Rowland S. Howard R.I.P. 1959-2009

From Boys Next Door and Birthday Party to Crime & the City Solution and These Immortal Souls, the man helped sculpt a guitar sound and an attitude that was quintessentially Australian punk.

By Fred Mills / Photos by John Raptis

As we near the end of a year that's been unnaturally dotted with deaths of much-loved and -respected rock musicians - from Ron Asheton on Jan. 6 to Vic Chesnutt on Christmas - we learn of another sad, premature passing. Guitarist Rowland S. Howard died early today in a Melbourne, Australia, hospital from liver cancer at the age of 50.

Howard of course formed the Boys Next Door and then the Birthday Party with Nick Cave, coming to international fame, and at times notoriety, in the latter outfit until its demise in 1983. He later wielded his dissonant/feedback-laden but potently bluesy six-string with Crime and the City Solution and These Immortal Souls and has long been considered one of Australia's great musicians. He also recorded some memorable sides with Nikki Sudden and Lydia Lunch, no less. His most recent recording was a solo album titled, appropriately enough, Pop Crimes.

According to Australia's The Age, Howard had been in poor health for some time and had recently been forced to cancel several scheduled gigs, including one yesterday at Festival Hall supporting the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Reports The Age, "Howard's last public performance was at St Kilda's Prince Bandroomin October. He struggled through the gig, coughing and spitting up blood, but a full house of older fans and young enthusiasts had come to pay their respects and celebrate his unique canon of work." (Photos on this page are from the final gig. orth adding, by way of a side note, is that Howard had cut his lip on the microphone, hence the source of the blood. But he was still in poor health at that point.)

Howard's close friend Mick Harvey (Birthday Party/Bad Seeds) told a reporter that Howard had hoped to beat the cancer: "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 of his health and he wanted to take advantage of that and he was very disappointed that he wasn't well enough to do so.''

Read the full account, including a heartfelt summary of Howard's career, at The Age.

On a more personal note, I was a huge fan of Howard's guitar work and songwriting dating back to when I started collecting those early BND/BP records - an Australian pen pal had been sending me tapes of some of the bands Down Under, and I later began avidly doing overseas mail order in order to obtain the real artifacts. Not long after I would author a regular column about Australian and New Zealand music for east coast rock mag The Bob and anytime there was a Howard-related release, I'd cover it.

In the late ‘80s These Immortal Souls came to Charlotte, NC, where I was living at the time, and put on an entirely memorable show. Meeting Howard before the concert, I was struck by how completely non-rock star he was, seemingly humbled that someone would bother to come out to the soundcheck to welcome him to town (and get a few records signed too). He asked me to stick around until after the show, and  we must have spent two hours in the dressing room and out in the parking lot drinking and swapping music stories. A true gentleman and a bit of a musical scholar as well - he seemed to have a story about every single Australian band or artist I wanted to pick his brain about (including more than a few about Nick Cave!) - he instantly became my best friend for those two hours, and I have no doubt that he treated other fans he met on the tour with a similar level of grace.

He will be greatly, deeply missed.

Rowland S. Howard Wikipedia page is here.

[Australian photographer John Raptis took the shots on this page, and you can view many more from the same gig at his Visceral Industry website. He's also penned a nice remembrance of the guitarist at the site.]