Rowland Forever

A guitar god remembered

(This originally appeared on January 4, 2010 on The Guardian) I first saw Rowland S Howard, who died from liver cancer on 30 December, play live when he tore my world apart in 1980, as part of Melbourne’s the Birthday Party. Singer Nick ...
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Hangs up his guitar for keeps

This was originally posted on December 31, 2009 on The Age MELBOURNE musician Rowland S. Howard – the guitarist in Nick Cave’s cult punk-era bands The Boys Next Door and The Birthday Party – died yesterday at the Austin ...
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The Six Strings That Drew Blood

(This was originally posted on ABC’s Double J) Rowland S. Howard’s unique legacy Rowland S. Howard was never a virtuoso. Rather, he was a primitive iconoclast of the highest order. The Australian underground has a history of ...
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Melbourne’s music vault

(From the Sydney Morning Herald, August 22, 2017) I’ve included only the parts specifically about Rowland, but the entire article is interesting. Another jewel in the collection, Rowland S Howard’s battered white Fender Jaguar, is ...
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Fender Jaguar Electric Guitar

(from EquipBoard) Rowland used this Jag almost exclusively throughout his career. His brother, Harry, writes: “…he had always been impressed with an old Fender Jaguar that Ollie Olsen had briefly owned. Rowland found his Jaguar in a ...
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