Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds + The Flaming Lips + English Teacher + Cate Le Bon + Warmduscher @ Preston Park, Brighton 31st July 2026
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have chosen Brighton’s Preston Park as the venue for their sole UK show this year. Nick Cave is one of the most committed artists around. As well as playing tonight’s show, earlier in the day he and the Bad Seeds performed a rooftop gig at Resident Records in Brighton, and he also recorded a “welcome to Brighton” message for passengers arriving at Brighton station. The day feels special already.
Today’s supporting bill could have been put together especially for me, as it entirely comprises artists that I love. Thanks, Nick!
Warmduscher
First to emerge blinking into the sunshine are Warmduscher, who kick off with the anarchic funk-punk of Standing on the Corner. I’m a little disappointed to see that they no longer have their deliberately bored-looking backing singers, who used to sit chewing gum and checking their phones when they weren’t actually singing. They used to amuse me, anyway. Today they have a stand-in drummer, as Bleu Ottis Wright is unavailable. I don’t know how much notice she had, but her drumming is incredible, especially on the motorik sections.
I’ve seen Warmduscher quite a few times, but for some reason each time I see them I’m surprised at just how good a live band they are, and also by their sheer power. They’re a great dance band. If this band doesn’t make you move your feet, then you may be dead. Whale City and Midnight Dipper are particular standouts.
Vocalist Clams Baker Jr. has been living in the UK for seventeen years, but the heat here is getting too much for him. He wants it to rain! Big girl. He is indeed a warmduscher! Much of the band’s music sounds as though it could be from the soundtrack to a particularly disturbing acid trip, especially Clams’ vocals. He has a mic that goes through a laptop, which treats his vocals with various effects. They also have some cool song titles: Tainted Lunch, for example.
Warmduscher have been absolutely superb. The party has started right here.
Cate Le Bon
Things become a little more cerebral now with Cate Le Bon. Cate is every inch an artist. That’s not to say that she’s in any way pretentious. More that her music needs to be listened to. The more attention you pay, the more you’ll get from it.
Cate is accompanied by a saxophonist who also doubles on guitar, a bassist, drummer, guitarist and keyboard player. She looks the epitome of cool, dressed in black and wearing a hat and shades. There’s something of the classic film star about her. Much of her music – opener Jerome in particular – is gloriously ethereal. You feel as if you could just lie back and wallow in it.
Moderation is groovy and melodic. The bassist’s backing vocals are beautiful, and the overall harmonies are exquisite. Mother’s Mother’s Magazines features a fabulously funky bassline, which is possibly going through a chorus pedal. The keyboard player is doubling up on sax, and we get a sax duet! The drummer is playing with brushes, but the drums still sound pretty powerful.
For Home to You, the guitarist is on glockenspiel and the sax player plays the guitar solo. These people are simply too clever for their own good! As a performer, Cate does seem a little detached. She hasn’t really communicated with the audience. Then again, this music is pretty complex and undoubtedly requires a great deal of concentration.
The bassline of Harbour would suit a late-1970s or early-1980s David Bowie song. Indeed, there does seem to be a definite Bowie influence in Cate’s music that I hadn’t really noticed before. Cate does actually speak before I Know What’s Nice and thanks us for being a wonderful audience. Well, in return, Cate, thank you for being a wonderful artist.
English Teacher
English Teacher are one of the most musically interesting bands around. They’re all graduates of Leeds Conservatoire, and it shows. Their musicianship is at a far higher level than that of most other bands, with the exception of Black Country, New Road, who are on a par with them. English Teacher simply do things that I haven’t seen other bands do, and that’s before we take into account their material, which is frankly astounding. They are joined by pianist and cellist Blossom Caldarone, who is certainly no slouch herself.
The band take the stage to the sound of Cosmic Dancer by T. Rex, and go into an oldie of their own in the form of The World’s Biggest Paving Slab, a single from 2023. Indeed, the oldies continue with I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying and Broken Biscuits from their debut – and, so far, only – album, This Could Be Texas, which came out two years ago.
Much of the set comes from this album, and they’ve been playing this material for quite a long time, but there’s no hint of any boredom with the songs. Indeed, the live versions have grown into themselves, differing in character from their studio counterparts.
As musicians, they’re incredibly flexible. Vocalist Lily Fontaine plays guitar, keyboards and synth, whilst drummer Douglas Frost also plays keyboards. They’re not afraid to play unreleased material either. They’ve been playing Billboards for a couple of years now, but it still appears to be unreleased. It features Blossom on electric piano. Toothpick is a newer song that is also unreleased.
For You Blister My Paint, Douglas is on keyboards and guitarist Lewis Whiting is on synth. The song is quite delicate, but the vocals build to a powerful crescendo at times. Douglas remains on keyboards for the title track of This Could Be Texas. He plays what sounds like a scherzo and then returns to his kit. There’s a prog-style instrumental coda that sounds utterly amazing.
Dog Called Ohm is a much newer song. So new, in fact, that this is only the ninth time the band have played it. It has a wonderfully melodic bassline courtesy of Nicholas Eden. Man is yet another new song. It features a fingerpicked guitar intro and a nice keyboard figure from Blossom.
After R&B, Lily tells us that we’re the biggest crowd they’ve ever played for, and they all photograph us! Closer Nearly Daffodils features a gorgeous fingerpicked bassline. This has been an awesome set, and the new songs played today seem to suggest that English Teacher can be optimistic about album number two.
The Flaming Lips
It’s over ten years since I last saw The Flaming Lips, so I’m really looking forward to their show this evening. The first thing I notice is how suave Wayne Coyne looks. He’s ageing well.
Their set opens with It Overtakes Me from At War with the Mystics, followed by Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1 and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 2. I had wondered whether we would get the full album because The Flaming Lips had been touring it quite recently, but that proves not to be the case. However, we do get inflatable pink robots, proving that the band have lost none of their sense of showmanship. There are inflatable balls and ticker tape as well.
Drummer Matt Duckworth Kirksey wears a Bad Seeds T-shirt. He knows on which side his bread is buttered!
Guitarist AJ Slaughter, meanwhile, is playing a twin-neck Gibson SG with one of the necks removed. It looks a bit odd, but there are many things that are odd in Flaming Lips world. The Spark That Bled has a superb, riff-driven middle eight and features bassist Tommy McKenzie on keyboards.
Inflatable beings, including Happy Star Man, appear on stage for the Chemical Brothers cover The Golden Path. I’m not entirely sure why they’re doing this when they have so many great songs of their own. We later also get a cover of Black Sabbath’s War Pigs. This is presumably a tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, as it’s just over a year since he passed away.
Wayne appears to be being carried around by an alien. These kinds of things happen during Flaming Lips songs. It turns out, however, that he is actually wearing the alien suit. The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (With All Your Power) finds the crowd singing along with Wayne. An inflatable “Fuck Yeah Brighton” sign is brought on stage prior to the aforementioned cover of War Pigs.
Do You Realize?? brings proceedings to a close. It’s a song that I’ve always found really sad, but one can’t argue with the truth that it tells. This has been a superb set. Wayne and the boys still have it.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
There is an hour in which we prepare for the magnificent Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Food is eaten. Beers are consumed, and the arrival of the band is anticipated.
When they do arrive on stage and crash into Get Ready for Love, they almost catch us on the hop. People are still jostling for position in an already utterly rammed Preston Park. I’ve always enjoyed Nick and the Bad Seeds’ rockier moments, and as far as set openers are concerned, it doesn’t get much better than this.
The opening triumvirate is completed by From Her to Eternity and Train Long-Suffering. Nick gets behind the piano for the first time tonight for the beginning of Wild God. He’s accompanied by four quite angelic-sounding backing singers and a keyboard player who is also on backing vocals.
It has already become clear that we’re going to have something of a tour of Nick’s back catalogue. He introduces “an extremely famous mid-period Nick Cave song” prior to O Children, from Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus. It is, needless to say, magnificent. He wonders “if there should be an age limit on this one”. There’s a stupendous violin solo from Warren Ellis.
Tupelo is extraordinary, with Warren strumming his violin, a cool guitar riff and martial-sounding drums. Carnage is the title track of the album that Nick and Warren brought out a few years ago, when they were “trying to be Simon & Garfunkel”. Well, kind of!
All of the video footage on the screens tonight is in black and white, which enhances the pre-existing feel of classicism. Nick introduces Joy from the Wild God album as follows: “You may not realise that you love this song, but you will.” He has a point, you know. Warren is on keening backing vocals, and the song has a really stately feel.
This special day becomes even more special with the arrival of Kylie Minogue to duet with Nick on Where the Wild Roses Grow. Kylie is wearing a long white dress. It’s not a bridal gown, but the inference is there. As the song ends, she declares her “undying, unwavering love” for Nick. It sounds really genuine.
Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry features Warren on electric mandolin. This is such a powerful performance. Wherever you are in the park, I can guarantee that Nick Cave will reach you.
Red Right Hand is similarly powerful, with Nick uncompromisingly retrieving the song from the clutches of Peaky Blinders. This song redefines the term ‘dramatic’. Throughout the show, Nick has been communing with his people, especially the front rows. Briefly, he holds a fan’s copy of the Jubilee Street 10-inch. When Nick plays the song, he’s virtually defining the term ‘stone-cold classic’.
The main set ends with Hollywood from the Ghosteen album. As Nick returns to the image of the child dropping his bucket and spade and climbing into the sun, he howls with real pain. The reason is probably obvious.
Nick and the Bad Seeds leave the stage for a few minutes before returning for City of Refuge and Wide Lovely Eyes. The Bad Seeds leave again, but Nick remains for a solo rendition of Into My Arms, which is incredibly moving.
He finally leaves the stage after performing for two and a quarter hours. This has been a truly magnificent show, and one that will live on in the memories of those of us who were there for many years to come.
WORDS: MARK KELLY PHOTOS: CRIS WATKINS
FULL GALLERY FROM NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS @ PRESTON PARK
