The Lords of the New Church | |
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Genres | |
Years active | 1981–1989, 2001–2003, 2007 |
Labels | |
Past members | Stiv Bators Brian James Dave Tregunna Nick Turner Grant Fleming Alastair Symons Danny Fury Steven "Skid" Marque Jez Miller Ozzy Adam Becvare Steve Murray |
The Lords of the New Church were a British-American rock band. A supergroup, the line-up originally consisted of four musicians from 1970s punk bands. This line-up comprised vocalist Stiv Bators (ex-the Dead Boys), guitarist Brian James (ex-the Damned), bassist Dave Tregunna (ex-Sham 69) and drummer Nick Turner (ex-the Barracudas).[3][4] Launched in 1981, the band released three studio albums prior to their dissolution in 1989.[5] During this time, they underwent several line-up changes.
More melodic and slickly produced than most punk, their music both reached a broader audience than that of many bands in the genre and alienated hardcore punk fans.[4] The band presented a stylized tribal identity around their appearance and their music that fans embraced: the writer Dave Thompson asserts this represented "the first time since the Sex Pistols' Bromley Contingent fanbase [that] a band had succeeded in grafting its own identity onto its audience without first paying obeisance to the gods of highstreet fashion."[5] Their stage antics became notorious early in their career, with Bators stunts on one occasion reportedly resulting in his clinical death for several minutes.[4]
The band experienced moderate chart success, with their eponymous debut album peaking at #3 on the UK Indie Chart, 1984's The Method to Our Madness hitting #158 in the US, and the 1985 Killer Lords compilation reaching #22 on the UK Indie Chart. Charting singles included "New Church" (#34 UK Indie), "Open Your Eyes" (#7 UK Indie; #27 US Mainstream Rock), "Dance with Me" (#85 UK Singles Chart) and a cover of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" (#22 UK Indie).[6][7][8]
The band was re-established between 2001–2003,[9] and again briefly in 2007, with original members James and Tregunna.[10]
Perhaps "The Lords of the New Church's" gothic rock production values were too dark and sinister sounding for mass tastes.
"Open Your Eyes" was originally released by '80s-era gothic rock outfit The Lords of the New Church