Ron Asheton's New Order - Victim of Circumstance (US 1978)

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Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster

The New Order was an American hard rock and protopunk band. The band was based in Los Angeles and existed from early 1975 to October 1976.

After The Stooges imploded in 1974, former Stooges lead guitarist Ron Asheton formed a new band, ultimately acquiring drummer Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson, bass player Jimmy Recca and keyboardist Scott Thurston. For a while, the new band shared rehearsal space at a house owned by Ray Manzarek, during his collaboration with Stooges' lead singer Iggy Pop.

When The New Order's first singer Jeff Spry was forced to quit the band (due to jail time incurred from a drinking/quaalude related DUI coupled with failure to perform community service), The New Order's first drummer, K.J. Knight, recommended Dave Gilbert as a replacement. K.J. and Gilbert had both been veterans of the 1971/1972 incarnations of Ted Nugent's Amboy Dukes. After keyboardist Scott Thurston quit, his position was filled by a second guitarist, Ray Gunn, another Detroit veteran who was recommended by Dennis Thompson.

Leading up to the making of The New Order's first demo tapes, long time Blue Öyster Cult producer, Sandy Pearlman, was approached to produce the band but ultimately this didn't come together. The back cover of the Declaration Of War album bears the inscription: "This album is dedicated to the CULT", furthering the links with the Blue Öyster Cult.

A projected collaboration with '60s and '70s Rock impresario, Kim Fowley, was also talked about, but never came to fruition.

The New Order had at least one classic, the song Rock 'n' Roll Soldiers, later covered by The Hitmen and more recently covered by The Hellacopters. One of the lyrics from the song, the infamous battle-cry "The War Against The Jive", is used as the heading to the liner-notes of Radio Birdman's 2001 release, The Essential Radio Birdman (1974 - 1978). The exact heading is: "Total Victory: Radio Birdman's War Against The Jive".

After the similarly bitter ending of Radio Birdman, the two groups (Radio Birdman and The New Order), merged and become New Race, featuring Ron Asheton and Dennis "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 live albums released, with two of the three first released on Revenge Records, then re-released recently on Vivid Sound Corporation.

Tommy Ramone, Johnny Ramone, Fred Sonic Smith, Ron Asheton and Scott Asheton

Some years after leaving The New Order, singer Jeff Spry and his guitarist 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-FM. The song was featured on the soundtrack to the 1983 movie, Valley Girl. A video was made from "The Fanatic" "The Fanatic" video was shot in Hollywood, California in 1983 and aired on MTV. The Fanatic video includes a cameo of Jeffrey Spry with his first wife, SAG actress, Lucrecia Sarita Russo. On March 9, 1991, Jeff Spry shot himself, leaving behind his second wife, Tamara and daughters, Desirae & Natasha. His real name was Jeffrey Scott Spirelli.

Following The New Order's split in the fall of 1976, Dave Gilbert eventually joined The Rockets, a straight ahead rock band formed in 1972 that evolved out of the famous Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels. The Rockets made six albums, on three major labels, from 1977 to 1983. Dave Gilbert died in 2001 from cancer of the liver after a lifetime struggle with drugs and alcohol addictions, although he had embraced sobriety sometime before being diagnosed with cancer and was survived by his wife, Dee Gilbert.

In 1989, Victim of Circumstance was released on vinyl and CD on the Revenge Records label. This release consisted of eight unreleased rehearsal recordings, with side one of the original vinyl release presented as four bonus tracks on the CD version. In April 2008, the CD was re-released on the Japanese import label, Vivid Sound Corporation. This new release has the same title and track listing as Victim of Circumstance, but has the same cover art as the original 1977 vinyl release - although "The New Order" logo's font has been revamped and changed. Vivid Sound Corporation also re-released the second and third live albums by the related Ron Asheton/Dennis Thompson band, New Race.

01. Victim of Circumstance 
02. Sold for Cash Girl 
03. Sex Drive 
04. 1975 No Taboos 
05. Never Be the Same Again 
06. Can't Quit Ya 
07. Sidewinder 
08. Hit and Run 
09. Lucky Strike 
10. Declaration of War 
11. Hollywood Holidays 
12. Sidewinder 

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