Song · Birthday Party
“Release The Bats” by Birthday Party
Released 1981
“Release The Bats” by Birthday Party appears on 2 radio countdowns from 1 station between 1981 and 1982. It was first released in 1981. Its best result is #19 on the John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1981). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #3,975 alternative song of all time.
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Released on 4AD in July 1981, "Release the Bats" is the Birthday Party at their most unhinged: a single from the Australian post-punk band with Nick Cave's words hurled over music by Mick Harvey, and "Blast Off" on the flip. Rowland S. Howard's electric guitar screeches and saws, Tracy Pew's bass lurches underneath, and Phillip Calvert and Harvey share the drums as if the kit had done them a personal wrong. The band produced it with Nick Launay, who also engineered, and Tony Cohen handled the recording.
It went to number 3 on the UK Indie Chart, but its real life came afterward, as a cult record that the gothic rock crowd, just then taking shape, treated as scripture. Both sides later turned up as bonus tracks on CD reissues of Junkyard, the band's final album.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | 19 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1981) | 50 |
| 1982 | 28 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1982) | 50 |
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