Nick Cave's biography reveals a case of mistaken identity| Kitty Empire

The singer's choirmaster took great pride in inspiring him, but a certain other PJ was the real influence

Nick Cave has been squatting rent-free in my mind all week. On Thursday, he and collaborator Warren Ellis released an album - Carnage - every bit as consuming as its predecessor, 2019's Ghosteen. By day, I heard Cave swinging from swagger to sorrow. By night, I juggled a massive hardback: Boy On Fire, the forthcoming biography of Cave's early years by Australian journalist Mark Mordue.

The best detail so far: it turns out the choirmaster at Cave's childhood church was a certain Father Paul James Harvey. Years later," writes Mordue, when The Boatman's Call was released in 1997, the bishop of Wangaratta would read a news article mentioning the influence of a PJ Harvey on the album's songs, and would proudly mention the enduring impact of Nick's old choirmaster to an appreciative congregation." The Boatman's Call was, in fact, inspired by Cave's relationship with one Polly Jean Harvey...