The Birthday Party was a highly influential Australian post punk band, active in the early 1980s. It launched the careers of the internationally renowned singer and songwriter Nick Cave and of the respected musicians and songwriters Mick Harvey (who played a number of instruments for the band) and Rowland Howard (the band's guitarist). The other members ere Tracy Pew (bassist) and Phill Calvert (drummer). Their sound combined punk, rockabilly and the rawest form of blues rock, creating some amazing music, lorded over by Nick Cave's lead vocals.

When the Birthday Party broke up several bands rose up out of the ashes. These include: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Crime and City Solution, and These Immortal Souls. All of these bands shared a similar aesthetic, but showed unequal deftness in expressing it.

Discography

  • Mr Clarinet/Happy Birthday (7" single, 1980)
  • The Birthday Party/Boys Next Door (LP, 1980)
  • Nick the Stripper/Blundertown/Kathys Kisses (12" single, 1981)
  • Nick the Stripper/Blundertown (7" single, 1981/82)
  • Prayers on Fire (LP, 1981)
  • Release the Bats/Blast Off (7" single, 1981)
  • Mr Clarinet/Happy Birthday (7" single, 1981)
  • Drunk on the Pope's Blood (12" EP, 1982)
  • Junkyard (LP, 1982)
  • Dead Joe (7" flexidisc, 1982)
  • The Bad Seed (12" EP, 1983)
  • The Birthday Party (12" EP, 1983)
  • Mutiny! (12" EP, 1983)
  • It's Still Living (LP, 1985)
  • Best and Rarest (LP, 1985)
  • The Peel Sessions (12" EP, 1987)
  • The Peel Sessions (12" EP, 1988)
  • Hits (Double LP, 1992)

External link

The Birthday Party is also a play by Harold Pinter.