{"id":838536,"date":"2026-08-01T21:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T21:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/838536\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T21:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T21:30:15","slug":"he-lived-here-a-long-time-so-it-feels-poignant-nick-cave-thrills-brighton-passersby-with-secret-rooftop-gig-nick-cave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/838536\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He lived here a long time, so it feels poignant\u2019: Nick Cave thrills Brighton passersby with secret rooftop gig | Nick Cave"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds\u2019 only advertised UK live performance of 2026, a show in Brighton\u2019s Preston Park, arrives with other events across the city attached. The Duke of York\u2019s Picturehouse cinema is hosting a weekend-long Nick Cave takeover, featuring films curated and introduced by the singer-songwriter. There is a pop-up shop replete with exclusive merchandise, and a postbox where physical letters can be sent to The Red Hand Files<\/a>, the website Cave started in 2018 where he answers fans\u2019 questions on topics ranging from faith and grief to his favourite brand of hair dye (L\u2019Oreal, apparently). Even the announcements at the train station have been changed: arrivals are temporarily greeted by the sound of Nick Cave welcoming them to Brighton.<\/p>\n

All these have been well-publicised, but judging by the crowd gathering in Kensington Gardens, a narrow pedestrian road in North Laine \u2013 not far from Jubilee Street, the subject of a Cave song \u2013 word also seems to have leaked out about a theoretically secret event: a live performance on the roof of Resident Records, which is hosting the two-day Nick Cave<\/a> pop-up shop.<\/p>\n

By 10.30am the street is packed \u2026 the view of Resident Records, with the band performing on the balcony. Photograph: Dimitris Legakis\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

A substantial group has already assembled, an hour before the performance is scheduled to begin. Some have been tipped off in advance (\u201cMy mate told me about it last night, he\u2019s very well connected\u201d). Others simply arrived in order to avail themselves of an exclusive Cave picture disc. (It sold out yesterday and there are already copies on eBay for \u00a360, one disgruntled punter notes, before suggesting that the enterprising soul behind the eBay listing is \u201ca bastard\u201d.) After seeing the musical equipment on the roof, they put two and two together.<\/p>\n

By 10.30am, the street is packed. A security guard manages to keep a narrow flow of pedestrians moving through its centre, but no one seems to have considered Snoopers Paradise, the vintage market across the road. The crowd jams its doorways and shoppers can\u2019t get out: \u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u201d asks a plaintive voice. \u201cOh, I can\u2019t stand Nick Cave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said voice is clearly in the minority. The startling thing about the crowd is that it largely isn\u2019t comprised of curious locals: there are people here from Germany, Norway, France, all of whom have flown in specially for the Preston Park gig. There is talk of visitors from the US and east Asia. A couple from Oslo are enjoying what they call \u201ca Nick Cave summer\u201d, following the Bad Seeds around Europe: \u201cWell, we\u2019re going to four shows \u2013 he\u2019s playing 32\u201d. The Brighton<\/a> show has extra appeal, says Lisa, who has travelled down from Edinburgh with her partner because it\u2019s a kind of a hometown gig, although \u201cformer adopted hometown\u201d gig would be more accurate. \u201cHe lived in Brighton for a long time \u2013 he moved when his son died,\u201d she says, referring to Arthur Cave, who fell from a cliff in Ovingdean in 2015. \u201cSo it feels quite poignant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eclectic and winningly chaotic \u2026 Nick Cave. Photograph: Dimitris Legakis\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

The distance some people in the crowd have travelled reflects Cave\u2019s ongoing purple patch. The music he has released in the last decade \u2013 most notably 2019\u2019s extraordinary mediation on loss, Ghosteen<\/a> \u2013 has been some of the most acclaimed of his career. The harrowing documentary film One More Time With Feeling<\/a> met with similar acclaim, as did Faith Hope and Carnage<\/a>, a book containing an astonishingly frank series of interviews with journalist Sean O\u2019Hagan.<\/p>\n

Cave has courted controversy over his opposition to the cultural boycott of Israel, although it doesn\u2019t seem to have impacted his popularity. Improbably, the Bad Seeds began playing arena-sized venues at the exact moment their music took a turn towards the abstract, with 2016\u2019s Skeleton Tree<\/a>, although Lisa suggests the crowds may have been swelled by those only familiar with his most famous songs. \u201cI think there were a lot of Peaky Blinders fans in the audience when he played Glasgow,\u201d she says, \u201cjust waiting to hear Red Right Hand.\u201d She wrinkles her noise, irritably. \u201cThey were quite chatty during the rest of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time Cave and the Bad Seeds arrive, there are people gathered not just on the street but on the roofs of adjacent shops. The set is eclectic \u2013 lurching from the apocalyptic clatter of 1985\u2019s Train Long Suffering to a piano-led cover of T Rex\u2019s Cosmic Dancer \u2013 and winningly chaotic, as perhaps any performance involving seven musicians and four backing singers on a tiny balcony is wont to be.<\/p>\n

Fans on Kensington Gardens watching Nick Cave. Photograph: Dimitris Legakis\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Cave occasionally grins at the absurdity of it all (\u201cFucking Brighton!\u201d he smiles at one point) or issues frantic instructions to his bandmates mid-song, but the really striking thing is how committed his performance is, despite the peculiar circumstances. He hangs precariously over the balcony to conduct the crowd in call-and-response vocals. Singing Henry Lee as a duet with Janet Ramus, he performs it as if wracked by a desire for both the backing vocalist and his wife, Susie, who is watching from an adjacent balcony. Then again, onstage commitment regardless of the circumstances is something of a Cave trademark, as our Norwegian friends enjoying their summer of Nick note. \u201cIn Antwerp, the show was in the middle of a heatwave and he played for two and a half hours wearing a three-piece suit.\u201d<\/p>\n

It ends with a version of Papa Won\u2019t Leave You, Henry. The police arrive shortly afterwards \u2013 one suspects the gig was not officially sanctioned \u2013 but the crowd are already dispersing, most of them in the direction of Preston Park. It\u2019s hours before the Bad Seeds are due on stage, but the real lure seems to be the opportunity to outwit the bastards on eBay: a rumour suggests remaining copies of the exclusive picture disc are on sale there, and people scurry off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds\u2019 only advertised UK live performance of 2026, a show in Brighton\u2019s Preston…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":838537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-838536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}