Nick Cave’s Red Hand Files

Nick Cave is writing profound and beguiling letters to his fans.

You maybe heard on the news a few days ago that Nick Cave has written to his fans to justify his recent performance in Israel. Cave had taken a lot of flak from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, as well as from people like Brian Eno and Roger Waters, for playing Israel while Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing regime continues to build what looks suspiciously like an apartheid state. Cave did this through The Red Hand Files; a newsletter he started writing a few months ago. Inconsistently dispatched, its contents are far wider than discussions about Israel.

Outwith his music, The Red Hand Files (named after his song Red Right Hand, as you will know) are Nick Cave’s main medium of conversation with his fans. It’s not an unusual concept. Someone asks a question; Cave answers.

But because of Nick Cave’s public image as a kind of gothic preacher man who only really exists on stage and in our imagined visions of the American Deep South, as well as his recent personal history — his teenage son died after falling from a cliff 3 years ago — the newsletters morph into something much deeper than a Q&A session.

One fan, Cynthia, tells Nick she has recently lost her father, her sister and her first love, and believes…