Nick Cave, singer and writer

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