Nick Cave reveals surprising connection to ‘Love Island’ contestant’s family
Cave explained that the parents of contestant Luca Bish helped him through the "horror and confusion" of his son's death in 2015
By Nick Reilly
Nick Cave has explained how the parents of Love Island contestant Luca helped him and his wife Suzie through the “unspeakable” tragedy of their son’s death.
Arthur Cave died at the age of 15 after he fell from a cliff in Ovingdean, East Sussex in 2015.
Writing in the latest instalment of his fan correspondence website The Red Hand Files, Cave opened up on the connection when asked what the “major difference” is between him and his wife, Susie.
“Susie watches Love Island, and I don’t,” he replied.
Cave then went on to explain how the pair were connected to Luca Bish, a current contestant on the hugely popular ITV2 reality show.
“Luca was a school friend of our twins, Arthur and Earl,” Cave wrote. “As a consequence, Susie and I became friends with Luca’s parents, Maria and Michael. Maria is an antique dealer. Michael is a fishmonger. Luca is a fishmonger too.
“After Arthur died, in the early days of that terrible, chaotic first week, Maria turned up on our doorstep with a tray of lasagne and basically looked after us. She barely said anything to us. She made us cups of tea. She cooked for us. She was just there. She was the one constant through a time of horror and confusion, when scores of despairing and commiserating people came and went.”
He continued: “We will never forget her kindness. Even in the first week, when the world seemed suddenly and shockingly defined by an unspeakable and distorting cruelty, Maria reminded us that there was good in the world. She also served as a lesson in how to deal with grieving people – you don’t need to say anything, just do something; make them a cup of tea, cook them dinner.
“To this day Michael brings fresh fish around to our house, drops it off and leaves without a word. He pretends to charge us for it, but we know that he doesn’t. These people, Luca’s parents, are as good as people get, and they love their son, Luca.”
Cave added: ““So, Susie watches Love Island and cheers him on, and hopes that he will win. I also hope that Luca wins, and wins soon, because then I can get the fucking TV back. Love, Nick.”
Cave previously addressed the tragedy of his son’s death in the 2016 documentary One More Time With Feeling.
He also opened up last year on how he left Brighton and headed to Los Angeles in the wake of his son’s death as familial connections to the Seaside city meant it had “just become too sad”.
“Brighton had just become too sad. We did, however, return once we realised that, regardless of where we lived, we just took our sadness with us,” said Cave.
“These days, though, we spend much of our time in London, in a tiny, secret, pink house, where we are mostly happy.”
Cave also experienced the death of his son Jethro Lazenby at the age of 31 back in May. He has subsequently said he found “great comfort” in the messages of support sent by fans.
Cave & The Bad Seeds have also since resumed touring this summer at a selection of festivals and venues across Europe.