I did a piece for 'Louder' with Mick Harvey. https://www.loudersound.com/features/mick-harvey-birthday-parties-bad-seeds-and-a-life-in-12-songs
At the end, I asked him about the famous story which allegedly took place at the ZigZag Club in 1982. According to Chris Carr (The Birthday Party’s manager) in Ian Johnston’s book “Bad Seed”: “At the end of their set, Mr Eldritch and friends wanted to know what The Birthday Party thought of them, and asked me to find out … I asked them if they were sure about this. They were, so I went off to the dressing room. The only person who saw anything of their show was Mr Mick Harvey, who announced that The Sisters of Mercy were the worst band to have ever supported The Birthday Party. I went back and recounted this to Mr Eldritch. The following Monday I got a call from The Sisters of Mercy saying that the band had had a meeting and had decided to continue, and to wish The Birthday Party all the best in the future. They understood their criticism but thought rather than break up, they'd carry on. It was all very dramatic.”
This was Mick Harvey's response to me. The story begins in June 1981 ...
I think Nick (Cave) had talked to Andrew Eldritch when we (The Birthday Party) were on tour with Bauhaus. He was probably a Bauhaus fan, for his sins. He was at that show. Where are The Sisters of Mercy from? Leeds? It would have been the show in Leeds. (Tiffany’s. 23 June 1981). Maybe Andrew had ways of getting backstage. He just appeared backstage and he collared Nick because he thought The Birthday Party was the best thing he’d seen in a long time and talked to Nick for ages and gave him a cassette.
When we got back in the car - it would have been an estate car with a few guitars - Nick put it in the cassette player. Played it for a little bit. Fast-forwarded it a little bit. Played it for a little bit more. Onto the next song, Then he just wound down the window, pressed the eject and threw the cassette out the window.
They kept writing to us saying: “Please could we support your band? We think you’re the best band in the universe” and stuff. Eventually, we relented and said: “Come and support us at this show we’ve got in London – it was like their first show in London or something - at the ZigZag Club. We were playing shows without Tracy (Pew) because he was in jail back in Australia. (Incorrect. Pew was back in the band by this point)
We had our gig to do; we hadn’t actually gone out to watch them or anything. We were pre-occupied with being in a stressful situation, trying to play a show without out normal bass player and Chris Carr was coming into the dressing room saying, “The Sisters of Mercy want to know what you thought of their band.” Everybody else just kept ignoring him. Nick didn’t say anything. Rowland (S Howard) wouldn’t say anything.
I used to get very tense because I was quite sober before a show and the others – anything could happen. So I really did not like talking to anybody. And Chris just kept asking this question. He kept asking. He went out and came back again: “They really, really want to know what you thought of them.” Rowland continued to say nothing. Nick wouldn’t say anything. I said: “Just tell them they were shit! Fuck off and leave us alone.”
The story, as Chris told it to me, is that a week later he got a phone call from them. (The story that is in the "Bad Seed" book).
Six months later they were much bigger than us.
I quite liked talking to Andrew. He was interesting, a very smart guy. I just didn’t think the band were any good, didn’t like the music. Playing with a drum machine like that: if you’re not Suicide, then … (dismissively exhales). I can see now they thought they were Suicide crossed with The Stooges. I saw ‘1969’ at the sound-check. With a drum machine. I was like: “Aw, come on. You can’t do that.” It didn’t work for me. It’s a particular aesthetic that isn’t mine. They got better over time, but it isn’t my thing.
We treated them grievously and they probably hate us!