Rowland S. Howard

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Rowland Stuart Howard (born October 24, 1959 in Melbourne , † December 30, 2009 ) was an Australian rock musician , guitarist and songwriter.

life and work

For his first band The Young Charlatans , Rowland S. Howard wrote the song Shivers , which became a hit after Howard joined the band The Boys Next Door around Nick Cave and Mick Harvey. In 1978 the band recorded their first album Door, Door . Two years later, the musicians moved to London and renamed themselves The Birthday Party . The band caused a sensation due to Cave's expressive demeanor and Howard's guitar playing, which was characterized by dissonant feedback and high notes. The commercial success did not materialize, however. In 1984 the band broke up due to differences between Cave and Howard.

Howard became a member of Crime and the City Solution around the singer Simon Bonney. During this time the band included Mick Harvey, Howard's brother Harry and Epic Soundtracks . During the following years he lived in London and Berlin. In 1986 Howard left the band along with his brother and soundtracks and formed These Immortal Souls with them and his then girlfriend Genevieve McGuckin in 1987 . The debut album Get Lost, (Don't Lie!) Was not followed until 1992 by the record I'm Never Gonna Die Again . In the years in between, Howard collaborated with musicians such as Nikki Sudden , ex-Barracudas singer Jeremy Gluck, Barry Adamson , Einstürzende Neubauten , Jeffrey Lee Pierce (from The Gun Club ), Fad Gadget , Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Henry Rollins and AC Mary's. With Lydia Lunch he already recorded a cover version of the Lee Hazlewood / Nancy Sinatra classic Some Velvet Morning in 1982 . The single was only followed by the LP Honeymoon in Red in 1987 . In 1991 both recorded the album Shotgun Wedding . Otherwise it remained silent about him in the 1990s. Around 1995 Howard moved back to Australia. In 1999 he recorded the solo LP Teenage Snuff Film , which was followed by Popcrimes in 2009 after a long break .

He first spoke in an interview in October 2009 about his liver cancer. He had his last appearance on October 30, 2009 in his hometown of Melbourne with Mick Harvey on drums. According to various reports, he is said to have spat blood several times during the concert, but continued to play anyway. Howard was only able to overcome his heroin addiction in the last few years of his life. After waiting in vain for a liver transplant for a long time, he died on December 30, 2009 in a Melbourne hospital. A public memorial service was held on January 7, 2010 at Sacred Heart Church, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. There is no official grave, Howard's ashes were given to the family on January 8th after the cremation.

meaning

While Howard never achieved commercial success and he lived partly on the verge of subsistence, his guitar style is considered pioneering and style-forming for the Australian variant of punk rock . Richard Lowenstein also describes him as one of the most important personalities in his documentary We're Living on Dog Food about the Australian punk scene.

Equipment

The choice of equipment was primarily responsible for Howard's typical guitar sound. This mainly included:

  • A fender jaguar . This was a Fender guitar from the CBS era built after 1966 (recognizable by the neck with block inlays and binding) in Olympic White with a tortoise pickguard. Howard bought this guitar in 1978 and played it almost exclusively.
  • A Fender twin reverb amplifier from the 1970s.
  • An MXR Blue Box effect pedal, which is a combination of fuzz and octaver and has a very idiosyncratic, difficult to control dynamic behavior.
  • An MXR Distortion + effects pedal that produces a very characteristic distortion.

Film appearances

Discography

with The Boys Next Door

  • 1979: Door, Door LP
  • 1979: Hee Haw EP
  • 1980: The Birthday Party LP

with The Birthday Party

  • 1981: Prayers on Fire LP
  • 1982: Drunk on the Pope's Blood LP
  • 1982: Junkyard LP
  • 1983: The Bad Seed EP
  • 1983: Mutiny! EP
  • 1985: It's Still Living LP
  • 1985: A Collection ... LP
  • 1987: The Peel Sessions: The Birthday Party EP
  • 1988: The Peel Sessions II: The Birthday Party EP
  • 1999: Live 81-82 CD

with Crime & the City Solution

  • 1985: The Dangling Man EP
  • 1985: Just South of Heaven Mini LP
  • 1986: Room of Lights LP

with These Immortal Souls

  • 1987: Get Lost (Don't Lie!) LP
  • 1992: I'm Never Gonna Die Again LP

with Lydia Lunch

  • 1987: Honeymoon In Red LP
  • 1991: Shotgun Wedding LP
  • 1994: Transmutation / Shotgun Wedding double live CD
  • 1999: Shotgun Wedding double CD

with Nikki Sudden

  • 1987: Kiss You Kidnapped Charabanc LP

with Jeremy Gluck

  • 1987: I Knew Buffalo Bill LP
  • 1988: Burning Skulls Rise LP

solo

  • 1999: Teenage Snuff Film LP
  • 2005: Autoluminescent EP
  • 2009: Pop Crimes CD

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ First re-collaboration with Nick Cave after The Birthday Party ended. However, Cave prohibited the use of his name in the credits. In 1994 Howard worked on Cave's album Let Love In .
  2. ↑ Eg report  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the Süddeutsche Zeitung of January 2, 2010.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / archiv.sueddeutsche.de  
  3. ↑ See obituary by Harry Lachner on BR2  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.br-online.de  
  4. ↑ Christian Buß describes The Birthday Party in his obituary for Spiegel Online as “the most important Australian band of all time” alongside AC / DC and the Go-Betweens .
  5. ^ Obituary from The Age
  6. ^ Rowland S. Howard - Biography A Short Account of the Dark Prince's Existence by Harry Howard. Retrieved May 7, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Howard, Rowland S.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Howard, Rowland Stuart (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian rock musician, guitarist and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH October 24, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Melbourne
DATE OF DEATH December 30, 2009