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Nick Cave’s solo piano performance to his UK cinema screens later this year

By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 4 September 2020

Following its big streaming premiere in July, Nick Cave’s solo piano performance at Alexandra Palace, ‘Idiot Prayer’, is going to be released in cinemas this November. It will also be released in audio-only form later the same month.

“The film ‘Idiot Prayer’ evolved from my ‘Conversations With…’ events”, says Cave. “I loved playing deconstructed versions of my songs at these shows, distilling them to their essential forms. I felt I was rediscovering the songs all over again, and started to think about going into a studio and recording these re-imagined 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”, he continues. “It was within this silence that I began to think about the idea of not only recording the songs, but also filming them. We worked with the team at Alexandra Palace – a venue I have played and love – on securing a date to film just as soon as they were allowed to re-open the building to us”.

“On 19 Jun 2020, surrounded by COVID officers with tape measures and thermometers, masked-up gaffers and camera operators, nervous-looking technicians and buckets of hand gel, we created something very strange and very beautiful that spoke into this uncertain time, but was in no way bowed by it”, he concludes. “It is a prayer into the void – alone at Alexandra Palace – a souvenir from a strange and precarious moment in history”.

New COVID dramas permitting, the film will be in UK cinemas on 5 Nov, while the soundtrack album will be out on 20 Nov. Details are right here.