyright of John Fairfax Group Pty Ltd LP STEVE KILBEY -- Favorite album: `Beard of Stars', Tyrannosaurus Rex. Favorite track: `Elemental Child'. TD
Why: I found this in a record shop in 1970. This is Marc Bolan's most obscure album, just before Tyrannosaurus Rex became T Rex. It was a magical record, a transition album where they were going electric. It was the first time Marc Bolan played electric guitar on an album. They'd been given up for dead by the critics by that stage, and it didn't do well commercially. I used to play it over and over, and Dad would say, ``The only clever thing about that bastard is that he knows how to spell `tyrannosaurus'.'' I still play it all the time. Steve Kilbey will play on 29 and 30 April at the Continental Cafe, Prahran. AN
Document sage000020011030dq4o001no SE News
HD A Bittersweet Farewell Show BY Virginia Trioli WC 376 words PD 9 October 1992 SN The Age SC AGEE
PG 12 LA English CY Copyright of John Fairfax Group Pty Ltd LP
THIS performance was always going to be weighty with hidden meanings. Just after the Church's national tour was announced, and after lead singer, Steve Kilbey, had dispelled rumors over the band's longevity, Church founding member, Peter Koppes, announced he was leaving the band. After the tour. Onstage at the National Theatre on Wednesday night, the tension seemed palpable. Kilbey kept his back to Koppes a great deal of the time, with Koppes exiting quietly stage right during breaks, while Kilbey and Marty Willson-Piper marched off to the left. Two songs in, Kilbey told the warmly appreciative crowd, ``Thanks, this could be very well the last time we play down here ... So anyway, let's get on with it.'' Like witnesses to an intimate argument, we didn't know where to look. TD
If this was the last time I see the Church live, the memories will be sweet. Wednesday's performance began a little subdued, but by night's end the Church had displayed once again why their music has meant so much to this generation of Australians. The band lead from strength with the hypnotic `Aura', taken from their last album, `Priest=Aura'. It built up the song to epic proportions, with Willson-Piper's extraordinary guitar playing laying a dense melodic track under the vocals, eventually becoming a screaming vocal of its own. The album's first single, `Ripple', was next, with a passionate rendition of `Myrrh' and `Sisters'. The band's creative and adventurous playing bears out Kilbey's remark that if people want to hear the Church's better-known singles, (which the band won't play live) they should go home and listen to them on record. This live performance was all about dragging out the songs' evocative potential, and reinterpreting them with intensity. Guitar work became expressionistic (bordering on the insane during `Chaos') and Kilbey's vocals growled ever lower as the music became darker. None of Wednesday's crowd wanted it to be true, but if this is in fact the last time we will see one of Australia's most engaging and inventive rock groups ever play in Melbourne again, then you had better be at the Palace tonight. Directory: files -> 2008 2008 -> Preparedness for the Health Consequences of Climate Change as a Potential Influence on Public Health Law and Policy 2008 -> Darryl Heller Dissertation Proposal Draft April 7, 2008 Law, Labor, and Politics: Street Railways in Brooklyn and New York, 1884-1904 2008 -> Anna Palladino Professor Calvert 2008 -> Jails replace schools in the mountain region of guerrero 2008 -> University of Arkansas at Little Rock Plan No 2008 -> This is a list of search engines we (Polson Enterprises) have found helpful from time to time 2008 -> Rnib centre for Accessible Information (cai) Literature review #2 2008 -> Anne louise cohen 2008 -> Time race# Download 1.73 Mb. Share with your friends:
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