The Birthday Party

Driven by abrasive, antagonistic new wave attitude, The Birthday Party were the outsiders of 1980s rock, championed by Radio 1 DJ John Peel, yet left to become cult heroes scowling in the shadows. Inspired by the punk explosion, the gang of Melbourne school friends started playing together in 1973 under the guise of The Boys Next Door, before taking their feedback fuelled, distorted art rock to London in 1980 and renaming themselves after a Harold Pinter play. Led by Nick Cave's dark, gothic songs and Rowland S. Howard's screeching guitars, the band signed with 4AD for debut album Prayers On Fire (1981) but it was follow-up Junkyard (1982) that is generally regarded as their finest work. They relocated to West Berlin in 1982 and collaborated with Lydia Lunch on the concept album Honeymoon In Red (1987) but, troubled by drug and alcohol addiction, their music became even darker and more bracing on later EPs The Mutiny and The Bad Seed. They split in 1983 with Howard going on to form Crime And The City Solution and These Immortal Souls, whilst the rest of the band regrouped as Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds and later Grinderman.