The Church return with their most ambitious live show, 'A Psychedelic Symphony', joined by a 30-piece symphony orchestra under the baton of George Ellis.
The Church are playing the Civic Theatre on Saturday 14 November, as part of their A Psychedelic Symphony tour. It's a big one: the band is joined by a 30-piece symphony orchestra conducted by composer George Ellis, who's also arranged the set. The whole thing is built around reimagining the band's songbook, with the orchestra filling out the sound rather than just sitting in the background.
They'll be playing the songs most people know them for — 'Under the Milky Way', 'The Unguarded Moment', 'Metropolis', 'Reptile', and 'Almost With You' — all reworked for this larger line-up. The band describes it as the moment 'art rock meets classical music', and they've gone for an 'ultra luxe mode' on stage, with twelve-string guitars backed by lush violins. If you've seen them as a standard rock band before, this is a different beast entirely.
It's also a good look at where they're at right now. They've kept recording and touring without much of a break, with their 27th album, Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars, coming out in 2024 as a companion to 2023's The Hypnogogue. So while the set draws on the older songs, it sits alongside a band that's still putting out new records.
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It's a Saturday night at the Civic Theatre in Newcastle, so it's an easy one to get to. The show is A Psychedelic Symphony with The Church and the George Ellis Orchestra, on Saturday 14 November 2026.
