JANUARY

The band was back in Paris for more promotion after their successful French tour three weeks before. French radio NRJ invited them for an afternoon and they mimed Close To Me and In Between Days again on TV. Most noticeable appearance was on Le Grand Échiquier, a very serious show, where Lol Tolhurst could express his saxophone skills in all their glory to the great amusement of the band. Around the same time, Polydor in Spain, had plans to release The Blood as a single (a video was even shot) but only a few promotional copies were manufactured and distributed.


MARCH

The month was spent remixing Boys Don't Cry, Robert sang the vocals again in order to re-release the song as a single. The band's exposure in the media now allowed the track to be a true success. It was also decided to release a compilation of all the Cure's singles to date along with a video compilation. Michael Dempsey was invited to appear on the Boys Don't Cry video (miming the bass in the shadow).


APRIL

More TV appearances in France, so the band asked Martin (Lol's flatmate) to come and mime the keyboards on TV since Porl and Boris were on vacation. The Boys Don't Cry (remixed and resung) single was released at the end of the month (FICS 24).

A video for A Night Like This was also filmed around that time, for a hypothetical American single (that was never released). Tim Pope also made films for Killing An Arab and Jumping Someone Else's Train for the video collection to be complete.

25th
London, Royal Albert Hall
The first show of the year was a charity concert in support of Greenpeace. It included a few surprises : Other Voices, A Strange Day, Pornography, Faith. All these tracks were never played for a few years.


MAY

The Standing on the Beach singles compilation and the Staring the Sea video compilation were released. Both covers depicted a photograph of John Button, an old fisherman Porl encountered. J. Button would also appear on the Killing An Arab video.

22th
Orient Express train
The band travelled on the famous train for a show in Italy and left a £2,000 bill at the bar. When arriving to Venice, the trip became a short holiday as the concert in Verona got cancelled in the meantime (for security reasons).

Then Robert Smith flew to New York City just to promote the record and the upcoming tour there. Their american label also wanted Let's Go To Bed to be the single off Standing On The Beach instead of Boys Don't Cry. Finally a compromise was reached : the remixed and resung version of the song would be released on the b-side there. Back to Europe, he and the band mimed Boys Don't Cry on several European TV shows and played live again on the 19th at the Pink Pop festival in the Netherlands where fireworks and Faith closed the evening.


JUNE

London, Beethoven Studios
20 new instrumental demos were recorded under the umbrella title of "One Million Virgins" including Why Can't I Be You (originally called "Stolen Robin #1"), All I Want, The Perfect Girl, Like Cockatoos, Hot Hot Hot (a pastiche of Chic's funk music). The "One Million Virgins" was probably a joke about the proposal they got from Virgin Records around that time as the singles compilation got the Cure out of contract with Polydor in Europe. The band would finally negotiate and stayed on Polydor at the end of the year.

14th
Nürburg, Rock am Ring Festival
A short concert as they weren't on top of the bill. The show only included a single encore but it was quite a strange one with Give Me It (maybe because Simple Minds were there also ?). Part of the concert was shown on TV.

18th
The group was back in France again to mime Boys Don't Cry on TV but that took place in a bathroom for some reason. The next day, they went to Port Barcarès, in the south of the country, to mime the lastest single along with Close To Me holding stuffed toys on TV.

21st
Glastonbury, CND Festival
The first appearance of the Cure on this famous festival. The band would not play there very much over the years for various reasons. Part of the concert was broadcast on the radio. At the end of the show, Robert Smith wished the audience "a nice day tomorrow" because the massive rain.


GO TO 1986 PART 2