nick cave & the bad seeds
Globetrotting rockers Amyl and the Sniffers, acclaimed producer Dom Dolla, and Indigenous hip-hop supergroup 3% were all among the winners on Wednesday night (April 9) at the 2025 American Apparel Rolling Stone Australia Awards.
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Handed out at the Ivy in Sydney, the awards were hosted by radio host and passionate Australian music lover Nic Kelly, with some of the country’s most prominent and revered names in contention at this year’s event.
Amyl and the Sniffers led the pack, taking home two awards on the night. In the best LP/EP category, their third studio album Cartoon Darkness beat out the likes of RÜFÜS DU SOL, Amy Shark, Missy Higgins, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, while their win as best live act saw them triumph over Tones and I, Parkway Drive, Confidence Man, and Dom Dolla.
While Dolla couldn’t attend the awards physically, he didn’t go home empty-handed. Despite three nominations, he only emerged victorious in one category, with the Rolling Stone global award seeing him beat out a talented range of nominees, including Kylie Minogue, Empire of the Sun, and Amyl and the Sniffers.
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“I’m absolutely shattered I can’t be there tonight to accept the Global Award, but very fitting considering the title of the award that I’m touring in America,” said Dolla, who will also headline the opening night of Bonnaroo alongside Luke Combs this June. “Thank you so much for considering me and for the award!”
Meanwhile, Indigenous Australian artists also took out two major categories at the event. For best single, Gamilaraay woman, musician and creator, Thelma Plum was recognized for her 2024 track “Freckles,” while best new artist was awarded to 3%, a hip-hop supergroup comprising Angus Field, Nooky and Dallas Woods. Their debut album, Kill the Dead, had previously won best hip-hop/rap release at the 2024 ARIA Awards.
For the readers’ choice category, Keli Holiday (who is also known as Adam Hyde from ARIA Award-winning electronic duo Peking Duk) took out the honor, with the hotly-contested category seeing him triumph over names such as Pond, Gut Health, SPEED, Delta Goodrem, and Crowded House, who were the recipients of 2024’s ‘Icon’ award.
This year, it was ICEHOUSE who were given ‘Icon’ status, with frontman Iva Davies on hand to share an acceptance speech.
“Thank you very much indeed, an amazing thanks to Rolling Stone, incredibly unexpected, I have to say,” Davies said in a speech. “I’ll name one person here tonight, the co-founder of Flowers and Icehouse bass player, Keith Walsh. Also, all the former members of the crew, and a special shout out to the man who put this all together, our production manager who has been working with us since 1986 – Mr Larry Ponting. Thanks for having us here.”
Icehouse first formed in Sydney as Flowers in 1977, issuing their debut album Icehouse in 1980 before adopting the name from then on. The record hit No. 4 in Australia, and No. 82 on the Billboard 200, while fifth album – 1987’s Man of Colours – hit the top of Australian charts and peaked at No. 43 on the Billboard 200. That record also boasted some of the group’s biggest internationally-successful singles, with “Electric Blue” and “Crazy” hitting No. 7 and 14 on the Hot 100, respectively.
In 2006, the group were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame, while 1982 single “Great Southern Land” has often been considered an unofficial national anthem by Australian music lovers.
“There was a time when there was a band doing the rounds that were described as the highest earning unsigned act in the country, and they were called Flowers,” said presenter Richard Wilkins as he introduced the award. “We couldn’t help ourselves but fall in love with them, and all that changed when Flowers became ICEHOUSE and they went on to have massive hits all over the world. They are one of the greatest bands ever to come out of this great southern land.”
Rolling Stone AU/NZ is published by Vinyl Media, part of The Vinyl Group. “Tonight was a fantastic celebration of Australian music and the remarkable artists this country produces,” said editor-in-chief Neil Griffiths.
“All our nominees have been doing their bit to showcase the strength of Australian music on a global stage, and this was our opportunity to give something back.”
The fifth annual awards welcomed multiple new and returning sponsors this year, with headline partner American Apparel on board alongside Shure and JMC Academy.
2025 American Apparel Rolling Stone Australia Awards Winners
Rolling Stone Icon Award
ICEHOUSE (WINNER)
Best Single
Thelma Plum – ‘Freckles’ (WINNER)Amyl and the Sniffers – “U Should Not Be Doing That”Empire of the Sun – “Changes”Dom Dolla – “girl$”CYRIL – “Stumblin’ in”Baker Boy – “KING”
Best New Artist
3% (WINNER)CYRILBecca HatchMia WrayGut Health9lives
Best LP/EP
Amyl and the Sniffers – Cartoon Darkness (WINNER)RÜFÜS DU SOL – Inhale/ExhaleLime Cordiale – Enough of the Sweet TalkMissy Higgins – The Second ActAmy Shark – Sunday SadnessNick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Wild God
Best Live Act
Amyl and the Sniffers (WINNER)Confidence ManTones and IDom DollaParkway DriveTeen Jesus and the Jean Teasers
Readers’ Choice
Keli Holiday (WINNER)Radio Free AliceThelma PlumSPEEDPondGut HealthG FlipThe RionsDelta GoodremCrowded House
Rolling Stone Global Award
Dom Dolla (WINNER)Kylie MinogueAmyl and the SniffersConfidence ManNick Cave and the Bad SeedsEmpire of the Sun
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds are plotting a global live stream of their Bob Dylan-approved performance at Paris’ Accor Arena in November.
The performance, titled Wild God – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Live in Paris, captures Cave and his bandmates as they perform the final date of their U.K. and European tour in support of 2024’s Wild God. Taking place on Nov. 17, the 22-song show largely leaned upon the nascent Wild God album, peppered with tracks from the band’s extensive back catalog.
“With Cave’s electrifying stage presence and a powerful band featuring Warren Ellis, George Vjestica, Colin Greenwood, Jim Sclavunos, Carly Paradis and Larry Mullins, plus a four-piece gospel-inspired vocal section (Wendi Rose, T Jae Cole, Miça Townsend and Janet Ramus), Nick Cave led a high-intensity, emotionally charged performance in front of 20,000 fans,” a description of the stream reads.
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Notably, the November concert saw the band gaining a high-profile blessing when Bob Dylan took to his sporadically-active social media account to Tweet a message in support of the show.
“Saw Nick Cave in Paris recently at the Accor Arena and I was really struck by that song ‘Joy’ where he sings ‘We’ve all had too much sorrow, now it the time for joy’,” Dylan wrote. “I was thinking to myself, yeah that’s about right.”
Cave himself took to his own Red Hand Files website to respond to Dylan’s message, labeling it “a lovely pulse of joy that penetrated my exhausted, zombied state.”
“I felt proud to have been touring with The Bad Seeds and offering, in the form of a rock ‘n ’roll show, an antidote to this despair, one that transported people to a place beyond the dreadful drama of the political moment,” he wrote.
“I was elated to think Bob Dylan had been in the audience, and since I doubt I’ll get an opportunity to thank him personally, I’ll thank him here. Thank you, Bob!”
The Wild God – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Live in Paris concert will be streaming from April 7 via the ARTE Concert YouTube channel and their own ARTE.tv website. North American fans will be forced to wait, however, with the broadcast available from June 1. “We assure you that your patience will be rewarded!” ARTE guaranteed on social media.
Australian musician Nick Cave has always been full of surprises, from his incendiary live performances as the singer of The Birthday Party in the early ‘80s, to collaborating with Kylie Minogue as leader of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. However, few may have seen Staffordshire-style ceramic sculptures as the post-punk icon’s latest passion.
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While it’s not the first topic to come to mind when Cave’s name is mentioned, the 67-year-old has been hard at work as a ceramic sculptor for a number of years now, having first adopted the craft during the global pandemic. Later in 2022, he held his first exhibition, with a series of 17 figures depicting the life story of the devil going on display at Finland’s Sara Hildén Art Museum.
In a recent interview with The Art Newspaper, Cave discussed his fondness for the figures, and his ‘The Devil — A Life’ series, which is currently on display at Museum Voorlinden in Wassenaar, Netherlands.
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“I’ve collected Staffordshire-style sculptures for years. I just love these things,” he explained. “They’re not expensive works of art; you find them in second-hand shops. I just had them in front of me as I was just sitting at my desk. We sort of grew idle through Covid [and] were allowed to do things that we normally wouldn’t have done. I sat there looking at one of these Staffordshires just thinking, ‘I can do this.’”
According to Cave, his mother had loved the clay figurines he made as a teenager, and her passing at 92 during Covid left him with a “sentimental tug” that soon evolved into his newfound passion. “Mostly it was just that I thought, ‘F–k, you know, it can’t be that hard to make one of these things,’” he explained.
Admitting there is “no irony” to his love of the art form, Cave added that his 17-piece ‘The Devil — A Life’ series also served as a way for him to come to terms with some of the internal feelings that still resonated following the accidental death of his 15-year-old son Arthur in 2015.
“The whole thing started to have a more mysterious, mystical pull,” he explained. “Then they started to be in order, one after the other. They were trying to make sense of my predicament in a way that I couldn’t make sense of it in my songs, for some reason.
“Ultimately, this ended up being something about culpability and forgiveness around the death of my son,” he added. “That was something that I could never quite get to in my songwriting. To me, these became acutely personal.”
Cave’s most recent body of work, Wild God, arrived in August as his 18th studio album with the Bad Seeds. The record reached No. 2 on the charts in his native Australia, while peaking at No. 66 on the Billboard 200. The album received two Grammy nominations and was also nominated for the Australian Music Prize, ultimately losing out to Kankawa Nagarra’s Wirlmarni.
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