The Church have had a long history of rotating cast members, but when frontman Nick Kilbey announced last fall that guitarist Marty Willson-Piper would no longer play with the Australian band, fans were up in arms.
The selection of Powerfinger's Ian Haug to replace Willson-Piper was also controversial, enough so that Kilbey released a very defensive Facebook statement to make the official announcement.
"I will never say anything more about this subject," he wrote. "Marty is not available. Ian was. And I needed to make this album because we haven't done anything for so long. You'll have to trust me. This step was not taken lightly.
"If you can't dig it I'm sorry. This is my f---ing band after all and it has existed at times without Peter and in the beginning without Marty. And for times in between while he went AWOL. I love the guy. His musicianship is undeniably good. But it's over now, the church will have to move on without him or have no church at all. Which one did you want?"
This was not the end of the discussion, however; one fan got into Kilbey's grill in the comments section on The Music's site.
From Kilbey: the name the church is mine. i called it that 2 years before i even met marty. i dreamed 4 records of music almost on my own and i sing 99 per cent of the songs. peter k and i have been playing together on and off for 40 odd years. its his band too. its tim powles band too. after all he has been playing in it for 20 years now . we have all built up a body of work under the name "the church" . we will not cast that aside because one guy does not show up.
So, now that's understood, here are the newly announced concert dates for The Church's 35-year anniversary (via Billboard):
02/21: Vancouver, BC, Canada @ Rio Theater
02/23: Seattle, WA @ Triple Door
02/24: Seattle, WA @ Triple Door
02/27: Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre
02/28: San Diego, CA @ The Casbah
03/02: Aspen, CO @ Belly Up Tavern
03/03: Denver, CO @ Gothic Theater
03/05: Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center
03/06: Chicago, IL @ Double Door
03/07: Cleveland, OH @ The Grog Shop
03/09: Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
03/10: Philadelphia, PA @ World Café Live
03/12: Boston, MA @ The Sinclair
03/13: New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
03/14: Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade
03/15: Raleigh, NC @ Cat's Cradle
03/17: Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
03/18-21: Austin, TX @ South by Southwest Festival
