The Birthday Party - Live 1981-82 (Vinyl LP)

The Birthday Party - Live 1981-82 (Vinyl LP)

Re-released for Record Store Day 2016 this Limited edition double vinyl LP is the only official live Birthday Party recording, and the first in an ongoing series of Birthday Party releases.

Double Vinyl LP Track list:

A1 - Junkyard
A2 - A Dead Song
A3 - The Dim Locator
A4 - Zoo-Music-Girl
A5 - Nick The Stripper

B1 - Blast Off!
B2 - Release The Bats
B3 - Bully Bones
B4 - Kink Ink
B5 - (Sometimes) Pleasure Heads Must Burn

C1 - Big-Jesus-Trash-Can
C2 - Dead Joe
C3 - The Friend Catcher
C4 - 6" Gold Blade
C5 - Hamlet (Pow, Pow, Pow)

D1 - She's Hit
D2 - Funhouse

Morphing from what was originally Melbourne’s The Boys Next Door in 1980, the band comprised singer songwriter Nick Cave; multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Mick Harvey; singer, songwriter and guitarist Rowland S. Howard; bass player Tracy Pew and drummer Phill Calvert.

From their 1980 debut album ‘Hee Haw’ (originally titled ‘The Birthday Party’), to the seismic sonic shift first manifesting itself on 1981’s ‘Prayers on Fire’ (featuring ‘Nick the Stripper’), the American Gothic stylings of 1982’s ‘Junkyard’, and the band’s swansong of ‘Mutiny / The Bad Seed’ in 1983, The Birthday Party never failed to challenge themselves and their audience, constantly veering between punk, rockabilly, elements of free jazz and viscerally raw blues.

Breaking up in late 1983, the band’s influence and legacy has been profound. Nick Cave and Mick Harvey famously went on to form The Bad Seeds, who have recorded 15 studio albums, as well as numerous other projects; Mick Harvey and Rowland S. Howard formed part of the core of Crime and the City Solution, then upon leaving Crime and the City Solution Rowland S. Howard formed These Immortal Souls; In 1999 Rowland S. Howard released his iconic solo album Teenage Snuff Film, followed a decade later by Pop Crimes; In addition to many years with The Bad Seeds Mick Harvey has had a successful solo career, as singer, arranger, producer and multi-instrumentalist.

Though various live releases emerged over the course of this iconic and hugely influential band's existence, no full-length capturing of The Birthday Party was approved by the band themselves until Live 1981-82 was first released back in 1999, nearly 20 years on from when the recordings took place.

An essential record, Live 1981-82 stitches together tracks from a London date in 1981, a German show in Bremen in 1982 and an absolute gem cut from a show in Athens, Greece (a version of the Stooges'  classic 'Funhouse').