A certain ratio

This gig is being recorded for BBC Four and, as with this kind of thing, there’s something slightly odd about tonight’s proceedings. We’re in the splendid hall of a restored 18th century church, sitting around tables, mindful of the cameras and lengths of cables snaking across the floor, practising clapping for the Assistant Stage Manager. If “live” is a spontaneous celebration of the power of rock’n’roll, then we’re a long way from Kansas, Toto. It is, arguably, a somewhat incongruous environment to see Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds play, anyway.

Some interesting correspondence on the blog over the past week or so, not least on the subject of Brian Eno, after I posed a mildly provocative question about his recent work here.

The singer's immense 10-disc Volume One 1963-72 is out this Autumn

OK, so now it’s 101 degrees and the crowd is crawling from patch of shade to tented shelter, the mass influx of Hollywood types and music biz bigwigs (them that’s left!) arriving in limos when the sun goes down.

Magnificent return, reinvention from the Bristol three + indepth Q&A w/Geoff Barrow

Oscar winner talks about news Rolling Stones flick Shine A Light

Evan Dando’s deceptively sunny breakthrough, plus demos and DVD and Q&A

He 'didn't want to tour their fastest made record -- until he heard it'

It’s a strange thing that, as Mark Lanegan becomes more ubiquitous, his own material seems to be scarcer and scarcer. Since Lanegan’s last solo album, the fine “Bubblegum”, came out in 2004, his voice has been everywhere, but his substance has been hard to track down.

Cave gets fuzzed-up, funky and mythically weird