Via punknews:

Australian native Nick Cave has been awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the Caulfield Campus of Monash University. Cave was a student at the university but had dropped out in the 70s to start Boys Next Door which turned into the legendary The Birthday Party. Said Cave:

“I’d come out of Caulfield Grammar School, which was very sports-orientated and to be interested in arts at the time was swimming upstream. To suddenly go into this environment where there were a lot of like-minded people talking about art was incredible for me. I sat around and talked with a lot of third year students in the park and didn’t really hand in a lot of work… but what I learnt from those conversations was enormous. I’m eternally grateful that I failed because it pushed me into a different area. You learn what you love in those years.”