Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional actor. He is best known for his work in the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and his fascination with American music and its roots. He has a reputation, which he disowns, for singing dark, brooding songs which some listeners regard as depressing. His music is characterised by intensity, high energy and a wide variety of influences. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Cave)

Scheduled
Saturday, 12 October 1985, "Big Hall", 02:40 - 03:40

Line-up
Nick Cave – vocals; Blixa Bargeld – guitars, vocals; Mick Harvey – guitar; Barry Adamson – bass; Thomas Wydler – drums

Set list
01 Avalanche
02 Tupelo
03 Well of misery
04 Sad dark eyes
05 Blind Lemon Jefferson
06 Wanted man
07 Say goodbye to the little girl tree
08 Knocking on Joe
09 Train long suffering
10 Saint Huck
11 I put a spell on you
12 Mutiny in heaven

Recordings
This show has been extensively bootlegged over the years, but never officially released. Tracks 01 – 12 were on the bootleg LP (and later CD) Pandora’s Misery (complete audience, PMB 131085 (FR,198?)), 03 – 11 were released on the bootleg CD's He Put A Spell On Us (incomplete radio broadcast, Wild Angel records -NCCD2 (NL,1992)). The release is wrongfully credited as being recorded in Amsterdam, 1984. It is in fact Pandora's 1985. The same tracks were also released as In Funeral Night (incomplete radio broadcast, BRX 007).
I have a lossless (flac) copy of He Put A Spell On Us.


Front cover of (CD version of) Pandora's Misery


Front cover of In Funeral Night


Front cover of He Put A Spell On Us

Other info
Both Bargeld and Harvey played Pandora's 85 twice: Bargeld was also in Einsturzende Neubauten, Harvey also played in Crime & the City Solution.


Nick Cave on stage at Pandora's 1985 (http://www.fromthearchives.com/nc/chronology.html)


Nick Cave on stage at Pandora's 1985 (photo by Marcel Snoek - huge thanks to Jeroen)

On stage at Pandora's 85 (Sounds 26 October 1985)

Article from festival booklet


Eric Brus descibes his experiences of the show in literary magazine Passionate, issue 3, May/June 1997. (http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_pas002199701_01/_pas002199701_01_0051.htm)

Crime & the City Solution

Crime and The City Solution were a rock music band formed by Australian singer and songwriter Simon Bonney. They completed four studio albums and a number of E.Ps during it's existence, and a live album has since been released. Further early recordings have resurfaced on the internet. Parallels have been drawn between Crime and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The long term influence of the band has yet to be acknowledged. Crime were famed for their live performances. Bonney has since gone on to record solo material.

Scheduled
Friday, 11 October 1985, "Dance Hall", 22:30 - 23:15

Line up
Simon Bonney – vocals; Rowland S. Howard – guitar; Mick Harvey – guitar; Harry Howard – bass; Epic Soundtracks – drums

Set list
01 Five Stone Walls

02 The Coal Train

03 Rose Blue

04 The Dangling Man

05 Trouble Come This Morning

06 The Wailing Wall

07 Down A Path (a.k.a. The Blue Room)

08 The Last Day

09 The Kentucky Click
Thanks to tapesfor2 for the setlist

Recording
A complete, good audience recording exists, 45". Track 04 was broadcast by VPRO radio.

Other info
Harvey played Pandora’s 1985 a second time as member of Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds (on Saturday). Both Harvey and Rowland S. Howard were ex-Birthday Party, together with Nick Cave. In fact, Rowland had filled in as guitarist for the Bad Seeds in April 1985 to do a short British tour, when Blixa Bargeld was too busy recording Einstürzende Neubauten’s Halber Mensch album.


Article from festival booklet


Rowland S. Howard (?) at Pandora's 85 (http://www.itlooksdifferent.com/?id=76)

Einstürzende Neubauten

Einstürzende Neubauten is an experimental music band, originally from West Berlin, formed in 1980. The band is often classified as industrial music or electronica. One of their 'trademarks' is the use of custom made instruments (usually, but not always, made out of scrap metal and building tools) and noises, in addition to standard musical instruments. Neubauten has always experimented with sounds, originally in noise music and recently in very diverse styles.

Scheduled
Friday, 11 October 1985, "Big Hall", 21:00 - 22:00

Line up
Blixa Bargeld – vocals, guitar, keyboards; Alex Hacke - guitar; Marc Chung – bass; N.U. Unruh (Andrew Chudy) – percussion; FM Einheit (Frank Martin Strauss) – percussion

Set list
01 Halber Mensch
02 Zerstörte Zelle
03 Zeichnungen des Patienten O.T.
04 Negativ nein
05 Vanadium-I-Ching
06 Sehnsucht
07 Spaltung (a.k.a. Armenisch Bitter)
08 Yü-Gung (fütter mein Ego)
09 Letztes Biest (am Himmel)

Recording
A good radio recording of tracks 01 - 09 exists, 48". Misses Der Tod ist ein Dandy and Abfackeln!.

Other info
Hacke and Einheit both also played on Pandora’s 1985 as part of Mona Mur (on Saturday). Bargeld played Pandora's 85 also as member of Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds (on Saturday).


Article from official festival booklet


Einstürzende Neubauten live at Pandora's 1985 (Oor, 1985/21)

Die Haut with Nick Cave

Die Haut were an experimental German post-punk post-rock industrial band, who enjoyed underground success in the 1980s, with such records as the Nick Cave collaboration Burnin' The Ice. The only constant member has been Christoph Dreher.
Formed as an instrumental rock quartet, many of their recordings and live performances featured an array of international guest vocalists.

Scheduled
Friday, 2 September 1983, "Feestzaal", 22:00 - 23:00

Line up
Christoph Dreher – bass; Remo Park – guitar; Martin Peter – guitar; Thomas Wydler – drums; Nick Cave – vocals on*

Set list
01 Der Karibische Western
02 ?
03 ?
04 Tokyo-Express
05 ?
06 Virginia
07 Pleasure is the boss*
08 The victory
09 Stow-a-way*
10 Truck love*

Recording
A complete (?) audience recording exists: 01 - 10, 45'.
The gig was partially broadcast on Dutch radio, I have 08 and 09 taken from this radio broadcast.

Other info

Nick Cave live at Pandora's 83 (Vinyl magazine 1983/9)

Cave's shoes (Vinyl 1983/9)

Die Haut with Nick Cave at Pandora's 83 (photo credit unknown)

Nick Cave's second live guest appearance with Die Haut. They perform songs from the Burnin' The Ice album recorded in Aachen in December 1982. (http://www.fromthearchives.com/nc/chronology.html)

Nick Cave saw the Virgin Prunes' performance on Saturday night and wrote about it in the book Judas Jesus by Rolf Vasellari (Black Sheep Press (Zurich, Switzerland), 1987). (http://www.bad-seed.org/~cave/general/discog2.html)

A concert in Rotterdam
Nick Cave on Dave-id Busaras/Virgin Prunes:
"... a strange child reluctantly and most awkwardly mount the stage, as if coaxed from the wings by some pageant-crazed mother, stand centre-stage and sing a song, solus, in a voice that held such a weird sadness within each expulsion and took flight with such ghostly brilliance that an entire morning of systematic inebriation spent in the bar was wasted, for this drunken wretch that had stumbled into the hall, now that the child had left the stage, sat stricken sober by his magical appearance and quite weak from listening and though I cursed the little bastard as I made my way back to the bar, I will never forget the simple pain of that opening song and the eerie beauty of its doing." (http://www.iol.ie/~murraycp/dave-id.html)

He may have been sober on Saturday night, but by all accounts, he was a drunken mess on Friday.

... Nick Cave die te dronken was om er een begrijpelijk woord uit te krijgen... (Henk den Toom)

Cave and Wydler both played Pandora's again in 1985 as Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.

Article from festival booklet

Virgin Prunes

The Virgin Prunes was an Irish gothic rock band. The band formed in 1977 and disbanded in 1986 after the departure of member Gavin Friday. The rest of the band continued on without him for a while as The Prunes, but they too ended activities by 1990.

Scheduled
Saturday, 3 September 1983, "Grote Zaal", 01:15 - 02:15

Line up
Gavin Friday - vocals; Guggi - vocals; Dave-id Busarus - vocals; Dik - guitar; Strongman - bass; Mary D'Nellon - percussion

Set list
01 Dave-Id Performance: The white history book
02 Dave-Id Performance: Uncle Arthur's lonely world
03 Dave-Id Performance: (title unknown)
04 Dave-Id Performance: Uncle Arthur's lonely world
05 Deadly sins
06 Sons find devils
07 Theme for thought
08 Walls of Jericho
09 Caucasian walk

Recording
I have a complete lossless (flac) audience recording of tracks 01-09, 59'46"

Other info

Gavin Friday on stage at Pandora's 83 (Vinyl magazine 1983/9)

Nick Cave (who played Pandora's 83 with Die Haut) saw the Virgin Prunes' performance and wrote about it in the book Judas Jesus by Rolf Vasellari (Black Sheep Press (Zurich, Switzerland), 1987). (http://www.bad-seed.org/~cave/general/discog2.html)

A concert in Rotterdam
Nick Cave on Dave-id Busaras/Virgin Prunes:
"... a strange child reluctantly and most awkwardly mount the stage, as if coaxed from the wings by some pageant-crazed mother, stand centre-stage and sing a song, solus, in a voice that held such a weird sadness within each expulsion and took flight with such ghostly brilliance that an entire morning of systematic inebriation spent in the bar was wasted, for this drunken wretch that had stumbled into the hall, now that the child had left the stage, sat stricken sober by his magical appearance and quite weak from listening and though I cursed the little bastard as I made my way back to the bar, I will never forget the simple pain of that opening song and the eerie beauty of its doing." (http://www.iol.ie/~murraycp/dave-id.html)

Mijn kennismaking met de Virgin Prunes was een shock. Ik zag ze -totaal onvoorbereid- tussen Anne clark en TC Matic op Pandora's Music Box. Zó uit de provincie, van travistie had ik nog nooit gehoord... en van The Virgin Prunes al helemaal niet. Niet dat ik sindsdien met jarretelles loop, maar het heeft wel het een en ander teweeg gebracht. (dix, http://www.musicmeter.nl/album/16902)

Article from festival booklet

The Gun Club

The Gun Club was a rock band from Los Angeles in the 1980s led by flamboyant singer/guitarist Jeffrey Lee Pierce. They injected punk rock with doses of blues and country music. Pierce's wailing vocals were an ideal delivery for his songs, which generally had a spooky, haunted quality. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_Club)

Scheduled
Saturday, 22 September 1984, "Grote Box", 22:30 - 23:30

Line up
Jeffrey Lee Pierce - guitars & vocals, solos on Bad America, Eternally is here, Gila monster, New Mexico and Give up the sun; Kid Congo Powers – guitar & all other solos; Patricia Morrison – bass; a drummer – drums (according to Andy Sztehlo: "Terry Graham. Who left the band midway through the European tour, leaving them well in it. I think it's called sarcasm, Jeffrey's comment that it." (http://www.limbos.org/gunclub/gunclubd.htm)

It was on this tour that Terry Graham disappeared in Paris. The story is that he was tired of Pierce's dictatorial attitude. Also, he wasn't seeing a financial return after having given four years of his life to the band. After playing Manchester, he had found that both a collection of video footage he had been taking of the band and the camera it was being recorded on had been stolen backstage. He had also discovered that the band had en-masse decided to move their base of operations over to London without telling him. It was a lousy position to be put in and was the last straw at the wrong moment. (http://www.furious.com/perfect/gunclub2.html)

Set list
01 The Spurs / Intro
02 Brother and sister
03 Sex beat
04 Bad Indian
05 Eternally is here
06 Bad America
07 Stranger in our town
08 Gila monster, New Mexico/Preachin' blues
09 Fire of love
10 Sleeping in blood city
11 Goodbye Johnny
12 Give up the sun
13 She's like heroin to me
Thanks to Magnix for providing the complete set list.

Recording
A complete audience recording exists. Tracks 05 - 08 and 10 - 12 have been officially released on Danse Kalinda Boom – Live in Pandora’s Box (originally in 1985, reissued on Flow Records, 2006). Note that all of the vinyl versions and most of the CD issues list an incorrect date: 3 September 1983. The Gun Club was supposed to play Pandora's 83 but was cancelled at the last moment.



Tracks 04 - 09 and 13, were all released on the vinyl bootleg Moonlight Motel (Superb Productions, 1985), taken from a radio broadcast.



I recently found reference to a bootleg 7" single without picture sleeve or label information which was supposedly released. It features Bad Indian on one side and Fire of Love on the other, both tracks recorded at Pandora's 84. Get an mp3 rip of it here: http://symphonyofghosts.blogspot.com/2009/01/gun-club-live-pandora-7in-bootleg.html

I have 04 - 13, taken from various radio broadcasts and Danse Kalinda Boom, total time 47'30".

Other info
Kid Congo Powers and Morrison went on to form Fur Bible who played Pandora's 85 alongside the Jeffrey Lee Pierce Quartet and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, whom Powers joined afterwards.

For some reason, the double cd re-release of Danse Kalinda Boom (Flow Records, 2006) fails to get the complete show at Pandora’s. Disc 1 is the same as the original release and disc 2 is an Australian show from 1983. Remember: disc 1 is only 35 minutes long…, at least 3 more songs were recorded. Why not restore the complete show? Or even: why not add the Jeffrey Lee Pierce Quartet show from Pandora’s 1985?

The end of the year saw a major European tour during which Kalinda Danse Boom was cut live at Pandora's Music Box festival on September 22nd 1984. It's a good powerful set but at around 35 minutes, it's way too short. I know that a version of Bad Indian I've been told is brilliant has been cut from the start. I wonder what happened to the rest of the gig? (http://www.furious.com/perfect/gunclub2.html)


Article from festival booklet


Powers on stage at Pandora's 84 (Oor 1984/20)




Interview with Pierce and Powers discussing Pandora's. Photo possibly from Pandora's (Vinyl magazine 1984/11)

The Triffids

The Triffids were an Australian rock band who achieved some international success in the 1980s. Formed in Perth in the late 1970s and disbanded in 1989, their best known songs are "Wide Open Road" and "Bury Me Deep In Love". Their vocalist and principal songwriter was David McComb (1962-1999).

Scheduled
Friday, 11 October 1985, 02:30 - 03:30

Line up
David McComb – vocals, guitar; Robert McComb – guitar, violin; Jill Birt – keyboards; Alsy MacDonald – drums; Martyn P. Casey – bass; 'Evil' Graham Lee – pedal steel, guitar

Set list
01 Hell of a summer
02 Lonely Stretch
03 Raining pleasure
04 Red pony
05 Beautiful waste
06 Stolen Property 
07 Estuary Bed
08 Field of glass (fades to radio announcer)

Recording
A radio recording of tracks 01 – 05 and 08 exists, 25". I have a combination of two separate radio recordings of tracks 02-08 in lossless flac.

Other info
After the Triffids imploded, Casey joined Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds who also played Pandora's 85.

Triffids on stage at Pandora's 85 (photo Marcel Snoek - huge thanks to Jeroen)

Triffids on stage at Pandora's 85 (photo Marcel Snoek - huge thanks to Jeroen)

Article from festival booklet