Martyn Casey replaced by Colin Greenwood on Nick Cave tour “due to illness”
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds are set to commence their European tour at the end of September, with the first show taking place on September 24th in Oberhausen, Germany. Unfortunately, the band has hit a slight bump in the road, as Cave has announced that “due to illness”, bassist Martyn Casey will not be accompanying them for the jaunt.
On September 4th, Cave took to social media to announce the sad news but reassured fans that the shows would go on with Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood taking Casey’s place. At this stage, no further details have been revealed about Casey’s health conditions, nor has the bassist directly addressed the situation.
“Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds are sad to announce that due to illness, Martyn Casey will not be joining the forthcoming UK and European tour,” said his post on Instagram, “Colin Greenwood will stand in on bass for these shows. The band send Martyn their love and best wishes.”
The tour is centred around Nick Cave’s newest album, Wild God, released on August 30th. In a three-and-a-half-star review of the album, Far Out wrote: “All told, the record is largely a unique and powerful triumph. It boldly reaches for the heavens and often grabs the odd walloping fistful. However, to be entirely truthful, if in two years time the mood for a bit of Nick Cave hits his longstanding fans, the vast majority of people may well bypass Wild God in favour of Push the Sky Away, or have a good cry with Ghosteen instead.”
It will no doubt come as a big disappointment to people that the whole band won’t be on stage during the tour shows, and Casey’s well-being will be in fans’ thoughts during this time. However, Colin Greenwood, who will be deputising, will handle bass-playing duties safely. Greenwood has not only had a lot of experience playing with Radiohead, but he has also been on tour with Cave previously.
Greenwood accompanied Cave on a tour in America in 2023, which ran from September until the end of October. The two travelled the country and played in locations such as Ohio, Washington DC, Illinois, and New York.
There will no doubt be some overlap between the songs that Greenwood played on the tour of America with Cave and the material he will play around Europe, so the short rehearsal period also shouldn’t prove as much of a struggle for the Radiohead musician.
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