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New Race
Title: First To Pay  -  Company: Revenge (France)  -  Cat No: wm118/mig9
Format: 12" lp / cd  -  Released: 1989  -  Status: Deleted
first to pay cover
The First To Pay appeared in 1989 as the first of a two album sequential set of French New Race releases. Revenge Records, mining a mother lode of Stooges/Sonics Rendezvous material by making the rounds of musicians in Detroit and Ann Arbor, came upon a set of cassettes which had been dubbed from unmixed 24 track master tapes, recorded during the New Race Australian tour in 1981.

These cassette copies of the master tapes, from which the "official" First & Last album was culled, were in the possession of Ron Asheton. Ron, who felt that the band had never been adequately compensated by the tour or official record release, was happy to release the tapes to Revenge. Hence the irony and triple entendre of the title.

Track Listing:

  1. Smith and Wesson Blues ( D Tek ) (3:05 m:s)
  2. Haunted Road ( D Tek ) (3:17 m:s)
  3. Living World ( D Tek ) (3:10 m:s)
  4. Loose ( The Stooges ) (3:06 m:s)
  5. TV Eye ( The Stooges ) (4:32 m:s)
  6. Love Kills ( D Tek ) (3:42 m:s)
  7. November 22, 1963 ( Asheton / Niagara ) (4:52 m:s)
  8. 455 S.D ( D Tek ) (2:34 m:s)
  9. Alone In The Endzone ( D Tek ) (2:05 m:s)
  10. Looking At You ( MC5 ) (4:22 m:s)
  11. New Race ( D Tek ) (4:37 m:s)
  12. Columbia ( New Race ) (4:33 m:s)
These last two tracks are found on the CD only

The Musicians:

Rob Younger - Vocals  /  Deniz Tek - Guitar  /  Ron Asheton - Guitar  /  Warwick Gilbert - Bass
Dennis Thompson - Drums, Vocals  /  Chris Masuak - Guitar on tracks 11 & 12

Technical Details:

From a cassette of unmixed mobile 24 track masters  /  Recorded live at Sgt Peppers & Manly Vale Hotel, April/May 1981  /  Produced by Charles Fisher  /  Compiled by Bernard Masanes

Of Interest:

The release of the tapes to make this album was hailed by some, since the original raw vocals are preserved and are considered by many to be compelling in their intensity. These had been overdubbed on the "official" First and Last album. Others, notably Rob Younger, condemned the release as he was not consulted and regards the release and his own performance as inferior. Michael McMartin from Trafalgar, understandably views this as a bootleg.

The album and CD feature great movie poster style cover art and the CD has a wonderful book of live photos in the inner sleeve. Both feature a long interview with Ron Asheton about New Race.


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