THE BIRTHDAY PARTY
PLEASURE HEADS MUST BURN
DVD region 0. Cherry Red

Sex, murder, religion, and death... in all their perversity. Yes, this is The Birthday Party, one of the most original and noisy bands of the post-punk 1980s, a yardstick to whom many groups past and present are often compared, a band that blasted out evil ditties that could make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.

These Australian rogues comprised vocalist Nick Cave, Roland S. Howard on guitar, bassist Tracy Pew, multi-skilled Mick Harvey (guitar, drums, piano, organ) and Phil Calvert on drums. After releasing various singles and EPs they produced their first international album in 1981, Prayers on Fire. Their follow-up long player Junkyard came a year later, minus bassist Pew (jailed for drunk driving and other offences), whose position was filled by Barry Adamson of Magazine fame, plus Roland's brother Harry H. Howard, and Chris Walsh. After this, their final studio album, Calvert was sacked and the band became a foursome, collaborating with experimental acts such as Einstürzende Neubauten and Lydia Lunch. They split in 1983, Cave and Harvey formed the successful Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, while Howard and Harvey formed the nucleus of Crime and the City Solution. In addition, Howard fronted These Immortal Souls. So much for the history lesson, what of the DVD?

This disc comprises a series of rare promos and TV appearances, most of which are available for the first time since their original release, along with two gigs from Manchester's Hacienda Club in 1982 and 1983.

First off, we have the promo section starting with Nick the Stripper, a silently filmed sequence over-dubbed with the studio recording. Basically, you have Nick Cave prancing around in a nappy amongst a bizarre tribal gathering featuring various people running around holding aloft things such as a pig's head. Next, there's some more interesting stuff with two live concert tracks recorded by Channel 4 in 1982 for their Whatever You Want programme. These are great renditions of Fears of Gun and Hamlet (Pow! Pow! Pow!) from a concert at The Ace Cinema, Brixton. They give a first glimpse of the group's turbo-charged, raucous live performing style. Cave is seen growling, howling, shrieking, and twitching, plus there's plenty of physical audience interaction too. Then there's the chain-smoking, sleazy looking Howard concocting intricate guitar riffs and bassist Pew looking like a big gay cowboy. They certainly look the part of the 1980's bad boys they aspired to be.

A live concert recording forms the basis of the Deep in the Woods promo complete with another intense Cave performance for one of his early murder ballads. The final promo is Junkyard taken from a Dutch TV studio recording. The band appear to be totally smashed and give a completely demented performance, which was apparently enough to cause complaints from viewers as the second recorded track (not included here) was never broadcast.

The first Hacienda concert from 1982 starts with Cave remarking "You really don't deserve this". How prophetic, considering the disc's sub-standard poorly encoded transfer, which is dark and fuzzy with so-so sound. OK, the source material isn't great, but some of the aforementioned TV footage is also poorly handled. Shame on you. Most of the tracks are taken from the Junkyard album with a hyperactive Cave launching one of his incredible verbal assaults on the audience. Highlights include good noisy renditions of Dead Joe featuring some additional maniacal drumming from Harvey, (Sometimes) Pleasure Heads Must Burn and an excellent version of A Dead Song. The only criticism that one could have targeted at The Birthday Party is that the violent intensity of their live performances does distract slightly from the clever musical arrangement of the various songs, each one unique and bizarre in its own right. Listen closely for some really catchy riffs which buzz around your head for some time afterwards.

The 1983 Hacienda footage seems slightly fuzzier, but at least we are compensated with another good live set. Cave is even more animated, rolling around on the stage demonstrating his extraordinary vocal screech range with Hamlet (Pow! Pow! Pow!). Pleasure Avalanche gives us another growling, howling tortured performance, building slowly into a mighty crescendo of wild musical abandon. Sonny's Burning starts with Cave asking "Hands up who wants to die?" before descending into a particularly demented rant (this is a recommendation, by the way).

The Birthday Party were truly a one-off. Their intense, scuzzy masterpieces married with a hard hitting uncompromising delivery and skilled musical accomplishment helped create a memorable sonic assault that's still fascinating. For all it's faults, at least this DVD gives a taste of their manic live performances. It's a shame that footage of tracks from their earlier Prayers on Fire album couldn't be more abundant, but this is only a minor quibble. Nick Cave fans will love it, aficionados of intense noisy music will enjoy it too. An essential viewing experience? Yeah, I think so...

MARK WILLIAMS

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