Christchurch’s Newtones were the band that, for the betterment of New Zealand music, inspired Rob Mayes to launch his Failsafe Records label back in the early-1980s. As Mayes told us back in 2018, “They were the impetus for me starting my label because I saw them play a fantastic track called ‘Four Ships’, and I popped down to the local record store to buy it, only to find it wasn’t recorded or released”.
Newtones were active between 1980 and 1982 and, 40-something years later, Failsafe have released a retrospective collection of their songs, called ‘New Way’. The release includes their past studio recordings — the 1981 ‘Paint the Town Red’ EP, 1982s ‘My World’ single, and the Propeller Records compilation ‘Class of ’81’ track ‘New Way’, from which the album is named. From these releases Mayes took further inspiration to form a label, based on the band’s DIY approach to recording and releasing music. The retrospective also includes the posthumous ‘All Over the World’, found also on the Failsafe’s 1984 ‘Accident Compilation’, along with live material restored and remastered from singer/guitarist Tony Peake’s personal tape collection. Again, as Mayes told us back in 2018, “When guitarist-singer Tony Peake died in 2010 I was sent his collection of Newtones recordings, and there were a bunch of good live recordings that yielded some really nice versions of unreleased songs, including the ‘Four Ships’ track”.
What is clear from this release is that Newtones wrote a lot of songs, with a diversity of styles, given their short two-to-three-year existence; 15 are included on this release, totaling over 70 minutes of music. And it is very clear through the variety of their output that the band did not want to be one dimensional, but instead aimed to experiment and try different things. However, with such a large output over such a short period, not all of the songs feel similar in quality, and I feel not all have aged equally either. That isn’t necessarily the point of this collection, however. This release, along with others Mayes has released over recent years, is to help capture a place and a time in music; Christchurch, centering around the 1980s. And, as always with Failsafe albums, compilations and anthologies, even if you don’t love every track, there are always undiscovered gems to be found.
Given the variety, different listeners are going to enjoy different songs. For me, the title track ‘New Way’ is the strongest on the album, with its driving bass and guitar effects reminiscent of Failsafe labelmates Beat Rhythm Fashion’s early releases. ‘Four Ships’, also, is an instrumental that stands the test of time. It’s the kind of song that you would have closed your eyes for, to get immersed in at a gig, and I can see why it would have inspired that young Rob Mayes. ‘The Bells’, all 7 minutes and 54 seconds of it, is another highlight.
Not everything on here is for me though. Some of it delves a little too far towards pub rock or funk for my tastes. The opening track, ‘Paint the Town Red’, seems a little more paint-by-numbers. A bit mainstream. And with breathy repeated lyrics at the beginning, this just isn’t my thing. Different people have different tastes though, and this was the title track of their first he EP, which charted in the New Zealand top 20. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. But if you are like me, persevere though – there is much better to come.
Like other recent Failsafe releases, ‘New Way’ comes with art and liner notes containing snippets of the band’s story. Here I find Mayes has expanded on one of the stories he told us back in 2018. When Mayes went to the record store in an attempt to buy a Newtones release, the person serving in the shop? It was actually a man called Roger Shepherd, who went on to form their own little label.
Find the release at Bandcamp, the Failsafe webstore, and probably elsewhere.
