Peter Murphy (musician)
Peter John Joseph Murphy (born 11 July 1957) is an English singer, songwriter, and musician.[3] He is the vocalist for the post-punk goth rock band Bauhaus. After Bauhaus disbanded, Murphy formed Dali's Car with Japan's bassist Mick Karn and released one album, The Waking Hour (1984). He went on to release a number of solo albums, including Should the World Fail to Fall Apart (1986) and Love Hysteria (1988). In 1990, he achieved commercial success with his single "Cuts You Up", which went in the top 60 of the US Billboard Hot 100 which is for the singles sales. His album Deep also reached No. 44 on the Billboard 200. In 1992, Murphy released Holy Smoke, which reached No. 108 on the Billboard 200 chart along: it featured lead single "The Sweetest Drop". In 2002, Murphy released Dust with Turkish-Canadian composer and producer Mercan Dede, which utilizes traditional Turkish instrumentation and songwriting, abandoning Murphy's previous pop and rock incarnations, and juxtaposing elements from progressive rock, trance, classical music, and Middle Eastern music, coupled with Dede's trademark atmospheric electronics. In 2014, he released Lion, produced by Killing Joke's Youth, which reached No. 173 on the Billboard 200.
Peter Murphy
Peter John Joseph Murphy
11 July 1957
Northampton, Northamptonshire, England
Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England
- Vocals
- guitar
- keyboards
1978–present
Thin with prominent cheekbones, a baritone voice, and a penchant for gloomy poetics, he is often called the "Godfather of Goth".[4][5]
Early life[edit]
Peter John Joseph Murphy was born on 11 July 1957[6] in Northampton, Northamptonshire,[7] the seventh child of a large rural working-class family.[2] He has one elder brother, Daniel, and a twin brother, Christopher.[8] Murphy is of Irish descent.[9] He was raised in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, where he had a strict Catholic upbringing.[10] He described having a happy childhood with a close family which had a "great emphasis on Catholicism in a very sincere, deep, profound way. Always aware of the mysteries of life, mortality, Heaven, Hell, angels, saints and purgatory: all these images. What is allowed and what is not allowed."[2] Murphy's first interest in music was inspired by his mother, who would frequently hum songs. As a teenager, he was introverted, but became attracted to artistic pursuits.
He was a school friend of Daniel Ash. Murphy described his association with Ash: "The first moment I saw him, literally, I really loved him. It was not sexual, I was attracted to him in a fateful sense. Something told me that this guy was important. I remember being enamoured by him. I felt very close to him. Extremely. It was almost like a bonding that was immediate and whole. I think I recognised a lot of my own faults in him. I felt there was someone who could understand me. I saw him as the mirror of myself. He was always the person who would be positive and practical and not be lazy and always wanted to be in a band. And so I would have done anything for him in that sense because I wanted to be around him."[2] Their musical tastes were shared by their fondness of the glam movement and its artists such as David Bowie and T-Rex. When Ash received his first electric guitar, he would bring Murphy during the lunch hour to hear him play it. Ash was interested in being in a band and told Murphy that he could be in one too, because of his looks.[2] Despite this comment, Murphy was not interested. According to Ash, "Pete didn't think about it at all, it wasn't on his mind as such." When he was sixteen, they separated after leaving school with Murphy working at a local family printing business and Ash going to art college. Murphy's main interest in the job was due to financial reasons for his parents. He would spend 5 years with the business, at first as a bookbinder and then as a printer. While he enjoyed the work, Murphy was feeling somewhat frustrated. When he came into contact with Ash after two years, Ash suggested that he should apply to art college. Due to his introversion, he subsequently eschewed an opportunity to attend art college, opting instead to work as a printer's assistant while working on painting, writing and singing on the side.[11] Murphy also felt that his ideas were not "really formed" to attend art college.[2] Also, his parents and his working class upbringing imprinted a view that "this creative thing is a bit of a luxury. What about bringing in the bread?"[2]
While still working at the printing firm, Murphy maintained an interest in music. He explained: "I was very interested in figures like Bowie, Bolan and Iggy. I related to their psyches more than their music."[2] He continue to followed their post-glam work. He loved Iggy Pop's albums such as The Idiot and Lust for Life. He went to see artists and bands such as David Bowie (during his Thin White Duke tour) and Judas Priest. He then went to a local pub and saw Ash's latest band at the time, "Jackplug and The Sockets". The band consists of Ash on guitar, David J on bass and Kevin Haskins on drums and played mainly cover songs from the Rolling Stones. After the concert, Ash recognized Murphy and continue to mentioned to him that "You must be in a band".[2] However, nothing came about it. After some months later, Ash's latest band split up which caused him to become depressed. However, Ash was still determined to form another band. He needed a singer and remembered his old friend from the pub with his old band, months ago. Ash explained how he approached Murphy for this offer: "I didn't ring him up or anything. I just arrived at his door and he was just arriving back home from work on his little motorcycle. I got out the car, knocked on the door and was surprised to see me. I just played him this tape (a demo of Jackplug songs) and I asked him if he wanted to get something going."[2] Murphy finally accepted Ash's offer and explained about his decision: "I thought, Yes, I don't mind. Yes. If you're doing it, I'll do it because you fascinate me."[2] After Murphy accepted Ash's offer, they got together over a weekend in a mobile classroom at the Northampton's Teacher Training College and used that room as a rehearsal room. Ash explained this meeting: "Just Pete and myself went in. I drove him from Wellingborough to Northampton. He didn't have any lyrics or anything, he didn't know if he could sing or anything as such, but he had a newspaper and I just put loads of echo on the mike to give him confidence, make him sound good and I just started playing a riff - anything that came into head and he just started singing from the newspaper. As soon as I heard him sing I knew within five minutes - I honestly thought it was just a matter of time. He had the voice, the charisma, the good looks - the whole thing."[2]
Career[edit]
Bauhaus[edit]
Daniel Ash convinced Murphy to join Bauhaus, one of the establishing acts of the goth movement. Their use of spacey recording effects and theatrical aesthetics was evocative of glam rock; they became an influential group in the early days of gothic rock. In 1983, Bauhaus appeared during the opening sequences of the horror film The Hunger, performing one of their most popular songs, "Bela Lugosi's Dead".[12] The camera focused almost exclusively on Murphy during most of the scene, panning only briefly to the stars David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve. Bauhaus reformed in 1998 for a tour, and later reunited again in 2005, culminating in a tour with the band Nine Inch Nails in 2007, and a final album, "Go Away White," released in 2008 shortly before disbanding again. They reunited once more in late 2019 for three reunion shows in Los Angeles, Ca, and launched a reunion tour post pandemic which ended in 2022.
Personal life[edit]
In 1992, Murphy moved to Istanbul with his Turkish wife, Beyhan, who is the head choreographer of the Turkish National Modern Dance group. They have two children: daughter Hurihan Murphy and son Adem Murphy.[34] In adulthood, Murphy converted from Roman Catholicism to Sufism.[9][35]
In August 2019, on the eighth night of a two-week residency at New York City's (Le) Poisson Rouge,[36] Murphy was hospitalized for a heart attack at Lenox Hill Hospital.[37] Murphy underwent an angioplasty and had two stents implanted in his heart; he released a statement ten days later that thanked his medical team for saving his life. He stated that he had made a "full recovery" and "was up and running again,"[38] sufficiently enough to perform the remaining rescheduled dates in January 2020.[39]