Biography
Ex-Radio Birdman frontman Rob Younger established Australia's New Christs, guiding the group through repeated roster shifts alongside his extensive production work for other acts. What began as a solitary studio project yielded the lone 1981 single "Face a New God," whose original pressings now command steep prices across Australia. Live performances remained absent until 1983, when Younger recruited an all-star ensemble drawn from the Celibate Rifles, Birdman, and an eventual Hoodoo Guru to support Iggy Pop on the singer's inaugural Australian tour. The ever-charismatic Younger reportedly eclipsed Pop, whose backing unit at the time proved comparatively lackluster. Multiple further singles and personnel adjustments ensued before the band's first full-length, Distemper, finally appeared in 1989. Guitarist Charlie Owen, whose résumé then encompassed Divinyls, Louis Tillett, and Tex Perkins, joined for those sessions; previously little-known, he has since earned recognition as one of Australia's premier instrumentalists. In 1996 Canada saw the release of the retrospective Born Out of Time—titled after what Younger has described as the group's strongest single and subtitled by him as "the songs I can still stand"—whose 2" tape transfer imparted an aural dimension absent from the source recordings. Younger reactivated the project for the 1995 Pedestal EP, followed by Woe Betide in 1996 and Lower Yourself in 1997.
Albums
