The Celibate Rifles were formed in 1979 in Sydney as a punk rock group with a line-up of Michael Couvret on bass guitar, Phillip Jacquet on drums, Dave Morris on guitar and Kent Steedman on guitar. The latter had tracks by fellow Sydney hard rockers,
Hard-Ons, to coincide with a joint Australian tour the two bands undertook mid-year. The Celibate Rifles' tracks were "5 Lamps" and "Electric Flowers". The group then embarked on the Live Stick '92 world tour across the UK, Europe and the US. Festival issued a second, double 7-inch single from
Heaven on a Stick, "Cold Wind", in May 1992. Late in 1992 Hot Records issued re-mastered CD versions of the band's first five albums. The group returned to Hot Records which released
Yizgarnnoff (May 1993) – a second live album – and
Sofa – a 20-track compilation (December 1993). In late 1993, Rieth and Steedman joined
Deniz Tek to record his album,
Outside (1994). Rieth and Steedman toured with The Deniz Tek Group over the next few years and recorded another album in 1996,
Le Bonne Route. In April 1994 The Celibate Rifles issued
Spaceman in a Satin Suit which according to McFarlane "was [their] best studio album since
Blind Ear". It was produced by Phil Punch and Paul Tagg. The band contributed a cover of
The Sports' "Boys! (What Did the Detective Say?)" to the various artists project Earth Music. It appeared on the
Eternally Yours ... for Earth Music EP (August 1994) along with
Died Pretty covering
Laughing Clowns' "Eternally Yours" and
Painters and Dockers doing
Mental as Anything's "The Nips Are Getting Bigger". In 1995 Hot Records released a
video album,
Scratch? My Arse! on
VHS, which includes ten tracks by The Celibate Rifles and five Lovelock solo tracks. In September 1996 Hot Records issued a compilation album,
On the Quiet, as a selection of acoustic re-workings of previously released material. It was produced by Rodney Ellis and Steedman. It came with a limited edition bonus all-electric EP of Australian covers. In November 2000 the group issued their eighth studio album,
A Mid-Stream of Consciousness. Allmusic's Mark Deming applauded the release, "[it] makes it clear this band has lost nothing in the way of flash, fire, or smarts during their time away from the studio. If you're looking for lean and mean rock & roll, The Celibate Rifles have still got it in spades". On 19 July 2004 the group's ninth studio album,
Beyond Respect, was issued. J T Lindroos writing for Allmusic found "[i]t's no small feat that Lovelock's vocals manage to echo the distinct mannerisms of both Iggy Pop and
Jim Morrison while still sounding original". On 18 August 2007 they released a 5×CD compilation box set,
Ten Thousand Days, on Shock Records. In August 2011 The Celibate Rifles headlined the Big Freeze concert.
Mess+Noises Max Easton described their appearance at the
Golden Plains Festival in
Meredtih in March 2012, as "one of the festival's most successful dips into the past. Their appearance was chaotic ... with a set of Aussie garage classics, including the blistering song that broke them, 'Johnny'". The Celibate Rifles announced that they would perform no longer, following the death of lead singer Damien Lovelock on 3 August 2019, with the exception of a tribute show to him in November 2019. On 1 January 2020 The Celibate Rifles released a new single 'I'm Gonna Try' which was a song recorded during Lovelock's final studio session prior to his death. ==Discography==