The Birthday Party discography

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Discography The Birthday Party, an Australian post-punk band, consists of four studio albums, two live albums, six compilation albums, six extended dramas and nine singles. The group began with various names in Melbourne in 1973; formed by vocalist Nick Cave, guitarist Mick Harvey, drummer Phill Calvert, guitarist John Cocivera, bassist Brett Purcell, and saxophonist Chris Coyne - all of whom are students at Caulfield Grammar School. In 1978, after several membership changes, the band consisted of Cave, Harvey and Calvert with bassist Tracy Pew and guitarist Rowland S Howard. Under the name of The Boys Next Door, the band released several singles and two studio albums, Door, Door in 1979 at Mushroom Records and The Birthday Party in 1980 at Missing Link Records..

Despite moderate success in Australia, The Boys Next Door moved to London, England in 1980 and changed their name to Birthday Party. In London, the band experienced substantial underground success with a further series of singles and two studio albums, Prayers on Fire (1981) and Junkyard (1982); Junkyard was also a small commercial success, peaking at number 72 on the UK Album Charts when it was released. In 1982, the band moved to West Berlin, Germany and Calvert departed. The band, now featuring Harvey on guitar and double drum work, was released as two EPs, The Bad Seed and Mutiny! , in 1983 in 4AD and Mute Records. Featuring members of EinstÃƒÆ'Ã‚Â¼rzende Neubauten Blixa Bargeld as guest musicians, they were the band's final recording before their dissolution at the end of 1983.

Caves, Harvey, Barry Adamson and Bargeld formed Nick Cave and Bad Bad in December 1983 and Howard joined the Crime and the City Solution, and formed the Immortal Souls after the outbreak of the Birthday Party. The band's re-catalog has been published several times, usually in the form of compilation albums such as Mutiny/The Bad Seed (1989) and Hits (1992), and some unreleased recordings and video albums have been released since their dissolution. Although the band did not experience commercial success during their career, they have been recognized to have a major influence on the genre of gothic rock and influenced the next few bands, including My Bloody Valentine, Gogol Bordello and LCD Soundsystem.