JULY
16/17th
Playground Studios
A new single was recorded in Mike Hedges studios : Charlotte Sometimes
/ Splintered In Her Head. Charlotte Sometimes was inspired by a book with
the same title by Penelope Farmer. A video
was made around the same time in an deserted asylum in Stroude Road, Virginia
Water, Surrey. The worst Cure video according to Robert.
23th
New York, The Ritz
A short US tour was set up but apparently the group suffered from jet-lag
on this first night. Strange performance : off tempo singing, screwing up
the ending of A Forest, forgetting the words to Faith... Splintered In Her
Head was played for the first time live.
The Cure quickly arrived to California
and the rest of the tour was very good. In L.A, A Forest ended differently
: slowing down. The following week they crossed the Pacific for New Zealand
where they had to play twice on the same night because of the popular demand.
Seventeen Seconds was double platinium there and Faith entered the charts at #1 ! They were also invited to jam all night with musicians they met the previous
year in Wellington.
AUGUST
In Australia, the tour was quite successful as well with a few dates added on the
last minute (in Melbourne or a third night in Sydney). The last two dates (Perth and Adelaide) were cancelled though.
So they played a couple more shows in Melbourne and Sydney (again !). They also appeared
on the radio and mimed Primary on Countdown (TV show).
Charlotte Sometimes made its
live debut but was dropped from the set list after two weeks of playing the
song. Maybe the band wanted to wait for the single to be released. The tour
crossed the Pacific again to play a few shows in Canada.
OCTOBER
In America, a double album including Seventeen Seconds and Faith was released
under the name Happily Ever After on A & M Records (the 1980 collaboration with PVC Records was short lived
there).
After a month of rest, the Picture tour reached France (16 shows) where Boys Don't Cry was sometimes played in the encores and A
Forest getting an extended ending. The group had more than a "cult" status in the country, peaking at the Olympia in Paris where 2000 people came to see them. The night in Paris ended up being the last one of the tour : originally, the Cure was supposed to play 3 more shows in Aix, Montpellier & Toulon but they got cancelled at the last minute.
The Charlotte Sometimes / Splintered In Her Head single was released (FICS 14) around that time. The 12"
included a great version of Faith (live in Sydney 81) as an extra track. The picture sleeve was
actually a blurred picture of Mary Poole given by Robert Smith. In 1990, another
picture from the same batch would be used for the Pictures Of You's cover.
NOVEMBER
25th
New tour (the second of the year) in the UK. Eight shows with And Also The
Trees and 13 13 opening. New material was played : The Figurehead, One Hundred
Years, The Hanging Garden. Quite differents versions compared to the final
ones. Probably their darkest tour with Killing An Arab and 10:15 not being
played often, and The Drowning Man as an opener.
The
show in Bradford was recorded. The Funeral Party & Forever both appear
on the Faith deluxe remaster edition but are incorrectly labeled "live
somewhere summer 81".
DECEMBER
Work on the next album already started. Demos were recorded in a small
studio. The songs now getting definitive structures except The Hanging Garden,
still very different.
21st
John Peel Session, Maida Vale studio 4
Songs recorded for the radio : Siamese Twins, The Figurehead, One Hundred
Years. Some misplaced lyrics and a great Siamese Twins (quite oppressive
guitar sound effect). It seems The Hanging Garden was also recorded (?).
GO TO 1982 PART 1
