Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds reunited with Kylie Minogue for an emotional performance of ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’ at the band’s mammoth homecoming Brighton gig last night (Friday July 31). Check out footage, photos, the setlist and more from what went down throughout the day below.
The Preston Park gig served as a UK-exclusive performance and homecoming of sorts for the band, as they round off the campaign for their acclaimed 2024 album ‘Wild God’. To mark the occasion, yesterday morning they also played a surprise stripped-back pop up show on the roof of Brighton’s beloved Resident Records.
To make things more momentous, the band’s headline set later that night saw them joined on stage by Kylie Minogue for a stirring rendition of their classic 1995 collab single, ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’ – something they’ve not done together since 2018 at London’s All Points East.
“Can we please welcome to the stage, Kylie Minogue,” said Cave with a simple introduction to a roaring response. “I am so happy to be here, always,” Minogue then told the sold-out crowd, before declaring her “undying, unwavering love” for the frontman. “I love you so much.”
Support throughout the day came from special guests The Flaming Lips, English Teacher, Cate Le Bon and Warmduscher.
Most arrived in the late afternoon for English Teacher playing to “the biggest crowd we’ve ever played to” as the sun beat down on Preston Park, with a set leaning heavily on their acclaimed Mercury Prize-winning album ‘This Could Be Texas‘, while also airing a handful of new songs including the kaleidoscopic ‘Billboards’, the dreamy ‘Toothpick’ and ‘Dog Called Ohm’ and ‘Man’ and pointing towards a more expansive, widescreen sound.
The field was packed when The Flaming Lips took to the stage for the penultimate set of the day, when frontman Wayne Coyne introduced the band by allowing some small children to greet the audience from the stage.
With some on-stage theatrics worthy of a grand finale for most bands, the psych-rock legends got things off to a heady start when they inflated some giant mechanical overlords for ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Parts One and Two’, with the showmanship and stagecraft only increasing from there.
“We are The Flaming Lips and words cannot describe how amazing it is to be playing here for you today,” Coyne told the crowd before thanking Nick Cave for inviting then and the audience “for being so happy and so loud”, paying tribute to a woman dressed as a unicorn on the fourth row for making it to her 93rd show by the band.
Other highlights included “happy giant star head dancing man” flanking the band for their 2002 Chemical Brothers dancefloor banger collab ‘The Golden Path’, beautiful new song ‘Every Tear Drop Cried’ being dedicated to Coyne’s late brother, the usual passing of the ‘FUCK YEAH BRIGHTON’ sign during a cover of Black Sabbath‘s ‘War Pigs’, and the emotional exorcism of closer ‘Do You Realize??’
Opening with the blues rock explosion of ‘Get Ready For Love’, Cave addressed the crowd. “Fucking Brighton: thank you,” he said to the huge and sprawling 45,000-strong audience. “This is kind of overwhelming. Deeply overwhelming. I wanna tell you about a girl…”
It was then straight into ‘From Her To Eternity’ before they played ‘Train Long-Suffering’ for the second time of the day after airing it on the roof of Resident records that morning. “We tried this in the Lanes today, it was the first time we’ve got it right,” shared Cave, “which in the business means we’re gonna fuck it up tonight.
Other early highlights came with the raucous mantra of “bring your spirit down” being belted back for the title track to ‘Wild God’, and the sing-along to ‘O Children’ being dedicated to an very underage fan on the front rows who appeared to have “snuck in”, as Cave put it. That song also came with the first huge cheer of the night for maestro Warren Ellis thrusting along to his violin solo.
Introducing the simmering and tortured title track to ‘Carnage‘, released under Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, the frontman told the crowd it came from a time “when we tried for a while to be Simon & Garfunkel… I was Garfunkel.”
It was warmly received, leading into a more esoteric section ahead of a cavalcade of fan favourites. “You may not realise that you love this song yet, but you will,” said Cave, introducing ‘Wild God’ highlight ‘Joy’ – which featured a tear-jerking crowd-wide silence as the frontman sang for finding peace after a lifetime of tragedy.
“No, you’re beautiful,” he then responded to a fan on the front row. “I’m just a reflection: a mirror to your endless beauty…Shall we stop this?
What followed was the rattling off of Bad Seeds bangers ‘Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry’, ‘Red Right Hand’ and ‘The Weeping Song’, before Cave pointed out the local connection of the ‘Push The Sky Away’ classic ‘Jubilee Street’. “This is a song about a girl who lived on Jubilee Street, which is over there near the Five Guys giant hamburger joint which they erected to immortalise her.”
After the spectral first set closer of ‘Hollywood’, Cave and The Bad Seeds returned for an encore of ‘City Of Refuge’, before the former local shared that ‘Wide Lovely Eyes’ was written about his wife Susie Cave and Brighton Beach, and ended with the gorgeous full-stop of a solo piano performance of ‘Into My Arms’.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds continue their tour with a last run of European festivals.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds played:
‘Get Ready for Love’
‘From Her to Eternity’
‘Train Long-Suffering’
‘Wild God’
‘O Children’
‘Tupelo’
‘Carnage’
‘Joy’
‘Rings of Saturn’
‘Where the Wild Roses Grow’ (with Kylie Minogue)
‘The Mercy Seat’
‘Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry’
‘Red Right Hand’
‘The Weeping Song’
‘Jubilee Street’
‘Hollywood’
Encore:
‘City of Refuge’
‘Wide Lovely Eyes’
‘Into My Arms’
In May, Cave revealed that the Bad Seeds were “messing around” in the studio with the “vague idea of making a new record” as the follow-up to ‘Wild God’.
“This morning, I am going to Islington to mess around in the studio,” he said, adding that he would be working with his bandmates Martyn P. Casey, Thomas Wydler, Jim Sclavunos and Warren Ellis.
Cave also appeared on Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea’s 2026 debut solo album, ‘Honora’, alongside Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke. He also recorded a new version of ‘Red Right Hand’ for Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.
