Story/Photos by Nigel D Nudds - All images below are clickable to their full-size (except the set-list!)

Received a knock on the door at 4.30pm "Do you want to go and see them......The Church? My wife bailed out and I have a spare ticket if you fancy it. No pressure!" said Carl. Approximately 2 Seconds later "Yeah! - Lets Go then". I was meant to go tomorrow and was already planning a night in with a few Belgian beers in preparation for the big night, but now I was going twice. We (Carl, Ann, and Mick the driver) got to Tufnell Park in well under 3 hours, only stopping briefly like teenagers for chocolate and coke at a service station!! Parked the car a few minutes walk from the tube station and one stop away was Camden with the venue right opposite the station. Straight into the venue I spotted Derek behind an excellently stocked merchandise stall with everything currently available and two new T-shirt designs + Marty's own HOIH T-Shirt design.

Kicking off at a very early time (7.45pm) were an interesting duo called the LUMIERE BROTHERS who warmed the gathering crowd for half an hour or so - their website is at http://www.lumierebrothers.com/ The singer (Shereen) used to be in the Slingbacks. The two of them sounded more like a twisted country/folk type band, a bit Mazy Star-ish not bad but I think the girl should have stuck to her acoustic guitar rather than pull out an overloud electric guitar on one or two numbers.

The CHURCH came on really early at 8.45pm and unfortunately experienced some technical trouble for the first 4 songs i.e Petes amp went belly-up, a fire alarm went off and the PA was crackly. After the 4th song (Buffalo) the sound became better ten-fold. The crowd was a little rowdy throughout with an idiot shouting "play something interesting!" to which Steve subtely replied to some 4 songs later. Generally the crowd was really attentive, sociable, and never threatening. A bloke next to me was swaying loads during Hotel Womb with his partner embarrasingly trying to calm his spirits as he pleaded for Un******ed M*****t. This "nice" crowd was in total contrast to the show at The Garage 4 years ago during the HOB tour - the place was a dive, had a nasty tense atmosphere and I didn't think the band played the best they could have? Back to the night in question, well they finished with 2 encores one of which Magician Among The Spirits, was er, magical - Pete was using his e-bow throughout this song and making some wonderful waves of sonic soundscape (sorry for being a little pretentious there!)

I was surprised the gig started so early. Why? well the venue kicked everybody out rather agressively so they could reopen with a trancy techno rave type night! I mean 10.30 this was all over!

Julian and Nige in the Spread Eagle, Camden Town	Inside the Venue: Julian, Assaf, Duncan, Nige	The Lumiere Brothers kicked off proceedings teasingly stating they were actually thrash metal band "Slayer"!!!

 

Up relatively early next day to meet my long-time friend (and fellow Church lover, Julian) - Today we travelled by train to Camden Town so we could also meet up with Duncan, to trawl the many CD vendors; and later meet up with friends Charlotte and Assaf at the pub above the Underworld - The appropriately titled World's End (complete with the worst kept toilets in the history of the world. More importantly was the chance to have a good few beers before our favourite band took to the stage.

Saturday was like watching a totally different band. Everything sounded spot on, the crowd loved it and it was definitely a great gig. I think that I probably enjoyed this one more than any of the other 4 times I've seen them. The sound was just fantastic and all the subtleties of their playing were present. I found the semi-electric nature of this concert more to my liking and thought this allowed the awesome musicianship on show to shine through. The show ended almost totally electric. The addition of Keyboardist David Lane also really fleshed out the sound tremendously. The band had much fewer technical difficulties this night, and Steve commented during the show that the semi-electric format was giving them more grief than they had envisaged. What I really enjoyed were the older songs given different arrangements on both nights: Electric Lash sounded like the Rolling Stones crossed with Iggy pop and was the highlight of the night with Marty counting the song in, in German and somehow missing his cue; Constant In Opal was given a alternate middle-eight with Steve Kilbey singing "If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the evening....etc". Steve and Marty each traded guitars on both Magician and After Everything (Marty playing bass and giving the song a nice deep bassy feel). Also new song Numbers was given a different type of sound to the album version with Marty playing an excellent gutar solo near the end of the song.

The band were visibly having a really great time throughout - maybe because Marty has given up drinking and smoking, also I didn't notice Steve nor Peter drinking/smoking either. Steve reacted to most things the audience yelled and dryly cracked jokey responses on stage. For the 1st encore Steve returned shadowboxing at the audience - this was a surreal sight indeed!?! Yeblik (Kilbey backwards - Is this really his real name?) joined them on Sax for Constant in Opal on Saturday night only and this also gave the 18 year old song new life - like Electric lash this song was played in Rock and Roll fashion. Two encores both nights. I noticed that both shows were being videoed by at least 2 cameras - one at the mixing desk and one in the balcony above Marty. A FANTASTIC fulfilling weekend!!!

Radiance	After Everything	A New Season	Magician...

 

Hotel Womb 1 - love the way Marty strums upwards with his index finger for the opening chords	Hotel Womb 2 - The subliminal solo	Bonus Photo: Enjoying a drink with All About Eve + Friends at the Sailing Club, King's Lynn following their gig at the Arts Centre, 26th January 2002.