JANUARY

Brussels, ICP Studios
Mixing Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me and recording more vocal takes. One of the most enjoyable studio and city according to Robert Smith.

Once the album was completed, Robert escaped to a hotel room in Dublin (as a tax refugee), where photographs of his mouth and his eyes were taken for the album's artwork. An experience that led him to pretend he never really recovered from the intense light that was projected on his eyes. The band also shot a video for Why Can't I Be You ? while staying in Ireland. They had a dance teacher and tried a choregraphy à la Five Star (a pop band known for their heavily choreographed dance routines). Or that was the intention anyway...


MARCH

17/18th
Buenos Aires, Ferro Carrill
First and last coming to Argentina, and quite an experience, since the promoters sold more tickets than the actual stadium's capacity (19,000, when it held 17,000 people) causing a riot outside the venue, and the police had to intervene. Several security dogs were killed, and cars were rolled. Obviously not the greatest atmosphere for the band, whose popularity in South America had risen with the Standing on the Beach record. They couldn't play most of the new songs as a 5-piece group, so this short tour was pretty much a continuation of the Beach Party tour from summer '86. The soundcheck took place in the afternoon with wet towels on their heads because of the sun and heat.

The second night, the concert was cut short. This time the problems occured during the show ! The audience violently reacted to the police and the barricades in front of the stage and started throwing things. The band was hit by various objects, even if they weren't the real targets (let's hope). 10:15 Saturday Night was interrupted for this reason with Robert Smith yelling "fucking entertaining" in the microphone after being hit by a flying bootle ! Wild night...

20th
Porto Allegre, Gigantinho
First coming to Brazil and certainly a better atmosphere with the audience still singing and dancing between the songs. But that didn't prevent the band from having the military taking charge of their safety. Rare songs such as Secrets,The Blood or Why Can't I Be You ? were sometimes played.

After a show in Belo Horizonte, they drived through the jungle to see more of the country and stopped at Congonhas do Campo to admire the rococo church. A nice break from the madness surrounding them at the hotels and venues. The tour ended in Sao Paulo where they played a couple of new songs for the first time : Catch and Torture. Then everybody got home in England except Robert who headed to Paris for press and radio interviews.


APRIL

10th
Why Can't I Be You ? / A Japanese Dream was released as a single. A massive promotional era for Kiss Me started. The band came to Paris and mimed the new single on several TV sets. An arty film of Robert's eye and mouth (titled Eyemou) was also made by Parched Art in a hotel room there. This five-minute film would be used as an introduction for the upcoming Kissing tour.

24th
Newcastle, The Tube TV
The first official appearance of Roger O'Donnell on keyboards with the band. He was actually stolen from the Psychedelic Furs and Boris knew him from their days in the Thompson Twins. The 6-piece line up (Smith/Gallup/Tolhust/Thompson/Williams/O'Donnell) played a few new songs live on TV where Robert Smith messed up Catch's guitar solo. Then Roger went back home in Canada to learn more songs for the tour in July.


MAY

More promotion in France : a TV special was filmed in the streets of Maule (near Paris) and then they went to the international film festival in Cannes - using the pretext of The Cure in Orange video - and did an embarrassing mime on the beach. Since the band was in the French Riviera, they also made a video for Catch in a house from the Belle Epoque there.

Switzerland was the next stop on this long promotional trip. The group mimed two songs for TV on the Montreux Festival, gave numerous interviews and got drunk with Bob Geldof. Everybody flew to Japan for more promotion before finally taking a short holiday as Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me got released. In France, the double album went gold before it was even available in the record shops (thanks to the pre-orders).


JUNE

The month was spent promoting the album and the Catch single (only released in the UK, Japan and a few European countries). They also rehearsed for the upcoming tour in the US.


JULY

9th
Vancouver, Expo Theatre
First night of the North American tour with a repertoire concentrating on the Kiss Me songs, probably because of the young audience that discovered them that year, and the will to play the new material. The group also wore shirts depicting designs from the Catch single cover (painted by Porl Thompson). Robert really applied himself to sing, certainly more confident about his voice than before.

14th/15th
Los Angeles, Forum

Songs like Hey You or A Thousand Hours were quickly put aside (although they were still part of the soundchecks sometimes). The funny thing on this tour was also the fact that they started the show with nine new songs and Robert didn't know what to say to introduce them except "still new".

17th
San Diego, Sport Arena

Also worth mentioning was the sickening light show on Snakepit : two rays of lights, crossing one another, would be projected into the people's faces, trying to "hypnotize" the audience. Then the group learned and added Charlotte Sometimes to their live set after two weeks of touring.

AUGUST

Forgetting Three Imaginary Boys lyrics in Montreal led to a bit of instability for the end of this show (the same thing happened five days later in Worcester). But overall the concerts were good (although identical). Robert also sang and played Another Girl Another Planet on his own while soundchecking in Pittsburgh (a song originally by The Only Ones). And the Kissing Tour ended in a sold out Madison Square Garden in New York, before giving a charity concert there at the Ritz (to end with the Killing An Arab misunderstanding in America).


GO TO 1987 PART 2