By 1983, there were great tensions in The Birthday Party between Nick Cave and Rowland S Howard. So Mick Harvey left the band and that was the end. As a result, Cave and Harvey formed Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, the band that everyone knows. Really: it’s Nick Cave’s band. Harvey was always a powerful musical influence, but I don’t think he was ever the artistic equal of Cave the way that Howard was.

The first album (which only lists “Nick Cave” on the cover) was From Her to Eternity. The music certainly turned in a darker direction. It is also a lot more portentous. It is, in other words, what we’ve all come to think of as Nick Cave. So we’ll listen to “Cabin Fever!” which is a good indication of just how different the band sounded. It’s also so clear now how influential the band has been. In 1984, I don’t remember anything at all like it.