THE LORDS OF THE NEW CHURCH - Live @ The Reading Festival (Sun 24th Aug 1986) *RE-POST*

Today’s music is a second coming for those leather clad rock'n'roll renegades The Lords Of The New Church, made up from former members of The Dead Boys, The Damned, Sham 69 and The Barracudas, they truly were a 'punk super group' I saw The Lords many a time through out their career, always a good night out, Stiv Bator’s probably one of the best front man of a Rock'n'Roll band, second only to Iggy; microphone cable wrapped round his neck, rolling round the floor, prowling the stage, while Brian James riffed out over Dave Tregunna's throbbing bass and the solid pounding of Nicky Turners Drums. Maan! These guys were one sexy sleazy Rock'n'Roll beast, as a listen to any of their three albums will testify. The death of Stiv Bator in 1990 was the case of a life cut short too soon, hit by a car in Paris, he got up went home, went to bed and died in his sleep.

By the time of this recording at the Reading Festival in 1986 the band had reached their peak, but were nowhere near past their sell by date. Dave Tregunna had briefly left the band, to be replaced by Grant Flemming, who is charmingly introduced to the Reading audience by Stiv. The bands set is a nice selection of the old and the new, the quality of the recording aint half bad, considering the sound at the Reading Festival was notorious for floating off with the wind at times. Enjoy! And remember TRUTH IS THE SWORD OF US ALL!

As a footnote it's worth mentioning that there's a new collection of recordings available from Easy Action Records. The Gospel Truth is a 3 CD/DVD set that includes rare re-mastered studio recordings from 1987-88, and two live shows one from 1982 at The Agora, and another in 1988 in Lyon. If that wasn't enough there's a live DVD from Vienna in 1988. All this comes at the unholy price of £19.99, a bargain for all believers and worshippers of the New Church.