Tracy Pew

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Tracy Pew
Tracy Pew with his classic Birthday Party era image.
Background information
Born	December 19, 1957(1957-12-19)
Origin	Australia
Died	November 7, 1986 (aged 28)
Genre(s)	Rock and Roll, Punk
Occupation(s)	Bass guitarist, Instrumentalist
Years active	1977 - 1986
Associated acts	The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Tracy Pew (December 19, 1957 – November 7, 1986) was an Australian musician, best known as the bass player for The Birthday Party.

Born in Australia, Pew moved with his family to New Zealand in 1959, returning in May 1964. His sister Fiona was born June 19, 1964. Pew attended Caulfield Grammar School in Melbourne, where he joined a band called The Boys Next Door, along with schoolfriends Nick Cave, Mick Harvey and Phill Calvert. After achieving some success in Australia, and with the addition of guitarist Rowland S. Howard, the band relocated to London and renamed themselves The Birthday Party.

On 16 February 1982, Pew was apprehended in a Melbourne hotel car park, and charged with being in charge of a car while under the influence of alcohol. The owner of the car, his friend, was too drunk to drive. For this and a series of other accumulated fines and offences, he was sentenced to ten weeks in HM Prison Won Wron, a minimum security prison farm near Yarram.^[1] During Pew's stretch at Won Wron, he was temporarily replaced in the band by Chris Walsh (of The Moodists) for the band's subsequent Melbourne shows, and Barry Adamson (of Magazine) and Harry Howard (Rowland S. Howard's brother) for their UK shows. Pew returned to the band after his release with a gig in Hammersmith on 26 May 1982.^[2]

The Birthday Party split in 1984, and Pew returned to Melbourne to study literature and philosophy at Monash University. He contributed to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' cover LP Kicking Against the Pricks, and also performed on Lydia Lunch's concept album Honeymoon In Red. He passed away due to an epileptic seizure on November 7, 1986.