Nick Cave on why Fairytale of New York is a classic Christmas song

Nick Cave on why Fairytale of New York is a classic Christmas song

REVERED rocker, author, screenwriter, soundtrack composer and actor Nick Cave would be on thousands of dream dinner party guest lists.

While it’s not exactly their dining room, thousands of his fans will have an opportunity for a chat with the cultural giant during his Conversations with Nick Cave tour of Australia in January.

Cave will field questions and offer insights propped on a bar stool in between playing some of his beloved songs at the piano.

These intimate performances aren’t playing at your usual run of venues.

Aside from the Sydney Opera House on January 8, which has hosted Cave and his band the Bad Seeds on several occasions, the legendary performer will kick off at the Performing Arts Centre in Wangaratta on January 5 before heading to Hobart’s Odeon Theatre on January 6 and finish at the Gold Coast’s HOTA on January 11.

After a detour to New Zealand, Cave returns to perform at the Melbourne Town Hall on January 19, Adelaide Town Hall on January 22 and Perth Concert Hall on January 23.

Cave debuted this solo piano and chat show in Ireland and the US earlier this year.

“I thought that a direct conversation with the audience might be valuable — in the recent live shows we have all shown a kind of willingness to open up,” he said.

“The audience tends to ask more challenging, revealing, playful and ultimately serious questions. You never know what you are going to get. They can be fearless and they can go deep.”

At his New York show in May, Cave fielded acutely personal questions about the death of his son Arthur, through to inquiries about how he writes songs.

The Conversations format also lends itself to showing just how funny Cave can be as he demonstrated in New York when asked about his close friend Kylie Minogue.

His response provoked a huge laugh from the crowd with Cave then remarking the show was turning onto a “Dave Chappelle comedy hour.”

“The amount of exclamation marks she uses in a text … it’s f***ing unbelievable. It’s like the words are even broken up with exclamation marks,” Cave said in New York.

“Each text is like this euphoric, agitated thing.

“She’s brought the exclamation mark back into use.

“It was out for a long time because it was such a ridiculous thing.”

Tickets for Conversations With Nick Cave go on sale on October 18, with details via nickcave.com