| Author | Message | ||
     Matthias Treml Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 112 Registered: 05-2005 |
I saw the Church play Sunday in Ferndale, Michigan. Before the show I was lucky enough to run into Steve Kilbey and have a chat. I planned on making and wearing an "I Miss Grant McLennan" T-shirt but was too shy about it. Instead I asked SK if he read the comments on his blogs. His said yes and asked if I posted. I said I was the one who requested Providence because I missed Grant. He walked up and hugged me and said something but I can't really remember because I was a bit shocked by the hug. I asked him to talk about Grant which he was more than happy to oblige. He talked about working with him and what type of person he was. It was really nice to talk to someone who worked and knew him. Steve is very poetic and speaks with bravado at times. He lightened up the conversation saying, "Why did Grant have to go? He was such a gentleman. Why couldn't it have been Liam Gallagher?" Anyway, they went on that night and played a very special version of Providence in memory of Grant. People were taken by it and even those who may not have known the song must have felt it. It was a special night. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 148 Registered: 01-2005 |
Matt, sorry I missed you as I was there as well! Austin, who posts here was also in attendence. Cindy couldn't make it. Steve also sang a verse of "Bye Bye Pride" in one of the The Church's songs. I agree it was a special concert, as they also performed "Reptile" for the first time on the tour. I would have liked to have them perform "Aura", but with acoustic guitars that might have benn asking too much. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 543 Registered: 03-2006 |
Nice story, Matthias...I think that, in a group of fairly zealous fans, you stand out as one of the truest... It really makes you wonder about Grant. Does anybody have anything less than glowing to say about him? Does anybody give him less than rave reviews as a human being? That's such a rarity - a great artist that isn't an asshole in some way. It all feeds back into the music and why we're all still going on about him (and them)... Also, the GM/RF partership seems fairly unique in that way, too. They are the only such musical partnership I'm aware of where the two parties truly were friends that truly cared about each other. Every other one I know of - your Lennon-McCartney, your Jagger-Richards, your Simon-Garfunkel, you KNOW they would've just as soon stuck a knife in each other's back as looked at them. If it weren't for all the $, there's no way they'd even have been in the same zip code for 5 minutes. Not so the boys from Brisbane... | ||
| Matthias Treml Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 113 Registered: 05-2005 |
Keith, you make great points. It was very satisfying to read the Monthly article; that even when they broke up, they still saw each other and played together and were friends. I've always been impressed by Robert's writings. Whether liner notes or this remembrance. He is world class classy. He doesn't even mention Grant's girlfriend by name. He mentions the darkness as well to complete the whole picture. He reveals how great it was to talk and goof around with Grant and to mine his mind about culture. They were symbiotic. What a great soul brothership. And I think you're right about it permeating the music and certainly has had an impact on the kind of audience they attract. This board is one of the most polite and thoughtful I've ever read and the only one I participate on with any regularity. A true testament to two friends who loved music and shared it with all of us. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 474 Registered: 05-2005 |
Thanks for sharing that story Matthias. I interviewed Steve Lilbey in a Dublin hotel room in about 1997 and found him to be an absolute gentelman. | ||
| Guy Ewald Member Username: Guy_ewald Post Number: 174 Registered: 02-2005 |
That's nice. I've really rediscovered The Church this year; they’ve had an incredible run of albums since 1998 when Peter Koppes rejoined and Tim Powles took over the drum stool. I’ve been enjoying them more than I ever did back in their 80’s “heyday.” We saw them last week at Irving Plaza in NYC and it was a great night of music. They performed 'Providence' and Steve introduced the song as being "by Grant McLennan, a great songwriter and a good friend of ours who died earlier this year." I brought a couple CDR's to pass along to the band. I didn’t seek them out, I saw somebody wearing a road crew t-shirt and asked if he could take them up to Steve (he was very polite and did so immediately). I gave him a Forster & McLennan acoustic performance from their 1999 tour as well as a Tom Verlaine disc; a reconstruction of his “lost album” that was meant to follow “Cover” (songs released as b-sides). My wife thought that my disc might have inspired the performance of “Providence,” but I thought not and it sounds like the song has been a staple of the tour (good on you PC). But when they came back for one of the encores Steve walked up to the microphone and said, “This is Plattsburg. You’ll have to go back to the junction about five miles…” a narrative quote from Verlaine’s “Souvenir from a Dream.” I mean, he was in NYC and I know they’re big Television/Verlaine fans, but I was pretty sure that was his way of saying “thanks” to an unknown stranger out in the audience. It was a sweet evening all around. | ||
| Guy Ewald Member Username: Guy_ewald Post Number: 175 Registered: 02-2005 |
That's nice. I've really rediscovered The Church this year; they’ve had an incredible run of albums since 1998 when Peter Koppes rejoined and Tim Powles took over the drum stool. I’ve been enjoying them more than I ever did back in their 80’s “heyday.” We saw them last week at Irving Plaza in NYC and it was a great night of music. They performed 'Providence' and Steve introduced the song as being "by Grant McLennan, a great songwriter and a good friend of ours who died earlier this year." I brought a couple CDR's to pass along to the band. I didn’t seek them out, I saw somebody wearing a road crew t-shirt and asked if he could take them up to Steve (he was very polite and did so immediately). I gave him a Forster & McLennan acoustic performance from their 1999 tour as well as a Tom Verlaine disc; a reconstruction of his “lost album” that was meant to follow “Cover” (songs released as b-sides). My wife thought that my disc might have inspired the performance of “Providence,” but I thought not and it sounds like the song has been a staple of the tour (good on you MT). But when they came back for one of the encores Steve walked up to the microphone and said, “This is Plattsburg. You’ll have to go back to the junction about five miles…” a narrative quote from Verlaine’s “Souvenir from a Dream.” I mean, he was in NYC and I know they’re big Television/Verlaine fans, but I was pretty sure that was his way of saying “thanks” to an unknown stranger out in the audience. It was a sweet evening all around. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 489 Registered: 03-2005 |
Is the new Church album any good? I passed it up on my last Amoeba visit. Mind you I have a lot of their stuff ending with the acoustic remake album. Does the new material hold up? Matthias, Robert and Grant's wonderfully positive friendship has long been an inspiration to me. I suspect Lindy was jealous of Grant's exalted status with Robert and it wouldn't surprise me if Amanda found herself in a similar predicament. The few quotes of hers that I've seen are the only comments I've read about Grant that seemed lukewarm. | ||
| Guy Ewald Member Username: Guy_ewald Post Number: 176 Registered: 02-2005 |
I like "Uninvited, Like The Clouds" quite a bit. Like all their albums, the music is more a smokey, fluid presence than a "sculptural" one (like that of The Go-Betweens). "Uninvited" plays to the group's strengths and there's a nice variety at work; a bit of acoustic guitar and mandolin, a bit of electronics and more varied tempos and moods than their other recent albums. I didn't get much mileage out of the acoustic album 'El Momento' but if you're a fan I'd recommend the new one. | ||
| Matthias Treml Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 120 Registered: 05-2005 |
It's impossible to buy all the Church albums because they are so prolific. Because of this, they suffer from the quantity vs quality issue. I kept up through After Everything and Box of Birds. I heard El Momento and although it was really interesting on first listen, it's heavy on the reverb and they slowed the timing down on most every track. It's what I would expect to hear while inhaling ether before dental work. They're great live and the new tracks sounded worthwhile. I really wanted the 1992 Priest=Aura DVD to purchase that night but they were understandably sold-out. Bummer. I didn't go back to purchase the Clouds record. | ||
| Guy Ewald Member Username: Guy_ewald Post Number: 177 Registered: 02-2005 |
They are prolific, but not impossibly so; they'be been around for 25 years and have about 18 albums. I would certainly recommend "Uninvited, Like The Clouds" as well as "Forget Yourself" from 2003. "Hologram of Baal" from 1998 is excellent as is "After Everything, Now This." They've released two outtakes collections; the recent "Back With Two Beasts" (available at gigs and Internet-only) and the second disc of the remix album "Parallel Universe." They're decent collections, but the group definitely made the right choices in the material they chose for the official albums. Most of their albums are very affordable on Amazon. | ||
| Hugh Nimmo Member Username: Nemo Post Number: 68 Registered: 07-2005 |
It could get expensive if you become a big fan of the group as all of the current members have recorded solo albums and/or been involved in side projects. Kilbey in particular has a substantial back catalogue ( numerous solo albums under his own name plus side projects such as Steve & Russell Kilbey, Fake, Hex, Jack Frost, Isidore, and The Refo:mation ) a lot of which is very good. | ||
| Matt Ellis Member Username: Matt_ellis Post Number: 120 Registered: 11-2004 |
I can confirm that both of the tributes to Grant have been a staple on The Church's tour: I saw their show in London back in May. Steve Kilbey included a verse of 'Bye Bye Pride' in their closing song (wish I knew the title) and I was also delighted and close to tears when they played 'Providence'. What a great bunch of guys The Church are - my mate who is considerably more outgoing than me approached all of the band seperately after the gig to get them to autograph 'Uninvited...Like The Clouds' for me! I found Marty Willson-Piper in particular very friendly and talkative. I was lucky enough to get a photo taken with Steve who also put me in a play 'headlock'! maybe because I was rather timid to ask him for a photo. Has anybody read Steve's blog? apparently it is rated as the 24th most read blog in the world. http://www.stevekilbey.blogspot.com/ |