Live 1981–82 is a live album by The Birthday Party and released in August 1999. The performances were "[c]ulled from the private collection of founding member Mick Harvey with assistance from super fan Henry Rollins".[9]
| Live 1981–82 |
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| Released | 10 August 1999 |
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| Recorded | |
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| Venue |
- The Venue, London (tracks 1-10)
- Aladin, Bremen (tracks 11-16)
- Sporting, Athens (track 17)
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| Genre |
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| Length | 73:53 |
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| Label | 4AD |
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The album received very positive reviews from various sources. "Though various live releases had emerged over the course of the band's existence," writes Ned Raggett for Allmusic, "no full-length capturing of the Party's particular bacchanalia approved by the group had officially emerged until this release [...][The album] threatens at all points to leap from the speakers and throttle innocent bystanders."[1] Tim Peacock of Record Collector called it "a vital addendum to the pioneering Aussies’ oeuvre."[3] Matt Mernagh of Exclaim! writes: "the only live album from these Australian bastards is a brilliant effort in capturing pure chaos. Whether it’s Nick Cave’s howls and murderous screams, Harvey’s squalor of blues guitar playing, Rowland S. Howard’s high pitched guitar riffs, Tracy Pew’s thumping bass being buried in the background and Phil Calvert’s hammering drum sound, this beast finds the band at their peak. [...] By performing so well together, the frenzied noise has been planned, although it doesn’t seem like that could be humanly possible." He notes the audience response as being "enthused and stunned at the same time." He finds the only downside of the album to be the fact that it "has been taken from three different locations and melded into one piece of music" instead of being from a single live show.[9] The sound quality of the performances received praise, as did the band's cover of "Fun House", the latter of which has been described as "viciously maul[ed] and deface[ed] [in comparison to the original]"[10] and a "relentless eight-minute thrash [...] with Jim ‘Foetus’ Thirlwell riding shotgun on sax that provides a suitably Bacchanalian climax."[3]
Live 1981–82| Title | Writer(s) |
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| 1. | "Junkyard" (from Junkyard) | Nick Cave, Rowland S. Howard | 6:26 |
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| 2. | "A Dead Song" (from Prayers on Fire) | Cave, Anita Lane | 2:41 |
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| 3. | "The Dim Locator" (from Junkyard) | Howard | 3:09 |
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| 4. | "Zoo-Music Girl" (from Prayers on Fire) | Cave, Howard | 3:05 |
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| 5. | "Nick The Stripper" (from Prayers on Fire) | Cave | 4:08 |
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| 6. | "Blast Off" (from Junkyard) | Howard | 2:39 |
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| 7. | "Release the Bats" (from Junkyard) | Cave, Mick Harvey | 3:05 |
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| 8. | "Bully Bones" | Howard | 3:04 |
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| 9. | "King Ink" (from Prayers on Fire) | Cave, Howard | 5:53 |
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| 10. | "Pleasure Heads Must Burn" (from Drunk on the Pope's Blood EP) | Cave | 2:47 |
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| 11. | "Big-Jesus-Trash-Can" (from Junkyard) | Cave, Harvey | 3:33 |
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| 12. | "Dead Joe" (from Junkyard) | Cave, Lane | 3:47 |
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| 13. | "The Friend Catcher" (from The Birthday Party) | Cave | 5:02 |
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| 14. | "Six Inch Gold Blade" (from Junkyard) | Cave, Harvey | 3:41 |
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| 15. | "Hamlet (Pow, Pow, Pow)" (from Junkyard) | Cave, Howard | 5:11 |
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| 16. | "She’s Hit" (from Junkyard) | Cave, Tracy Pew | 7:11 |
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| 17. | "Fun House" (from The Stooges' Fun House) | The Stooges | 8:29 |
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| Total length: | 73:53 |
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- Tracks 1−10: Recorded at The Venue, London, UK, 1981
- Tracks 11−16: Recorded at Aladin, Bremen, Germany, 1982
- Track 17: Recorded at Sporting, Athens, Greece, 1982[11]
- Mixing − Lindsay Gravina
- Mastering − David Macquarie
- Photography − Bleddyn Butcher
| Region
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Date
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Label
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Format
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Catalogue
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| United Kingdom
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1999
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4AD
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CD
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CAD 9005 CD
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| 29 July 2013
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LP, CD
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CAD 9005
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| United States
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30 July 2013
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[1]
