When I was recently chatting to Gaz about penning an article for this section of the site within a minute about a hundred cool bands poured into my head, and about five hundred albums, but, on reflection, there were only a handful of truly great underground bands whose flame flickered briefly and somehow seem to have been forgotten with the sands of time...but trust me on this one.

Whilst I admit to sort of cheating and would highly recommend you hunt down the long since deleted original releases there are a few recordings still widely available and hence why I've chose to cover a remixed compilation. There are some of the most exciting songs from the band's arsenal contained on this double CD as well as some of the coolest artwork and notes to each track contained within. I always think of the Ramones song 'Outsider' when I think of The Lords Of The New Church because that's exactly what they were, "Outsiders, outside of everything," but I prefered to think of them as one of the coolest combos ever to grace a stage or put music onto vinyl. Dressed in black they questioned organised religion, politics, conspiracy theories and were dangerous, mysterious and looked like the marauding pirates that rock 'n' roll bands should look like. So without further waffle from moi I give you.....

Lords Of The New Church - 'Rockers' (Easy Action Records)
 
Remember it was the dawn of the '80s post punk landscape when something of a punk supergroup burst on the scene in the shape of the Lords Of The New Church. Former Dead Boy Stiv Bators on vocals, Brian James on guitar, Former Sham 69er Dave Tregunna on bass and, completing the line up, Barracuda sticksman Nicky Turner. Dressed in black leather and cooler than a polar bear perched on a block of ice licking a strawberry mivi wearing shades, The Lords, as they were affectionately known, were born in London and the self titled debut album kicked up a shit storm when it came out in '82. Some cool singers and bands have managed to cover songs like 'Russian Rulette' but to this day even fans of bands like Hanoi Rocks and the Dogs D'Amour or punk rock outsiders never joined the ranks of people who understood what the Lords were doing and got to dig their Goth stroke Glam stroke Post Punk sounds. If I can manage to turn one of you readers onto buying a Lords album or two then my work here is done.
 
The band had brief dalliances with television on ECT as well as a show from Spain that does the rounds from time to time, and famously doing things they shouldn't wearing nowt but a smile on the Tube but apart from that they had a margin of success in Spain and Germany as well as the UK, releasing just a handful of albums and EPs when they were a going concern: the self titled debut, 'Is Nothing Sacred', and the swansong 'Methods To My Madness'. There have been a few great compilations released over the years such as the 'Lords Prayer' 1 and 2 which featured demos, remixes and unreleased tracks like B sides and soundtrack songs, as well as a few great live CDs.
 
Onto the choice I've made for you: 'Rockers' was released in 2007 and lovingly poured over by Mr James himself at Abbey Road, a new lease of life given to some of the songs from each studio album, all with much brighter mixes I might add compared to some of the mastering on the originals (which were muddy to say the least but of their time) - trust me when I say you need some Lords Of The New Church in your collection, in fact you need every Lords Of The New Church album in your collection!
 
First up is 'Lil Boys Play With Dolls' which is simply a homage to the New York Dolls using lyrics and song titles from the first two Dolls albums and originally featured on the debut self titled album 'Lords Of The New Church'. Brian James later said the song was something of a tribute to the band and built on a great groove and backbeat inspired by Thunders' guitar licks and something of a surf rhythm and, you know what, he isn't wrong. A furious way to start any album. Next up, again off the debut album, is one of the first songs Brian and Stiv penned together, 'Livin On Livin' which has something of a tribal rhythm on the verses and some mighty fine slashing guitar work from Mr James as the chorus has a catchy melody and the haunting "leave me alone" from the throat of Bators is short and sweet but said everything you need to know about the band. 'Apocalypso' is the final song taken from the debut and just a straight down the line punk rock ditty that was always a crowd pleaser when the band hit the stage.

We then move onto the tracks taken from the middle album, 'Is Nothing Sacred', however it's a song that harks back to the original line up that once featured Tony James from Generation X and later Sigue Sigue Sputnik on bass and The Clash drummer Terry Chimes who sat on the drum stool, but it was never recorded until '83: 'Black Girl White Girl' has a repetitive riff running through the song and manages to squeeze in a nifty bit of solo work from Brian James and a floor tom workout that was borrowed by Hanoi Rocks which breaks up the song after two minutes, but it was the distinctive sound that the band had managed to harness all for themselves; it was something different and, whilst embracing keyboards into their work, they never lost the rough edge that always came with Brian James's raw telecaster style. They were not a band to shy away from taking on topics that were a bit out there and not boy meets girl/falls in love or the usual sappy shit that was about in the early '80s. Maybe the media didn't quite know where to pigeon hole the band but it was a song that had everything The Lords stood for in its delivery.

'Downtown' is a song that was penned for John Belushi on the day Stiv got the news of his friend's demise; it begins with some horns that were never on the original version which give way to a driving run on the bass courtesy of Mr Tregunna who was a massive element in the appeal of the Lords with his bass "Throb". A song that must have influenced a million Goths to don the white face paint and black clothes - quite simply a beast of a song. 'Partners In Crime' is a fast paced riff built around the familiar tribal drumming that was always a big part of the Lords with Stiv's lyrics being spat out over the top of the music. 'Pretty Baby Scream' ushered in the final chapter of The Lords and always a song that I found haunting with the acoustic guitar strum in the background with some of Stiv's most accomplished lyrics that built to a great chorus "You let the fantasy become reality, Pretty Baby Scream."
 
'I Never Believed' was something of a departure from all the hack and slash of James's telecaster with acoustic guitar driving the song before Bators sings with tortured tones and a song that showed that the Lords had everything in their locker. A song that builds and builds with the 'Rockers' version using some re-recorded guitar parts from the original but 'I Never Believed' belongs to Stiv - what a performance. 'Fresh Flesh' is the sound of the best B-movie ever made with some wicked guitar riffage on top of haunting background vocals and some crypt induced lyrics. Dark, dumb but a lot of fun. The final track and something of a Lords Of The New Church anthem 'Method To My Madness'. One of my favourite songs of all time with the finest opening sixty seconds ever put to vinyl. No matter what genre of rock music you like if you don't dig 'Method...' then I'm afraid there isn't much hope for you - it's game over. The way the song builds before the guitar solo is nothing short of a total headfuck and full-on energy fuelled rock 'n' roll doesn't get better than this four minutes.
 
Disc two is a live set from the early days of the Lords recorded in London in '82 and another reason why I included this album because it has the superb 'Russian Roulette', the trademark 'New Church' as well as the epic set closer of 'Holy War'. 19 songs for your bucks and an introduction to one of the best bands of a generation. We could argue all night about what was the best song and how the band managed to disintegrate before being massive but from the period of '82 - '84 they were awesome on record and managed to knock out three albums, a couple of soundtrack songs, one more EP followed in '87 but they were already falling apart by then - oh and in '85 they managed to piss all over Madonna's 'Like A Virgin' and any band that had a 12" picture cover like that deserves to be in your collection, Stiv's nads hanging out whilst wearing a wedding dress is an image once seen never forgotten. Time was finally called on the band at the London Astoria in '89 when Stiv came out bearing a t-shirt with the advert the others had taken out looking for a singer to replace him with! Mysterious til the end a band that kicked up a shit storm in their brief spell yet not a lot of column inches were filled singing their praises so about time I did my bit to champion the underdog and kudos to the Lords Of The New Church - they deserved so much more. 

www.easyaction.co.uk