Harvey announced departure from band

Cave and the band curated Australia’s first edition of the All Tomorrow’s Parties music festival that was held in various Australian locations during January 2009. On 22 January, after the festival’s completion, Harvey announced his departure from the band after 25 years, citing “a variety of personal and professional reasons”. Harvey concluded his public statement by stating, “I shall continue working on the Bad Seeds back catalogue re-issues project over the coming year and look forward to the new opportunities I shall be able to accommodate as a result of my changed circumstances.” Harvey’s departure was the end of a 36-year-long musical collaboration between Cave and Harvey, and Cave was left as the group’s only original member. The band enlisted guitarist Ed Kuepper , formerly of the Australian bands the Saints and the Laughing Clowns , as a touring member to complete the 2009 summer festival dates that were scheduled. Also in 2009, Cave published his second novel The Death of Bunny Munro , and Mute Records commenced work on a series of remastered versions of the Bad Seeds’ back catalogue (some of the remastered albums included documentary footage from Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard ).