Cirrus@Austlit

'With some 37 years in the music industry, Steve Kilbey has some stories to tell. Best known as the lead singer and enigmatic front man, songwriter, bassist of The Church, Steve has experienced both amazing international success and all the excesses that go with it, as well as a well known heroin addiction that delivered some very dark times. The Church has been a significant and constant influence on the Australian music industry and readers will be keen to hear from one of the industry's most successful, creative and long-standing key protagonists.

'Kilbey is Australian rock and roll royalty and for the first time this is his story. Come inside the world of Steve Kilbey singer songwriter and bassist of one of Australia's best loved bands, The Church. From his migrant ten pound pom childhood through his adolescence growing up during the advent of The Beatles, Dylan and The Stones to his early adventures in garage bands and neighbourhood jams. His misadventures with a full time job and a 9 to 5 life and wild adventures with The Church as they conquer Australia and then the world. The tours. The records. The women. And then the heroin addiction which enslaved him for ten long years.

'Then the two sets of twins he fathers along the way and branching off into acting, painting and writing. From snowy Sweden to a cell in New York City, from Ipanema beach to Bondi, Kilbey stumbles through his surrrealistic life as an idiot savant that will make you smile as well as want to kick him up the arse. After coming out the other side his tale is simply too good not to be told. Narrated with unusual and often pristine clarity we and with much focus on his considerable musical talent. ' (Publication summary)

'Once upon a time Steve Kilbey lived in Mansfield St, Rozelle (Sydney Australia) in an old terrace house. It was 1986, he would sit around in his kitchen banging out poetry. he wanted a poetry book because that's what popstars did that had done everything else, they released a poetry book or two. Dylan, Bolan, Lennon... if it was good enough for them then it was good enough for him. Steve Kilbey - Musician, painter, writer, poet, sage, dispenser of arcane wisdom, and much loved national treasure. A songwriter of many musical tongues, from the sprawling guitar thunderstorms of his band 'The Church', to the opiated dronescapes and psychedelic vision of his solo recordings and paintings. Kilbey can only be referred to as a polymath; a modern day renaissance man, a consummate musician and hitmaker. His fans have been treated to an unrivalled catalogue of material for over 33 years. 'The Time Being' brings you 'Uncollected' by Steve Kilbey. A deluxe edition of his books - Earthed, The Ephemeron, Nineveh, Fruit Machine and other selected works, all in one neat and tidy volume.' (Publication summary)