January 1979 brought a bizarre epilogue to this half of the News story when the News residence at Faraday St - just vacated - was fire bombed in the small hours of the 3rd. The scene of devastation made the front page of The Sun. No suspects were ever apprehended and motives have only ever been guessed at.
Not quite rolling over yet, Gavin commenced pulling another band together with Russell Irvine. Through February, he recruited another rhythm section; Chris Dyson (bass) and Eddie van Roosendael (drums) were both ex Stiletto. It could have been an ill-conceived idea. Stiletto, for all their worth, were very much an 'Old Wave' outfit. This was borne out over the four or five rehearsals that followed. It wasn't working, so Gavin looked for other guns for hire. At the end of February came Bassist Kim Morton, an old friend of Russells'. While he did the job and stayed in until the end, Kim was not the ideal. As Gavin recalls: "Kim didn't really have the feel for it and was more into the Cure than our sort of stuff. His performance had a hesitancy about it, which was a drag". Not long after Kim enlisted, Gavin mentioned to Geoff King (3RRR DJ) that he was chasing a good drummer. King put him onto one, Dorland Bray - who had just left a Country & Western band! Both parties had their doubts, but it was obvious within a few rehearsals that Dorland was a good drummer, who would adapt. And he did, to the point where he was probably perfect for News within months. "He didn't think he could cut it because he'd been playing slow country and western, never had a lot to do! It took him a lot of adjustment. Bit by bit, he became quite an amazing drummer" [Gavin]. Dorland took the intelligent approach of developing a new style from the ground up. He liked the music, but although young (about 21), he had never played much like it. At the time, Dorland was drawing much influence from Midnight Oils' drummer, Rob Hurst. While Dorland (a.k.a. Limp Member) and Kim took a few months to work fully into the band, this quartet gelled nicely, and Gavin set the New News to debut in April. While practicing long and hard was necessary to break in the new rhythm section, it was no less necessary to develop a new approach musically.
Gavin had formulated a more accessible version of News. He often summed up the sound developing then as 'Post Punk Pop', a form directly descended of Punk that had taken in some old wave sensibility. It was also a matter of the music suiting the new members: "We'd developed what we had, and done what we'd done, there was no point mimicking that. Russell was totally into Pop, Dorland came from a different background, and so was Kim. I thought why not use the talent that's there to put a different feeling into it" [Gavin]. The new sound was meant to be powerful but put over in a fashion that would be more approachable for audiences. As Gavin explained: "You might be adventurous in melody, but make a concession to the audience in keeping the beat constant".
The end of March saw News doing two discrete preview shows. Gavin was then booking bands at the (now long gone) Marijuana House, run by the Australian Marijuana Party in Brunswick St Fitzroy. News played there on the 30th, under the alias Fallen Angels! Another low key appearance was the 31st at Heart. The official debut was the night of April the 1st at the Crystal Ballroom. By now, the Ballroom was the prime venue playing Punk/New Wave band in Melbourne. The scene had shifted from the inner urban axis of Carlton Fitzroy Collingwood Richmond in the first months of 1979. The official debut at the Crystal Ballroom was a support to Boys Next Door and did go over well despite the large turnout of the 'Art & Angst' crowd that followed Boys Next Door.
