Mick Harvey

A vicar's son who grew up singing in the church choir, Mick Harvey met Nick Cave at school in the early 1970s. Punk's arrival turned their covers group into the Boys Next Door, a fast new wave outfit, with his guitar owing much to the Stooges' James Williamson and the Jam's Paul Weller. Renamed the Birthday Party in London, they became more aggressive, his fretwork underpinning the noise until he switched to drums.

In 1983 the two friends founded the Bad Seeds. Over 25 years he co-produced records, swapped instruments as needed and handled most of the string arrangements.

His solo work carries Serge Gainsbourg's French songs into English, beginning with Intoxicated Man (1995). Sketches from the Book of the Dead (2011), the first he composed alone, adds double bass, accordion and violin to his playing and opens with 'October Boy', about the late Rowland S. Howard.