King Inkie!
King Inkie!
The story of the young Nick Cave and his bands lends itself to lurid headlines. As you’ll read in this latest Ultimate Record Collection, though, behind the drugs, violence and withering disdain, there was a demented creativity and a powerful work ethic.
Today, one of the fruits of that is the adulation Cave enjoys in sold-out arenas, but it took a while for the world to come round to his way of thinking. London gave Rowland S Howard malnutrition, and the other members of Cave’s band The Birthday Party a healthy disrespect for what they saw as the mediocrity of the alternative music scene in the UK. Against such a backdrop, the group pushed themselves further into what some might like to romantically call the abyss but was actually more like truly original composition.
Things moved pretty quickly in this world, with limited edition releases, name changes, reconfigured material, changes of record label and collaborations, as the band move from sullen triers to leaders of a fanatical constituency which seems to either want to fight them, or become romantically attached to them. Watching Birthday Party YouTube clips is an excellent way to spend your time. Of the ones we’ve flagged to you here, it’s probably the footage from the Manchester Hacienda nightclub that best captures this explosive relationship.
Throughout the show – I think it’s this one where Cave says “I’m not interested in your greasy fingers touching me!” as the heaving backcombed disciples attempt to lay their hands on him – there’s a sense of mounting confidence. Essentially that this chaos is the outward manifestation of how far he and the other players have pushed things musically.
They would go further still. The Birthday Party didn’t move to Berlin for their health exactly but that band’s dissolution held within it the foundational ideas of The Bad Seeds: Blixa Bargeld, a blasted and theatrical musical landscape, a journey to the mythology of the blues.
This issue ends with Cave and The Bad Seeds in suits and ties, making work that approaches classic balladry with sensitivity and drama. What will the next 30 years hold?
The mag’s in the shops next week but you can order your copy here now.
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