The Church frontman Steve Kilbey will be in Busselton and Margaret River this month to launch a documentary about his life, Something Quite Peculiar at CinefestOZ.
While he is looking forward to the festival, Kilbey said he was not looking forward to locals lynching him after the launch with pitchforks and burning torches.
Part of the documentary was filmed in Margaret River and Kilbey said he casts vague dispersion’s on regional WA in the film.
He admitted he was caught on camera saying, ‘Last week I was playing in Paris and this week I am playing in Margaret River, it is doing my head in.’
“Naughty me not thinking, you are in a documentary you do not think about what will ever come out of it,” he said
“It does do your head in, I cannot deny that, but you know what all was redeemed, the next day they filmed me standing at this beautiful coastal lookout outside of Margaret River.
“The sea is coming in, there is beautiful rain falling and I say, ‘You know what I was wrong they f*king really liked it, I was sorry I said those slightly disparaging things.
“Please forgive me – I did not mean it – it was in the heat of the moment.”
- Steve Kilbey
While the ads for the the film state the movie was all sex, drugs and rock n roll, Kilbey said he was sorry to say, no sex was featured in the film.
“There was loads of drugs, there was loads of rock and roll but there was not one bit of sex in the whole film, except you do get to see four of my daughters who are quite attractive women,” he said.
“We delve into my heroin misery, I think I am pretty candid and honest about that, they have done some really nice treatments about what that feeling was like - and what the feeling was like when it was all over -when you are left high and dry.
“There was some stuff which I think was boring, some old managers and old critics raving on about something that happened or some idiot who gave me a bad review 35 years ago standing there justifying it.
“Who f*king cares what you thought, people are still listening to the album mate, no-one is reading your review anymore but nice of you to come back and reprise it just in case we forgot.
“You see me in the swimming pool which is my new heroin, swimming in cold water, and you see me hanging out with my mum and making her laugh, you see me backstage, onstage, you see me walking down the street.”
Kilbey said he was happy the documentary was being released because you never quite knew if people would see a film or listen to a song once you started a project.
I do have some quivels about how much Under the Milky Way is in it.
- Steve Kilbey
“I think there could have been less Milky Way and more of the other songs but when it is all over, people who have watched it say, boy that leaves a good taste in your mouth.
“It is a tale of redemption, it is a tale of an arrogant, pumped up smart-arse little swine who thought he was going to be one thing but keeps on going and becomes a junkie.
“He loses everything, becomes a real idiot then right at the end when it is all over he emerges, and he is a nice guy now.
“He appreciates his life and he loves everybody, everybody loves him, everybody is fine and it is all alright and we see that the heroin was a necessary purge.”
Kilbey’s heroin use is well documented and while he does not condone his behaviour he said he emerged from that part of his life more compassionate.
“My brothers, my children and almost everybody else that I know were okay from the start – but I wasn’t – I had a big chip on my shoulder.
I wanted to be famous and be a rock star more than anything in the whole world.
- Steve Kilbey
“I got my wishes and it wasn’t what I thought, but the reason I wished for it was because it had a lesson to teach me and it taught me a lesson.
“I am no saint, but I am not a bad kind of guy.
“If I had not encountered heroin I would probably be rather rich and rather successful but I would still be a prick, and there would not have been a film.
“It is a funny thing, I have met people who have survived cancer and who said the same thing, they really wish they had not had cancer, but came out the other side somehow stronger, better, more with it and appreciative.
“I think the secret of life is turning these bad things around and it took me a long time to realise the favour that heroin had done me.”
The film came about after Kilbey was interviewed as part of a documentary on Stephen Cummings which was made by producers Mike and Patti Brook.
The Brook’s said to Kilbey when it was all over they wished they had made a documentary about him instead of Cummings, I said, “Yeah I completely agree, modestly.”
“Stephen has a bit of trouble expressing himself, if you see the documentary you will see what I mean, he is pretty monosyllabic, and me, I can just talk for hours and hours.
“In 2015 they began and it was a great year for The Church, we were selling out all our shows everywhere we played and they followed us to England, Europe, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.
“They even followed us to regional WA.”
Kilbey said the only bone of contention with the film was the producers wanted to play Under the Milky Way throughout the movie more than he liked.
He said the song was disproportionately represented in the film becoming its own character and given a voice to comment on Kilbey’s life.
“People can expect a lot of fun when they see the film, it’s not highbrow like Nick Cave’s documentary, it is not an arty-farty thing.
“It is a film about your ordinary, average, genius like me, which happened to form the best band in the universe, 35 years on I am still out there rocking and rolling.
“I am really looking forward to watching the film on the big screen, that is what I really want to see, with the big sound system.
“Bring it on I am quite proud of it.”
