STACK #254 December 2025

MUSIC FEATURE

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WILD LIVE N ick Cave communicates directly with his fans via The Red Hand

Nick Cave brings the Wild God album to life with a stunning live set.

free tickets. “I can’t stop thinking about your letter and your long suffering Nick Cave-impoverished wife and the sheer dearth of it all, and I can no longer tolerate it! “Your dear wife’s going to f-cking love it! It’s gonna be wild and it’s gonna be big and it’s gonna be very, very beautiful!” Geoff and his wife can preview the experience by checking out the new Bad Seeds live album, Live God , drawn from performances in North America, the UK, and Europe.

CHART FACT

Files at his website. In August this year, a fan named Geoff sent the artist an email. “One of the pivotal moments of my early 20s was seeing you perform at Enmore Theatre, Sydney. My now wife stood me up for that performance, and I have always told her we need to see you perform together... but we live in rural NSW and by the time we get word you

Wild God entered the ARIA charts at number two last year. It was the 13th Top 10 album for the Bad Seeds.

are coming, it is always sold out.

Nick Cave

“I don’t really expect a response to this, but if there is any way we can get advanced warning when you are touring Australia next, it would be very much appreciated.” Not only did Cave reveal details of his Australian tour, he offered the couple

Cave called the shows “an antidote to despair”. Another fan, Dee of Brisbane, asked what Cave missed most about Australia. “I miss everything ,” he replied, “but most of all the Australian audiences... that singular feeling of recognition, of big, fierce Aussie love.” Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are touring Australia in January. Jeff Jenkins

CAVE LIVE

Live God is the Bad Seeds’ fifth live album, their first since 2013’s Live from KCRW . As well as Wild God selections, the 18-track set features live versions of Cave classics, including From Her to Eternity, Into My Arms, and Red Right Hand .

Live God by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds is out Dec 5 via Inertia

HELL RIDE Twenty years on,The Darkness are going back to Hell.

I n 2005, The Darkness entered the studio to make their much anticipated second album, the follow up to their hit debut, Permission to Land , which had topped the UK charts. The band were working with one of their heroes – Roy Thomas Baker, who produced five Queen albums, including the classic A Night at the Opera . Legend has it that The Darkness album cost £1 million to make. And not everything went smoothly.

One Way Ticket to Hell... and Back by The Darkness is out now via Warner

The Darkness

CHART FACT

Bass player Frankie Poullain exited the band during the recording, citing “musical differences” (he returned six years later). And then, a month before the album was officially released, it was leaked online. Trying to find the culprit, singer Justin Hawkins bought a copy on eBay for £350. Justin entered rehab the following year, and The Darkness would not release another album for seven years. One Way Ticket to Hell... and Back failed to sell as well as its predecessor, and it received mixed reviews. Q called it “the same album, only more so”, while Mojo

declared: “They’re a group that believes in a thing called love. Happily, however, they don’t believe in a thing called restraint.” But Rolling Stone said it was a “classic case of a hot band with a hit debut running headlong into the sophomore jinx”. One of the songs on the album was aptly titled Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time. Twenty years on, the expanded edition reveals this is a rock record worth revisiting. It includes the original album, a live disc, plus a collection of demos and “rough mixes”, including the classic B-side W-nker . Jeff Jenkins

One Way Ticket to Hell... and Back peaked at number 25 in Australia in 2005. It reached number 11 in the UK and 58 in the US.

54 DECEMBER 2025

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