While we’re chipping our way through 1979, let’s not forget that 30 years ago, The Cure were prepping what was going to be a milestone release with Disintegration. So let’s step back to ’89 for a moment… In the new year of 1989, if you’d sent off your stamped, addressed envelope to Janie at the … Continue reading 18 March 1989: What happened to that British stadium show in 1989?
Outside of the various bits and bobs that appeared on compilations like “Curiosity” and the “Three Imaginary Boys” reissue, the earliest example of The Cure recorded live comes from the second Marquee show from 11 March 1979. It’s a fascinating piece of history not least because someone thought The Cure were now worth taping - … Continue reading 11 March: A Dose Of Sundays part 2
Fresh off the back of the release of “Killing An Arab”/"10:15 Saturday Night" on 9 February and the launch of the Fiction label, Chris Parry now wanted to give The Cure a proper London showcase. As Dave McCullough noted in the Sounds feature in January, the Moonlight Club show on 20 December was already full … Continue reading 4 March: A Tale Of Two Cities #3 – A Dose Of Sundays
Sad (but unfortunately not unexpected) news that Andy Anderson, who drummed with The Cure in 1983 and 1984 has died, aged 68. He’d been diagnosed with terminal cancer earlier this month, and his bravery in the face of such devastating news was remarkable. Andy was the thundering heartbeat of “The Top” and the shuffling, sly … Continue reading Andy Anderson
This day saw the official launch of Fiction Records with the arrival of FICS 001: the reissue of The Cure’s first single, “Killing An Arab”/“10.15 Saturday Night”. The same day, the band performed a show at the Nashville Room in Kensington - Lol Tolhurst recalls a contingent from the National Front turning up, thinking that … Continue reading 9 February 1979: Is “Killing An Arab” racist?
Chris Parry was a man on a mission as ’78 turned to ’79, throwing off the shackles of being a mere A&R man for Polydor and founding his own label, in his own image. Parry had found himself bashing his head against the wall when trying to sign the Sex Pistols to the major he … Continue reading February 1979: “20 Of Another Kind”
So, it was Sounds that was the first magazine/newspaper to put The Cure on their front cover. A title that remained reasonably fair to the band in the decades to come, up until it closed in 1991. According to Dave McCullough in his story, the writer had an epiphany while reviewing the single “Killing An … Continue reading 27 January 1979: Stars In Embryo – the first cover story
Having rushed to get the first Cure single released before Christmas on the Small Wonder label, Chris Parry found that he’d missed the end of year deadlines for the weekly music press, meaning that most reviews of the 45 appeared in dribs and drabs into January 1979, with some writers noting it in live reports. … Continue reading 20 January 1979: “Killing An Arab” and the critics
The first week of January 1979 saw The Cure back at Morgan Studios for another block of recording. Meanwhile, on 10-12 Radio 1, John Peel took the opportunity to give the band’s first (rather out of tune) session for his show another airing. Peel says that the original broadcast “so impressed one regular listener and … Continue reading 10 January 1979: Today in Peel
Christmas 1978 was intended to be key moment for two post-punk labels that would go on to redefine the industry… but it didn’t quite work out like that. The legend is that Factory Records’ first single appeared on Christmas Eve ’78. But it seems that despite Tony Wilson’s intentions, nobody actually got their hands on … Continue reading 1 January 1979: A Tale Of Two Cities #2 – “Killing An Arab” and “A Factory Sample”
Crying For Yesterday 