The Church are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1980. Initially associated with new wave, neo-psychedelia, and indie rock, their music later came to feature slower tempos and surreal soundscapes reminiscent of alternative rock, dream pop, and post-rock. Glenn A. Baker has written that "From the release of the 'She Never Said' single in November 1980, this unique Sydney-originated entity has purveyed a distinctive, ethereal, psychedelic-tinged sound which has alternatively found favour and disfavour in Australia."Glenn A. Baker, sleeve note to Of Skins and Heart EMI CD 8297652 The Los Angeles Times has described the band's music as "dense, shimmering, exquisite guitar pop".Quoted on back of sleeve, Of Skins and Heart EMI Cd 829652
The founding members were Steve Kilbey on lead vocals and bass guitar, Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper on guitars, and Nick Ward on drums. Ward played only on their debut album, and the band's drummer for the rest of the 1980s was Richard Ploog. Jay Dee Daugherty (ex-Patti Smith Group) played drums from 1990 to 1993, followed by "timEbandit" Tim Powles (ex-the Venetians), who remains with them to the present day. Koppes left the band from 1992 to 1997 and again in 2020, with Willson-Piper departing in 2013. Ian Haug, formerly of Powderfinger, replaced Willson-Piper, with former touring multi-instrumentalist Jeffrey Cain and Even guitarist Ashley Naylor joining after Koppes' later departure. Kilbey, Koppes, and Powles also recorded together as the Refo:mation in 1997.
The Church's debut album, Of Skins and Heart (1981), delivered their first radio hit, "The Unguarded Moment", and they were signed to major labels in Australia, Europe, and the United States. However, the U.S. label, dissatisfied with their second album, dropped the band without releasing it. This put a dent in their success in the U.S., but they returned to the charts in 1988 with the album Starfish and the U.S. Top 40 hit "Under the Milky Way". Subsequent mainstream success has proved elusive, but the band has sustained a large international cult following and earned consistent critical recognition for its later work, including being inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in Sydney in 2010.
The Church continue to tour and record, releasing their twenty‑sixth studio album, The Hypnogogue, in 2023, and their twenty‑seventh, Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars, in 2024.
History 1980–1981: Early days, Of Skins and Heart Singer, songwriter, and bass guitarist Steve Kilbey first played with guitarist Peter Koppes in a band called Baby Grande in Canberra, Australia in the mid-1970s. After each had left to travel and play in other bands, including Tactics (Kilbey) and Limazine (Koppes), they met again in Sydney in March 1980 and formed the initial three-piece version of The Church, with Limazine drummer Nick Ward. The name was a shortened version of the original name proposed by Kilbey: "The Church of Man". A month later, Marty Willson-Piper, originally from Liverpool, United Kingdom, witnessed one of their gigs and met Kilbey afterwards. That same night he was invited to join the band on guitar, establishing the classic two-guitar formation.
A four-song demo was recorded in Kilbey's bedroom studio and sent to Chris Gilbey of ATV Northern Songs. The song "Chrome Injury" attracted the attention of managing director Gilbey, who signed the band to his recently formed record production company, in association with EMI and their recently resurrected Parlophone label.
The band's debut album, Of Skins and Heart, was recorded late in 1980, produced by Gilbey, and mixed by Bob Clearmountain. The first single, "She Never Said", was released in November, but did not chart. At the start of 1981, Ward was replaced on drums by Richard Ploog. Ploog was recruited by their manager, Michael Chugg, after hearing of his reputation in Adelaide. Ploog's arrival established The Church's first stable line-up. The second single, "The Unguarded Moment", co-written by Kilbey and Michelle Parker, was issued alongside the album in March 1981. "The Unguarded Moment" became an Australian top forty hit, reaching No. 22 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart, while Of Skins and Heart went gold, achieving the same position on the related Albums Chart. To promote the releases, the band undertook their first national tour.
The first recordings with Ploog were released as a five-track double 7-inch EP, Too Fast for You, in July. Their image and sound now evoked comparisons with 1960s psychedelic groups, with tight jeans, paisley shirts, and Byrds-style jangly guitars.
After the commercial success of Of Skins and Heart, it was re-released in 1982 as The Church, with a modified track listing. The Church peaked at no. 7 in the New Zealand Albums Chart and no. 13 in Sweden. Capitol Records also released an edited single version of "The Unguarded Moment", without the band's approval.
1982–1985: The Blurred Crusade, Seance, Remote Luxury, and Persia The band's second album, The Blurred Crusade, was issued in March 1982 and was both produced and mixed by Bob Clearmountain. "With its mystical lyrics the second album... brought the group's own style more into focus". The album peaked at no. 10 and its first single, "Almost with You" resulted in a second Top 30 hit, peaking at no. 21.
Capitol declined to release The Blurred Crusade in North America and demanded that they write more radio-friendly material, as exemplified by their stable-mates Little River Band, which horrified the band. After another recording session, five new songs were offered to Capitol but the label was still unimpressed and dropped the band. The five songs were later released in Australia as the EP Sing-Songs, which reached the Top 100 Albums Chart in December. Meanwhile, their manager, Michael Chugg, arranged a U.K. tour supporting the hugely successful pop group Duran Duran, but after eight gigs The Church pulled out, feeling that audiences were unsympathetic. Chugg later recalled, "They were hard work. All four of them were strong-willed and had their own ideas of how things should be."
In May 1983, the band released their third album, Seance, co-produced by The Church and engineer John Bee (Hoodoo Gurus, Icehouse, The Divinyls), which peaked at No. 18. It used more keyboards and synthesizers and has been described as "That stark release [which] explored the band's darker side, and [whose] tracks... were awash with strings and other effects". For Seance, the band employed mixing engineer Nick Launay, who had worked with Midnight Oil. He favoured a gated reverb drum sound, popular in the 1980s, which produced a staccato-like snare sound. Unsatisfied with this, the band asked Launay to redo the mix, but the effect was only lightened. The first single, "Electric Lash", featured this effect especially prominently.
Forgoing a full album, the band released two EPs in 1984, Remote Luxury in March and Persia in August, but only in Australia and New Zealand. Both EPs reached the Top 50 on the Australian Albums Chart. Again, almost all tracks were written by Kilbey, but compared to Seance, the atmosphere was lighter and less gloomy. The band's trademark guitar sound was complemented by the keyboards of guest musicians Davey Ray Moor (from the Crystal Set, which included Kilbey's brother Russell) and Craig Hooper (from the Reels), who joined as an auxiliary member. Hooper soon left to form the Mullanes. The band then signed to Warner Bros. Records in the United States. Internationally, the two EPs were repackaged as a single album titled Remote Luxury. Its U.S. release was their first record there since the debut album.
1985–1988: Heyday, Starfish
The Church reconvened at Studios 301 in mid-1985 to work on their next album, Heyday, with British producer/engineer Peter Walsh (Simple Minds, Scott Walker, Peter Gabriel). Their first single in almost two years, "Already Yesterday", appeared in October and just made the Top 100. Heyday followed in November and brought new stylistic elements with the addition of real strings and horns, creating a warm, organic sound. The songs "were among the richest moments in The Church canon".
The album peaked in Australia at no. 19 and placed on the U.S. Billboard 200. A promotional tour started in April 1986, with concerts both at home and abroad. Unexpectedly, Willson-Piper suddenly quit mid-tour after rising in-band tensions and on 10 July, the Church performed as a three-piece in Hamburg, Germany. Willson-Piper returned within a week after Kilbey agreed that future releases would contain more group efforts.
Despite the charged atmosphere and warm press, low sales for the album's singles in Australia prompted EMI to drop them. Since the band had greater sales overseas than in Australia, they decided to record in a studio abroad and opted for a four-album deal with U.S. label Arista Records in 1987. For Australian releases they signed with Mushroom Records.
Recording sessions in Los Angeles, with producers Waddy Wachtel (Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, Robbie Williams) and Greg Ladanyi (Warren Zevon, Jackson Browne, Fleetwood Mac), were a new challenge according to Kilbey: "It was Australian hippies versus West Coast guys who know the way they like to do things. We were a bit more undisciplined than they would have liked". Under pressure from the producers, Kilbey took vocal lessons, an experience he later regarded as valuable.
Four weeks of rehearsals resulted in Starfish, released in April 1988. The album found its way into the mainstream, marking a new worldwide commercial peak for the band. It reached no. 11 in Australia and the top 50 in the U.S. It was awarded a gold record in December 1992 by the RIAA. Also released in February, the single "Under the Milky Way" reached no. 24 on the U.S. Hot 100 and no. 22 in Australia, as well as entering the Canadian Top 100. It peaked at no. 2 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks. The song was written by Kilbey and then-girlfriend Karin Jansson (ex-Pink Champagne). "Under the Milky Way" won an ARIA Award in 1989 for Single of the Year. In 2008, readers of The Australian voted it the best Australian song of the last 20 years. In response, Kilbey said, "it's not really about anything at all. I just wanted to create an atmosphere and I didn't even put a lot of thought into that. History has given it something that it never really had". A second single from Starfish, "Reptile", charted on the Australian top 100 in August.
EMI responded with a double compilation album, Hindsight 1980-1987, which contained selections from the band's prior albums, together with hitherto-uncollected singles and B-sides. It peaked in the ARIA Top 40 Albums Chart in July.
1989–1992: Gold Afternoon Fix, Priest=Aura The Church promoted Starfish with a nine-month tour before they returned to the studio for a follow-up. With a U.S. Top 50 album under their belt, there was pressure from Arista to create another. The band started negotiations with former Led Zeppelin bass guitarist and keyboardist John Paul Jones, who had a reputation as a sophisticated producer, but the record company and management vetoed their suggestion. In an attempt to duplicate the success of Starfish, The Church returned to Los Angeles, with Waddy Wachtel producing.
Drummer Richard Ploog began to retreat further into his own drug habit as pressure from within the studio environment increased. The number of attempted studio takes spiralled, and Ploog's relationship with Kilbey deteriorated, accentuated by Wachtel's demands for a consistently reliable tempo. Eventually, Ploog's isolation led to exclusion, and his drum tracks were replaced by rigid, programmed drums on all but three tracks. He left the band after the sessions.