I went to Sydney for Margot Smith's album launch party and decided to find Starling Street, the song Steve sang about on his Slow Crack album. You take the 440 bus from the city and walk the last five minutes, or take the 442 to get a bit closer.
The list of places still left to photograph is at the end of the page. If you can find any more that are directly mentioned (ie Los Angeles doesn't count even though it's widely known that North, South, East and West is about L.A) in any Church or solo song, please tell me and I'll update the list.
I went to Sydney for Margot Smith's album launch party and decided to find Starling Street, the song Steve sang about on his Slow Crack album. You take the 440 bus from the city and walk the last five minutes, or take the 442 to get a bit closer.
Incidentally Steve's old house is quite close to Starling Street, which is probably why he used its name in a song. My friend Rebecca and I met the people who live two doors down from him and they said, "The guy with the long hair who was in the music business ? Yeah, that was his place." He's famous in far-flung corners of the world, but to his neighbours he's the "long-haired guy" :) !
One end of the street has still got the old wooden sign instead of the new metal one pictured above. I guess it's got more character but it's a mongrel to read even in broad daylight.
This is the Redeye Records store, which sells a lot of solo material from Steve Kilbey. Redeye was the record label through which Remindlessness, Slow Crack, Narcosis etc were released. I'm not sure if its still there because I'm sure I heard Redeye had folded. Can anyone tell me ?
On the left you can the building which housed Studio 301, in which The Church recorded their early albums. Marty described the studios while answering a question from Andy.
On the right is a photo of the street sign for Albion Way, the street in which Steve's "Karmic Hit" studio originally resided. This might be where the line "...down on Albion Lane..." in the Jack Frost song Ramble.
Avalon airport lies between Geelong and Melbourne, Victoria, and is mainly used by the military and cargo planes - it's not a civilian airport. I've only been there once before, for an airshow in 1994. I'm wearing my Westgate band uniform as we were on the way to a concert during which I had my solo singing debut.
There IS, in fact, an actual town called Metropolis in the United States. I moved near there right before GAF came out, so you can imagine my surprise to hear Steve singing about that little podunk town across the river! It's Metropolis, Illinois, in the very southern part of the state, and it is the home of Superman, according to all the touristy-kind of places in town. They have an annual Superman festival, there's a Superman Museum, and yes, there is a giant statue of Superman right in front of the courthouse/City Hall.
Marcelo Guevara suggested these...
Paula suggested...
Oct 2003
Fen suggested adding Carthage (Steve's Earthed album) and sent several links in an email. "Oh good, " I thought, "some scholarly treatise on ancient Carthage will look spiffy here." But this cheeky person had linked to Carthage, Texas and five other Carthages in the modern USA, which, in my opinion, should not be destroyed.
Return to the stories page