The Birthday Party were an eccentric post-punk band formed in Australia, active from 1978-1983. While only active for 5 years and never enjoying much commercial success, they were one of the most influential post-punk bands of the early 80’s, and launched the accomplished careers of principal members Nick Cave, Mick Harvey, and Rowland S. Howard.

They were originally known as “The Boys Next Door”, but their name change has a convoluted history. Some say it was an homage to the Harold Pinter play, The Birthday Party, while others believe Cave misremembered a scene from Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment that wasn’t actually in the book. The band’s second guitarist gave his take on the matter:

The name The Birthday Party came up in conversation between Nick and myself. There’s this apocryphal story about it coming from a Dostoyevsky novel. It may have had various connotations, but what he and I spoke about was a sense of celebration and making things into more an occasion and ritual

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