The Lords Of The New Church were a kind of punk supergroup if thats not a contradiction.Vocalist Stiv Bators had been in The Dead Boys,guitarist Brian James of The Damned,bassist Dave Tregunna of Sham 69 and Nicky Turner from The Barracudas.
Formed in the early eighties,they recorded three excellent studio albums and then famously disbanded onstage when Bators fired the band for trying to hire another singer behind his back.James and Tregunna reformed the band for an album and tour in 2003,but sadly without Bators,who had died in his sleep,after being struck by a car whilst crossing a Paris street in 1990.
The Lords were pretty unique,they weren’t a Punk band as such,their music was deeper than that,though it was of course an undeniable influence ,they weren’t a Goth band,although their sound and look played with Gothic imagery,they weren’t Glam-Punkrockers like fellow souls Hanoi Rocks.Instead they somehow straddled these camps.
There are a couple of things about The Lords that attracted me to them,the continuing theme of personal freedom that runs through much of their output,and the frenetic energy with which they performed.I swear that Brian James is double jointed or something,he’s a superb guitar player,it’s really his guitar and Bators’ voice and lyrics that define the band.Bators had a knack for writing searing lyrics with a truly sneering delivery.
I missed out on going to see them,had tickets for both The Lords and Hanoi Rocks,who were touring within days of each other,but couldn’t go for some reason i no longer remember.Still gutted about it to this day.
Buying Killer Lords is a good place to start,the first album is the best,but you’ll pay through the nose for it.
