In late 1978 Bonney and McLennan had relocated to Melbourne where they formed a new version of Crime & the City Solution with Chris Astley on keyboards, Kim Beissel on saxophone, Lindsay O'Meara on bass guitar (ex- Voigt/465) and Dan Wallace-Crabbe on guitar. In contrast, according to Peter Nelson of Pulp fanzine, Crime & the City Solution, used "An exciting blend of fuzzed monotone guitar runs and squawking saxophone riffs. According to Australian rock music historian, Ian McFarlane, The Particles had "a cult following around the inner-city Sydney scene courtesy of its delightful, melodious pop sound". In the late 1970s Bonney had met McLennan and sometimes provided guest vocals for McLennan's group, The Particles. The group has had five distinct line-ups with Bonney as the only mainstay: Sydney in 1977–78, Melbourne in 1979, two groupings in Berlin from 1985 to 1990, and Detroit from 2012 onwards. Ĭrime & the City Solution are an Australian rock group which formed in late 1977 in Sydney with a line-up of Simon Bonney on lead vocals, Phil Kitchener on bass guitar, Dave MacKinnon on saxophone, Don McLennan (ex-Particles) on drums and Harry Zantey on guitar. In 2012 Bonney reformed the band in Detroit with two veterans of its Berlin era and a handful of new members.Ĭritic David Sheridan described the band's music as characterized by slow tempos, dark moods and Bonney's forlorn vocals, all of which can range from "endurance testing" at worst to "hauntingly beautiful" at best. which included members of the recently disbanded The Birthday Party later they transferred to Berlin, where they issued four albums – Room of Lights (1986), Shine (1988), The Bride Ship (1989) and Paradise Discotheque (1990) – before disbanding again in 1991. In late 1983, Bonney traveled to London and in 1985 he formed a new version of the group in the U.K. They disbanded in 1979 leaving only bootleg recordings and demos. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Einstürzende Neubauten, These Immortal SoulsĬrime & the City Solution are an Australian rock band formed in late 1977 by singer-songwriter and mainstay Simon Bonney.