Tour Dates:

Original Press Release:

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds have announced their first comprehensive tour of Australia since 2002 and their first headline dates in New Zealand in more than 12 years.

With the full eight-member Bad Seeds line-up augmented with four gospel singers, the show which has only toured the UK and Europe to date, has been hailed as the band's most ambitious and successful live presentation ever.

The dates are in support of the brilliant and enthusiastically-received two-album set, Abattoir Blues / The Lyre Of Orpheus, the band's thirteenth studio album and the follow-up to 2003's Nocturama.

It is also the very first two-album set of entirely new studio recordings ever released by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, as well as the first Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds album recorded without guitarist Blixa Bargeld.

Produced by Nick Launay and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Abattoir Blues / The Lyre Of Orpheus was recorded in Paris and mixed in London.

In a continuation of the Nocturama sessions, this new set sees all The Bad Seeds deeply involved in the recording process.

The ubiquitous Mick Harvey does all guitar work on these recordings. Warren Ellis takes on mandolin and Irish bouzouki in addition to violin. Jim Sclavunos and Thomas Wydler equally share drum duties, with bassist Martyn P. Casey completing the rhythm section. Conway Savage and Nick Cave trade off on piano and the Bad Seeds' newest recruit, James Johnston (Gallon Drunk), makes his debut playing organ. "Over the years my gut feeling about our albums has proved to be true," says Mick Harvey, "and I think this is our best album."
As if that were not enough, there is yet another Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds release this month. Spanning the full twenty-one years of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds' illustrious career, this comprehensive three-CD set, entitled B-Sides & Rarities, presents a thrilling and eclectic retrospective collection of material by the band, some of which has been deleted, featured on a disparate number of soundtrack albums or has simply never been officially released. From the menacing 'The Six Strings That Drew Blood', through the distraught 'The Girl At The Bottom Of My Glass', the fragile beauty of 'Little Empty Boat', the outlaw romance of '(I'll Love You) Till The End Of The World', the plaintive 'Bluebird' through to the murderous attack of 'The Ballad Of Robert Moore & Betty Coltrane', long term Bad Seeds aficionados, recent converts and the merely curious will find much to appreciate and enjoy in this landmark 56-track compilation. Nick Cave himself has declared this collection his favourite Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds album.