Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds announce huge 2026 Brighton Preston Park gig: “It’s going to be big, bad and beautiful”

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds have announced a huge homecoming gig at Brighton’s Preston Park next year – check below for all the details.

Earlier this month, Cave took to the Red Hand Files to answer 50 questions from fans, and confirmed rumours that there was a massive Bad Seeds show in Brighton in the works for next year.

A video teaser that prominently featured Cave’s adopted hometown was later shared, with lyrics to ‘Water’s Edge’ appearing across its shoreline and the musician’s face projected onto Brighton’s West Pier as the date “31.07.26” appeared on screen.

Cave spent several years living in Brighton with his family before moving to Los Angeles following the death of his son Arthur in 2015. It also provided the backdrop to fictionalised documentary 20,000 Days on Earth, and its influence is felt across countless Bad Seeds lyrics and tracks, becoming almost inseparable from the history of the band.

Now, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have confirmed they’ll play Preston Park on July 31 next year, marking their only UK headline show of 2026. “I am thrilled beyond words to return to my beloved Brighton with The Bad Seeds to play Preston Park,” Cave said of the upcoming gig. “It’s a homecoming! It’s going to be big, bad and beautiful. An epic show!!!”

The fan pre-sale kicks off next Thursday (September 25), and you can visit here to register for access. Alternatively, tickets go on general sale the following day (September 26) – you can find your tickets here.

The official announcement of the gig follows news of a homecoming for the Australian artist in support of the Bad Seeds’ acclaimed 2024 album ‘Wild God’.

The shows kick off in January 2025, and will see Cave and co. head to outdoor venues in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane, as well as indoor shows in Adelaide and Wellington, New Zealand, marking their first Australian and New Zealand tour in nine years.

In a four-star review of ‘Wild God’, NME shared: “Bad Seeds records are infamously loaded with gothic doom and gloom. Of course, this ain’t a poptastic LOLfest, and still coloured with the many shades of a life so challenging and weathered.

“But never has Cave been so freewheelin’ than on the giddy ‘Frogs’, “Jumping for love and the opening sky above” as “Kris Kristofferson walks by kicking a can in a shirt he hasn’t washed for years“. With a lust for life, the once-dark prince is letting the light in.”

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ Preston Park gig poster. CREDIT: PRESS

Speaking to NME about the creation of the album and working with Cave, Bad Seeds member and the frontman’s frequent collaborator Warren Ellis shared: “When we sat down at the start of last year, we’d just done a big festival run, the Bad Seeds were back together, and we’d played these really transcendental shows – they were really ecstatic at times. There was a real feeling that we wanted the music to move in that way. It’s really been driven by how Nick has been feeling.”

Meanwhile, Cave has also worked with Warren Ellis are set to score the new television adaptation of his 2009 novel The Death Of Bunny Munro. He also collaborated with The National‘s Bryce Dessner to write a new song for the forthcoming Netflix film Train Dreams.

In other news, Cave recently shared an AI music video to mark 40 years of The Bad Seeds’ ‘Tupelo’, after previously calling the technology “unbelievably disturbing”.