Marty Willson-Piper / the Church

longhouse · Post by **longhouse** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 2:55 pm

No single player has pushed Rickenbacker guitars to their limits so much as Marty Willson-Piper. From the natural Ric into an AC-30 chime to the most soaring solos to majestic soundscapes, MWP has taken those Eastern Maple beauties from Santa Ana to places few can go. His hummingbird fast right hand vibrato and impeccable phrasing are rarely matched.
He's been in the band The Church since the early eighties, playing Rics on each album. He's also released a score of solo albums which are brilliant in and of themselves. He was in All About Eve during their most creative period and has produced many albums by other artists.
His collection of Rics, featuring some rare Capris, is staggering (though he's sold a few, sadly). With a new Church disc being released in a matter of weeks, it's time to give MWP a chance.
Cheers, Noel

http://church.tristesse.com/pictures/marty3.jpg
http://church.tristesse.com/pictures/marty5.jpg
http://church.tristesse.com/pictures/renegade/marty.jpg

longhouse · Post by **longhouse** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 3:02 pm

The Church's official site (slightly sleepy):
http://www.thechurchband.com/
Marty's site (a bit sleepy too):
http://www.martywillsonpiper.net
the seminal fan site (a bit dated maybe, but full of goodness):
http://church.tristesse.com/
a great fan bulletin board site:
http://www.hotelwomb.com/

iamthebassman · Post by **iamthebassman** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 7:45 pm

My band loves The Church, and many have compared us to them. Our guitarist plays Ric 6 and 12 strings.

www.daylighttitans.com

rickde · Post by **rickde** » Mon Jul 21, 2003 12:54 am

Noel. I really like your sound. Any chance I could buy a cd and have it sent to me?

longhouse · Post by **longhouse** » Mon Jul 21, 2003 2:20 am

Rick, do you mean Nigel?

My bands are Longhouse and The Foglifters. I checked out your MP3, Nigel.
Reminded me of Husker Du or the Smithereens playing 'Under The Milky Way'!

I believe I have some MP3s from an album I did last January up at MP3.com:
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/372/the_foglifters.html

The Longhouse album will be mastered soon, I hope.

As for Marty Willson-Piper, he's one of the reasons I play Rickenbackers, though I was fairly guitar-ignorant when I ordered my first one (360V64). I came to realise that almost everyone I was listening to was a Ric player -after I got my first one. Marty pushes the envelope a little farther than Buck, Weller, Marr, etc.

Cheers, Noel

rickde · Post by **rickde** » Mon Jul 21, 2003 4:34 am

Yeah I did mean Nigel. Sorry about the confusion.

shamustwin · Post by **shamustwin** » Mon Jul 21, 2003 4:51 pm

and don't forget http://www.shamustwins.com and the links therein to our mp3 site!

longhouse · Post by **longhouse** » Mon Jul 21, 2003 6:55 pm

More on Marty Willson-Piper:
go to the Heyday Records website to download two (free) MWP MP3s:
http://www.heyday.com/home.html

'High' and 'Forget the Radio' are both wonderful songs. Dig the harmonies and gorgeous chime on 'High'.
Cheers, Noel

mike_smith · Post by **mike_smith** » Tue Jul 22, 2003 1:07 am

Hey Noel,
I recently did a set-up and clean on one of MWP old Ric's, it had been passed to a guitar tech who sold it on and been bought by a a guy local to me. Almost the same as the one Marty is pictured with on the Ric web-site, basically a Fireglo 360 with double edge binding and vintage pick-ups, but with an 'f' sound hole, under the truss rod cover MWP was scratched into the paint. A great player, original hardcase too with touring stickers.
Cheers Mike

indytone · Post by **indytone** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 4:07 pm

I've always wondered why he didn't have his own signature series when the Church was at the height of their popularity.

I love the Church. If you haven't heard their album from 2002--After Everything, Now This--you're missing out. It's great.