4.4 • 13.7K Ratings
🗓️ 23 February 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
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Nick Cave is a singer and writer who, with his band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, has released emotionally intense and provocative music since the mid-Eighties. He is also a novelist, composer and has written film scripts and soundtracks along with his writing partner and Bad Seed Warren Ellis.
Nick grew up in Wangaratta, Australia the third of four children. He formed his first band, the Boys Next Door, in 1973 while he was at school. He studied fine art at the Caulfield Institute of Technology in Melbourne but left to pursue music. In 1980 the band relocated to London, renaming themselves the Birthday Party on the flight over. In 1984 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ released their debut album, From Her to Eternity, and they have gone on to put out a further 17 albums. In 2015 Nick lost his son Arthur who died after accidentally falling off a cliff and seven years later his eldest son Jethro died. In 2018 Nick started the Red Hand Files, an online blog in which he answers questions posed by his fans, to try and articulate his feelings about grief. He has described it as a “strange exercise in communal vulnerability and transparency.”
In 2017 he was named an Officer of the Order of Australia.
DISC ONE: Metal Guru - T. Rex DISC TWO: My Father - Nina Simone DISC THREE: (I’m) Stranded - The Saints DISC FOUR: It Serves You Right to Suffer - John Lee Hooker DISC FIVE: Something on Your Mind - Karen Dalton DISC SIX: Girl from the North Country - Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash West DISC SEVEN: I Am a God – Kanye West DISC EIGHT: Morning Dew - Tim Rose
BOOK CHOICE: The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi LUXURY ITEM: A suit CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: I Am a God – Kanye West
Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley
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0:00.0 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, so I'd like to tell you where you'll find more just like it. |
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0:12.0 | Whether that's developing fresh formats or facilitating eye-catching artwork, I helped project manage all the details that make our podcast stand out. |
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0:46.3 | Hello, I'm Lauren Levern, and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast. |
0:51.6 | Every week, I ask my guest to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island. |
0:54.5 | And, for rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast. |
0:59.2 | I hope you enjoy listening. |
1:30.2 | I'm going to hear. My castaway this week is the singer and writer Nick Cave. He's one of the most highly regarded storytellers in music today, |
1:33.5 | who's been captivating audiences with compelling narratives and electrifying live performances for over 40 years. |
1:37.3 | He grew up in Wangorata, Australia, |
1:40.2 | and describes his childhood as idyllic and free range. |
1:43.7 | When his rebellious teens hit, |
1:45.4 | he was sent to boarding school in Melbourne to straighten him out. |
1:48.5 | He joined a band instead. |
1:50.3 | In 1980, his search for something bigger, darker and more thrilling, |
1:54.5 | brought him to London, |
... |
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