I’m sure you were thrilled by my post about the mysterious Prayer Tour show scheduled for St James’s Park in Newcastle but scrapped in favour of three nights at Wembley Arena. So let’s dig deeper into that announcement in Cure News #7, shall we? If anything, it’s an interesting look into how slowly things moved in the pre-internet era and how the Prayer Tour blossomed into a huge undertaking.
I won’t bore you with all the shows that were promised in Cure News #7 that actually happened, but here are the anomalies…
10 May “Mechslen – Nekkerhal Evenementen Complex” – this actually took place at Vorst Nationaal in Brussels.
12 May No mention of a show on the original list, but the always reliable CureConcerts.de notes that a show for Lille on this date was mooted then cancelled, but it evidently never made the posters.
16 May “Mannheim – Eissporthalle” – was ultimately cancelled.
2 June is noted as “bari – stadium” in the newsletter, which was actually the Stadio Fiera del Levante.
3 June notes “naples – caudei tireni stadium” which was actually the Stadio Simonetta Lamberti in Cava de’ Tirreni down the road from Napoli so that was probably garbled info.
6 June notes “florence – tbc” and the show took place at Stadio Comunale Lungobisenzio in Prato, just outside Florence.
7 June -again, no venue noted in the newsletter, just “verona – tbc”. The gig took place in Cittadella and the two supports didn’t play cos of rain!
8 June the newsletter notes “palatrussardi” and this actually took place at Arena Civica.
9 June notes “turin – tbc” and this took place at the Palasport in the Italian city.
23 June notes “valencia – levante stadium” this actually took place at the Bullring
28 June notes that this Lisbon was to take place at “estadio pina manique”. The show was at Estádio José Alvalade.
7 July – this show was originally due to happen in Orleans at “parc expo” but was moved to Caen Hall des Expositions.
9 July – Paris Bercy, which happened but an extra date was added on the 9th, and a third date on the 10th didn’t happen.
11 July – note says “reims – sportshalle” but tickets say this happened at the Parc des Expositions unless that’s the same place? Everyone in the band was vomiting at this show, according to a later Curenews.
12 July – “lille – lieven sportshall” This date was eventually advertised as a show in Boulogne which didn’t happen for “security reasons”. Our correspondent Object29 remembers seeing posters for this show up in the town, during a classic British “day trip” to France around the time.
In an echo of 1982’s Fourteen Explicit Moments tour, The Cure played the first show of their 1989 jaunt the day before Disintegration was released. This was the “Roskilde Spring Special”, also featuring New Model Army, Shellyan Orphan and Dinosaur Jr. This was in lieu of the band appearing at the actual festival, which took place at the end of June.
Crying For Yesterday 