The Birthday Party was an Australian post punk rock group, active from 1977 to 1983. Post-punk was a musical movement beginning at the end of the 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion. For the more recent post-punk movement in rock music, see post-punk revival. ...

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." [1] Though often indirect, their influence has been far-reaching. Autobiography John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was a British disc jockey, radio presenter, and journalist. ... Post punk generally refers to the particularly fertile and creative period following the initial punk rock explosion. During the first wave of punk, roughly spanning 1976-1983, bands such as The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Ramones and The Damned began to challenge the current styles and conventions of rock...

While their early music was sometimes classed as gothic rock by critics unfamiliar with the genre or music, the band disdained the term, and 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. Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a genre of rock music that developed during the late 1970s. ... No Wave was a short-lived but influential offshoot of punk rock centered in New York City during the late 1970s and early 1980s. ... Deathrock (also spelled death rock) is a term used to identify a subgenre of punk rock, which incorporated elements of horror and first emerged most prominently in the West Coast of the United States during the late 1970s and early 1980s. ... Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a genre of rock music that developed during the late 1970s. ...

Despite their limited 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. Ercole de Roberti: Concert, c. ... A songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics to songs, the musical composition or melody to songs, or both. ... Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in 2005. ... Mick Harvey (born Michael John Harvey, 1958 in Rochester, Victoria, Australia,) is an Australian rock musician, composer, arranger and record producer. ... Rowland Stuart Howard is an Australian rock musician, guitarist and songwriter best known as a member of the seminal post-punk groups These Immortal Souls, Crime and the City Solution and The Birthday Party, which also included vocalist Nick Cave. ...

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 Lou Reed, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Alice Cooper and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, among others. Caulfield Grammar School is a coeducational independent school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ... Melbournes Yarra River is popular area for walking, jogging, cycling and relaxing on the banks with a picnic Melbourne (pronounced either or [1]) is the second most populous city in Australia with a metropolitan area population of approximately 3. ... Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in 2005. ... Mick Harvey (born Michael John Harvey, 1958 in Rochester, Victoria, Australia,) is an Australian rock musician, composer, arranger and record producer. ... Phill Calvert (b. ... Lou Reed Lewis Allen Lou Reed (born March 2, 1942) is an American rock and roll singer-songwriter, originally from Brooklyn, New York. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Roxy Music is a British art rock group founded in the early 1970s as a collaborative project between art school graduates Bryan Ferry (vocals, keyboards) and Brian Eno (electronic music specialist). ... Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948), is a hard rock singer and musician, whose work spans four decades. ... Alex Harvey (February 5, 1935 - February 4, 1982) was a Scottish rock and roll performer. ...

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. Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... The Saints are an influential Australian rock and roll band, formed in Brisbane in 1972 (see 1972 in music). ... Radio Birdman was one of the first punk bands in Australia. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

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 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. Audio feedback (also known as the Larsen effect) is a special kind of feedback which occurs when a loop exists between an audio input (for example, a microphone or guitar pickup) and an audio output (for example, a loudspeaker). ... Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... Media:Example. ... Blues music redirects here. ... In popular music a bassline, also bass line, is an instrumental part, or line, which is in the bass or lowest range and thus lower than the other parts and part of the rhythm section. ... Gene Krupa Gene Krupa (January 15, 1909 – October 16, 1973) was a famous and influential American jazz and big band drummer, known for his highly energetic and flamboyant style. ... On White II by Wassily Kandinsky, 1923. ... Tony Cohen is an acclaimed Australian record producer and sound engineer, born in the 1950s. ... Missing Link Records is a record store in Melbourne, Australia. ...

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. London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ... Boroughs of West Berlin West Berlin was the name given to the western part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. ...

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." [2]), and that Cave "doesn't so much sing his vocals as expel them from his gut"[3]. 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. John Davies Cale (born December 4, 1942) is a Welsh musician, songwriter and record producer. ... Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was a highly influential director and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and thriller genres. ... James Newell Osterberg, Jr. ... Suicide is an American rock music group intermittently active since 1971 and composed of Alan Vega (vocals) and Martin Rev (synthesizers and drum machines). ...

Calvert was ejected in 1982; he was reportedly "unable to nail down the beats for 'Dead Joe' to everyone's satisfaction" [4], 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. He rejoined the band, but died some years later during an epileptic fit. Drunk driving (drink driving in the UK) or drinking and driving is the act of operating a motor vehicle after having consumed alcohol (i. ... Barry Adamson (June 1, 1958) is a British rock musician who has worked with Magazine, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Pan Sonic, and has worked on film soundtracks for David Lynch. ... Epilepsy (often referred to as a seizure disorder) is a chronic neurological condition characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures. ...

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. Blixa Bargeld, born Christian Emmerich on January 12, 1959 in West Berlin, Germany, is a composer, author, actor, singer, musician, performer and lecturer in almost any field of interpretative art. ... Einstürzende Neubauten is an ever-changing experimental music band, originally from West Berlin, formed in 1980. ... See also: 1983 in music, other events of 1984, 1985 in music, 1980s in music and the list of years in music // [edit] Events January 21 - Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood reaches number one in the UK singles chart: it spends a total of forty-two weeks in the...

Legacy and influence

Several groups rose from the Birthday Party's ashes: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (featuring Cave, Harvey 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. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. ... Crime and The City Solution were a post-punk rock band formed by singer Simon Bonney. ... These Immortal Souls was an Australian Indie band active through the late 1980s and early 1990s. ...

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. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. ...

Rock acts that have cited The Birthday Party as an influence include Coil, My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus Lizard, Scratch Acid, Big Boys (band), Dinosaur Jr., Tindersticks and The Devastations. Coil (1982 - 13 November 2004) were a cross-genre, experimental music group who worked in such forms as industrial, noise, ambient and dark ambient, neo-folk, spoken word, drone music, and minimalism. ... My Bloody Valentine were an Irish-British rock band known for their creative use of guitar distortion and vibrato. ... The Jesus Lizard was a rock music group formed in 1989 in Chicago, Illinois. ... Scratch Acid was an Austin, Texas noise rock group formed in 1982. ... The Big Boys were a pioneering band who are credited with helping introduce the new style of hardcore punk that became popular in the 1980s. ... Dinosaur Jr is an American indie rock band. ... Tindersticks is a rock band from Nottingham, England. ...

U.S. Indie label 31G Records has released a tribute album to The Birthday Party called Release the Bats. 31G Records, or Three One G, is a San Diego, California based record label. ... A tribute album is a recorded collection of cover versions of a specific artists songs. ...

Trivia

• Some sources say the band took its name from the Harold Pinter play The Birthday Party. [5], others say it was prompted by Cave mis-remembering a party scene in Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment.

Harold Pinter Pinter redirects here. ... Fyodor Dostoevsky. ... Crime and Punishment (Russian: Преступление и наказание) is a novel written by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. ...

Discography

Albums

• Door Door, as "Boys Next Door" (LP, 1978)
• The Birthday Party/Boys Next Door (LP, 1980) - later released on CD with the band's early recordings, under the title Hee Haw
• Prayers on Fire (LP, 1981)
• Junkyard (LP, 1982)
• It's Still Living (LP, 1985)
• Best and Rarest (LP, 1985)
• The Bad Seed/Mutiny! (CD)
• Hits (CD, 1992)
• Live 1981–82 (CD, 1999)
• Peel Sessions (CD)
• Pleasure Heads Must Burn (DVD, 2003)

Prayers On Fire, by The Birthday Party, was released in 1981 by 4AD. This was the bands first full length release on an international record label, after leaving Australia to broaden horizons in England. ... Junkyard - The Birthday Party. ...

Singles and EPs

• "These Boots Are Made For Walking" as "Boys Next Door" (7" single, 1978)
• "Shivers" as "Boys Next Door" (7" single, 1978)
• "Hee Haw" as "Boys Next Door" (EP, 1979)

• "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 Ecstacy" with Lydia Lunch (12" EP, 1982)
• "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)

These Boots Are Made For Walkin is a song by singer Nancy Sinatra and musician Lee Hazlewood, who also composed it. ... Lydia Lunch Lydia Lunch (born Lydia Koch on June 2, 1959 in Rochester, New York) is an American singer, poet, writer, and actor. ...

Further reading

• Inner City Sound, Clinton Walker (2005)
• Stranded: The Secret History of Australian Independent Music 1977-1991, Clinton Walker
• Bad Seed: A biography of Nick Cave, Ian Johnston (1995) ISBN 0-316-90589-4
• The Birthday Party & other epic adventures, Robert Brokenmouth (1995)
• The life and music of Nick Cave: An illustrated biography, Maximilian Dax & Johannes Beck (1999) ISBN 3-931126-27-7
• Kicking Against the Pricks: An Armchair Guide to Nick Cave, Amy Hanson (2005), ISBN 1-900924-96-X

Clinton Walker is a leading historian of Australian popular music. ... Stranded: The Secret History of Australian Independent Music 1977-1991 is a book about the Australian independent music scene from 1979 till 1991, as written by author and music journalist Clinton Walker. ... Clinton Walker is a leading historian of Australian popular music. ...

External links

• The Birthday Party Official Site
• From The Archives: a site with discography, concert history, videography, bibliography, etc. Also features Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Einstürzende Neubauten and related artists.
• Article on The Birthday Party from HowlSpace
• The Birthday Party discography from Nick Cave Online