I went to see Nick Cave and Warren Ellis as they toured to support their Carnage album last weekend. It was a surreal show in more ways than one… Here I am, sitting front row next to the dude in the white T-shirt. Suddenly Nick Cave bends down at the end of a song and says he recognises me from a cover I did of
his Grinderman song “Star Charmer” on YouTube…

He
was then extremely generous with his praise, saying
both he and his wife loved my version, amongst other
things including trying to explain who I was to
mad-genius Warren Ellis . I was shell-shocked in a
way I haven’t felt before. Cave is a giant, and has
loomed over my life since I was 12 years old in the
best way possible. To receive that kind of
acknowledgement about my work was seismic and I’m still getting to grips with it. A momentous show topped off with a cherry I didn’t even realise existed. I’m on cloud 9.

Photos from the article in the Press & Journal (don’t
know the photgrapher’s name but he was rocking
some serious Nikons).

October 2021 Update: A few weeks later, I was messaged by a fan to say that Susie Cave (Nick’s wife) had shared my cover of Star Charmer on the website/newsletter for her clothing range The Vampire’s Wife. Having only just processed the praise Nick gave me at his gig, I was left gob-smacked all over again.