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".
[3] In 1980 Damien Lovelock (ex-Street Noise) replaced Martin on lead vocals – he was ten years older than the others and provided a "lyrical focus for the band's unremitting energy".
[4] In March 1982 the group independently recorded a four-track extended play, But Jacques, the Fish?, at Honey Farms Studio, Duffys Forest.
[1][5] It was produced by Colin J Ford and engineered by Dave Connor with additional backing vocals by Martin, James Darroch, Tom Couvret and Steve Vineburg.
[1][6] Darroch (ex-Trans Love Energy, Fifth Estate, Slaughterhouse 5) replaced Michael Couvret on bass guitar, who went on to join the Mushroom Planet.
[7] The album was produced by Connor and Ford with additional musicians including Simon Knuckey (Wet Taxis) on guitar, Tracey Pearson on saxophone, Sandie Rose on trumpet, Scott Spillane on backing vocals, Duncan Sproul on trombone, and Bruce Tatham on piano and organ.
[1] Michael Mackie, writing in The Australian Almanac (1985), found two distinguishing qualities in The Celibate Rifles: they are "based in the upper middle-class area of Sydney ... [and are] prepared to comment on a variety of social issues ranging from the destruction of rainforests to the problems created by an ever-increasing suburbia".
[4] The Celibate Rifles' next singles, "Pretty Pictures" (October 1983) and "Merry Xmas Blues" (December) included acoustic guitars instead of the usual all-electric front.
[12] In January 1984 Darroch left to form The Eastern Dark – he died in a van accident in March 1986 which also injured his band mates.
[6][13] Couvret returned for the second album, The Celibate Rifles (May 1984), which is also called 5 Languages for its cover depicting the band's name in French, Arabic, English, Chinese and Spanish.
[1] David Fricke of Rolling Stone felt it displayed "urban teen frenzy with lyricist Lovelock's adult fears erupting in a glowing atomic fireball of bazooka guitars and terminal volume".
[2][15] Helen Fitzgerald of Melody Maker saw the group "evolve into a bucking, rearing creature that hijacks your turntable and confounds your friends ... [by a] series of evolutionary stages to reach peak form with this album that sees them oscillate wildly from loud and thrashy to subdued and glowering".
The Celibate Rifles toured Europe and, during June 1987, recorded their next studio album, Roman Beach Party, in Weesp, Netherlands.
[1][2] At the end of 1991, the group signed to Festival Records and in March 1992 they issued a double album, Heaven on a Stick, which was produced by Rob Younger (vocalist for Radio Birdman).
[1][2] Andrew Stafford was disappointed by "a slight letdown, and while it has its high spots, there's nothing on this album (with the possible exception of "Electric Flowers") as immediate as the best of Blind Ear".
[20] The latter had tracks by fellow Sydney hard rockers, Hard-Ons, to coincide with a joint Australian tour the two bands undertook mid-year.
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.
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".
[27] 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.