JANUARY

The band returned to Morgan Studios to finish the album.They recorded most songs of their repertoire including the Foxy Lady cover (with Mike Dempsey on vocals). Chris Parry also convinced Robert to get a better guitar than the Woolworth Top 20, so he invested in a Fender Jazzmaster instead (making songs like Three Imaginary Boys to sound better for that type of production).


FEBRUARY

Killing An Arab 7" re-issued on Fiction Records (FICS 001). Around the same time, the band was asked to go to London to meet the director for the 10:15 Saturday Night video. Later, they discovered the mime they had done (thinking that was a rehearsal) would be the actual video.


MARCH

Most of the month was spent touring across the UK. The (by then) unreleased song Play With Me was used as a soundcheck in Cheltenham (March, 10th). They would also play Do The Hansa live, a track left unreleased for several years, parodying their relationship with Hansa Records the previous year.

Killing An Arab appeared on Polydor's "20 Of Another Kind" compilation on the same month. Strangely, the LP proposed an alternative version (different vocals take and mix) not available elsewhere. Probably some mistake with the master tapes.

11th
London, Marquee Club


MAY

05th
Three Imaginary Boys album's release. Press reviews were generally good but NME's Paul Morley completely demolished the band : "The Cure are trying to tell us something. They're trying to tell us they don't exist." The record cover started out as the band's idea but was taken to an extreme. Bill Smith, the designer, explained that "the image of the three domestic appliances was to look like a photo straight out of Ideal Home magazine circa 1967".

06th
John Peel Session
The band recorded Desperate Journalist In Ongoing Meaningful Review Situation, Grinding Halt, Subway Song, Plastic Passion, Accuracy. The first track consisted in Grinding Halt with different lyrics (mocking Morley's prose and also refering to Ian Penman who reviewed Grinding Halt promo only 12" by mistake).

17th
The Cure started a 30-date tour in the UK to promote the album. The live repertoire included the same 15 songs they have been playing since the beginning of the year, playing 10:15 twice (the second version being much faster for punks to pogo). A weird fact was that Robert wouldn't sing a whole verse on Accuracy.


JUNE

26th
The second single, Boys Don't Cry, was released on Fiction Records. Unfortunately, not the hit the band expected. The press reviews weren't as enthousiastic as before.


JULY

1st
London, Lyceum

29th
The Cure's first foreign concert took place at an open air festival in Sterrebos (Holland). The band played in the afternoon under the rain. An evening gig was immediately set up in Groningen.


AUGUST

3rd
Robert finally met Steve Severin of Siouxsie and the Banshees at a Throbbing Gristle concert in London. Prior to that, Steve already invited the Cure to open for the Banshees. A few days later, a tour with both bands on the bill was set up for the following month. The Three Imaginary Boys album sold 12,000 copies in the UK so far.

24th
Reading, Festival




GO TO 1979 PART 2