Just as critical to the sound of the Birthday Party was Rowland S Howard and his jaguar guitar. He was the one who wrote Shivers at 16 I think. He died waiting for a liver transplant.
Before and after the BP he lived in St Kilda, Melbourne. Nice that his memory will endure with this renaming of a lane.
And I’d just like to say that is the second image I’ve posted to the resurrected site and I’m immensely impressed with myself.
Like…Up… whatever….
Shivers is a wonderful song
The Birthday Party are further proof of my theory that the best bands are those which *look* really interesting. Not cool, or good, or beautiful, but interesting.
Cave, Pew & co all looked suitably other-worldly (ie Australian) but Howard had that added element of androgeny (IMHO). His guitar work on their cover of “Loose” (live “Drunk on the Pope’s Blood”) is amazing.