Few bands experience the career longevity of THE CHURCH, much less the continued creative fire that keeps sparking year after year. Following two of the best reviewed albums in five decades of releasing music – 2023’s The Hypnogogue and its companion piece, 2024’s Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars, the psychedelic dream pop pioneers are returning to North America for “The Singles,” an extensive tour that revisits their legacy of singles spread over their 37-album catalogue.
Kicking off on July 15th in Phoenix, AZ and circling around the continent including dates in Los Angeles, Vancouver, Chicago, New York, before winding down in Denver, CO on Aug. 16th, the four week tour celebrates their career-spanning oeuvre of tracks including “The Unguarded Moment” (from 1980’s Of Skins and Heart), “Tantalized” (from 1986’s Heyday), “Ripple” (from 1992’s Priest=Aura), “C’est La Vie” (from 1992’s The Hypnogogue), “Metropolis” (from 1990’s Gold Afternoon Fix) and of course “Reptile” and “Under the Milky Way” (from 1988’s international breakthrough album Starfish). Presales begin Wednesday, March 19th with tickets to the general public on March 21st at 10am local time.
Says bassist/vocalist/founder Steve Kilbey: “The Church are very much looking forward to returning to the USA and doing the singles show which we’ve never done before: a career retrospective spanning 45 years of tunes!”
2024 saw the band re-release its first four albums – Of Skins & Heart, The Blurred Crusade, Séance, and Heyday – to a thirsty fanbase, reinvigorating its legacy for a renaissance that kicked off with the back-to-back releases of 2023’s The Hynogogue and 2024’s Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars. The cumulative releases added a whole new audience to their expanding fanbase, resulting in one of their most successful tours to date in their home continent of Australia. Ready to turn the page with new music coming later in 2025 as well as even more re-releases of early albums, The Church are looking ahead into their fifth decade as a band.
Starting out in 1980, The Church have continued to expand their highly cinematic and atmospheric blend of indie rock, shimmering post-punk, icy dreampop and psychedelic post-rock without retreading their steps. Their expansive music career yielded a string of hit songs including “Under the Milky Way,” “Reptile,” “The Unguarded Moment” and “Almost With You” amongst others and their equally stellar live shows have been deemed “spectacular” by MAGNET Magazine, citing their “dreamy psychedelia that will daub your evening with shades of paisley.”
The Church’s epic five-piece line-up is bassist, vocalist and founder Steve Kilbey; with long-time collaborator Tim Powles, drummer and producer across 17 albums since ’94; guitarist Ian Haug, formerly of Australian rock icons Powderfinger, who joined the band in 2013 and Jeffrey Cain (Remy Zero), touring multi-instrumentalist who is now a full-time member of The Church since the departure of Peter Koppes in early 2020. The band have also recruited Ashley Naylor, long-time member of Paul Kelly’s touring band and one of Australia’s finest and most respected guitarists (Even, The Grapes, The Stems).
