Birthday Party


 * (This page covers both the Birthday Party and the band's previous incarnation as the Boys Next Door. See also Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.)

The Birthday Party (originally known as The Boys Next Door) were an Australian post-punk band, active from 1978 to 1983. In 1980, they moved from Melbourne to London. Disillusioned by their stay, the band's sound and live shows became increasingly violent. They broke up soon after relocating to West Berlin in 1983. Despite limited commercial success, The Birthday Party's influence has been far-reaching, and they have been called one of "the darkest and most challenging post-punk groups to emerge in the early '80s." In his lyrics, Nick Cave frequently used Old Testament imagery, combining "sacred and profane" themes. Their 1981 single "Release the Bats" was particularly influential on gothic rock, a tag which the band rejected. The creative core of The Birthday Party went on to acclaimed careers: singer and songwriter Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Mick Harvey, and singer, songwriter and guitarist Rowland S. Howard....(read more at Wikipedia)

Links To Peel
As with Joy Division, Peel found that new bands he listened to either copied or were inspired by the Birthday Party, and while he lauded the intention warned that they had created a considerable benchmark to be surpassed. At one point he is said to have cited Phil Calvert as his favourite drummer. He named Release The Bats as his single of the year in 1981 and chose it for that year's Peelenium.

The band recorded four Peel sessions over a period of two years. All featured previously recorded material apart from the last: they regarded this as the worst, with Nick Cave declaring that he was "really uninspired that day." In the same interview, Howard added:

"'When we went in to do that we were just - we had already recorded two of the songs, and we were just going through the motions of recording them again. It's very hard when you are doing a Peel session. You have extremely limited time, so you don't really have the time to approach songs from a new angle. It just has to be basically live, which is the way Sonny's Burning and Deep In The Woods were recorded on the EP. So it just felt dumb because we were just recording them exactly how we had done them before.'"

However, it would appear that most fans disagree with this, opining that the sessions replicated their live performances fairly accurately. Nick's solo live set (TX 11 October 2001), part of a broadcast to honour Peel's purported 40 years on the radio, concluded with this tribute:

"'I'd just really like to thank, on a personal note, John Peel, who helped the Birthday Party a lot when we arrived here. He was the only one who would go near us: he played us a lot, we did a lot of Peel Sessions with him, and thank you John.'"

Festive Fifty Entries

 * 1981 Festive Fifty: Release The Bats #19
 * 1982 Festive Fifty: Release The Bats ATFF#28
 * 1983 Festive Fifty: Deep In The Woods #43
 * 1983 Festive Fifty: Sonny's Burning #46

Peelenium

 * 'Release The Bats' (Peelenium 1981)

Sessions
Four sessions. All available on The John Peel Sessions / The Complete John Peel Sessions (CD/2xLP, 2002/2011, Strange Fruit). 'Release The Bats' also released on Mixed Peel (cassette, NME, 1987).

1. Recorded 1980-09-10. First broadcast 25 September 1980. Repeated
 * Cry / Yard / Figure Of Fun / King Ink

2. Recorded 1981-04-21. First broadcast 28 April 1981. Repeated 27 July 1981, 23 December 1981.
 * Release The Bats / Roland Around In That Stuff / (Sometimes) Pleasure Heads Must Burn / Loose

3. Recorded: 1981-12-02. First broadcast: 10 December 1981. Repeated
 * Big Jesus Trash Can / She's Hit / Bully Bones / Six Inch Gold Blade

4 Recorded 1982-11-15. First broadcast 22 November 1982. Repeated 09 December 1982, 09 January 1985.
 * Pleasure Avalanche / Deep In The Woods / Sonny's Burning / Marry Me (Lie! Lie!)

Other Shows Played
(This list was compiled only from the database of this site and Lorcan's Tracklistings Archive. Please add more information if known.) While the band changed their name after the release of records under the name Boys Next Door, JP started to refer to them as The Birthday Party while playing these Boys Next Door records.


 * 1979
 * 05 September 1979: The Nightwatchman (LP - Door, Door) Mushroom (as Boys Next Door)


 * 1980
 * 12 March 1980: Happy Birthday (single) Missing Link (as Boys Next Door) (Peel expresses surprise that the Boys Next Door single was cut at Porky in London.)
 * 12 March 1980: Riddle House (single - Happy Birthday) Missing Link (as Boys Next Door)
 * 18 March 1980: Happy Birthday (Single) Missing Link  (as Boys Next Door)
 * 20 March 1980: Death By Drowning (EP - Hee Haw) Missing Link (as Boys Next Door)
 * 14 April 1980: Happy Birthday (single) Missing Link  (as Boys Next Door) (Peel points out that Boys Next Door have changed their name to Birthday Party.)
 * 29 April 1980: Catman (album - Birthday Party) Missing Link
 * 30 April 1980: Hats On Wrong (LP – The Birthday Party) Missing Link
 * 15 May 1980: The Hair Shirt (LP – The Birthday Party) Missing Link
 * 20 May 1980: The Friend Catcher (unknown release) Missing Link
 * 02 June 1980: Mr Clarinet (7”) Missing Link
 * 07 July 1980: Mr Clarinet (7") Missing Link
 * 10 July 1980: Happy Birthday
 * 17 July 1980: (JP plays track from an Ears record that was sent to him by a member of The Birthday Party.)
 * 13 October 1980: The Friend Catcher (7") 4AD AD 12
 * 20 October 1980: Waving My Arms (7" - The Friend Catcher) 4AD AD 12
 * 13 November 1980: end of unknown track
 * 26 November 1980: The Friend Catcher (7") 4AD AD 12


 * 1981
 * 31 March 1981: A Dead Song (LP-Prayers On Fire) 4AD (JP: 'Sounding a bit Per Ubu-ish these days.')
 * 25 March 1981: Cry (LP - Prayers On Fire) 4AD
 * 06 April 1981: Dull Day (album - Prayers On Fire) 4AD CAD 104
 * 15 April 1981: Nick The Stripper (album - Prayers On Fire)
 * 22 April 1981: Figure Of Fun (album - Prayers On Fire) 4AD
 * 12 May 1981: Nick The Stripper (Album: Prayers On Fire) 4AD
 * 25 May 1981: Capers (album - Prayers On Fire) 4AD CAD 104
 * 15 July 1981: Nick The Stripper (album - Prayers On Fire) 4AD CAD 104
 * 15 July 1981: The Hair Shirt (12" EP - Hee Haw) Missing Link MLEP-3 as Boys Next Door
 * 21 July 1981: King Ink (album - Prayers On Fire) 4AD CAD 104
 * 22 July 1981: Release The Bats (7") 4AD (as mentioned the following night)
 * 23 July 1981: (JP: "This is the single of the year. I played it on last night's programme right at the beginning and I defy you to nominate one which is better than this anyway.") Release The Bats (7") 4AD
 * 30 July 1981: Release The Bats (7") 4AD AD 111
 * 03 July 1981: Release The Bats (7") 4AD AD 111
 * 13 August 1981: Release The Bats (7") 4AD AD 111
 * 31 August 1981: Release The Bats (7") 4AD
 * 14 September 1981: Release The Bats (7") 4AD
 * 21 September 1981: Mr. Clarinet (7") 4AD AD 114
 * 22 October 1981: Mr Clarinet (7") 4AD
 * 29 December 1981: (JP: “The next is one of these bits where you're gonna think, 'Oh, come on, he must have fixed that', but it's all absolutely true, straight and above board.”) Release The Bats (7 inch) 4AD) FF#19


 * 1982
 * 27 February 1982 (BFBS): Pleasure Heads (split album with Lydia Lunch - Drunk On The Pope's Blood / The Agony Is The Ecstacy) 4AD JAD 202
 * 27 February 1982 (BFBS): Zoo-Music Girl (split album with Lydia Lunch - Drunk On The Pope's Blood / The Agony Is The Ecstacy) 4AD JAD 202
 * 27 February 1982 (BFBS): Loose (split album with Lydia Lunch - Drunk On The Pope's Blood / The Agony Is The Ecstacy) 4AD JAD 202


 * 08 March 1982: Loose (split 12" EP with Lydia Lunch - Drunk On The Pope's Blood / The Agony Is The Ecstacy) 4AD JAD 202
 * 13 July 1982: Junkyard (LP - Junkyard) 4AD
 * 29 July 1982: Several Sins (LP - Junkyard)
 * 07 September 1982: unknown
 * 04 November 1982: Sonny’s Burning
 * 16 November 1982: The Friend Catcher
 * 22 December 1982: Release The Bats (7 inch) 4AD ATFF#28 (JP: “Wish someone would bite me.”)


 * 1983
 * 30 January 1983 (BFBS): Sonny's Burning (12" EP - The Bad Seed) 4AD BAD 301
 * 30 January 1983 (BFBS): Wild World (12" EP - The Bad Seed) 4AD BAD 301
 * 30 January 1983 (BFBS): Fears Of Gun (12" EP - The Bad Seed) 4AD BAD 301
 * 30 January 1983 (BFBS): Deep In The Woods (12" EP - The Bad Seed) 4AD BAD 301
 * 06 February 1983 (BFBS): Sonny's Burning (12" EP - The Bad Seed) 4AD BAD 301
 * 14 June 1983: Blast Off (EP) 4AD
 * 21 June 1983: Mr. Clarinet (EP - The Friend Catcher) 4AD
 * 15 November 1983: Swampland (12" - Mutiny!) Mute
 * 28 November 1983: Swampland (EP - Mutiny!) Mute
 * 05 December 1983: Say A Spell (12" EP - Mutiny!) Mute
 * 21 December 1983: Sonny's Burning (12 inch EP-The Bad Seed) 4AD FF#46
 * 21 December 1983: Deep In The Woods (12 inch EP-The Bad Seed) 4AD FF#43
 * Tremble The Dog: Fears Of Gun
 * Tremble The Dog: Hamlet
 * Tremble The Dog: Nick The Stripper


 * 1984
 * 11 January 1984: Swampland (EP - Mutiny) Mute
 * Peel Mid Feb 1984: Fears Of Gun (EP - The Bad Seed) 4AD
 * 08 May 1984: The Hair Shirt
 * 27 September 1984: (JP - "I spent most of today listening to new records - I spend most of my days listening to new records, and I'm quite content to do so, most of the time. But, I just want to say this. If any more of you are planning a career sounding like The Birthday Party, this is what you've got to aspire to.") King Ink (LP-Prayers On Fire) 4AD (JP - "Now back to the rehearsal rooms with the rest of you...")
 * 05 December 1984: Release The Bats (7") 4AD


 * 1985
 * 01 April 1985: Big Jesus Trash Can (LP - It's Still Living) Missing Link
 * 16 April 1985: She's Hit / A Dead One / Pleasure Heads Must Burn (album - It's Still Living) Missing Link
 * 22 April 1985: Junkyard / Blast Off (album - It's Still Living) Missing Link
 * 01 May 1985: She's Hit / A Dead One / Pleasure Heads Must Burn (album - It's Still Living) Missing Link
 * 25 June 1985: Blast Off (LP - It's Still Living) Missing Link


 * 1987
 * 23 February 1987: Release the Bats (The Peel Sessions EP 12") Strange Fruit
 * 03 March 1987: (Sometimes) Pleasure Heads Must Burn (12" - The Peel Sessions) Strange Fruit


 * 1988
 * 14 January 1988 (BBC World Service): Release The Bats ("Mixed Peel" cassette) Strange Fruit Records/ New Musical Express
 * 13 September 1988: (Sometimes) Pleasure Heads Must Burn (12" - The Peel Sessions) Strange Fruit


 * 1990s
 * 07 August 1990: Figure Of Fun (LP - Prayers On Fire) 4AD
 * 14 July 1991: Loose (Peel Sessions EP) Strange Fruit
 * 13 March 1992: The Friend Catcher (7") 4AD
 * 07 July 1999: A Dead Song (CD-Live 81-82) 4AD
 * 29 July 1999: Blast Off! (CD-Live 81 - 82) 4AD
 * 31 August 1999: Release The Bats (session)
 * 07 December 1999: Release The Bats (7") 4AD (Peelenium 1981)

Other
 * 2000s
 * 28 December 2000: (JP: "[Gutterville Splendour] sound amazing, I have to say ... you can't help but be reminded of the Birthday Party, but what a good band to be reminded of.")
 * 23 August 2001: Figure Of Fun (LP - The John Peel Sessions) Strange Fruit
 * 28 August 2001: Release The Bats (LP - The John Peel Sessions) Strange Fruit
 * Keeping It Peel: 'Figure Of Fun'