Lane was Cave’s partner in the early 1980s and wrote songs with him for the Birthday Party and the Bad Seeds, as well as releasing solo work
Anita Lane, the
Australian singer-songwriter best known for her collaborations with Nick Cave, has died. A representative for her label confirmed the news. No cause of death was given, and her age – believed to have been in her early 60s – could not be immediately confirmed.
Lane was born in Melbourne and attended art school where she began dating Cave in the 1970s. The pair later moved to Europe together and they collaborated, initially for Cave’s band the Birthday Party – Lane co-wrote A Dead Song from their 1981 debut album, Prayers on
fire. The photographer Bleddyn Butcher, who extensively documented Cave’s early years, later said: “Anita’s influence on Nick’s early thinking and creative confidence was catalytic.”