The Church reissuing first 8 albums, touring Australia to mark 30th anniversary

To mark its 30th anniversary, Australia’s The Church this fall will embark on a major reissue campaign, releasing digitally remastered editions of its first eight studio albums — 1981’s Of Skins and Heart through 1994’s Sometime Anywhere — along with four early EPs and a new 2CD singles compilation.

Those releases come as the band this week announced it will take its “An Intimate Space” 30th anniversary acoustic tour — which hit the U.S. last April and March — across Australia in November and December; the 11-date tour opens Nov. 26 on the Sunshine Coast and wraps up Dec. 18 in Geelong (see full tour dates below).

As for the forthcoming reissues on Second Motion Records, the first pair — Of Skin and Hearts and 1982’s The Blurred Crusade — are due out Oct. 19.  Each are single-disc releases packaged in “vinyl-style soft-pack” sleeves with 12-page booklets filled with photos, lyrics and new liner notes by guitarist Marty Willson-Piper.

Those first two reissues each have two bonus tracks tacked on — significantly less extra material than was included on the 2002 double-disc reissues. While the product description for Of Skin and Hearts on Amazon.com describes that reissue’s extra songs as “never-before released tracks,” that’s not true: “In a Heartbeat” was the B-side to debut single “She Never Said,” and appears on the compilation Hindsight 1980-1987, while “Busdriver” was the B-side on the “This Unguarded Moment” 7-inch.

As for the Blurred Crusade reissue, that album features as bonus tracks “Life Speeds Up,” the B-side to “Almost With You,” and “The Golden Dawn,” the B-side to “When You Were Mine”; both tracks also appear on the Hindsight compilation.

Neither the Church nor Second Motion have announced a release schedule for the reissues, but Amazon.com shows a reissue of 1983’s Seance set for release Nov. 16. The other albums due for reissue, according to Second Motion, are Heyday (1986), Starfish (1988), Gold Afternoon Fix (1990), Priest=Aura (1992) and Sometime Anywhere.

Also due out at some point: reissues of the Tear It All Away (1981) Singsongs (1982), Remote Luxury (1983) and Persia (1984) EPs, plus there will be a “definitive singles collection” that spans “the band’s entire 30-year careerm from their first single to their latest, “Operetta,” off 2009’s critically acclaimed album Untitled #23.” No tracklist has yet been announced.

See tracklists for The Church’s first two reissues after the jump…

Tracklist: The Church, Of Skins and Heart

1. “For A Moment Were Strangers”
2. “Chrome Injury”
3. “The Unguarded Moment”
4. “Memories In Future Tense”
5. “Bel-Air”
6. “Is This Where You Live”
7. “She Never Said”
8. “Fighter Pilot – Korean War”
9. “Don’t Open The Door To Strangers”
10. “In A Heartbeat” *
11. “Busdriver” *

*Bonus tracks

Tracklist: The Church, The Blurred Crusade

1. “Almost With You”
2. “When You Were Mine”
3. “Field of Mars”
4. “An Interlude”
5. “Secret Corners”
6. “Just for You”
7. “A Fire Burns”
8. “To Be in Your Eyes”
9. “You Took”
10. “Don’t Look Back”
11. “Life Speeds Up” *
12. “The Golden Dawn” *

*Bonus tracks

The Church, ‘An Intimate Space’ 30th Anniversary Acoustic Tour

Nov. 26: Joe’s Waterhole, Sunshine Coast, QLD, Australia
Nov. 27: Judith Wright Centre, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Dec. 4: Tilley’s, Canberra, ACT, Australia
Dec. 5: Notes Live, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Dec. 8: Lizotte’s, Central Coast, NSW, Australia
Dec. 9: Lizotte’s, Newcastle, NSW, Australia
Dec. 10: Lizotte’s, Newcastle, NSW, Australia
Dec. 11: Milton Theatre, Milton, NSW, Australia
Dec. 16: The Gov, Adelaide, SA, Australia
Dec. 17: Thornbury Theatre, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Dec. 18: Blakiston Theatre, Geelong, VIC, Australia

PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS

• Milestones: Steve Kilbey is 56 today; watch The Church live on Italian TV in 1988
• Q&A: Robert Lurie, author of ‘No Certainty Attached: Steve Kilbey & The Church’
• The Church plots ‘An Intimate Space’ 30th anniversary acoustic tour of U.S.
• The Church releasing new ‘Operetta’ EP, reissuing ‘Back With Two Beasts,’ ‘Shriek’
• New releases: New studio albums from The Church, Meat Puppets
• The Church issues new ‘Untitled #23′ album, plots summer tour of U.S.