BOOK REVIEW: A Little History (Nick Cave & cohorts, 1981-2013) – Bleddyn Butcher

Shane | 8 October 2014 | Reply

BOOK REVIEW: A Little History (Nick Cave & cohorts, 1981-2013) – Bleddyn Butcher
Allen & Unwin, 24 September 2014, rrp $49.99
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
10/10

A Little History documents the extraordinary career of Nick Cave as seen through the lens of Bleddyn Butcher, who first dropped his jaw to Mr Cave’s live antics with The Birthday Party in 1981. With a title taken from one of Cave’s most enduring lyrics (The Ship Song), and over one hundred never-before-seen snaps of the man and his cohorts, it’s an astonishing journey for any fan.

From the scrawny, topless, spiky haired 24-year-old Cave writhing on a tiny pub stage amongst broken glass, his arm outstretched towards the cameraman, through incomplete photoshoots (The Birthday Party were apparently notoriously hard to get altogether in any one place at any one time), across different line-ups and different bands (The Bad Seeds, Grinderman), featuring different hangers on and backstage photo opportunities (Bob Dylan, Kylie Minogue, Rolf Harris, Nina Simone), and through to a somewhat dour looking 55-year-old Cave in 2012, A Little History is almost a photographic flipbook of the man’s life, as told from young punk to iconic elder statesman.

Along the way Butcher features girlfriends and bandmates, captures intimate portraits of the man at various homes over the years, and some astonishing live shots. That Cave changes in that time frame from leather-pant clad wild man and avid heroin user to dapper and serious gentleman is a matter of public record, but to see it unfold, step-by-step, over 150 pages of colour and stark black & white photographs with minimal prose by Butcher really highlights the gravitas of the journey the singer has taken.

Butcher’s real talent is in capturing not only moments onto film, but the entire essence of those moments. Accordingly – and as an added bonus – it’s nigh on impossible to flick through this book without the music from the different eras rushing through your head: the songs seem to find a voice in these photographs just as much as the people and the time period they were taken.