Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Glastonbury - Pyramid Stage

Tuesday 30th June 2009

This is a Crackerjack review of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Do you agree? Rate and review this event.

Crackerjack rating: 8 / 10.

There are always lots of children at Glastonbury and any who happened to be in the vicinity of the Pyramid Stage , instead of having their faces painted or playing with discarded beer cans, during Nick Cave’s set will grow up to have foul mouths but an appreciation of excellent tailoring.

Sandwiched in between the bouncy pop of Madness and Blur, Cave and his Bad Seeds played a raucous, debauched and downright scary set – and no one will have racked up a higher body count at the whole festival.

Cave writes some beautiful songs, but Henry Lee and The Ship Song that brought tears to the eyes were rare examples of that side of a man who refuses to settle into middle age without a fight. Instead we got Cave the demonic preacher; wild-eyed and thrusting on old songs such as The Mercy Seat, Deanna and Tupelo.

It wasn’t really in the spirit of things, of course, but there was a real sense of pleasure in watching Cave tear through a fantastically filthy Stagger Lee in front of an audience that contained at least one person dressed as a banana and another in a chicken costume. It started to rain as Cave unleashed the fury – and quite right too.

PAUL DALLISON

This is a Crackerjack review of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Do you agree? Rate and review this event.