Church Recordings is very proud to present THE ELECTRIC CHURCH: THE BIOGRAPHY, the definitive tale of legendary bassist Bill “The Electric” Church’s wild ride, written by esteemed author and music critic Martin Popoff.
You’ve heard his killer bass lines on Van Morrison’s “Wild Night”, Montrose’s “Bad Motor Scooter” and Sammy Hagar’s “I Can’t Drive 55,” now dive deep into the memoirs of the heavy metal pioneer as he recalls his high-voltage career!
As Montrose’s original bassist, Church is considered an originator of a blossoming new music genre called heavy metal as the band’s 1971 self-titled debut is debated as the world’s first metal album.
After Hagar left the band, Church joined the Red Rocker’s solo band, recording eight albums over a 10 year span — several of those platinum — and performed as a session musician on Van Morrison’s 1971 album Tupelo Honey.
Sammy Hagar — the Red Rocker, himself — wrote the foreword and Gary Pihl (Boston, ex-Sammy Hagar) contributed an afterward on the final page.
The idea for the book originated in several years ago by Church’s son Trevor William Church (Haunt, Beastmaker), who is publishing the book via his own music label Church Recordings. Things became official in 2021 when Martin Popoff was enlisted to tackle the project.
Heavy metal lives on in the Church blood, so we hope you enjoy the ride.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Martin Popoff is a Canadian author of more than 100 books on heavy metal and one of the world’s most recognized metal journalists. Born in Toronto, his first record purchase was Steppenwolf’s Gold and the three bands that changed his life are Black Sabbath, Kiss and Nazareth. He co-founded Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles in 1994, which continues today as BraveWords.com, written for Goldmine Magazine for close to 20 years and appears on camera reviewing the classics as a host of BangerTV’s Overkill Reviews.
Jimmy Kay from The Metal Voicetalks to Music Author Martin Popoff about his new book BLACK FUNERAL, INTO THE COVEN WITH MERCYFUL FATE.
Watch below.
Martin Popoff has announced his new book, Black Funeral: Into the Coven with Mercyful Fate.
Calling all fun-loving nuns and corpses without souls…
The book is 275 pages of paranormal progressive power metal rendered in my usual format, namely every song discussed, one chapter per album, with tipped-in sections of colour photography. You’ve all been very kind in making my recent books like this on Sabbath, Maiden and Priest sell pretty damn good, so this one is very much a style match to those too, with lots of detail and trivia nugget-mining not found amongst the frankly pretty scant material out there on this band.
As the back cover sez…
The heavy metal love for Mercyful Fate and King Diamond runs deep and blood-red.
Now Martin Popoff has unleashed upon this wicked world the first book celebrating this devilish, Danish phenomenon, specifically the root band of it all, Mercyful Fate.
To be sure, any self-respecting fan knows Melissa and Don’t Break the Oath, but as with most of his 80+ books, Martin has devised an ulterior motive, and that is the proselytizing upon the good graces of each and every Mercyful Fate reunion album from 1993 through to the band being cast into the fiery pits of hell in the year of our Lord 1999.
Indeed, the classics stand as two cornerstones of superbly crafted black metal madness, but In the Shadows, Time, Into the Unknown, Dead Again and most pertinently 9, are all records blessed with the same sweat ethic and ungodly performance and production standards King applies to anything he does.
It’s time to join the coveted coven and enter the pentatonic pentagram and celebrate with Popoff this superlative catalogue of top-shelf heavy metal beloved by Metallica and fans the world over as arguably the only suite of songs as creatively intense as those of Judas Priest circa ’76 through ’79. Believe it—the good King and Michael and Hank knew what they were doing. Come read how the three of them executed fully the master plan that made this band one for the most discerning of connoisseurs.
Get your copy now, directly from author Martin Popoff, at this location.
New Shockwaves Skullsessions Podcast episode is now online and features returning guest and acclaimed metal journalist/author Martin Popoff along with old Skullsessions comrade and former Metal Rendevous editor/publisher John Strednansky along with Dammaj guitarist and Status Quo aficionado Mick Gilbert as they join host Bob Nalbandian for an extensive discussion on the legendary UK rock band STATUS QUO as they go through the band’s entire musical catalog.
New Shockwaves Skullsessions Podcast episode is now online and features renowned metal Journalist/Author Martin Popoff along with Swedish Viking Tobe Baad as the two discuss, deliberate and dispute over the extensive Ritchie Blackmore’s RAINBOW album Catalog.
Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice, talks to Music Author Martin Popoff about his new book on Iron Maiden called ‘Where Eagles Dare’ which covers the band history in the 1980’s
Watch the interview here:
In Where Eagles Dare: Iron Maiden in the ‘80s, now three-time Maiden author Martin Popoff celebrates the band’s golden period, with a mischievous cheat covering the fascinating ‘70s roots of the band en route to The Soundhouse Tapes and the first flash of a grin from green ghoul Eddie.
Utilizing his celebrated album-by-album, song-by-song approach, Martin deconstructs the band’s first clutch of classic of records—Iron Maiden, Killers, The Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, Powerslave, Live After Death, Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son—in fan-fanatic detail, with his usual detours into cover art, production, looks at lyrics, the ins and outs of the band’s landmark live shows and all manner of minutiae, using specific dates at every twist in the tale.
Jimmy Kay From Canada’s The Metal Voice spoke to URIAH HEEP guitarist Mick Box. Mick spoke about the upcoming North American tour as a special guest with JUDAS PRIEST, being inducted into the Hall of Heavy Metal History in Connecticut, on stage, on May 16 2019 by CEO Pat Guesaldo and Rock author Martin Popoff. Box also spoke about touring memories with Rush and Kiss back in the 70’s
Watch the interview here:
URIAH HEEP have sold over 45 million million albums, worldwide performed over 4,000 shows in some 61 countries.
When asked about being inducted into the Hall of Heavy Metal History at Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut USA
“It’s just amazing you know, I think any award or accolade you get is wonderful and we’ll accept it with open arms my friend. It’s a great honor, it’s the fans that put us there in the first place so you know we’re absolutely delighted and course I’ve known Martin Popoff for quite a while now, he’s done lots of work for so many years. Martin even just did our latest bio so it will be really good to catch up with him.”
When asked about their latest album Living the Dream and it’s reception
“Fans and critics love it and we play about seven songs from it in our set list alongside the classics. We love playing the new songs it revitalized us and the fans but the reaction has been just absolutely tremendous and a lot of people have been saying you know it’s one of the best of our career. ”
When asked about Touring with Rush in the 70’s on Neil Peart’s first show and did he think that Rush were a force to be reckon with in years to come
“Yeah that was Neil Peart’s first show with Rush, we gave Rush our audience and they took it by the throat. I think in the early days Geddy was getting the Robert Plant comparisons because he’s got a high voice so in that respect it was a kind of of Downer but you know they got through all of that and came out stronger, And yes it was very obvious they were going to be a force to be reckoned with especially being a 3-piece, my goodness they really kicked backside as we say in England.”
When asked about Kiss opening for Uriah Heep and if there were any cool stories
“Kiss did come out with over-the-top costumes but they certainly had a look about them that was just unbelievable like they’ve coming from another planet. Peter was a prankster on tour, Criss had a habit of putting dyes into into swimming pools, lots of pranks went on yeah it was a good fun.”
When asked about Lee Kerslakes contributions to Uriah Heep over the years
“We were headhunting Lee for a couple of years and we kept asking him and asking him and then suddenly he thought well okay let’s give it a go. It was just a powerhouse it was exactly what we were looking for to cement the band and then when Gary Thames came in those two cemented that rhythm section, we knew our engine room was complete. Lee and I are brothers with different mothers we’re always been found each other, I’m always phoning him and we go out to dinner occasionally. I actually got him up on stage when we played London recently which was really cool. Hopefully Lee can join us for one show that we’re headlining in the Czech Republic, the 12th of July I think I, we are trying to fly him out .”
When asked about Randy Rhoads love for Demons and Wizards
“I think demons touched a lot of people and I think Randy was no exception who really knows good music. I went down to see Bob Daisley play with the Blizzard band, it was quite evident that you know Randy was something special right there jaw-dropping stuff, even the rehearsals. I thought that it was a very powerful band and then I saw him playing with Ozzy and in England and it was great. Why the band (Blizzard of Ozz band ) ever broke that up I’ll never know as long as I can never understand, it was such a strong entity with that chemistry and it’s all about chemistry and they would have gone on to soar and do even greater things. ”
The band’s 25th studio album, “Living The Dream”, was released last September via Frontiers Music Srl
Box is the original guitarist and sole remaining founding member of URIAH HEEP. He, vocalist Bernie Shaw and keyboardist/vocalist Phil Lanzon have formed the nucleus of the band for more than 32 years and released 17 albums together.
Track listing:
01. Grazed By Heaven
02. Living The Dream
03. Take Away My Soul
04. Knocking At My Door
05. Rocks In The Road
06. Waters Flowin’
07. It’s All Been Said
08. Goodbye To Innocence
09. Falling Under Your Spell
10. Dreams Of Yesteryear
11. Take Away My Soul (alternate version) (bonus track; CD/DVD deluxe edition)
Bonus DVD track listing:
* “Grazed By Heaven” music video
* “Take Away My Soul” music video
* “Making The Dream” documentary
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