The New Order (band)
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| The New Order | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Ron Asheton's New Order |
| Origin |  Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Genre(s) | Hard Rock Proto-Punk |
| Years active | 1975—1976 |
| Label(s) | Fun Records Isadora Revenge New Rose Vivid Sound Corporation (limited edition Japanese import) |
| Associated acts | The Stooges Destroy All Monsters MC5 New Race The Amboy Dukes The Rockets Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers |
| Members | |
| Ron Asheton-(lead guitar) Jeff Spry-(vocals, 1975) Ray Gunn-(rhythm guitar, 1975) K.J. Knight-(1st drummer) Jimmy Recca-(bass) Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson-(drums) Dave Gilbert-(vocals, 1976) Scott Thurston-(keyboards, 1975) |
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- This article is about the American rock band. For other uses, see New Order (disambiguation).
The New Order was an American Hard Rock and Proto-Punk band based in Los Angeles, existing briefly from early 1975 to October 1976.
After The Stooges imploded in 1974, former Stooges lead guitarist Ron Asheton, forged a new band; ultimately acquiring MC5 drummer Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson, a brief (but talented) Stooges bass player, Jimmy Recca and also former Stooges and future Iggy Pop keyboardist, Scott Thurston- who would later go on to play in The Motels, The Cult and has been a long-standing member of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers for over seventeen years.
This was at the same time that Iggy Pop was rehearsing with former The Doors keyboardist, Ray Manzarek. Ray and many underground rock fans had their eye on Iggy Pop to possibly become the heir to the confrontational, dark rock throne vacated by the death of Jim Morrison, which in some ways, Iggy actually did. Ray's band also featured, (on drums and bass), the Los Angeles based brothers, Hunt Sales and Tony Sales, both Detroit natives who would later play with Iggy Pop on the albums: Kill City, Lust For Life and TV Eye Live 1977 and much later (1988-1992) with David Bowie in Tin Machine. Both Ray's project and Ron's project, ironically, shared rehearsal space.
The New Order recorded two times in Los Angeles: #1 in 1975 and #2 in 1976. Both recordings were later released as a single vinyl album on the French label, Fun Records/Isadora, in 1977.
The album's lo-fi quality was the result of it being produced from inferior cassette copies, (originating from Ron Asheton), instead of the original master tapes. This is also the case on several other Ron Asheton releases.
The original recordings were funded (and the vinyl album distributed) by RCA Records. Over the many years, this album has been reissued on CD as "Declaration Of War" on Fun Records/Isadora (in 1991, with one bonus track), as "Victim Of Circumstance" on French label, Revenge Records (in 1989, with not all of the vinyl album's songs, but does include six bonus tracks) and most recently on April 29, 2008, as a limited edition CD on the Japanese import label, Vivid Sound Corporation. This new release has the same title and track listing as "Victim Of Circumstance". On the same date, Vivid Sound Corporation also re-released the second and third live albums by the related Ron Asheton band, New Race.
On the original vinyl release, each side utilized a different lead singer. Side #1 was Jeff Spry and side #2 was Dave Gilbert.
Some years after leaving the band, singer Jeff Spry and his guitar playing brother, Joe Spry, formed the New Wave band, Felony, which had a much played 1983 hit song ("The Fanatic") on the influential Los Angeles radio station, KROQ. This song was on the soundtrack to the famous 1980's Nicolas Cage movie, Valley Girl.
On Sunday, March 8th of 1992, Jeff Spry tragically shot himself, taking his own life- leaving behind an ex-wife and a daughter. His real name was Jeffrey Scott Spirelli.
After The New Order split in 1976, Dave Gilbert immediately joined The Rockets, the band formed in 1972, that evolved out of the famous Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels. This band made six albums, on three major labels, between 1977 to 1983.
In 1971, Dave was also the singer in one of the final stages of Ted Nugent's The Amboy Dukes, along with K.J. Knight, The New Order's first, short-lived drummer.
During the demo stages of The New Order's album, long time Blue Oyster Cult/The Dictators and future The Clash producer, Sandy Pearlman, was approached to produce the band, but ultimately, this was not to be. The back cover of the "Declaration Of War" CD/LP also bears the inscription: "This album is dedicated to the CULT", furthering the Blue Oyster Cult ties that were also shared with Radio Birdman.
The New Order shares stylistic, additude, and sonic similarities with the early New York City Proto-Punk band, The Dictators, especially during the era with Jeff Spry on vocals.
A projected collaboration with '60's & 70's Rock impresario, Kim Fowley (Svengali to The Runaways and co-creator of the '60's classic novelty hit, "Alley Oop", among many other things), was also talked about, but never came to fruition.
This record had at least one classic, the song "Rock 'n' Roll Soldiers", later covered by the Australian Radio Birdman offshoot band, The Hitmen and much later covered by the modern Swedish Proto-Punk/Hard Rock band, The Hellacopters.
Rock 'n' Roll Soldiers is presently the name of a young, heavily Proto-Punk influenced band, from Eugene, Oregon.
One of the lyrics from the song, Rock 'n' Roll Soldiers, is the infamous battle-cry "The War Against The Jive" and is used as the heading to the liner-notes (penned by Rolling Stone Magazine's David Fricke) of Radio Birdman's 2001 Sub Pop Records CD release, "The Essential (1974 - 1978)".
The exact heading is- "Total Victory: Radio Birdman's War Against The Jive".
Later on, after the similar bitter ending of Radio Birdman, the two groups (Radio Birdman and The New Order), would merge and become New Race, featuring Ron Asheton and "Machine Gun" Thompson, with Radio Birdman's lead singer Rob Younger, lead guitarist Deniz Tek and bass player Warwick Gilbert.
This band started and ended in 1981, with no studio material recorded, but three excellent live albums released, with two of the three first released on Revenge Records, then re-released recently on Vivid Sound Corporation.
