About The New Christs
The New Christs are an Australian garage rock band formed in 1980 by founding mainstay, Rob Younger, on lead vocals. Younger was the lead singer for punk rockers, Radio Birdman, and in other hard rock groups, New Race, Bad Music, the Other Side, Nanker Phelge, and Deep Reduction. The New Christs line-up since 2011 is Younger with Jim Dickson on bass guitar, Dave Kettley on guitar, Paul Larsen on drums and Brent Williams on guitar and keyboards. Over their career the group have issued five studio albums, Distemper , Lower Yourself , We Got This! , Gloria and Incantations . Three former members have died: Stevie Plunder in January 1996, Mark Wilkinson in December 2012 and Christian Houllemare in June 2014.
The New Christs were formed early in 1980 in Sydney as a hard rock group with Clyde Bramley on bass guitar , Bruce 'Cub' Callaway on guitar , John Hoey on keyboards , Don McGloneon on drums and Rob Younger on lead vocals . This line up never performed live but they released a single, "Face a New God", in August 1981, which was produced by Callaway for Green Records. The track was co-written by Callaway and Younger. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, described it as "searing acid-punk" which has "since emerged as one of the most collectable artefacts of the Australian punk/new wave era." They disbanded later that year.
The New Christs reformed in June 1983 with Younger joined by Chris Masuak on guitar, Mark Kingsmill on drums and Tony Robertson on bass guitar and Kent Steedman on guitar . They supported an Australian tour by Iggy Pop and then Steedman returned to the Celibate Rifles. Younger kept the band going with Richard Jakimyszyn as a replacement on guitar . They issued two singles, "Like a Curse" and "Born out of Time" , on Citadel Records, which were written and produced by Younger. McFarlane felt they were "consummate, guitar-driven, hard rock". AllMusic's Jack Rabid reviewed "Like a Curse", as being "more slam-bang rock with great rhythm from a man who has it coursing in his bones." The group's music was used on the soundtrack of the feature film, Going Down ). This line-up broke up in May 1984.
Another version of the New Christs were assembled in February 1987: with Younger were Louis Burdett on drums , Jim Dickson on bass guitar and Charlie Owen on lead guitar . Burdett was soon replaced on drums by Nick Fisher . This line up released four singles, "The Black Hole" , "Dropping Like Flies'" , "Headin' South" and "Another Sin" . A four-track extended play, Detritus, was issued as a compilation in 1987 for the United Kingdom and United States markets. It was followed in 1988 by an Australian compilation album, Divine Rites, which collected five singles from Citadel Records.
The group's first studio album appeared in August 1989, Distemper, which McFarlane opined was "explosive" and "remains the definitive statement on the band's sound and style. It contained a wealth of powerful tracks." Penelope Layland of The Canberra Times declared it to be "good, aggressive music, full of hate, even if it has all been done before... All in all a good album. Play it as a substitute for clobbering someone." In June 2008 Dylan Lewis described it as "A non-stop ride of terrific songs full of melody and power offset the bleak, venomous lyrics. The tension the musicians create in each track is spine tingling. It's an exhausting album to listen to. To my ears, it stands as the greatest, raging Australian rock'n'roll album." It reached No. 1 on the ARIA Alternative Albums Chart. They toured Australia and undertook two tours of Europe . The band split up in February 1990 but briefly reformed in 1991 to support Ramones at a gig in Sydney.
Younger established the next version of New Christs in January 1992 with Billy Gibson on guitar and organ , Greg Hitchcock on guitar , Christian Houllemare on bass guitar , Peter Kelly on drums and Stevie Plunder on guitar . Hitchcock soon left to join the Boom Babies and, in September 1992, Plunder formed the Whitlams and was replaced by Tony Harper . Another four-track EP, Pedestal, was released in October 1994. In 1995 Mark Wilkinson replaced Gibson on piano and guitar. Younger, Harper, Houllemare, Kelly and Wilkinson line-up were recorded on a seven-track EP, Woe Betide , which was produced by Younger. A Canadian label, Lance Rock Records, issued a compilation album, Born out of Time , which McFarlane described as "13 tracks of prime New Christs aural mayhem." Younger felt it contained "the songs I can still stand."
Map & Directions To Venue
