The Church

Steve Kilbey of The Church goes record shopping at Amoeba Hollywood in this "What's In My Bag?" episode. The bassist, vocalist & founder of the legendary Australian band shares how Ian Hunter's memoir fueled his dreams of touring America, discusses the best Hawkwind album ever made, and talks about listening to Cameron Winter's solo debut on repeat.

Steve Kilbey's picks:
• Pete Townshend - Who Came First (LP) 
• Ian Hunter - Reflections Of A Rock Star (BOOK) 
• Hawkwind - Space Ritual (LP) 
• Cameron Winter - Heavy Metal (LP) 
• Victor Bockris and John Cale - What's Welsh For Zen?: The Autobiography Of John Cale (BOOK) 

Featured Artist: The Church

Editor: Charlie McTavish Smith
Executive Producer: Rachael McGovern
Producer/Director: Craig Miller
Assistant Director: Derich Heath
Cameras: Jacob Gray, Derich Heath
Audio Recorded by: Patrick Emswiler
Assistant Editor: Patrick Emswiler

Watch The Church's "What's In My Bag?" episode on Amoeba.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Hi, I'm Steve Kilby from the church. I'm at Amoeba Records in Los Angeles and this is What's in my bag. Pete Townsend's solo album called Who Came First.

SPEAKER_03 0:32

Well what's that was a stone? A manisical into a pool stroke.

SPEAKER_05 0:41

It hasn't really got any really big um Who songs on it. Some some that they did, but it's just him playing all the instruments and I don't know. He I just love this period of Pete Townsend. A friend of mine had this record and occasionally he would let me have it and listen to it. So um I'm it's really great to um get a hands on a copy. How I really connect to this now because Pete Townsend was a songwriter, songwriting for a band, it's really interesting to see what he does on his own. It's a kind of like a sketchbook sort of thing. For a long time I saw was doing the same thing. I'd write songs and bring them to the band and the band would flesh them out. So yeah, good old Pete Townsend. I was walking through the book section and they have repackaged a bit. It was originally called Diary of a Rock and Roll Star. I love Mott the Hoople, All the Young Dudes and Mott and then the Hoople. They're like a sort of a proto-glam rock band. They've just had this one hit and it was written by David Bowie, and they're not getting a lot of love and respect. This is like it's the first, like gritty, sort of very um not sort of a grandizing himself, but being very honest. Like there's one chapter how he um he's got a bad stomach. He says, a lot of American kids don't know how many big um English pop stars sit on the toilet all night when they first get to New York trying to get over the airplane food. Mick Ralphs actually went on to be be in bad company, can't stand flying. So he gets on the plane and takes a 1970s version of Valium, which is a lot heavier. Mick Ronson comes to their swimming pool, has a swim, and he's he's got his hair platinum. When he gets out of the pool, the chlorines made his hair go green. When I got this book, I I was like, I had an office job working in the Australian Public Service, dreaming of one day being able to tour America. As things have have happened to me, I've ticked them off. Yeah, Ian Hunter told me that that sort of stuff would happen.

SPEAKER_03 3:03

It's no use me pretending. You give me the spending. Is there a happy ending? I don't think so.

SPEAKER_05 3:16

This is one of the best albums ever made. It's a double album. Uh it's it's a band called Hawk Wind. Space Ritual Live. It's their first three albums, uh, all included on this, and some extra stuff. And and between every song are all these sounds. Like when this came out in the early 70s, were incredibly futuristic. There's all this sort of bubbling and hissing and guitars scraping and and stuff, and a lot of uh are these announcements. So we sort of feel like we're on a um we're on an interstellar voyage.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

Remember, in the case of Sonic Attack, survival means every man for himself. Statistically, more people survive if we think that we are concerned.

SPEAKER_05 4:15

And let me playing bass and singing. Most of the original guys, it's got the ring oscillator. That's the thing that goes do do do do do do do do. There's a guy just playing this all the way through. This is one people probably don't think I would have. They think I'm just gonna get all old ones. But I saw this one. I was driving along in my car one day with Rachel, and we had listen to Geese. I was like, uh, I can sort of respect it and I kind of like it. And then I said, Oh look, he's got a solo album too. Um we listened to the solo album and I was drawn in.

SPEAKER_04 4:52

You may feel good.

SPEAKER_05 5:02

It's timeless. It's like sometimes I go just completely pulling our leg, and then other times it's really earnest and heartfelt. The melodies are incredible. When it stops, you walk around, you're singing the songs all day. Um, the other day I was doing some painting in my garage and I got stuck on the last song. I listened to it like 20 times in a row. I just kept going over and playing it. Now I've got the real thing. I don't normally do that. I sort of like as I've sort of become older and been doing this and become more sort of cynical and jaded. Stuff doesn't impress me that I want to hear it. Like I used to when I was a kid, I'd get a single, I'd play it like 50 times. Um but I I listened to the last track on this album like ten times. It's a great record, yeah. I can't keep an embargo. Finally, John Cale, he's just a brilliant guy, he was brilliant in the Velvet Underground. He's brilliant on his own. I love his Paris 1919 and um the slow the slow dazzle and music for a new society.

SPEAKER_04 6:28

What was the left to he didn't have an easy life in the beginning.

SPEAKER_05 6:41

He lived with his mum and she was Welsh, and they spoke Welsh, and his grandmother was this very stern matriarch, and she would not have English spoken in the house. So he only sp spoke Welsh. And I don't know if you ever heard Welsh. It's like it doesn't sound anything like English, it's not like some version of English. It's like something completely different.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

I'm in North West Wales at RAF Mona, just up the road from Clan Bayer to Pushwinga to go get a quindrobos, land to city or go, go, go, the temperature got to 21 Celsius there.

SPEAKER_05 7:13

We migrated to Australia from England, and my parents met all this Welsh family that we always went and hung out with every Christmas, and I found the Welsh accent wonderfully lilting and um soft and sort of like, I don't know, really beautiful. So and and he's got a beautiful speaking voice.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Trying to find a role in classical music that really had anything to do with the outside world was was was certainly not clear in my mind. And I was using improvisation as a way of finding a foot footing in my own personality. Thank you so much. It was such a pleasure talking to you today.

SPEAKER_05 7:54

Thanks for having me on.

SPEAKER_03 7:58

Which time you want you.