Tracy Pew

Infobox musical artist
Name = Tracy Pew


Img_capt = Tracy Pew with his classic Birthday Party era image.
Img_size = 191
Background = non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth_name =
Born = birth date|1957|12|19|df=y
Died = death date and age|1986|11|7|1957|12|19|df=y
Origin = Australia
Genre = Rock and Roll, Punk
Occupation = Bass guitarist, Instrumentalist
Years_active = 1977 - 1986
Label =
Associated_acts = The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
URL =

Tracy Pew (19 December 1957 – 7 November 1986) was an Australian musician, best known as the bass player for The Birthday Party.

Born in Australia, Pew moved with his family to New Zealand in 1959, returning in May 1964. His sister Fiona was born 19 June 1964. Pew attended Caulfield Grammar School in Melbourne, where he joined a band called The Boys Next Door, along with schoolfriends Nick Cave, Mick Harvey and Phill Calvert. After achieving some success in Australia, and with the addition of guitarist Rowland S. Howard, the band relocated to London and renamed themselves The Birthday Party.

On 16 February 1982, Pew was apprehended in a Melbourne hotel car park, and charged with being in charge of a car while under the influence of alcohol. The owner of the car, his friend, was too drunk to drive. For this and a series of other accumulated fines and offences, he was sentenced to ten weeks in HM Prison Won Wron, a minimum security prison farm near Yarram. [ [http://www.abc.net.au/longway/timeline/ Long Way to the Top: Timeline] , Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1996.] During Pew's stretch at Won Wron, he was temporarily replaced in the band by Chris Walsh (of The Moodists) for the band's subsequent Melbourne shows, and Barry Adamson (of Magazine) and Harry Howard (Rowland S. Howard's brother) for their UK shows. Pew returned to the band after his release with a gig in Hammersmith on 26 May 1982. [cite web
url = http://www.fromthearchives.com/bp/chronology.html | title = From the Archives: The Birthday Party Chronology | accessdate = 2006-10-30]

The Birthday Party split in 1984, and Pew returned to Melbourne to study literature and philosophy at Monash University. He contributed to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' cover LP "Kicking Against the Pricks", and also performed on Lydia Lunch's concept album "Honeymoon In Red". He passed away due to an epileptic seizure on 7 November 1986.

References

External links

* [http://www.thebirthdayparty.com.au/ The Birthday Party official website]
* [http://www.burning-heart.net/tracy.html Roland S. Howard site entry on Pew]
* [http://www.myspace.com/tracypew MySpace fan tribute to Tracy Pew]