Biography
Ex-Radio Birdman frontman Rob Younger established Australia's New Christs, a group that has endured repeated membership shifts alongside Younger's extensive production work for other acts. The project began strictly as a one-time studio effort to cut the 1981 single "Face a New God," a record that later commanded substantial collector prices domestically. Live activity remained absent until 1983, when Younger recruited an all-star configuration drawn from the Celibate Rifles, Birdman, and a musician who would later join Hoodoo Gurus for a tour supporting Iggy Pop's inaugural Australian visit. In that setting, Younger—widely regarded as one of the country's most magnetic frontmen—reportedly eclipsed Pop, whose backing ensemble was comparatively lackluster. Additional singles and further lineup adjustments followed before the first long-player, Distemper, finally appeared in 1989. Guitarist Charlie Owen, at that point still unknown but already associated with Divinyls, Louis Tillett, and Tex Perkins, contributed to the album and has since earned recognition as one of Australia's premier players. In 1996 Canada saw the release of the greatest-hits collection Born Out of Time, titled after what Younger has called the band's strongest single and described by him as "the songs I can still stand." The transfer from the original 2" tapes imparted a previously unheard sonic clarity to the material. Younger reactivated the band for the Pedestal EP in 1995, followed by Woe Betide in 1996 and Lower Yourself in 1997.