NEW RACE - The first to pay

NEW RACE The first to pay cd 1990 320 kbps

Smith and Wesson Blues / Haunted Road / Living World / Loose / TV Eye / Love Kills / November 22, 1963 / 455 S.D / Alone In The Endzone / Looking At You / New Race* / Columbia* .

From a cassette of unmixed mobile 24 track masters - Recorded live at Sgt Peppers & Manly Vale Hotel, April/May 1981 .

Produced by Charles Fisher

NEW RACE : Rob Younger - Vocals / Deniz Tek - Guitar / Ron Asheton - Guitar / Warwick Gilbert - Bass /Dennis Thompson - Drums, Vocals + Chris Masuak - Guitar on *

Conceived by Angie Pepper, the New Race project was designed to introduce Deniz' Detroit music friends to his adopted country of Australia and vice versa. New Race was meant from the beginning to be a one-off project since all members had other commitments. They did a national tour of Australia in 1981, and recorded a live album, "The First and the Last". The music was hard, fast rock in the style of the parent bands. Everyone involved had a great time on tour. The shows were packed with crazed punters.

New Race was an exciting line-up which featured Detroit legends Ron Asheton (Stooges) on guitar, Dennis Thompson (MC5) on the drums together with 3 ex Radio Birdman players, Deniz on guitar, Rob Younger on vocals and Warwick Gilbert on bass. They played a set of songs derived from The Stooges, MC5, Radio Birdman, the members current bands and one new song written jointly for the tour, Columbia. Chris Masuak guested at some shows, creating a monstrous three guitar version of the MC5's Looking At You.

Miscommunications and financial troubles later poisoned the waters for years to come, especially between R. Asheton and tour/album financier M. McMartin. Asheton released cassettes of shows to a french label for the "First to Pay" album. The irony of the name of both the company and the album was not lost on Ron. Fortunately this did not affect relations between most of the band members, most of whom remain close friends to this day.

Of course, the revenge releases feature the original vocal, which is felt by many to be superior in feeling and intensity to the overdubbed version. Never happy with his vocals, Rob had redone these in the studio for the album though the rest of it is truly live.

Because of renewed historical interest, "The First and the Last" has been reissued (1997) by Total Energy Rds in the USA. The D. Tek homepage