| Rowland S. Howard | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Rowland Stuart Howard |
| Born | 24 October 1959 |
| Died | 30 December 2009 (aged 50) |
| Genres | Post-punk |
| Occupations | musician, songwriter |
| Instruments | guitar, organ, vocals |
| Associated acts | The Birthday Party The Boys Next Door Crime and the City Solution These Immortal Souls |
| Notable instruments | |
| Ibanez Firebird Fender Jaguar |
|
Rowland Stuart Howard (24 October 1959 – 30 December 2009) was an Australian rock musician, guitarist and songwriter, he played electric guitar in the post-punk group The Birthday Party. Howard died of liver cancer in December 2009, aged 50 years.
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Rowland Stuart Howard wrote "Shivers" at the age of 16 whilst in the band, The Young Charlatans. Howard gained acclaim, after joining Melbourne-based band The Boys Next Door, when it was released as a single. The band changed their name to The Birthday Party and Howard's discordant guitar remained a major factor in their sound.
The Birthday Party relocated from Australia to London in 1980 and subsequently to West Berlin which they found to be a cooler version of Melbourne (and preferable to London) and came complete with inspiring Berlin types.
The Birthday Party's live performances were wickedly gleeful romps. At once sex, drug and alcohol fuelled, they drew on a very wide span of influence; from The Stooges to Jaques Brel, often to frightening effect. They walked a truly dangerous swagger across the world music scene before their self-destruction and the rifts occasioned by Nick Cave's ever expanding artistic diversions.
The Birthday Party's early records were released by Missing Link Records in Australia and 4AD Records in the UK. They later became associated with Mute Records in Europe. Howard and Cave suffered 'creative differences', and Howard left the Birthday Party as they transformed into The Bad Seeds. He soon became a member of Crime and the City Solution, a band led by Simon Bonney. Later he formed These Immortal Souls with girlfriend Genevieve McGuckin, brother, Harry Howard, and Epic Soundtracks.
Howard also collaborated with Lydia Lunch, Nikki Sudden, Jeremy Gluck, French electro group KaS Product, Barry Adamson, Einstürzende Neubauten, guitarist Chris Haskett, The Gun Club singer and songwriter Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Fad Gadget, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Henry Rollins, and A.C. Marias. He was described by Sam Agostino as 'one of the most influential indie guitarists ever'.
Lydia Lunch and Thurston Moore recorded a version of Howard's song "Still Burning" ('I catch most things in my blood you all lose between rooms') for Lunch's In Limbo (1984) mini-album. "Still Burning" had previously been recorded as a bass-heavy track with Howard on vocals, during the Honeymoon In Red recording sessions (1983–1987).
The Howard-Lunch collaborations saw Howard's singing and guitar playing moving into Lunch's lyrical obsessions such as retribution, murder, and general stupidity, along with sparser arrangements (often losing the guitar).
These Immortal Souls released their first album Get Lost, (Don't Lie!) in 1987 and played shows in Europe and America, returning to Australia for a short tour in 1988.
After the release of These Immortal Souls' second album, I'm Never Gonna Die Again, (1992) and another Howard/Lunch collaboration Shotgun Wedding, Howard, Lunch and members of The Beasts Of Bourbon performed live on tour in Australia and Europe. Shotgun Wedding was re-released with a second compact disc of live recordings. Shotgun Wedding was a swaggering rock 'n' roll album featuring cover versions of "In My Time of Dying" and Alice Cooper's "Black Juju".
Howard sang backing vocals on the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album Let Love In (1994). In 1995 These Immortal Souls contributed their version of "You Can't Unring a Bell" to a Tom Waits tribute album Step Right Up.
Paul Godfrey a.k.a. Epic Soundtracks, the drummer for These Immortal Souls, was found dead in his London apartment on 5 November 1997, shortly after a relationship break-up, a successful tour, and the release of the third of his solo albums.
Howard lamented in a 1999 television interview (Studio 22, ABCTV) with Clinton Walker that people still asked him about "Shivers", a song he wrote when he was sixteen years old which first became well-known when it was sung by Nick Cave.
Howard released a well-received solo album called Teenage Snuff Film in 2000.
The Birthday Party song "Release the Bats" was used in the true crime film Chopper (2000).
An unofficial Rowland S. Howard fan website was established as the amount of Rowland S. Howard related information and file swapping grew steadily on the internet from the mid-1990s.
Howard made a cameo appearance in the 2002 vampire movie Queen of the Damned as a musician in a vampire club band.
French label Stagger Records released a double CD tribute album to Howard in 2007 featuring Mick Harvey, The Drones, The Holy Soul, Penny Ikinger, Loene Carmen, Nikki Sudden, Noah Taylor and many more.
In September 2007, Howard joined with Magic Dirt and Beasts of Bourbon for a tour of the east coast of Australia. Howard appeared at the All Tomorrows Parties rock festival in Australia in January 2009, curated by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. He was backed by Mick Harvey on drums, and JP Shilo on bass.
Howard's second solo album, Pop Crimes, was released in October 2009 to acclaim from the musician Robert Forster (musician).
He on the Magic Dirt EP White Boy playing guitar and supplying vocals on the track "Summer High".
In an October 2009 interview, Howard said that the album was necessarily recorded quickly: "I contracted liver disease a while back and I've basically got liver cancer, I'm waiting for a transfer, if I don't get it things might not go so well...so..." He died from liver cancer on 30 December.[1] His public funeral was held at Sacred Heart Church, St. Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria [2] in Australia on 7 January 2010.
Howard's Birthday Party band mates reflected upon his death: Nick Cave told WENN, "This is very sad news. Rowland was Australia's most unique, gifted and uncompromising guitarist. He was also a good friend. He will be missed by many".[3] Mick Harvey remarked, "Sometimes people are ready to go because they have been sick for a long time, but Rowland really wanted to live. Things were going well for him outside his health and he wanted to take advantage of that, and he was very disappointed that he wasn't well enough to do so".[4]
In October 2011, Filmmaker Richard Lowenstein (We're Living on Dogfood - documentary maker), released a 110 minute documentary film on the life of Rowland S. Howard titled 'Autoluminescent' which had a limited release for cinema[5].