Peter Murphy

Even after carving out a niche as a solo performer with a devoted following, vocalist Peter Murphy is still most closely identified with Bauhaus, the groundbreaking post-punk goth rock outfit that emerged in the early 1980s.

Once Bauhaus disbanded in 1983, Murphy joined forces with Mick Karn, previously of Japan, to launch the short-lived project Dali's Car. That partnership produced only a single record, The Waking Hour, in 1984. After the duo split, Murphy cautiously stepped into a solo spotlight by recording a version of Magazine’s “The Light Pours Out of Me,” which appeared on the 1985 Beggars Banquet anthology The State of Things. His first proper solo album, Should the World Fail to Fall Apart, arrived in 1986 and included contributions from several guests, among them ex-Bauhaus guitarist Daniel Ash. Two years later came Love Hysteria; although it drew muted critical response, the set found a receptive audience among his established supporters.

The 1990 release Deep brought an unexpected breakthrough when its opening single, the Bowie-inflected “Cuts You Up,” dominated American modern-rock airwaves for seven weeks at number one and later crossed over to album-oriented rock and pop formats, where it reached number 55. Buoyed by that momentum, Deep itself climbed to number 44 on the album charts. Success proved harder to maintain with the follow-up, 1992’s Holy Smoke, which peaked at number 108 despite the strong modern-rock showing of “The Sweetest Drop” at number two.

Cascade surfaced in 1995 to tepid notices and failed to register on either the U.S. or U.K. charts. While touring with a reunited Bauhaus in 1998, Murphy captured the solo EP Recall. The new century found him reinvigorated; without label support he embarked on two separate U.S. treks in spring and fall 2000 behind the retrospective Wild Birds 1985-1995: The Best of the Beggars Banquet Years, the second outing leaning acoustic and introducing fresh songs alongside lesser-known catalog material. Still a cult favorite stateside, he issued the live double album Alive Just for Love through Metropolis in summer 2001, a collection that mixed Bauhaus staples with solo favorites. The following year he collaborated with Turkish electronic artist Mercan Dede on Dust, then returned with Unshattered in 2004. After a seven-year gap, Ninth appeared in June 2011.

In 2013 Murphy marked Bauhaus’s 35th anniversary with shows across the U.S. and Europe; headlines that same year noted his misdemeanor hit-and-run conviction stemming from a traffic incident, though charges of driving under the influence and methamphetamine use were dropped. Undeterred, he delivered the 2014 album Lion, produced by Youth—Killing Joke bassist Martin Glover—in June of that year. Bare-Boned and Sacred, a live recording captured in New York during the 2016 “Stripped” tour, followed in 2017.