by Mark Mordue
54Quote From The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker. Copyright © 1974 by The Free Press, a Division of Simon and Schuster, Inc. Copyright © renewed 2002 by Marie H. Becker. Reprinted with the permission of The Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.
55Tony Cohen, interview with the author, Sydney, 30 September 2010.
56ibid.
57In fact, the last album by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds to fully make use of tape-recording in the studio was Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus (2004). By the time of Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! (2008), they had moved to digital recording.
58Tony Cohen, interview with the author, Sydney, 30 September 2010.
59‘The Red Clock’ faintly references A Clockwork Orange (1971), an iconic film of the decade. Director Stanley Kubrick’s depiction of a futuristic criminal gang of ‘droogs’ did not entirely have the moral impact he hoped for. Rowland and Nick could see how malice had an attractive power and – in the wake of punk rock – was something to be used artistically, in performances and in their image, which were taking on stylishly sinister overtones. The fact that Rowland was allowed lead vocal on ‘The Red Clock’ revived hopes of sharing singing duties when it came to his own material. Nick doing ‘Shivers’ had been a bitter pill to swallow. But the lyrics of ‘The Red Clock’ suggest another disturbing take on the night when the red chair was stolen and Nick cut his hand on the window. It’s as if Nick’s criminality is making its way into Rowland’s dreams.
60Phill Calvert, interview with the author, phone, 19 February 2014.
61Keith Glass, interview with the author, Sydney, 13 May 2010.
62Mick Harvey, interview with the author, Sydney, 17 January 2012.
63Ian McFarlane, ‘Interview with Rowland S Howard 24/11/94’, Prehistoric Sounds, Aussie Indie Music 1976–1999, Vol. 1, Issue 2, 1995, p. 28.
64ibid.
65Ironically, the Clifton Hill Community Music Centre’s leading light, Philip Brophy, was from Reservoir in Melbourne and probably more working-class than anyone in the communist-inspired enclave that surrounded the Primitive Calculators. As it was, the latter were already descending into amphetamine and heroin addictions that would merge with their nihilism and obliterate them. Primitive Calculators knew how to attack, but it seemed they had nothing left to defend.
66Jenny Valentish, ‘Rowland S Howard: Storm Und Twang – The Prophet of St Kilda’, Australian Guitar, May 2006; republished at Rowland S Howard – Outta the Black, https://rowland-s-howard.com/articles/2006-australian-guitar.php
67Robert Brokenmouth, Nick Cave: The Birthday Party and Other Epic Adventures, Omnibus Press, London, 1996, p. 34.
68Mick Harvey, interview with the author, Wombarra, 5 April 2013.
69Clinton Walker, ‘Last Hee Haw from The Boys Next Door’, Inner City Sound, Verse Chorus Press, Melbourne, 2005, p. 77.
70ibid.
71ibid.
Crime and Punishment
1John Stapleton, ‘The Boys Next Door’, Roadrunner, December 1979, n.p.
2Barney Hoskyns, ‘A Manhattan Melodrama Starring The Birthday Party’, New Musical Express, 17 October 1981; republished at Rowland S Howard – Outta the Black, https://rowland-s-howard.com/articles/1981-nme-2.php, accessed 22 September 2020.
3ibid.
4Tim Anstaett, ‘The Birthday Party’, The Offense, April 1983; republished at Rowland S Howard – Outta the Black: https://rowland-s-howard.com/articles/1983-offense.php, accessed 5 August 2020.
5Ian McFarlane, ‘Interview with Rowland S Howard 24/11/94’, Prehistoric Sounds, Aussie Indie Music 1976–1999, Vol. 1, Issue 2, 1995, p. 30.
6Phill Calvert, interview with the author, Melbourne, 20 February 2010.
7Mick Harvey, interview with the author, Sydney, 17 January 2012.
8After graduating, Goldman and English would consolidate themselves as an innovative young production duo called The Rich Kids. They developed videos for The Birthday Party and Nick’s early solo career, as well as forging the creative core behind the prison drama Ghosts . . . of the Civil Dead (1986), with John Hillcoat directing and Nick scriptwriting and taking a leading role. Ghosts would take everyone to the edge, souring English and Goldman’s relationship with Hillcoat and Cave.
9Polly Borland and John Hillcoat, interview with the author, Melbourne, 6 April 2012.
10We’re Livin’ on Dog Food, directed by Richard Lowenstein, Ghost Pictures, 2009.
11Phill Calvert, interview with the author, Sydney, 19 February 2014.
12Jenny Watson, interview with the author, Melbourne, 17 March 2010.
13Tony Clarke, interview with the author, Melbourne, 10 February 2010.
14Bronwyn Bonney (née Adams), interview with the author, Sydney, 28 March 2011.
15Ian McFarlane, ‘Interview with Rowland S Howard 24/11/94’, Prehistoric Sounds, Aussie Indie Music 1976–1999, Vol. 1, Issue 2, 1995, p. 30.
16Harry Howard, interview with the author, Melbourne, 19 November 2010.
17Ron Rude, correspondence with the author, email, 19 June 2012.
18ibid.
19Paul Goldman, interview with the author, Melbourne, 9 February 2010.
20Ron Rude, correspondence with the author, email, 19 June 2012.
21Kathleen Stewart, correspondence with the author, email, 3 September 2020.
22Kathleen Stewart, The After Life, Random House, 2008, p. 175.
23Phill Calvert, interview with the author, Sydney, 20 February 2010.
24Kathleen Stewart, The After Life, Random House, 2008, p. 261.
25Kathleen Stewart, correspondence with the author, email, 3 September 2020.
26Phill Calvert, interview with the author, Melbourne, 20 February 2010.
27Rowland S Howard would continue to play this guitar up until his death on 30 December 2009. So strongly did it define his sound that fan sites and tribute events would identify him as the ‘Crown Prince of the Crying Jag’.
28Keith Glass, interview with the author, Sydney, 13 May 2010.
29ibid.
30Helen Gillman, ‘Boys Next Door: Monument in the Making’, Rolling Stone Australia, January 1980, n.p.
31Jane Simon, ‘The Birthday Party’, Roadrunner, June 1990, p. 19.
32‘Michael Hutchence of INXS Chooses His Top Ten Songs’: number 2 is ‘Anything by The Boys Next Door’, clipping from unidentified publication.
33Dolores San Miguel, interview with the author, Melbourne, 22 March 2010.
34Ian McFarlane, ‘Interview with Rowland S Howard 24/11/94’, Prehistoric Sounds, Aussie Indie Music 1976–1999, Vol. 1, Issue 2, 1995, p. 29.
35Keith Glass, interview with the author, Sydney, 13 May 2010.
36Mick Harvey, interview with the author, Wombarra, 5 April 2013.
37Robert Brokenmouth, ‘Portrait of the Artist as He Begins to Figure Things Out’, in Sam Kinchin-Smith (ed.), Read Write [Hand]: A Multi-Disciplinary Nick Cave Reader, Silkworm Ink, London, 2011, http://silkwormsink.com/nick/home.html
38Bruce Milne, interview with the author, Melbourne, 26 February 2010.
39Autoluminescent: Rowland S Howard, directed by Lynne-Maree Milburn and Richard Lowenstein, Ghost Pictures, 2011.
40Clinton Walker, ‘Back Home for the Birthday Party’, RAM, Sydney, 24 Nov 1980, n.p.
41Autoluminescent: Rowland S Howard, directed by Lynne-Maree Milburn and Richard Lowenstein, Ghost Pictures, 2011.
42‘Loverman’. Lyrics by Nick Cave. Published by Mute Song Limited. All Rights Reserved. International Copyright Secured. Reproduced by kind permission.
43‘There seems to be a view put forward in some quarters that were wasteful. We never wasted time. We were very aware of the money being spent. We worked hard in the studio. Our output shows this.’ (Mick Harvey, interview with the author, phone, 27 August 2020.)
44Phill Calvert, correspondence with author, email, 15 June 2020.
45Dave Graney would arrive in Melbourne ready for action in 1980. The departure of The Boys Next Door had left a
huge vacuum: the scene felt depressed and cynical after the Suicide debacle. Graney had formed The Moodists back in Adelaide with his partner, drummer Clare Moore. On arriving in Melbourne, they advertised for a bass player who could hum The Velvet Underground’s ‘White Light/White Heat’, a song inspired by an amphetamine rush. They worked with a few bassists before Chris Walsh turned up and hummed himself into the band. Walsh’s part in the evolution of their snaking, Mack-truck sound would soon make The Moodists the perfect support act for The Birthday Party: ‘Chris was a very old friend of Tracy’s and the two were mirror images in many ways. Cowboy hats, tattoos and that kind of bass sound . . . We were all into that post-punk sound with the bass being central and the guitars light and spindly. Like PiL and Ubu and the Pop Group.’ (Dave Graney, interview with the author, iMessage, 9 August 2020.)
46Phill Calvert, correspondence with author, Melbourne, 20 February 2010.
47Mick Harvey, interview with the author, Wombarra 5 April 2013.
48ibid.
49ibid.
50Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment, translated by Constance Garnett, Part 1, Chapter 1.
51Tim Anstaett, ‘The Birthday Party’, The Offense, April 1983. Republished at Rowland S Howard – Outta the Black: https://rowland-s-howard.com/articles/1983-offense.php, accessed 5 August 2020.
Epilogue: The Singer and the Song
1Bleddyn Butcher, interview with the author, iMessage, 15 September 2020.
2Autoluminescent: Rowland S Howard, directed by Lynne-Maree Milburn and Richard Lowenstein, Ghost Pictures, 2011.
3Mick Harvey, interview with the author, phone, 27 July 2020.
COPYRIGHT
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