Rob Younger (born Robert Kent Younger) is an
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
n
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
musician, vocalist, songwriter and producer. He is a founding mainstay of the
punk rock group,
Radio Birdman
Radio Birdman is an Australian punk rock band formed by Deniz Tek and Rob Younger in Sydney in 1974. The group influenced the work of many successful, mainstream bands, and are now considered instrumental in Australia's musical growth.
Hist ...
, and a pioneer of the local independent music scene.
Radio Birdman
Radio Birdman is an Australian punk rock band formed by Deniz Tek and Rob Younger in Sydney in 1974. The group influenced the work of many successful, mainstream bands, and are now considered instrumental in Australia's musical growth.
Hist ...
, formed with
Deniz Tek
Deniz Tek (born November 10, 1952) is a Turkish-American singer, guitarist and songwriter and a founding member of Australian rock group Radio Birdman. He has played in many of the underground rock bands of the 1970s including Australian bands Th ...
on guitar in November 1974, was one of the first
punk rock bands ever formed in Australia, and is considered one of the most influential and crucial bands in Australian music history. Younger formed a short-term super-group,
New Race
New Race was a Detroit rock-styled super-group based in Sydney, Australia, formed in April 1981. New Race was a concept band featuring three members of Radio Birdman: Deniz Tek, Rob Younger, and Warwick Gilbert, along with their inspirational ...
, in 1981. He also formed
New Christs
The New Christs are an Australian garage rock band formed in 1980 by founding mainstay, Rob Younger, on lead vocals. Younger was the lead singer for punk rockers, Radio Birdman, and in other hard rock groups, New Race, Bad Music, the Other S ...
in that year, who is still active today.
![DSC19610 PSMS-2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/DSC19610_PSMS-2.jpg)
Younger undertook production work, particularly with bands on the
Citadel Records
Citadel Records is an independent record label from Sydney, Australia. It was established in the early 1980s by John Needham. Bands released through Citadel include Died Pretty, Deniz Tek, Kim Salmon and the Surrealists, The Trilobites, Porcelain ...
label. He has teamed up with the label's engineer-producer,
Alan Thorne
Alan Gordon Thorne (1 March 1939 – 21 May 2012) was an Australian born academic who was extensively involved with various anthropological events and is considered an authority on interpretations of Aboriginal Australian origins and the huma ...
, and has worked independently in Australia and Europe. Younger and
Radio Birdman
Radio Birdman is an Australian punk rock band formed by Deniz Tek and Rob Younger in Sydney in 1974. The group influenced the work of many successful, mainstream bands, and are now considered instrumental in Australia's musical growth.
Hist ...
are cited as influential by various
rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...
artists including
The Hives
The Hives are a Swedish rock band that rose to prominence in the early 2000s during the garage rock revival. Their mainstream success came with the release of the album ''Veni Vidi Vicious'', containing the single "Hate to Say I Told You So". T ...
and
Silverchair
Silverchair were an Australian Rock music, rock band, which formed in 1992 as Innocent Criminals in Newcastle, New South Wales, with Ben Gillies on drums, Daniel Johns on vocals and guitars, and Chris Joannou on bass guitar. The group got thei ...
. At the
ARIA Music Awards of 2007
The 21st Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) were held on 28 October 2007 at the Acer Arena at the Sydney Olympic Park complex. Rove McManus was the host of t ...
Daniel Johns of
Silverchair
Silverchair were an Australian Rock music, rock band, which formed in 1992 as Innocent Criminals in Newcastle, New South Wales, with Ben Gillies on drums, Daniel Johns on vocals and guitars, and Chris Joannou on bass guitar. The group got thei ...
announced the induction of Radio Birdman into the
ARIA Hall of Fame
In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...
.
Biography
Rob Younger was lead vocalist of the Rats in 1974 alongside Warwick Gilbert on guitar, Mick Lynne, Ron Keeley on drums and Carl Rourke on bass guitar.
They played cover versions of material by New York Dolls, the Stooges, and Velvet Underground.
Younger shared a house with fellow musician,
Deniz Tek
Deniz Tek (born November 10, 1952) is a Turkish-American singer, guitarist and songwriter and a founding member of Australian rock group Radio Birdman. He has played in many of the underground rock bands of the 1970s including Australian bands Th ...
, who was a member of TV Jones.
Younger, Keeley, Rourke and Tek on lead guitar formed a punk rock group,
Radio Birdman
Radio Birdman is an Australian punk rock band formed by Deniz Tek and Rob Younger in Sydney in 1974. The group influenced the work of many successful, mainstream bands, and are now considered instrumental in Australia's musical growth.
Hist ...
, in Sydney in November 1974 with Philip "Pip" Hoyle on keyboards.
Rourke was soon replaced on bass guitar by Gilbert.
Fellow Australian musician, and some-time rock music journalist,
Vince Lovegrove
Vincent James Lovegrove (19 March 194724 March 2012) was an Australian musician, journalist, music manager, television producer and AIDS awareness pioneer. He was a member of 1960s rock 'n' roll band The Valentines, sharing vocals with Bon ...
, observed, "
hey
Hey or Hey! may refer to:
Music
* Hey (band), a Polish rock band
Albums
* ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014
* ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980
* ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...
turned the volume up full bore on their amplifiers, screamed out about revolution into the microphones, raised clenched fists in the air and in the process heralded in a brand new era for Australian rock'n'roll music."
The group's debut four-track extended play, ''
Burn My Eye
''Burn My Eye'' was the debut EP recorded by Sydney punk rock band Radio Birdman, in October 1976.MacFarlane, Ian (1999). ''The Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop'', p. 507. It was a low-budget EP recorded at Trafalgar Studios, Sydney and ...
'', appeared in October 1976.
It was followed by their debut studio album, ''
Radios Appear'', in July 1977. Younger co-wrote a track, "Aloha Steve and Danno", for the international version, which appeared early in the following year. However, the group disbanded in June 1978.
According to Australian musicologist,
Ian McFarlane
Ian McFarlane (born 1959) is an Australian music journalist, music historian and author, whose best known publication is the '' Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop'' (1999), which was updated for a second edition in 2017.
As a journalist ...
, "From the outset,
hey
Hey or Hey! may refer to:
Music
* Hey (band), a Polish rock band
Albums
* ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014
* ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980
* ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...
played an Americanised brand of rock'n'roll that was totally honest and totally committed... Although generally loathed and shunned by the mainstream music industry of the day...
sone of the most potent rock bands ever to emerge from Australia,
hey
Hey or Hey! may refer to:
Music
* Hey (band), a Polish rock band
Albums
* ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014
* ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980
* ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...
holds pride of place as THE cult band of the last 25 years. The band's iconoclastic approach, uncompromising do-it-yourself ethos and outsider status in the face of overwhelming hostility remain the stuff of legend."
Younger and Keeley formed the Other Side in 1978 with Clyde Bramley on bass guitar and Charlie Georges on guitar (both ex-the Hellcats).
Mark Kingsmill
Mark Adrian Kingsmill (born 4 December 1956) is an Australian rock musician. He has drummed with several bands including the Hitmen (1979–84), New Christs (1983–84), the Screaming Tribesmen (1984) and Hoodoo Gurus (1984–98, 2003–15). H ...
(also ex-the Hellcats) replaced Keeley on drums.
The group disbanded in the following year.
In 1980 Younger was involved in production work on a four-track extended play, ''The Visitors'', by local punk group of
the same name – which included former band mates Hoyle, Keeley and Tek.
The
New Christs
The New Christs are an Australian garage rock band formed in 1980 by founding mainstay, Rob Younger, on lead vocals. Younger was the lead singer for punk rockers, Radio Birdman, and in other hard rock groups, New Race, Bad Music, the Other S ...
were formed in 1980 as a hard rock group by Younger and Bramley (ex-
the Hitmen
The Hitmen are an Australian hard rock band formed in November 1977 by long-term members, Johnny Kannis on lead vocals and Chris Masuak on lead guitar as Johnny and the Hitmen. The group went through numerous line up changes in its first run ...
) with Bruce "Cub" Callaway on guitar (X-Men,
the Saints), John Hoey on keyboards (X-Men) and Don McGloneon on drums (Bedhogs).
The line-up never performed live but released a single, "Face a New God" (1981), which was co-written by Younger and Callaway.
McFarlane described it as "searing acid-punk" which has "since emerged as one of the most collectable artefacts of the Australian punk/new wave era."
The group disbanded later that year.
Early in 1981 Younger, Gilbert and Tek formed a short-term punk super-group,
New Race
New Race was a Detroit rock-styled super-group based in Sydney, Australia, formed in April 1981. New Race was a concept band featuring three members of Radio Birdman: Deniz Tek, Rob Younger, and Warwick Gilbert, along with their inspirational ...
, with
Ron Asheton
Ronald Franklin Asheton (July 17, 1948 – c. January 6, 2009) was an American musician , who was best known as the guitarist, bassist, and co-songwriter for the rock band the Stooges. He formed the Stooges along with Iggy Pop and his brother, ...
(of the Stooges, Iggy Pop Band) on guitar, and
Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson (of
MC5
MC5, also commonly called The MC5, is an American rock band formed in Lincoln Park, Michigan, in 1963. The original line-up consisted of Rob Tyner (vocals) Wayne Kramer (guitar), Fred "Sonic" Smith (guitar), Michael Davis (bass), and Dennis ...
) on drums.
They toured Australia's east coast during April and May and recorded a live album, ''
The First and Last'', which was issued posthumously in the following year.
It was co-produced by Younger with
Charles Fisher and
Alan Thorne
Alan Gordon Thorne (1 March 1939 – 21 May 2012) was an Australian born academic who was extensively involved with various anthropological events and is considered an authority on interpretations of Aboriginal Australian origins and the huma ...
.
McFarlane felt it was "one of the greatest live albums in the history of Australian rock'n'roll... hard'n'fast Detroit rock'n'roll at its very best, with Tek and Asheton's incendiary guitar interplay well to the fore."
The New Christs reformed in June 1983 with Younger joined by Kingsmill,
Chris Masuak
Christopher William Masuak (born 1959) is a Canadian-born Australian musician, guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He joined the punk rock group, Radio Birdman (1976–78, 1995–96, 1997, 2005–07), then the hard rockers, the Hitmen ( ...
on guitar and Tony Robertson on bass guitar (all from the Hitmen) and Kent Steedman on guitar (also in
the Celibate Rifles
The Celibate Rifles were an Australian punk rock band which formed in 1979 with a line-up that included mainstays Dave Morris on rhythm guitar and Kent Steedman on lead guitar, within a year they were joined by Damien Lovelock on lead vocals. T ...
).
The group, according to
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
's Geoff Ginsberg, "have managed to persevere through many personnel changes, as well as Younger's many commitments producing other bands."
They issued five studio albums, ''
Distemper'' (1989), ''Lower Yourself'' (1997), ''We Got This!'' (2002),
''Gloria'' (May 2009)
and ''Incantations'' (2014).
Younger had teamed up with the Celibate Rifles on a live four-track EP, ''Rob Younger and the Celibate Rifles'' (1991), which was recorded in July 1988 at one of that group's performances in
Backnang
Backnang (; swg, Bagene) is a town in Germany in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, roughly northeast of Stuttgart. Its population has increased greatly over the past century, from 7,650 in 1900 to 35,761 in 2005.
Backnang was ceded to W ...
, Germany. He had joined them on stage to provide vocals for cover versions of "I-94" (originally by Radio Birdman), "
She's so Fine" (the Easybeats), "
Shakin' All Over
"Shakin' All Over" is a song originally performed by Johnny Kidd & the Pirates. It was written by leader Johnny Kidd, and his original recording reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart in August 1960. The song is sometimes credited to Frederick ...
" (Johnny Kidd & the Pirates) and "
It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)
"It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" is a song by Australian hard rock band AC/DC. It is the first track of the group's second album ''T.N.T.'', released only in Australia and New Zealand on 8 December 1975, and was written ...
" (AC/DC).
In April 1997 he was interviewed by Lovegrove: he described his recent work with New Christs and as a producer for other artists, "Yeah, I haven't done anything exceptionally odd, just work in studios, written songs and produced bands. I've got a family to support, a little girl aged 18 months and a four year old boy, so I've even had to work a few day jobs at various times. The band doesn't have a big audience in Australia, so I'm champing at the bit to do this European tour. I think the lack of commitment on our part over the past few years hasn't helped our Australian following, so we've had a real slump. But a band's only as good as the songs that it writes, and we've got some good songs at the moment. We can rock, we know how to rock".
Younger has participated in reformations of Radio Birdman in 1996 and the following year; they reunited sporadically thereafter. In July 2007 the group were inducted into the
ARIA Hall of Fame
In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...
.
They had refused an earlier nomination in the previous year but relented according to Shane Pinnegar, "to pacify friends & family who wanted to see them acknowledged for their contribution to Australian rock n’ roll."
Younger reflected, "I didn't really want to accept
he Aria
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
because I didn't think the music business was ever really on our side, but there were people that did help us out, whether they were journalists or the odd agent or whatever. But generally, of course, I was always on my high horse about what assholes most of the people in the music business were, but I was just scattering my antipathy around at the world really. I don't know where it all fell, whether it landed on the right people or anything like that."
Production work
Credits:
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Younger, Rob
Living people
Australian punk rock musicians
Australian rock singers
Radio Birdman members
New Race members
The New Christs members
Year of birth missing (living people)