Everything about The Birthday Party Band totally explained
The Birthday Party was an
Australian
post punk rock group, active from 1977 to 1983.
Despite being championed by
John Peel, the Birthday Party found little commercial success during their career. They've been called one of "the darkest and most challenging
post-punk groups to emerge in the early '80s." Though often indirect, their influence has been far-reaching.
While their early music was sometimes classified as
gothic rock, the band disdained the term, and their sound was very different from most goth music, closer to
No Wave at the time. However, the Birthday Party did have an influence on
deathrock, a genre of music related to gothic rock.
Despite their limited commercial success, the creative core of the Birthday Party have gone on to acclaimed careers:
singer and
songwriter Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist
Mick Harvey and singer, songwriter and guitarist
Rowland S. Howard.
The Boys Next Door
The nucleus of the band first met at the private boys school
Caulfield Grammar School (in suburban
Melbourne) in the early seventies. A rock group was formed in 1973 with
Nick Cave (vocals),
Mick Harvey (guitar), and
Phill Calvert (drums), with other students on guitar, bass and saxophone. Most were also members of the school choir. The band played under various names at parties and school functions with a mixed pre-punk repertoire of
David Bowie,
Lou Reed,
Roxy Music,
Alice Cooper and the
Sensational Alex Harvey Band, among others.
After their final school year in 1975 the band decided to continue with friend
Tracy Pew picking up the bass. Greatly affected by the
punk explosion of 1976 which saw Australian bands
The Saints and
Radio Birdman making their first recordings and tours,
The Boys Next Door, as they were now called, began performing fast original
New Wave material in 1977.
Rowland S. Howard joined in 1978, and about this time, the group's sound changed dramatically. The addition of Howard's guitar was certainly a catalyst (his later use of
audio feedback being a hallmark of the group) but there were other changes, as well: their sound drew upon
punk,
rockabilly,
free jazz and the rawest
blues, but transcended concise categorisation. Many songs were driven by prominent, repetitive
basslines and drumwork that sounded like an angry
Gene Krupa. Though the band was tightly rehearsed, the instrumentalists often sounded as if they were on the verge of collapse, this quality only emphasising the newfound mania of Cave's singing, and his
expressionist lyrics. In producer/engineer
Tony Cohen they found a willing accomplice to their experimentation and their refusal to repeat themselves; and in manager Keith Glass they found an enthusiastic financial backer. Glass' label
Missing Link Records released all of the early Birthday Party records.
London and beyond
After recordings and moderate success in Australia (including hundreds of live shows) they headed for
London in 1980, changing their name to the
Birthday Party and launching into a period of innovative and aggressive music-making. They resided in London, with trips back to Australia and tours through Europe and the U.S. before relocating to
West Berlin in 1982.
Above the barely-controlled racket, Cave's vocals ranged from desperate to simply menacing and demented. Critics have written that "neither
John Cale nor
Alfred Hitchcock was ever this scary.", and that Cave "doesn't so much sing his vocals as expel them from his gut". Though Cave drew on earlier rock and roll shriekers; especially
Iggy Pop and
Suicide's
Alan Vega, his singing with the Birthday Party remains powerful and distinct.
Calvert was ejected in 1982; he was reportedly "unable to nail down the beats for 'Dead Joe' to everyone's satisfaction", and Harvey moved to drums. When Pew was jailed for
drunk driving and petty theft also in 1982,
Barry Adamson and several others replaced him on records or live appearances. Pew rejoined the band, but died some years later during an
epileptic seizure.
In 1982 a spin-off group with
Lydia Lunch,
Honeymoon In Red, recorded an album which was eventually released in 1987. Harvey and Cave were reportedly so unhappy with the mixing and overdubbing done after their involvement, that they requested their names be withheld from its liner notes. Howard and Pew apparently had no objections to being credited by name.
In 1983
Blixa Bargeld from the German band
Einstürzende Neubauten played guitar on some Birthday Party recordings, effectively replacing Howard, as tension between Cave and Howard came to a head. The Birthday Party disbanded in
1984, due in part to the split between Cave and Howard, and drug-related exhaustion.
Legacy and influence
Several groups rose from the Birthday Party's ashes:
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (featuring Cave, Harvey, Adamson and Bargeld),
Crime and the City Solution (featuring Harvey and Howard, later just Harvey) and
These Immortal Souls (featuring Howard). All of these bands shared a similar aesthetic, though perhaps they showed unequal deftness in expressing it.
Due in part to their legendary status and to the continuing success of
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Birthday Party's back catalogue has been re-released on CD several times. In recent years Mick Harvey has overseen releases of rare or previously unissued recordings.
Rock acts that have cited The Birthday Party as an influence include
The Jesus And Mary Chain,
Coil,
My Bloody Valentine,
Cocteau Twins,
The Jesus Lizard,
Scratch Acid,
Melt-Banana,
Big Boys,
Dinosaur Jr.,
Tindersticks,
The Horrors,
Turn Pale,
The Wahas and
The Devastations.
Brooklyn, NY punk soul orchestra
The World/Inferno Friendship Society quote the intro to "Sonny's Burning" in their song "Me V. Angry Mob" on the
Red-Eyed Soul album.
U.S. Indie label
31G Records has released a
tribute album to The Birthday Party called
Release the Bats.
In October 2007 Cave was inducted into the
ARIA Hall of Fame. During his acceptance speech he cheekily took it upon himself to also induct the Australian members of the
Bad Seeds (including Harvey), plus Howard and Pew from The Birthday Party.
Band name
Some sources say the band took its name from the
Harold Pinter play
The Birthday Party., others (including Ian Johnstone's Cave biography) state it was prompted by Cave mis-remembering or intentionally mis-attributing the name to a non-existent birthday party scene in the very lengthy
Dostoevsky novel
Crime and Punishment.
Discography
Albums
The Boys Next Door
Boys Next Door/The Birthday Party
The Birthday Party (LP 1980). Originally credited to the Boys Next Door. Later re-released and attributed to The Birthday Party. Re-released on CD in 1988 with the band's early recordings, under the title Hee Haw (see below; not to be confused with the Hee Haw EP of 1979).
The Birthday Party
Prayers on Fire (LP, 1981)
Junkyard (LP, 1982) [UK#73]
It's Still Living (LP, 1985)
Best and Rarest (LP, 1985)
Hee Haw (CD, 1988)
Mutiny/The Bad Seed (CD, 1989)
Hits (CD, 1992)
Live 1981–82 (CD, 1999)
The John Peel Sessions (CD, 2001)
Pleasure Heads Must Burn (DVD, 2003)
Singles and EPs
Boys Next Door
"These Boots Are Made For Walking" (7" single, 1978)
"Shivers" (7" single, 1978)
Hee Haw (EP, 1979)
The Birthday Party
"Mr Clarinet/Happy Birthday" (7" single, 1980)
"Nick the Stripper/Blundertown/Kathys Kisses" (12" single, 1981)
"Nick the Stripper/Blundertown" (7" single, 1981/82)
"Release the Bats/Blast Off" (7" single, 1981)
"Mr Clarinet/Happy Birthday" (7" single, 1981)
Drunk on the Pope's Blood/The Agony Is The Ecstasy (12" EP; music by Lydia Lunch on one side)
"Dead Joe" (7" flexidisc, 1982)
"The Bad Seed" (12" EP, 1983)
"The Birthday Party" (12" EP, 1983)
"Mutiny "(12" EP, 1983)
"The Peel Sessions" (12" EP, 1987)
"The Peel Sessions" (12" EP, 1988)Further Information
Get more info on 'The Birthday Party Band'.
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