While some may have a problem with Nick Cave attending the coronation, he’s just living life on his own terms. And honestly, who wouldn’t want to attend such a strange and spectacular event?
Nick Cave revealed that he will be attending the coronation of King Charles III and the queen consort, Camilla. And while some may see this as the musician’s devil-may-care attitude, it turns out that Cave just knows how to live.
In his response to readers who were incredulous about his decision to attend the event, Cave explained that he’s not a monarchist or a royalist, but he’s also not so ideologically captured as to refuse an invitation to what will likely be the most important historical event in the UK of our age.
Cave’s emotional attachment to the Royals may be inexplicable to some, but he finds the unique weirdness of Britain and its monarchy deeply fascinating. He has spent many years living in England and was even named an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2017.
Cave has met Queen Elizabeth II in the past, and he was surprisingly emotional during her funeral last year. Despite not being emotionally attached to the monarchy, he holds an inexplicable emotional attachment to the Royals themselves. Cave describes their strangeness and eccentricity as perfectly reflecting the unique weirdness of Britain itself. He is drawn to the bizarre, the uncanny, the stupefyingly spectacular, and the awe-inspiring.
An excerpt from nick Caves red hand letter response:
I am not a monarchist, nor am I a royalist, nor am I an ardent republican for that matter; what I am also not is so spectacularly incurious about the world and the way it works, so ideologically captured, so damn grouchy, as to refuse an invitation to what will more than likely be the most important historical event in the UK of our age. Not just the most important, but the strangest, the weirdest.
I once met the late Queen at an event at Buckingham Palace for ‘Aspirational Australians living in the UK’ (or something like that). It was a mostly awkward affair, but the Queen herself, dressed in a salmon coloured twin-set, seemed almost extraterrestrial and was the most charismatic woman I have ever met. Maybe it was the lighting, but she actually glowed. As I told my mother – who was the same age as the Queen and, like the Queen, died in her nineties – about that day, her old eyes filled with tears. When I watched the Queen’s funeral on the television last year I found, to my bafflement, that I was weeping myself as the coffin was stripped of the crown, orb and sceptre and lowered through the floor of St. George’s Chapel. I guess what I am trying to say is that, beyond the interminable but necessary debates about the abolition of the monarchy, I hold an inexplicable emotional attachment to the Royals – the strangeness of them, the deeply eccentric nature of the whole affair that so perfectly reflects the unique weirdness of Britain itself. I’m just drawn to that kind of thing – the bizarre, the uncanny, the stupefyingly spectacular, the awe-inspiring.
And as for what the young Nick Cave would have thought – well, the young Nick Cave was, in all due respect to the young Nick Cave, young, and like many young people, mostly demented, so I’m a little cautious around using him as a benchmark for what I should or should not do. He was cute though, I’ll give him that. Deranged, but cute.
So, with all that in mind, I am looking forward to going the Coronation. I think I’ll wear a suit.
The coronation, which takes place on May 6th at Westminster Abbey, will be the first coronation since Charles’ late mother, Elizabeth II, was crowned in 1953.
Nick Cave’s devil-may-care attitude is part of what makes him so beloved by fans. His willingness to attend King Charles III’s coronation despite his own personal beliefs is just another example of why we’ll always love him.
