13 Facts About Tracy Pew

Tracy Franklin Pew was an Australian musician, and bassist for The Birthday Party.

Tracy Pew was later a member of The Saints, and worked with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

Tracy Pew died on 7 November 1986 of a brain haemorrhage, after sustaining head injuries during an epileptic seizure; he was aged 28.

Tracy Franklin Pew was born on 19 December 1957 in Australia; he moved with his family to New Zealand in 1959, but they returned in May 1964.

Tracy Pew lived in Mount Waverley and learned to play bass from his friend, Chris Walsh.

Tracy Pew joined a rock band, The Boys Next Door, in 1975; it included his schoolfriends Nick Cave on vocals, Mick Harvey on guitar and Phill Calvert on drums.

Tracy Pew wrote a track, "The Plague", for Prayers on Fire, but it did not make the cut; it later appeared on Drunk on the Pope's Blood.

On 16 February 1982, Tracy Pew was imprisoned on charges relating to driving under the influence of alcohol and a series of accumulated fines; he was sentenced to ten weeks in HM Prison Won Wron, a minimum security prison farm near Yarram.

Tracy Pew returned to the band after his release with a gig in Hammersmith on 26 May 1982.

Tracy Pew returned to Melbourne to study literature and philosophy at Monash University.

In mid-1984, singer-songwriter Chris Bailey asked Tracy Pew to join a touring line-up of his punk band The Saints, alongside Chris Burnham on guitar and Ian Shedden on drums.

Tracy Pew contributed to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' album of cover versions, Kicking Against the Pricks, and performed on Lydia Lunch's concept album Honeymoon in Red.

Tracy Pew was prone to epileptic seizures, at times exacerbated by heavy drug use, although he had cleaned up by the mid-1980s.