“We’re very happy,” announces Nick Cave as the Bad Seeds arrive on stage. You think he’s going to say something standard about being back in London, but no. “Because it’s our last gig for fucking months,” he says. It’s also the first time Cave has performed in the UK with his most celebrated backing band in more than four years. Coronavirus is partly to blame, although Covid did nothing to stem Cave’s famously torrential work rate.
In the interim, he has produced two albums, two books and a handful of singles. There was a film soundtrack and a libretto for an opera. He toured the world with a solo show which interspersed songs with questions from the audience that ranged from his thoughts on the existence of God to more prosaic matters. “I live in your old flat in Hove – do you know where the stopcock is?” asked one punter in his adopted hometown of Brighton. There was also a striking lockdown livestream from Alexandra Palace, and gigs with Warren Ellis that centred around last year’s collaborative Carnage and its extraordinary predecessor Ghosteen.
