The Church

Steve Kilbey’s Australian band The Church, formed in Sydney in 1980, broke through with Starfish (1988) and its enduring single “Under the Milky Way,” which a 2008 readers’ poll voted the best Australian song of the previous twenty years and which was performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at the 2006 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony — a song that grew past indie radio into something like a national anthem. Kilbey, the sole remaining founding member since 2020, has led the band on through Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars (2024).

From the notes for Episode 03 · fact-checked Sep 23, 2026.