Lords Of The New Church
This rock band was made up of several well-known personalities, often described as a punk ‘supergroup’. Brian James (b. 18 February 1961; guitar, ex-Damned), Stiv Bators (b. 22 October 1956, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, d. June 1990, Paris, France; vocals, ex-Dead Boys, Wanderers), Dave Treganna (b. 1954, Derby, England; bass, ex-Sham 69, Wanderers) and drummer Nicky Turner (b. 4 May 1959, ex- Barracudas). When Jimmy Pursey left Sham 69, the rest of the band had continued in the Wanderers, drafting in Stiv Bators. It was at this point that James contacted Bators with the view to setting up a group. Miles Copeland took on their management, their name coming from his original suggestion Lords Of Discipline. They made their live debut in Paris in 1981. Their debut vinyl New Church helped to increase criticisms about the bands apparent blasphemy, hardly dispelled when the album appeared with lines like: ‘Greed and murder is forgiven when in the name of the Church’. The self-titled debut premiered an authentic rock band with dark shades, flirting with apocalyptic and religious imagery. The single Dance With Me from IS NOTHING SACRED gained several MTV plays with a video directed by Derek Jarman. Unfortunately its success was scuppered after mistaken allegations about paedophilia saw it taken off air. Their final studio album METHOD TO OUR MADNESS revealed the band treading water with stifled heavy rock routines. They did not split officially until 1989, but before that Treganna had departed for Cherry Bombz, while Alistair Ward contributed some second guitar.