Lords of the New Church Barbary Coast Sunderland 1983
The Lords of the New Church were a punk supergroup formed in 1982, by the late great (and totally crazy) Stiv Bators (The Dead Boys), Brian James (The Damned), Dave Tregunna (Sham 69) and Nick Turner (The Barracudas). Having seen The Dead Boys once or twice, and the Damned lots of times, this band seemed an attractive live attraction. The Barbary Coast was the latest incarnation of the old Boilermakers club, which is now North Shore, and part of the Sunderland University Students union. The Lords played in a small side room, not in the main hall, and the place was pretty empty. Their music was melodic punk / rock n roll, with a dark gothic psych tinge to it. Live they were a cross between The Damned and the New York Dolls, with Stiv a manic front man showing shades of Iggy, and no fear. Support came from Agent Orange, an American punk band.The Live lp has the following track list: New Church; Livin On Livin; Eat Your Heart Out; Russian Roulette; Fortune Teller; Open Your Eyes; Girls Girls Girls; Holy War; Apocolypso; New Church. I would guess that the set I witnessed that night will have been similar to this. From the rhapsody.com site: “Lords Of The New Church quickly established themselves as a must-see live act due to the wild, death-defying (literally!) stage antics of Bators.” From Wiki: “Bators had developed a fearless reputation in his Dead Boys days and continued such antics with The Lords, the most famous being the time he reportedly hanged himself during a show. Bator’s stunt went awry and he was pronounced clinically dead for several minutes.” Stiv died in Paris in 1990, after being knocked down by a taxi.
Archive for the ‘Agent Orange’ Category
3 Sep
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