1977: Crime & the City Solution formed in Sydney. It seems that almost from their inception they were cursed to never be spoken of without a mention of famous Australian Nick Cave. Their original line-up included vocalist Simon Bonney (the band's only permanent member), Don McLennan on drums, Harry Zanteni on guitar, Phil Kitchener on bass and Dave MacKinnon on soprano and tenor saxophones. Simon Bonney, whilst born in Australia proper, had grown up on a remote farm in Tasmania where his family grew wheat, barley and opium poppies before he moved to Sydney.
Shortly after their formation, Crime & the City Solution relocated to Melbourne and the line-up changed with Dan Wallace-Crabbe taking over guitar, Kim Beissel replacing Dave MacKinnon, Lindsay O'Meara handling bass and Chris Astley joining on keyboards. The band recorded a handful of demos and some live performances are available; the recordings are interesting. Simon Bonney's distinct, moaning vocals are immediately recognizable. The music sounds very much of its time- kind of a dark, brittle post-punk with saxophone that makes it sound vaguely Roxy Music. It's a bit raw but miles ahead of the contemporaneous Boys Next Door, who aside from their cover of the Young Charlatans "Shivers" were pretty awful. [Note: If you have the Young Charlatans' demos, please let me know]
The Boys Next Door, by their second album, 1980's Birthday Party, pursued (thankfully) a sound very different from the bland predecessor of the previous year, Door, Door. Now the band careened through a cacophonous terrain owing a lot to The Cramps while taking a bit from Crime & the City Solution's post-punk take on The Doors as well. The Boys Next Door moved to relocated to London, signed to the 4AD record label and got huge. Meanwhile, Crime & the City Solution remained silent. I'm tempted to make the analogy of the story of Hedwig and Tommy Gnosis but, to be fair, The Birthday Party were an amazing band with a lot of talent... and a lot of ego. Rowland S. Howard, The Birthday Party's guitarist and writer of some of the band's most amazing songs and Nick Cave disbanded the group in 1984.
The following year, The Birthday Party's Mick Harvey called Simon Bonney and convinced him to move to Berlin. A new line-up of Crime & the City Solution formed with The Birthday Party's Rowland S. Howard and Mick Harvey joining Epic Soundtracks on drums and Rowland's brother Harry playing bass. This line-up released The Dangling Man 12" and the Just South of Heaven mini-LP as well as Just South of Heaven (on CD including tracks from the previous two recordings minus "Shakin' Chill," "At the Crossroads, "The Last Day" and "Stolen & Stealing"). This line-up bore, predictably, some similarities to the mourned, defunct Birthday Party and since they were regarded as a new band, often looked at as imitators rather than confreres churning out a similar but distinct form of aggressive, distorted rhythm & blues. They appeared (as did Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds) in Wim Wenders' Der Himmel über Berlin (hideously translated into English as Wings of Desire).
In 1987 Rowland quit the band and took his brother and Epic Soundtracks with him to form These Immortal Souls. Meanwhile, Crime & the City Solution recruited Simon's wife Bronwyn Adams on violin, Chrislo Hass on synthesizer (from D.A.F.), Christiane F's ex-boyfriend Alexander Hacke from Einsturzende Neubauten on guitar (with Einsturzende Neubauten's Blixa Bargeld playing in Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds) and Thomas Stern on bass. This line-up moved into radically different territory - a vast, romantic, cinematic expressiveness marked all of the band's subsequent endeavors.
This line-up released 1988's "On Every Train/All Must Be Love" and the amazing album, Shine.
The following year they appeared in "Kings of Independence" alongside Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds and The Swans. The year after that they released the 12" "Shadow of No Man" and its attendant album, The Bride Ship.
In 1990 they released the singles "I Have the Gun" and "The Dolphins and the Sharks" off the Paradise Discoteque album. The following year Wim Wenders asked them to score his film Until the End of the World, for which they instead contributed one song, "The Adversary." Then they disbanded.
In 1992, Simon Bonney made a solo record with collaborations from his wife and country musician J.D. Foster, resulting in the album Forever which married the last version of Crime & the City Solution's poetic expansiveness to country-inflected tunes appropriate to a guy who's rambled the globe, calling Sydney, Berlin, London, Vienna and Los Angeles his homes at various times.
After a stint driving big rigs, Simon released another country-infused experiment, a concept album called Everyman.
By 1998, Simon had finished recording Eyes of Blue with Jim White (Dirty Three) and Chuck Prophet contributing. The album was ready for release in 2000 but never appeared except for two songs,
"Lonely Stars" and "Water's Edge" in the film Underworld (but not on the soundtrack).
Shortly after their formation, Crime & the City Solution relocated to Melbourne and the line-up changed with Dan Wallace-Crabbe taking over guitar, Kim Beissel replacing Dave MacKinnon, Lindsay O'Meara handling bass and Chris Astley joining on keyboards. The band recorded a handful of demos and some live performances are available; the recordings are interesting. Simon Bonney's distinct, moaning vocals are immediately recognizable. The music sounds very much of its time- kind of a dark, brittle post-punk with saxophone that makes it sound vaguely Roxy Music. It's a bit raw but miles ahead of the contemporaneous Boys Next Door, who aside from their cover of the Young Charlatans "Shivers" were pretty awful. [Note: If you have the Young Charlatans' demos, please let me know]
The Boys Next Door, by their second album, 1980's Birthday Party, pursued (thankfully) a sound very different from the bland predecessor of the previous year, Door, Door. Now the band careened through a cacophonous terrain owing a lot to The Cramps while taking a bit from Crime & the City Solution's post-punk take on The Doors as well. The Boys Next Door moved to relocated to London, signed to the 4AD record label and got huge. Meanwhile, Crime & the City Solution remained silent. I'm tempted to make the analogy of the story of Hedwig and Tommy Gnosis but, to be fair, The Birthday Party were an amazing band with a lot of talent... and a lot of ego. Rowland S. Howard, The Birthday Party's guitarist and writer of some of the band's most amazing songs and Nick Cave disbanded the group in 1984.
The following year, The Birthday Party's Mick Harvey called Simon Bonney and convinced him to move to Berlin. A new line-up of Crime & the City Solution formed with The Birthday Party's Rowland S. Howard and Mick Harvey joining Epic Soundtracks on drums and Rowland's brother Harry playing bass. This line-up released The Dangling Man 12" and the Just South of Heaven mini-LP as well as Just South of Heaven (on CD including tracks from the previous two recordings minus "Shakin' Chill," "At the Crossroads, "The Last Day" and "Stolen & Stealing"). This line-up bore, predictably, some similarities to the mourned, defunct Birthday Party and since they were regarded as a new band, often looked at as imitators rather than confreres churning out a similar but distinct form of aggressive, distorted rhythm & blues. They appeared (as did Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds) in Wim Wenders' Der Himmel über Berlin (hideously translated into English as Wings of Desire).
In 1987 Rowland quit the band and took his brother and Epic Soundtracks with him to form These Immortal Souls. Meanwhile, Crime & the City Solution recruited Simon's wife Bronwyn Adams on violin, Chrislo Hass on synthesizer (from D.A.F.), Christiane F's ex-boyfriend Alexander Hacke from Einsturzende Neubauten on guitar (with Einsturzende Neubauten's Blixa Bargeld playing in Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds) and Thomas Stern on bass. This line-up moved into radically different territory - a vast, romantic, cinematic expressiveness marked all of the band's subsequent endeavors.
This line-up released 1988's "On Every Train/All Must Be Love" and the amazing album, Shine.
The following year they appeared in "Kings of Independence" alongside Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds and The Swans. The year after that they released the 12" "Shadow of No Man" and its attendant album, The Bride Ship.
In 1990 they released the singles "I Have the Gun" and "The Dolphins and the Sharks" off the Paradise Discoteque album. The following year Wim Wenders asked them to score his film Until the End of the World, for which they instead contributed one song, "The Adversary." Then they disbanded.
In 1992, Simon Bonney made a solo record with collaborations from his wife and country musician J.D. Foster, resulting in the album Forever which married the last version of Crime & the City Solution's poetic expansiveness to country-inflected tunes appropriate to a guy who's rambled the globe, calling Sydney, Berlin, London, Vienna and Los Angeles his homes at various times.
After a stint driving big rigs, Simon released another country-infused experiment, a concept album called Everyman.
By 1998, Simon had finished recording Eyes of Blue with Jim White (Dirty Three) and Chuck Prophet contributing. The album was ready for release in 2000 but never appeared except for two songs,
"Lonely Stars" and "Water's Edge" in the film Underworld (but not on the soundtrack).