Classic Singles – REPTILE The Church 1988
Under the Milky Way is the most famous single The Church ever released, but Reptile, from the same album Starfish (1988) is an Australian frog-green classic. “We made Starfish in an absolute whirlwind,” Kilbey recalled to Barry Divola in The Sydney Morning Herald in a rush of reminiscences that featured smoking crack (he abstained), dropping L.S.D. (he consented), casual meetings with Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and Neil Diamond and at least one non-specific “incident at the swimming pool”.
This is the single that has its own T-Shirt from Red Bubble
An autographed album costs more.
Reptile and Starfish – Music for Earthquakes
Starfish was recorded in Los Angeles during at least two earthquakes.
Produced by Waddy Wachtel (Linda Ronstadt, Warren Zevon) and Greg Ladanyi (Fleetwood Mac, Jackson Browne), Marty Willson-Piper, Peter Koppes, Richard Ploog and Steve Kilbey share song credits.
More Than Reptile: Finding the Church Online
Fan website Shadow Cabinet
Something Quite Peculiar
Blessed with a psychic mother, Steve Kilbey has not only been the subject of a documentary about his peculiar life – he has also inspired a mystical Tarot deck – Tarot of the Time Being
Film: Something Quite Peculiar – The Life and Times of Steve Kilbey
Kilbey also went to school with former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, as he explained to Cameron Adams.
“He stayed at our house. He and I got along very, very badly. I’d always considered myself a very intelligent guy. I thought I was one of the top groovers on the debating scene. Turnbull demolished our team.”
(Pictured: Malcolm Turnbull, banker in 1988: ABC TV).
“…It’s a big joke in our family,” Kilbey continued, “the last day he was there, the morning he was leaving he was in the kitchen talking to my mother about politics. He blew my mother’s socks off. She’d never made any predictions like this before, but she said to me ‘I know you don’t like him but that boy is going to be the Prime Minister of Australia’ and when he got back into politics in the 2000, in my electorate in Wentworth in Sydney, my mother said ‘There you go’. Each time he moved a little bit up she’d say ‘I told you’. Malcolm was a fascinating guy.
Buy Something Quite Peculiar at Booktopia.
