New Wave Outpost Forum

I don't recall seeing many or any mentions of The Lords Of The New Church here. I loved these guys and saw them live about 20 years back. They had some classic tunes such as "Open Your Eyes" , "Holy War" , "Livin On Livin" and "I Never Belived" to name just a few. I'm just looking for some opinions on them (or The Dead Boys for that matter- Stiv's previous group)

I fondly recall "Dance with Me" being on fairly heavy rotation on MTV back in '84. It always stuck with me the vague appearance similarities of Stiv Bators (Strung out DQ?)and Pete Burns (Glam DQ?) of 'Dead or Alive'(U Spin me Round) in their respective videos. Maybe It's just me. [:I]

I adore Stiv Bators and in my mind he'll always be the coolest rock star.

I was lucky to see Lords of the New Church at Hitsville in Passaic New Jersey around 1982, I believe. (Also caught some Dead Boys reunions, I was too young for the originals).

So, Stiv comes out on stage, in his trademark leather pants, chewing a big wad of bubblegum. He snares at the audience, takes the gum out of his mouth and wraps it around the mic stand. It was just so punk.

Anything Stiv had his hands in was right on the money: Dead Boys, Lords, The Wanders, his solo stuff -- you can't go wrong with Stiv.

The first time I heard the Lords was when Trouser Press had the song "Russian Roulette" as one of their flexi-discs. Played it alot. They were definitely a cool band; the debut is my favorite but method to our madness was good also. Stiv was kind of funny - - I remember reading an interview where he said the reason the Lords wore their hair longer was because all the LA punks with their shaved heads were feeding into Reagan's desire to glorify the Military!

Although I was aware of them, I didn't actually HEAR the Dead Boys until after the Lords. But now I know that 'Young Loud and Snotty' and 'We Have Come for you Children' are releases anyone into early punk should seek out - -

Stiv's solo lp on Bomp, called 'Disconnected', is a fun punky listen also....

A friend and I were listening to a cassette of the Lords debut in a car back in the 80's and when the first side ended, in the silence he said "Bators...'nuff said!" We both cracked up - - but you know, Stiv certainly put out a lot of cool music in his time, didn't he!

I LOVED those guys! "Dance With Me" and "Live For Today" (their twisted, goth-y cover of the Grass Roots song) were my favorites. I also remember Stiv Bators making that comment about his band having long hair as a re-action against the shaved-head punks of the day ("feeding into Reagan's view of glorifying the military"). I also remember that Bators was quite anti-Reagan. Stiv was not afraid to be weird, gloomy, dark, and messed up--back when his kind of lyrics and image/ videos was still relatively "shocking". It makes me kind of sad that the kids today would not think the Lords were kind of dangerously scary, like they were to me back then.

I loved LotNC years ago. The Dead Boys are one of my all-time fave punk bands.

Recently I tried to listen to "Is Nothing Sacred" and it really didn't hold up too well.

Mare Idol - I was at that show too! I too think rocks suffered one of it's greatest losses when Stiv died. I recall seeing the Dead Boys on St. Patricks day, I guess it was 1979? There was a little boy in the audience, about 7 or 6. Stiv grabbed him up on stage with him. It was so great to watch. I always who that little boy was and what he thought of the whole epsidode. And I remember Cheetah wore a green carnation on his crotch...
I also saw the Lords of the New Church one Halloween at the Ritz. It was one helluva night... I had been at a costume party before the show, and was wearing an vampria/elviraish dress, by the time I got to the show I was a bit tipsy, somehow I was pushed into the mosh pit, my shoes were thrown up onto the stage, and I lost a great leather jacket at the show as well... some night... I can't recall who opened up the show, anyone remember?
I really miss Stiv...

Michele -- Thanks for sharing your memories, I loved that old Ritz. I was 15 in 1979, so I didn't get to see the Dead Boys, but I did make it to some of the reunions. I'll have to look them up in my old diaries and then write about them here.

I have a video of Lords of the New Church, somewhere, when they were one this television show called "Kids Are People Too." Stiv was so cute, he started joking around and singing this old song (I think it was done by Frank Sinatra): "Fairytales can come true, it can happen to you, if you're young at heart." I have some videos of him on the Uncle Floyd show too when he was doing the solo stuff ("Cold Outside" and "It's Not That Way Anymore").

Something tells me you may have been a Johnny Thunders fan too, no?

Yes - I was a fan of the Heartbreakers too. Stiv was always my favorite. Johnny as a guy did nothing for me, but Stiv had something about him. He wasn't a good looking guy, but he had some type of appeal that trancended his looks. I saw the heartbreakers lot of times at Max's they used to play there I think it was Thursday nights for a long time. I saw those Uncle Floyd shows too. There's a good Thunders website, I don't really go to it, but my friend loves it. Don't know the url, but I'm sure it's the top one that comes up when you enter Thunders.

Michele -- I saw the Heartbreakers too, at Max's, right before the club closed in December of 1981. I bet we were at some of the same shows. There was a lot of hardcore at Max's too before it all ended. That wasn't really my bag, but it was still fun. Nothing was better than that scene, that time ... it will never be captured again.

'Open Your Eyes' was a top 40 hit here in Canada. Such a great song!

I didn't like their version of Madonna's 'Live A Virgin' though

Stiv Bator's Wanderers were a great political band with angry lyrics,bad attitude and a varying musical identity.Together with members from Sham 69, did what Jimmy Pursey hadn't tried until then.It is really worth checking out this album along with Bators personal''Disconnected''.

They are one of my favorites. I never got to see them in concert, but they were played on the radio a lot here on Long Island. "Dance with me" is my favorite from them. [:D]

My top faves are Russian Roulette, Holy War, Open your Eyes, and Livin' on livin'...

I still remember seeing the video for "Open Your Eyes" on MTV back in '83. It's hard to imagine MTV was soooo cool back then. The Lords first Lp is one of my alltime favs. However, I must agree with Whistledog about their version of "Like a Virgin".