SEPTEMBER

Private rehearsals started at the Hammersmith Odeon in London for the forthcoming Head Tour which would debut in Cornwall on 8 September and was pretty much a permanent party from there. After a couple of shows only and barely any sleep, Robert declared he felt like he'd been on tour for three months ! The band would also play football on the afternoon, with their TeamCure shirts on - but often got trashed by the roadies' team.

They played a sold out Wembley Arena (in London), to the surprise of the musical press, ending with an alternate version of Forever. Then they followed with unusual things like playing I Dig You a couple of times (Brighton, Whitley Bay) or You Really Got Me ("We've never done this ever, and even rehearsed and even thought about it and we'll never do it again"). And since playing covers was in the air, they also did Do You Wanna Touch ? (by Gary Glitter) on the last concerts in the UK. Setting up how the rest of the tour would be.

The final date in the UK (Edinburgh) was pretty funny with Robert Smith facing hardcore Cure fans requesting rare songs : "You must be joking, how do you remember that ? How old are you ? We'll play them all, all right, every single song we ever recorded."

Close To Me's single got released including a remixed version of the song (brass was added).

The North-American tour followed with a favorite show in Irvine ("So fucking gorgeous to play here") before Robert Smith got sick in Minneapolis because of the on-going drinking competition with Simon. It ended at Radio City Hall in New York. Quite a successful tour with the usual Disneyland visit, fireworks, Halloween and dog attacks. The Blood was dropped from the set list for a while there.


NOVEMBER

Intense promotional period : interviews, photos, radio, TV... A French Tv crew even followed the band all day long in London for a TV special. A few days later, while being in Paris, the group visited the Musée Grévin and they also played a secret show in a club but had to stop because of the crowd in the street and the risk of a riot.

19th
London, Camden Palace
Charity concert in support of MENCAP (Mental Handicap). It was more or less kept secret too, just so enough people knew about it. Two songs were shown live on English TV and a few others were broadcast on the radio. While waiting for the connection with the TV, Robert told a joke on stage : "A duck goes into a pharmacy and asks some lipsyls and the pharmacist says, that'll be 25p, and the duck says : put it on my bill" ! Almost nobody in the audience laughed.

26th
Beginning of the European Tour in Brussels. The soundcheck was filmed by the Belgian TV. A bit of a slow start but still good.


DECEMBER

In Berlin, somebody from the audience threw something at Robert Smith which complained right away, making sarcastic comments about a happy friendly smile. So the mood wasn't exactly passionate but they sounded good (they're professional after all).

The following night in Hamburg also got on Robert's nerves as the lights from the venue were turned back on after the second encore (like if the show was over...). The Cure's singer then threatened of a "slow death" the person responsible for that ! The day after (in Offenbach), the show was shortened to one hour only, no planned encores but they did one in the end with 10:15 and Killing An Arab. When leaving the stage, Robert had a few words : "And that's it or I'll die." No wonder he later described that week as "drab". The last night in Germany (Ludwigshafen) was good though with rare songs being played : Secrets, M, Give Me It...

Playing in Italy again was "a shambles" with a power cut during A Forest in Bologna, broken string on Cold the night after in Padova (which included rare tracks for another very rare setlist change : Secrets, Forever) or somebody from the crowd requesting old stuff in Torino ("If you don't like it, just don't listen to it").

In France

Fortunately, the last shows of the year were a lot of fun and the audience got close to mass hysteria, Robert greeting people with "love and kisses". In Grenoble, there were some technical problems after Kyoto Song, the rumor talked about the band risking electrocution on stage. So the concert was stopped for a while, time for problems to be fixed. But this didn't kill the show nor the evening. The rumor (Robert Smith) says that the group played Wild Thing at the end of the concert, with Lol Tolhurst on vocals ! But nobody who attended the show remembers that.

18th
Paris, Palais des Sports de Bercy
A mythical concert even if the songs were the same as on the rest of the tour. The band never played in such a big venue before (17,000 people) and this show was simply the climax of a very successful French tour that consecrated them as mega stars across the country. The English press would talk about the Cure being the most important thing in France since Joan of Arc ! So it comes as no surprise if this concert was sold out one month before it actually took place. Robert Smith wished a Happy Christmas to the audience at the end of the evening. And a few hours later, the band played a secret show for the staff at the hotel they were staying at.


GO TO 1986 PART 1