Nick Cave's Idiot Prayer coming to cinemas in November - Sydney Morning Herald

Nick Cave's online concert performance from London's Alexandra Palace in July will be screened in cinemas from November 5.

Originally streamed online only, Idiot Prayer will be released in an extended version for cinemas. A double album of the performance will be released on November 20 on vinyl and CD and streaming services.

Nick Cave at London's Alexandra Palace. Idiot Prayer will screen in cinemas from November 5.Credit:Joel Ryan

Some fans who watched the original online concert experienced buffering problems. The concert was billed as a one-off, global live-streaming event, but ticket holders were given additional time in late July to watch the performance again.

Filmed by Irish cinematographer Robbie Ryan, Idiot Prayer evolved from last year's Conversations with Nick Cave series, combining an intimate Q&A audience experience with songs.

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"I loved playing deconstructed versions of my songs at these shows, distilling them to their essential forms," Cave said about his Q&A shows.

"I felt I was rediscovering the songs all over again, and started to think about going into a studio and recording these reimagined versions at some stage - whenever I could find the time.

"Then, the pandemic came - the world went into lockdown, and fell into an eerie, self-reflective silence. It was within this silence that I began to think about the idea of not only recording the songs, but also filming them."

Cave's band, the Bad Seeds, had been scheduled to spend much of 2020 on a world tour following the release of their most recent album Ghosteen.

Instead, Cave turned his attention to the Alexandra Palace performance and what he called "something very strange and very beautiful that spoke into this uncertain time", after he'd completed filming.

Idiot Prayer takes its name from a song on Cave's 1997 album The Boatman's Call, one of many albums the 62-year-old drew upon for this solo performance.

Ryan spoke to The Age and Sydney Morning Herald prior to Idiot Prayer streaming online in July and said all necessary distancing precautions were taken during filming, including masks, tape measures and hand sanitiser.

Ryan's cinematography in The Favourite was nominated for an Academy Award in 2019 and, while he knew about Cave's music, he'd never seen him perform.

"Nick is an absolute gentleman and that makes a huge difference. He's also somebody who’s really straight down the line, so I had a lot of fun working with him," he said.

Idiot Prayer: Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace, will be in cinemas from November 5. Tickets will be on sale from September 10 at nickcave.com/idiotprayer.

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2020-09-03 10:24:00Z
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