The Blurred Crusade
Encyclopedia
The Blurred Crusade is the second album by Australian group The Church
which was released in March 1982 by EMI
/ Parlophone
. It shows a change of direction from the new-wave leanings of the band's debut. The album peaked at No. 10 on the Australian Kent Music Report
Albums Chart and "Almost with You" reached No. 21 on the related Singles Chart.
It was produced and mixed by Bob Clearmountain
. While still dominated primarily by Steve Kilbey
's song writing, the music shows more of a resurgent 1960s psychedelia
and the beginnings of guitarists Peter Koppes
' and Marty Willson-Piper
's trademark interplay. The album's first single, "Almost with You," is considered one of the group's most characteristic songs. Two band compositions, "An Interlude" and "You Took", have been frequently included in set lists throughout their career. Both the band and a large section of the fan-base cite the album as one of their finest.
and guitarist Peter Koppes
formed a three-piece band in Sydney with Nick Ward on drums and began performing. A month later, Marty Willson-Piper
(originally from Liverpool
, United Kingdom) joined on guitar, and they were named The Church. A four-song demo was recorded in Kilbey's bedroom studio. The song "Chrome Injury" attracted the attention of Chris Gilbey
who had recently formed a record production company in association with EMI Records
in Australia and resurrected the Parlophone
label.
Their debut album, Of Skins and Heart, recorded late in 1980, was co-produced by Gilbey and Bob Clearmountain
(Bryan Adams
). The single, "The Unguarded Moment", was issued alongside the album in March 1981, it reached No. 22 on the Australian Kent Music Report
Singles Chart while Of Skins and Heart achieved the same position on the related Albums Chart. To promote their releases, the band undertook their first national tour. By the time of the album's release, drummer Ward had already been replaced by Richard Ploog
.
The first recordings by the group with Ploog were released as a five-track double single / extended play, Too Fast for You in July 1981. It included the first collectively written track, "Sisters". Another track, "Tear It All Away", later released as a separate single, showed a development towards more elaborate guitar structures – regarded as typical The Church sound. Their image evoked comparisons to 1960s psychedelic groups with tight jeans and paisley
shirts. The success of Of Skins and Heart enabled Gilbey to present the release to Freddie Cannon of UK label Carrere and Rupert Perry of United States label Capitol
. Both labels released the album in 1982, renamed as The Church, with repackaged and altered track listings – including a song(s) from Too Fast for You. Capitol also released an edited single version of "The Unguarded Moment" which was a minute shorter – a decision which displeased the band.
The second album The Blurred Crusade, issued in March 1982, was mixed and produced by Clearmountain. Stylistically more complex than their debut, it is "a smoother, fuller release". "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.
The Church undertook a second Australian tour, while Carrere released the album in Europe, bringing enough sales to tour there in October. Capitol declined to release The Blurred Crusade in North America and demanded they write more radio-friendly material – as exemplified by stable mates, Little River Band
– which horrified group members. After another recording session, five demos were offered but the US label was unimpressed and dropped them. Chugg arranged a UK tour supporting pop band, Duran Duran
, but after five gigs The Church pulled out – he later recalled, "They were hard work. All four of them were strong-willed and had their own ideas of how things should be".
Rather than see the demo songs disappear, Kilbey pushed to have them released in December 1982 as an extended play (EP), Sing-songs
, which charted into the Top 100 of the Albums Chart. The Church produced all five tracks and included their cover version of Simon & Garfunkel's hit "I Am a Rock
" which was co-produced with Clearmountain. Compared with The Blurred Crusade, the EP was recorded and mixed quickly and sparsely. Public reception was cool and it was soon deleted from their catalogue to became a collector's item until re-released on CD in 2001.
In October 2010, The Blurred Crusade (1982) was listed in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums
with their 1988 album, Starfish
in the Top 40.
The Church (band)
The Church is an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1980. Initially associated with new wave and the neo-psychedelic sound of the mid 1980s, their music later became more reminiscent of progressive rock, featuring long instrumental jams and complex guitar interplay...
which was released in March 1982 by EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
/ Parlophone
Parlophone
Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which...
. It shows a change of direction from the new-wave leanings of the band's debut. The album peaked at No. 10 on the Australian Kent Music Report
Kent Music Report
The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998...
Albums Chart and "Almost with You" reached No. 21 on the related Singles Chart.
It was produced and mixed by Bob Clearmountain
Bob Clearmountain
Bob Clearmountain is an award-winning American music engineer, mixer and producer. He has worked with many prominent names in music including Bruce Springsteen , The Rolling Stones , Bryan Adams , Robbie Williams Bob Clearmountain is an award-winning American music engineer, mixer and producer. He...
. While still dominated primarily by Steve Kilbey
Steve Kilbey
Steven John Kilbey is the lead singer-songwriter and bass guitarist for The Church, an Australian rock band. He is also a music producer, poet, and painter....
's song writing, the music shows more of a resurgent 1960s psychedelia
Psychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
and the beginnings of guitarists Peter Koppes
Peter Koppes
Peter Koppes is a guitarist and founding member of Australian independent rock band The Church. As well as his contributions to The Church, he has also released several solo albums....
' and Marty Willson-Piper
Marty Willson-Piper
Marty Willson-Piper is a guitarist and member of Australian independent rock band The Church.After busking his way around the world, he arrived in Australia...
's trademark interplay. The album's first single, "Almost with You," is considered one of the group's most characteristic songs. Two band compositions, "An Interlude" and "You Took", have been frequently included in set lists throughout their career. Both the band and a large section of the fan-base cite the album as one of their finest.
Background
In March 1980, lead vocalist and bass guitarist Steve KilbeySteve Kilbey
Steven John Kilbey is the lead singer-songwriter and bass guitarist for The Church, an Australian rock band. He is also a music producer, poet, and painter....
and guitarist Peter Koppes
Peter Koppes
Peter Koppes is a guitarist and founding member of Australian independent rock band The Church. As well as his contributions to The Church, he has also released several solo albums....
formed a three-piece band in Sydney with Nick Ward on drums and began performing. A month later, Marty Willson-Piper
Marty Willson-Piper
Marty Willson-Piper is a guitarist and member of Australian independent rock band The Church.After busking his way around the world, he arrived in Australia...
(originally from Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, United Kingdom) joined on guitar, and they were named The Church. A four-song demo was recorded in Kilbey's bedroom studio. The song "Chrome Injury" attracted the attention of Chris Gilbey
Chris Gilbey
Chris Gilbey OAM is an Australian entrepreneur and music industry identity. He has helped shape the careers of artists such as INXS, Tommy Emmanuel, Keith Urban, The Church, The Saints, AC/DC and Stevie Wright...
who had recently formed a record production company in association with EMI Records
EMI Records
EMI Records is the flagship record label founded by the EMI company in 1972 and launched in January 1973 as the successor to its Columbia label. The EMI label was launched worldwide...
in Australia and resurrected the Parlophone
Parlophone
Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which...
label.
Their debut album, Of Skins and Heart, recorded late in 1980, was co-produced by Gilbey and Bob Clearmountain
Bob Clearmountain
Bob Clearmountain is an award-winning American music engineer, mixer and producer. He has worked with many prominent names in music including Bruce Springsteen , The Rolling Stones , Bryan Adams , Robbie Williams Bob Clearmountain is an award-winning American music engineer, mixer and producer. He...
(Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams, is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and photographer. Adams has won dozens of awards and nominations, including 20 Juno Awards among 56 nominations. He has also received 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written...
). The single, "The Unguarded Moment", was issued alongside the album in March 1981, it reached No. 22 on the Australian Kent Music Report
Kent Music Report
The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998...
Singles Chart while Of Skins and Heart achieved the same position on the related Albums Chart. To promote their releases, the band undertook their first national tour. By the time of the album's release, drummer Ward had already been replaced by Richard Ploog
Richard Ploog
-External links:...
.
The first recordings by the group with Ploog were released as a five-track double single / extended play, Too Fast for You in July 1981. It included the first collectively written track, "Sisters". Another track, "Tear It All Away", later released as a separate single, showed a development towards more elaborate guitar structures – regarded as typical The Church sound. Their image evoked comparisons to 1960s psychedelic groups with tight jeans and paisley
Paisley (design)
Paisley or Paisley pattern is a droplet-shaped vegetable motif of Indian, Pakistani and Persian origin. The pattern is sometimes called "Persian pickles" by American traditionalists, especially quiltmakers,The Persian Pickle Club, Sandra Dallas. St. Martin's Press,...
shirts. The success of Of Skins and Heart enabled Gilbey to present the release to Freddie Cannon of UK label Carrere and Rupert Perry of United States label Capitol
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
. Both labels released the album in 1982, renamed as The Church, with repackaged and altered track listings – including a song(s) from Too Fast for You. Capitol also released an edited single version of "The Unguarded Moment" which was a minute shorter – a decision which displeased the band.
The second album The Blurred Crusade, issued in March 1982, was mixed and produced by Clearmountain. Stylistically more complex than their debut, it is "a smoother, fuller release". "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.
The Church undertook a second Australian tour, while Carrere released the album in Europe, bringing enough sales to tour there in October. Capitol declined to release The Blurred Crusade in North America and demanded they write more radio-friendly material – as exemplified by stable mates, Little River Band
Little River Band
Little River Band is an Australian rock band, formed in Melbourne in early 1975.The group chose the name after passing a road sign leading to the Victorian township of Little River, near Geelong, on the way to a performance. Little River Band enjoyed sustained commercial success in not only...
– which horrified group members. After another recording session, five demos were offered but the US label was unimpressed and dropped them. Chugg arranged a UK tour supporting pop band, Duran Duran
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
, but after five gigs The Church pulled out – he later recalled, "They were hard work. All four of them were strong-willed and had their own ideas of how things should be".
Rather than see the demo songs disappear, Kilbey pushed to have them released in December 1982 as an extended play (EP), Sing-songs
Singsongs
Sing-songs is an EP by The Church.Spurred on by record company insistence, the short Sing-songs ep came on the heels of the Church's 1982 album The Blurred Crusade. Unlike the polished nature of its predecessors, the release's material was quickly written and recorded for U.S. label Capitol Records...
, which charted into the Top 100 of the Albums Chart. The Church produced all five tracks and included their cover version of Simon & Garfunkel's hit "I Am a Rock
I Am a Rock
"I Am a Rock" is a song written by Paul Simon. It was first performed by Simon alone as the opening track on his album The Paul Simon Songbook which he originally recorded and released in August 1965, only in the United Kingdom...
" which was co-produced with Clearmountain. Compared with The Blurred Crusade, the EP was recorded and mixed quickly and sparsely. Public reception was cool and it was soon deleted from their catalogue to became a collector's item until re-released on CD in 2001.
In October 2010, The Blurred Crusade (1982) was listed in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums
100 Best Australian Albums
100 Best Australian Albums is a compendium of rock and pop albums of the past 50 years as compiled by music journalists Toby Creswell, Craig Mathieson and John O'Donnell. The book was published on 25 October 2010 by Hardie Grant Books...
with their 1988 album, Starfish
Starfish (album)
The breakthrough 1988 album by The Church, Starfish has remained the band's most commercially successful release. The first single, "Under the Milky Way", charted well into the American Top 40, peaking at #24 and #2 on Mainstream Rock Tracks leading to significant exposure of the then relatively...
in the Top 40.
Track listing
- "Almost With You" (Steve Kilbey) –
- "When You Were Mine" (Kilbey) –
- "Field of Mars" (Kilbey, Marty Willson-Piper) –
- "An Interlude" (Kilbey, Peter Koppes, Willson-Piper, Richard Ploog) –
- "Secret Corners" (Kilbey) –
- "Just for You" (Kilbey) –
- "A Fire Burns" (Kilbey) –
- "To Be in Your Eyes" (Kilbey) –
- "You Took" (Kilbey, Koppes, Willson-Piper, Ploog) –
- "Don't Look Back" (Kilbey) –
Personnel
- Steve KilbeySteve KilbeySteven John Kilbey is the lead singer-songwriter and bass guitarist for The Church, an Australian rock band. He is also a music producer, poet, and painter....
– lead vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, slide guitar - Peter KoppesPeter KoppesPeter Koppes is a guitarist and founding member of Australian independent rock band The Church. As well as his contributions to The Church, he has also released several solo albums....
– lead guitar, backing vocals, percussion, tubular bells, piano ("You Took") - Richard PloogRichard Ploog-External links:...
– drums, percussion - Marty Willson-PiperMarty Willson-PiperMarty Willson-Piper is a guitarist and member of Australian independent rock band The Church.After busking his way around the world, he arrived in Australia...
– electric & acoustic 12 & 6 string guitars, lead vocal ("Field of Mars")