[kj] Lords of the New Church Reunion - (was)Clip of US punk documentary/riots

[TB]

"Christof hamille" wrote:



>I guess I can see that.  What did happen with the Lords reformation?  It

> sounds like it turned ugly between certain members.  Grant it I rejected

> even the notion of it.  But I am curious none the less.


I'll try to keep this as concise as possible:

Basically when Brian hooked up with Steven Marque in late 2000 - early 2001, 
Steve who had been a DJ in Florida had somehow managed to procure the rights 
to The Lords name, logo and so on because it has lapsed into public domain 
and basically no one in the original band like Brian, Dave, Nicky Turn or 
Stiv's estate or even original record label IRS Records could release 
*anything* with The Lords name on it without Steve's permission (or paying 
him, more like it). Also, as anyone who even casually knows Brian James, 
he's pretty easy to talk into doing a gig, record anything and he could be 
described these days as a somewhat befuddled punk hippy. He's just a really 
easy going, trusting guy and unfortunately, easy to take advantage of.

So Brian kind of was coerced into working with Steve and they released a 3 
song "demo" "Lords of the New Church" ep cd which aside from Marque's 
horrible singing (think "Cookie Monster" at a football game rally) actually 
showed some promise. With Dave Tregunna from the original lineup involved as 
well, they quickly realized they needed someone to sing the classic Stiv era 
tunes as Marque simple couldn't handle it so a 2nd guitarist/singer was 
brought in and they did a low key club tour of Europe. Around this time, 
Marque managed to get a record deal to release "remastered" versions of The 
Lords 3 studio albums on Track Records along with a pair of post IRS Records 
live/rarities collections which Marque obviously profited from.

After that tour, the drummer and 2nd guitarist quit and a new drummer and 
guitarist/singer (Adam Becvare who later joined the excellent Black Halos) 
were brought in and the band quickly recorded a full length album called 
"Hang On" without a record deal. Again, the album had some bright spots, 
notably where Becvare sang lead and co-wrote with Brian. However, most of 
the songs again featured Marque's vocals which were literally recorded like 
karaoke over finished songs, much like any of us singing along to a song in 
the shower.  Small quantities of the cd were sold at some shows and the rest 
were unsuccessfully shopped to labels who expressed no interest in the 
project.

They toured again in small clubs in Summer of '02 throughout Europe to 
mostly tiny and sometimes hostile audiences, all the while the band except 
Brian constantly clashing with Marque at both musical and personal levels. 
At one point, Dave got pissed at Steve during a rehearsal and hauled off and 
smacked him in the face and broke Steve's nose. Another amusing incident was 
when the band played a fairly packed club and got a good enough response to 
do another song, the roadies physically restrained Steve from joining the 
band behind the stage while the others ripped through "Method To Our 
Madness." A lot of people would jeer Steve straight away calling him 
"Krusty" because his hairstyle strongly resembled The Simpson's character 
"Krusty The Clown." I'd get almost daily personal e-mails from Adam who was 
terribly depressed to be in a situation where he was playing alongside one 
of his heroes (Brian) yet stuck in a miserable situation riding through 
Europe packed in a small van playing shithole clubs. To Adam's credit, he 
mostly got very positive reviews singing the Stiv Bator era songs.

By the time the tour was over, everyone went their separate ways and several 
people in Brian's behalf instigated legal proceedings to get the rights to 
The Lords name and trademark back in Brian's hands.  I have no idea if they 
ever succeeded or not.

T.B.