JANUARY

The band was back in Paris for more promotion after their successful French tour two weeks before. French radio NRJ invited them for an afternoon and they mimed Close To Me and In Between Days again on TV. 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 appearences 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
A charity concert supporting Greenpeace. Primary was dedicated to "all the children in the audience". Excellent show with a few surprises : Other Voices, A Strange Day. Faith was played for the first time since 1983, rediscovering the song and becoming an absolute classic track on the following tours.


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.

Robert Smith flew to America just to promote the record and the upcoming tour there. Back in Europe, he and the band mimed Boys Don't Cry on European TV shows and played live on the 19th at the Pink Pop festival where fireworks and Faith closed the evening.

22th
Orient Express train
The band travelled on the famous train for a gig 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).


JUNE

London, Beethoven Studios
20 instrumental demos (new songs) 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).

14th
Nürburg, Rock am Ring Festival
Short concert : one encore only with Give Me It ending the show (maybe because Simple Minds were on the same bill ?). Part of the concert was shown on TV.

15th
Munchen, Olympiahalle
A long concert this time but technical problems occured : on A Forest, the sound level in the venue got very low. The band carried on playing the song anyway but interrupted the concert after that (no Sinking following). Once the sound got working again, the band re-entered on stage for a few songs with Robert being pissed off and finished the night with Pornography.

18th
New French TV appearence with miming Boys Don't Cry in a bathroom in Paris. The next day, they went to Port Barcarès, in south of France, to mime the last single along with Close To Me holding stuffed toys on TV.

21st
Glastonbury, CND Festival
First appearence of the Cure on this famous festival. The band would not play very much there 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