3 August 2026
Friday morning feels particularly special in Brighton.
Eagle-eyed, observant, or exceptionally fortunate, passersby stumbled across a surprise pop-up set above Resident Records in the North Laine, where Nick Cave treated the crowd to an extremely intimate four-song warm-up ahead of the evening’s main event.
The band exploded into ‘Train Long Suffering’ from The Firstborn Is Dead – a song last played in Brighton in 1985 at The Escape Club, before Cave took a moment to appreciate the crowds before him, filling the city’s famous streets: “What a thing to be doing“, going on to perform ‘Cosmic Dancer’, ‘Henry Lee’ and ‘Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry’.
Long before noon, Nick Cave held the city in his grip. Over the next few hours, fifty thousand fans poured into Preston Park for Cave & The Bad Seeds’ exclusive UK date of the year.
With support on the day coming from Warmduscher, Cate Le Bon, English Teacher and the Flaming Lips, Nick Cave takes to the stage 7:25 sharp, opening with ‘Get Ready For Love’.
At 68, Cave shows no signs of slowing down. Lifted, carried, and held aloft by the crowd, at times balancing in positions someone half his age would struggle to pull off, it is a signature, audience-centric performance from Australia’s finest.
Elevated by orchestral textures and rich backing vocals, the collective harmony of ‘O Children’ captivates, delivering a moment of melancholy ten times more powerful than the studio recording suggests. Biblical thunder rolls through ‘Tupelo’, leading smoothly into ‘Carnage’, the raw emotional weight of ‘Joy’, and the synth-laden ‘Rings of Saturn’.
No doubt one of the highlights of the evening, Cave welcomes Kylie Minogue to the stage for a captivating rendition of their 1995 hit duet, ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’, the unexpected reunion sparking euphoria amongst the crowd despite its dark narrative.
Younger audience members are instantly transported to Small Heath, Birmingham, as ‘Red Right Hand’, now world-famous as the Peaky Blinders theme song, ignites a massive reaction across the crowd.
‘Jubilee Street’ made a welcome appearance in the set, the subject of the weekend’s exclusive 10” vinyl, which sold out to extreme demand at Resident Records’ Thursday pop-up event. Missed out on a copy? It’ll now cost you well into three figures on resale sites (yes, I missed it too… I’m equally as gutted).
‘Hollywood’ and ‘City of Refuge’ arrive next, before the audience are treated to a small anecdote for the next track…
“It’s about Brighton beach, the Kemp Town end. Not the nudist beach! Just to the left”, Cave beams before the opening notes of ‘Wide Lovely Eyes’ ring out.
Cave ultimately closes with the haunting beauty of ‘Into My Arms’, which, given everything he himself has endured, offers a profound level of introspection that radiates across the crowd with a spellbinding power. Opting to strip back the production and make the piano his helm, in the few minutes he holds the crowd on a knife-edge, every single word is felt with poignant emotion.
A triumph from start to finish, the night marks another historic milestone for the city, cherished as deeply by the crowd as by Cave himself. And so it goes without saying, after taking over the area for a good 72 hours and beyond. Welcome back to your adopted home, Nick. Brighton has clearly missed you.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★