When The Church went to record their second ‘The Blurred Crusade’ in 1982, legendary producer Bob Clearmountain signed on as their producer. Noise11 talks to Steve Kilbery about working with Bob Clearmountain, why Capitol Records hated the record and dropped them and also why their version of Paul Simon’s ‘I Am A Rock’ is missing a verse.
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Steve tells Noise11, “Bob Clearmountain, incredibly, agreed to come to Australia. Even though he was the biggest producer in the world, he still came to Australia and worked on it. He spent a month with us”.
Clearmountain has worked with Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Bryan Adams, David Bowie, Aersmith and Bruce Springsteen. Steve continues the list, “Roxy Music, Chic. He’d done all that stuff. I never asked him ‘why are you here doing this?’ It was quite a coup Chris Gilbey pulled off. First, getting him to mix the first album and then come to Australia and produce the second album. It was a wonderful experience working with him. I think about that a lot. How he was. His manner. He is very calm and quiet and humorous. He wasn’t a big shot”.
The hit from the record in Australia was ‘Almost With You’.
Despite being produced by the biggest record producer in the world, The Church’s American label Capitol Recorded hated it. “The American company didn’t like it and they asked us to have a go at some new songs. My idea of ‘having a go at some new songs’ was the songs on ‘Sing-Song’. They still didn’t like it and said ‘we’re not releasing it’. That was the end of it”.
‘Sing-Song’ featured a cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘I Am A Rock’. “I always wanted to do that song. Strangely enough, I forgot to do one of the versions. It was only three verses instead of four. I don’t know why. Even having a Paul Simon song couldn’t save our record deal with Capitol Records and we were dropped”.
The missing verse is the second verse:
I’ve built walls
A fortress deep and mighty
That none may penetrate
I have no need of friendship, friendship causes pain
It’s laughter and it’s loving I disdain
I am a rock I am an island
THE ‘ALREADY YESTERDAY’ TOUR 2024
Saturday 23rd November
Enmore Theatre, Sydney NSW
Thursday 28th November
Palais Theatre, Melbourne VIC
Friday 29th November
Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 30th November
Odeon Theatre, Hobart TAS
Thursday 5th December
Astor Theatre, Perth WA
Saturday 7th December
Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide SA
https://facetofacetouring.com.au/current-tours/the-church-the-already-yesterday-tour
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