Longing for the day ...

On ya, Nick

I'm not much of a fan of Nick Cave's music but this story, wherein he threatens to walk out of a gig if he can't take his beer and cigarettes onto the stage, is a classic. It's a win for art over the mundane.

Not that I'm in favour of smoking or drinking on stage - my own long-held philosophy is that all intoxications should wait until after the performance - but there's a point at which the performance of the art is diminished without the right props. Nick Cave's performance required those props and would have been a farce without them. He did the only thing a self-respecting performer could do.

I'm also a fan of using grot to express grotty thoughts and feelings when that's what your art demands. If you don't like it, go find a monastery somewhere and suck in the purity ...