New Race
The First To Pay...

THE REVIEW

In 1981, Ron Asheton, the legendary guitarist of the Stooges, embarks with his trusty companion Dennis Thompson, the former drummer of MC5, for a tour in Australia. There, they are awaited by a group of their worshippers, the Radio Birdman, already famous for the LP "Radios Appear": Rob Younger, Deniz Tek, and Warwick Gilbert.
In short, they have just five days to get familiar and learn new pieces before diving into the fray of sold-out concerts packed with Birdman fans and thus devoted to the Stooges cult. The testimony of those fiery gigs is a great live record, and Deniz Tek, who handles the selection and mixing of the tracks, will title it with the emblematic: "The First and the Last".

Just 14 dates in and Asheton has to pack up due to labor issues while Deniz Tek, who is a specialized doctor, is recalled by the army! Ron returns home with a pay of only 1500 Australian dollars and also receives a good 90 dollars for the rights to the Destroy all Monsters track (his current band) included on the record.

The story would end here if our hero hadn't pulled out from the drawer the tapes of an evening at the Manly Vale Hotel in Sydney, selling them to the French Revenge Records. The result is this "The First To Pay..." released in 1990 with a cover featuring John Wayne at the assault on the beach of Jiwo Jima..........

The recording is obviously lacking, but who needs perfection to start jumping like a fool from the attack of the first guitar-drum-bass notes? Rob Younger screams come on!!! and drags everyone behind in the scorching "Smith and Wesson Blues".
The concert takes off with some Radio Birdman tracks and reaches its peak with "I'm Loose" and "T.V. Eye" by the Stooges and here Younger does his best (not succeeding) to not make people miss Iggy.

The band is now well-oiled: a steamroller the drums of Dennis Thompson, an overwhelming wall erected by the guitars of Deniz Tek and Ron, the hoarse voice of Rob Younger that howls.....she got a TV eye... she got a TV eye on me... who knows if he ever dived into the front rows like the Iguana did.

Still an amazing sweep over the tracks of MC5, Radio Birdman, and some fierce unreleased pieces by Ron Asheton... and then you find yourself in a bath of sweat, as if you were in the mosh pit that night in '81 in Sydney!