Richard Ploog

Last updated

Richard Ploog
Birth nameRichard John Ploog
Born (1962-10-29) 29 October 1962 (age 61)
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Genres Rock
Occupation(s)Musician, songwriter
Instrument(s) Drums, percussion, backing vocals
Years active1980–present
Labels Carrere, Capitol

Richard John Ploog (born 29 October 1962) is an Australian drummer, songwriter, producer and singer who was a member of rock band The Church between 1981 and 1990. Ploog also drummed for Beasts of Bourbon in 1983, Damien Lovelock in 1988 and with fellow The Church member Peter Koppes in 1991 for an album and tour. He is the father of Irie Ploog, Ruben Ploog, Ollie Ploog, Alice Ploog and Gene Ploog

Contents

Biography

Richard John Ploog was born on 29 October 1962 and is from Adelaide, South Australia. As a drummer, he joined various bands including, The Name Droppers, The Brats and Exhibit A. [1] In early 1981, at the age of 18, he replaced The Church's founding drummer, Nick Ward. In April the band released their debut album, Of Skins and Heart and the associated single, "The Unguarded Moment", which had been recorded late the previous year with Ward. [2] Ploog's first recording with The Church was the five-track double single, "Too Fast for You" released in July. When Of Skins and Heart was released internationally (Carrere for Europe, Capitol for North America) it was re-titled as The Church with "Tear It All Away" replacing original track "Fighter Pilot...Korean War". [1] [2] On early record covers of The Church, Ploog was incorrectly credited with all the drumming—Ward is not listed.

Aside from drumming, Ploog also contributed song writing to The Church's releases. [3] He also became involved in various side projects. Firstly, with Beasts of Bourbon as a drummer in 1983 and then performing with its members, Tex Perkins on vocals and Kim Salmon on guitar and harmonica, as Salamander Jim in February 1984. [4] He worked on The Celibate Rifles' vocalist Damien Lovelock's debut solo album, Wig Wig Wig Wig World in 1988. [5]

Ploog left The Church after recording their seventh album, Gold Afternoon Fix which was released in February 1990. [2] According to Steve Kilbey, he left the band "because of musical personal differences." He was replaced by Jay Dee Daugherty (ex-Patti Smith Group). Ploog joined The Church member Peter Koppes' group The Well to tour and record From the Well (1990) and Iridescence (1991). [2]

Ploog has also drummed for The Wigmen, The Deadly Hume, Funkicide, [1] and The Sleep-ins. [6]

Ploog returned to live drumming in 2013 with a series of gigs accompanying Steve Kilbey and Mark Gable.

He is also a member of Groom Epoch. The band have released three albums, Scalar Trails (2014), Solar Warden (2018) and Initiation (2019).

Related Research Articles

The Crystal Set were an Australian indie rock group formed in March 1983. By 1987 the line-up was Russell Kilbey, Phillip Maher, Davey Ray Moor and Tim Seckhold (drums). In April 1988 Moor was replaced by Craig Hooper, who was replaced in turn by Luke Blackburn, in May 1989. The group issued two studio albums, From Now On and Almost Pure, before disbanding later that year. Russell Kilbey is the younger brother of the Church's mainstay, Steve Kilbey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Kilbey</span> Australian musician (born 1954)

Steven John Kilbey is an Australian singer-songwriter best known as the lead singer and bass guitarist for the rock band The Church. He is also a music producer, poet, and painter. As of 2020, Kilbey has released 14 solo albums and has collaborated on recordings with musical artists such as Martin Kennedy, Stephen Cummings and Ricky Maymi as a vocalist, musician, writer and/or producer. Ian McFarlane writes that "Kilbey's solo recordings [are] challenging and evocative. They ran the gamut of sounds and emotions from electronic and avant-garde to acoustic and symphonic, joyous and dreamy to saturnine and sardonic".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Church (band)</span> Australian rock band

The Church is an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1980. Initially associated with new wave, neo-psychedelia, and indie rock, their music later came to feature slower tempos and surreal soundscapes reminiscent of alternative rock, dream pop, and post-rock. Glenn A. Baker has written that "From the release of the 'She Never Said' single in November 1980, this unique Sydney-originated entity has purveyed a distinctive, ethereal, psychedelic-tinged sound which has alternatively found favour and disfavour in Australia." The Los Angeles Times has described the band's music as "dense, shimmering, exquisite guitar pop".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Koppes</span> Australian guitarist

Peter Koppes is an Australian guitarist, best known as a founding and almost-continuous member of the independent rock band The Church. He is a multi-instrumentalist, also playing mandolin, drums, piano, and harmonica. He has also released various solo albums and various recordings with his group The Well (1989-1995). Koppes lives on the Australian Central Coast in NSW but sometimes spends time on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland where he sometimes produces albums and has previously conducted seasonal 'song writing' and 'performance for demo recording' short courses at Nambour TAFE, as well as offering private tuition in guitar, bass, drums and song writing. His daughters are Tatiana 'O' Koppes and Neige Koppes who had their own band, Rain Party but now have independent solo careers.

<i>Of Skins and Heart</i> 1981 studio album by The Church

Of Skins and Heart is the debut album by the Australian psychedelic rock band The Church, released in April 1981 by EMI Parlophone. It peaked at No. 22 in the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart.

<i>The Blurred Crusade</i> 1982 studio album by The Church

The Blurred Crusade is the second album by the Australian alternative rock band the Church, released in March 1982 by EMI Parlophone. Moving away from the new wave leanings of their debut, it was stylistically more complex and "a smoother, fuller release". "With its mystical lyrics the second album ... brought the group's own style more into focus". The album peaked at No. 10 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart and "Almost With You" reached No. 21 on the related Singles Chart.

<i>Seance</i> (album) 1983 studio album by The Church

Seance is the third album by the Australian psychedelic rock band The Church, released in 1983. More atmospheric and brooding than its predecessor The Blurred Crusade's jangling psychedelia and upbeat rock, it shows a greater use of keyboards, with the guitars taking largely textural roles on many songs. While numerous tracks have become fan favorites over the years, the album saw considerably less success in Australia than previous releases and had limited exposure internationally. Apart from the psychedelic noise experiment "Travel By Thought", which prefigures the band's extended improvised tracks of the 1990s and beyond, all songs were written solely by Steve Kilbey.

<i>Persia</i> (EP) 1984 EP by The Church

Persia is the fourth extended play by the Australian psychedelic rock band the Church, which was released in August 1984. It was the follow-up to their earlier 1984 EP Remote Luxury, and continued in a similar stylistic vein.

<i>Heyday</i> (The Church album) 1985 studio album by The Church

Heyday is the fourth album by the Australian alternative rock band The Church, released in November 1985. The album marked the first occasion when group compositions dominated one of the band's releases. Steve Kilbey has said: "The demo situation was getting to us - me writing the songs on my eight-track and bringing them along to the band. It sounded too stiff. We'd reached this new energy level on stage which by far superseded anything we'd ever recorded, so we knew the only way to get sounding like that was for the whole band to write together."

<i>Starfish</i> (album) 1988 studio album by The Church

Starfish is the fifth album by the Australian rock band The Church, released in February 1988 by Mushroom Records in Australia and by Arista Records internationally. The band's international breakthrough album, Starfish went gold in America and has remained their most commercially successful release. The album sold 600,000 copies in the United States alone. The first single, "Under the Milky Way", charted on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #24, and at #2 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, leading to significant exposure of the then relatively underground Australian act. In Australia "Under the Milky Way" climbed to #22, and Starfish reached #11 on the album charts.

<i>Gold Afternoon Fix</i> 1990 studio album by the Church

Gold Afternoon Fix is the sixth album by the Australian alternative rock band the Church, released in April 1990. It was their second album for Arista Records in the US and was expected to capitalise and build on the success of 1988's Starfish. The album saw considerable promotion upon its release, but despite moderate success in the US, with the single "Metropolis" reaching the top of the Modern Rock Tracks chart, the release failed to deliver mass commercial appeal.

<i>Priest=Aura</i> 1992 studio album by the Church

Priest=Aura is the eighth album by the Australian alternative rock band the Church, released in March 1992. It peaked at No. 25 on the ARIA Albums Chart.

The Celibate Rifles were an Australian punk rock band which formed in 1979 with a line-up that included mainstays Dave Morris on rhythm guitar and Kent Steedman on lead guitar; within a year they were joined by Damien Lovelock on lead vocals. They released their first album, Sideroxylon, in April 1983 on the Hot Records label. The band has toured both America and Europe extensively, and released their ninth studio album, Beyond Respect on 19 July 2004. In 1985 the group's style was described as post-Radio Birdman sound which is "a combination of fast, guitar-driven, hard rock and power pop". In November 1987 Sounds magazine's Roger Holland described their album, Roman Beach Party as showing the group's "sawn off rock potential all the way down to the bleached white of the bone, the lyrics reveal all the anger, insight and humour that makes [them] one of the most powerful rock bands in the world today". In April 1994 The Celibate Rifles issued Spaceman in a Satin Suit which according to Australian rock music historian, Ian McFarlane "was [their] best studio album since Blind Ear". Lovelock undertook a solo career and issued two albums as well as becoming a TV sports presenter prior to his death in 2019.

<i>Forget Yourself</i> 2003 studio album by The Church

Forget Yourself is the fifteenth album by the Australian alternative rock band The Church, released in October 2003. It was recorded at drummer Tim Powles' Spacejunk studios in Australia and features many straight-to-tape recordings with few overdubs.

<i>Sometime Anywhere</i> 1994 studio album by The Church

Sometime Anywhere is the ninth album by the Australian alternative rock band the Church, released in May 1994.

<i>Hologram of Baal</i> 1998 studio album by The Church

Hologram of Baal is the eleventh album by the Australian alternative rock band The Church, released in September 1998.

<i>Jammed</i> (album) 2004 studio album by The Church

Jammed is the sixteenth album by the Australian alternative rock band The Church, released in August 2004. It was their second album of entirely improvised material, following the Bastard Universe bonus disc from Hologram of Baal and consists of only two extremely long tracks. It was only available from the band's website or at their gigs.

<i>Magician Among the Spirits</i> 1996 album by The Church

Magician Among the Spirits is the tenth album by the Australian alternative rock band The Church, released in August 1996. The album title was inspired by a book written by Harry Houdini and C. M. Eddy, Jr. (uncredited) in 1924, in which the famed magician discussed his investigations of spirit mediums. A photographic negative of Houdini is incorporated as the centrepiece of the album artwork. The album was reissued with a revised track listing as Magician Among the Spirits And Some in 1999.

Damien Richard Lovelock, known familiarly as Damo, was an Australian musician, sports broadcaster and writer. He fronted the hard rock band The Celibate Rifles from 1980 as their lead singer-songwriter and later issued two solo albums. He was also a sports broadcaster, an author and yoga instructor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Baker (musician)</span> Australian musician

James Lawrence Baker is an Australian musician, best known as the drummer of various rock and punk rock groups, including the Victims, the Scientists, Hoodoo Gurus, Beasts of Bourbon, and the Dubrovniks. In 2006 Baker was inducted into the West Australian Music Industry Hall of Fame. The following year, Hoodoo Gurus were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.

References

General
Specific
  1. 1 2 3 Holmgren, Magnus. "The Church". passagen.se. Australian Rock Database (Magnus Holmgren). Archived from the original on 6 October 2012. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 McFarlane 'The Church' entry. Retrieved 31 May 2010.
  3. "ASCAP ACE - Search Results for "Ploog Richard John"". American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Retrieved 31 May 2010. Note: displays 40 results.
  4. McFarlane 'Beasts of Bourbon' entry. Retrieved 31 May 2010.
  5. McFarlane 'The Celibate Rifles' entry. Retrieved 31 May 2010.
  6. LaRocca, Sandra (30 January 2011). "Electrologue Interviews: Chad Corley Of The Sleep-ins". Electrologue. Retrieved 15 June 2015.