Bad Seeds guitarist set to play Yorkshire gig

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds guitarist George Vjestica will be heading to Yorkshire next month for a gig with his Bandante band.
George Vjestica, who is heading to the Hebden Bridge Trades Club with his Bandante band.George Vjestica, who is heading to the Hebden Bridge Trades Club with his Bandante band.
George Vjestica, who is heading to the Hebden Bridge Trades Club with his Bandante band.

Vjestica has described the band as an alternative English rock act and music fans can see for themselves when they take to the stage at the Hebden Bridge Trades Club on Friday, February 16.

Joining him will be Kai Stephens on bass and Sammy J Stopford on drums.

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“I want to experiment, make it kind of underground,” said Vjestica.

“No two gigs are the same, anything can happen.

“A friend of mine, collage artist Timothy Shepard, has been involved with the visual side of things. I really love his work, he adds another dimension to what’s going on live.”

Best known as the guitarist in Nick Cave’s current line up of the Bad Seeds, Vjestica is a relative newcomer to the renowned Australian band. What most people don’t know is that his association with Cave goes back much further than the 2013 album, ‘Push The Sky Away’ and the subsequent tour to promote it.

He appeared on the soundtrack to Cave and Warren Ellis’s first collaborative film score, ‘The Proposition’, released in 2006. He’s featured on ‘The Rider Song’ and the films’ closer, ‘Clean Hands, Dirty Hands’.

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In 2011 he worked with Cave and Ellis on the soundtrack to another John Hillcoat film, ‘Lawless’, featuring an array of luminary guest singers including Emmylou Harris and Mark Lanegan.

Vjestica’s guitar playing can be heard on bastardised bluegrass takes of John Lee Hooker’s ‘Burning Hell’, Captain Beefheart’s, ‘Sure ‘Nuff ‘n Yes I Do’ and a raucous cover of the Velvet Underground’s ‘White Light, White Heat’.

The following year Vjestica was invited by Cave to play on the ‘Push The Sky Away’ sessions. 2016 saw the release of the Bad Seeds 16th studio album ‘Skeleton Tree’.

“Writing songs and playing the guitar is what I love doing,” added Vjestica.

“I’m working with the Bad Seeds and doing my own thing with Bandante. Who knows..Let’s see what the future holds.”

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