JANUARY

Half of the month was spent (re)mixing Disintegration. The title was perfectly chosen considering all that has happened : the sense of growing old, the concern about the band losing its edge while becoming more and more popular, a wedding, Lol Tolhurst getting sacked... The lyrics reflected all this at different levels.


FEBRUARY

Official announcement that Lol was no longer part of the band. Porl and Andy Vella made the artwork for the album with different photographs including one of Robert Smith.


MARCH

A video for the next planned single, Lullaby, was shot in a London warehouse. The first Cure video with a true cinematic feel to it. The original inspiration came from Polanski's Tenant but evolved from there. Tim Pope wanted real tarantulas but the Cure's singer refused to be anywhere near those. The video won the "best video" at the BRIT awards, the following year.

Another video was made around the same time (Fascination Street) since the song would be the single for the US. A less ambitious video as it was funded by their American label only. Two edits were made. The first version included clear views of the band when the second one (most common) had multiple image layers.

20th
London, The Churchill Hotel (press conference)
Robert and Simon presented Disintegration to the international press. Photographers and TV were also there. On the same day, they gave exclusive interviews to several TV channels.


APRIL

Samuelson studios, Bray (Berkshire, UK)
Rehearsals for the upcoming European tour (called the "Prayer Tour"), testing the lightshow and playing the songs.

The repertoire included : Three Imaginary Boys, Boys Don't Cry, A Forest, Faith, Charlotte Sometimes, The Figurehead, A Strange Day, Cold, Let's Go To Bed, The Walk, In Between Days, Kyoto Song, Close To Me, A Night Like This, Why Can't I Be You ?, Just Like Heaven, Hot Hot Hot, Plainsong, Pictures Of You, Closedown, Last Dance, Lullaby, Fascination Street, Prayers For Rain, The Same Deep Water As You, Disintegration, Homesick, Untitled.

20th
TV appearance miming Lullaby on Top of The Pops and a little controversy as there was no close-up of Robert because of his make up. The people responsible for the TV show pretended it could shock the young viewers.

21st
Robert Smith's 30th birthday. Robert "got gloriously drunk and ran round Crawley with no shoes all night, remembering..."

Lullaby was released as a single and reached the Top 5 in the UK.


MAY

The Prayer Tour started in Denmark and followed with Sweden, Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Slovenia, Austria, Hungary and Greece. Many places where the band didn't play before and the trips were done by bus (Robert refusing to fly anymore).

The audience was discovering the songs on stage and that 6-string bass played by Robert Smith (loud and full of echoes) would define the Cure's sonic identity in people's minds for years. Some guitar parts were given to Porl on this tour (Charlotte Sometimes, The Walk) for Robert to be able to concentrate on the singing and to walk around the stage.

It took about a week to see how the show would go and then the band enhanced the performances at an incredible level, especially with ending on Faith. The song included extra lyrics that were close to never endings monologs to oneself with sudden angry parts. A mythical tour in many fans opinion.

12th
Disintegration release. The album was a success everywhere despite the record companies thinking it was a commercial suicide to release this one after Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me.


JUNE

The Prayer tour now reached Italy, France, Spain, Portugal. Robert tried to say a few words in the local language. His best efforts being in French. In Italy, he got injured while playing football so that was another reason for walking very slowly on stage. Maybe other crazy stories backstage led him to tell a joke about "a man who thinks he's an orange" to audiences.

A few songs were added to the live repertoire : Play For Today, M, All Cats Are Grey, Piggy In The Mirror, Catch, Lovesong. Robert also sang bits of It's Not You & Fire In Cairo before playing another song.

The soundchecks often consisted in songs they wouldn't try during the shows : Birdmad Girl, The Blood, Push, The Perfect Girl, You Really Got Me (Kinks' cover).


JULY

The last leg of the European tour : France (again), Ireland, Scotland and England. The opportunity to add more songs to the set lists : 10:15 Saturday Night, Killing An Arab, Fire In Cairo (complete), The Holy Hour, Primary, The Drowning Man, One Hundred Years, Siamese Twins, Shake Dog Shake. In total, the band played 43 songs on this tour (+ bits of Lovecats, It's Not You, Accuracy), including the strange 12" version of Lullaby in Caen (France). Roger O'Donnell confessed they were under the influence when they did it. Actually the first attempt of playing the song differently occured the previous month in Valencia (Spain).

The last three shows (in London) were recorded for a live album (Entreat) and then the band went on a boat across the Thames river to celebrate the end of the tour with guests like Wayne Hussey (The Mission), the Shelleyan Orphans, the Cocteau Twins, Ian Mc Culloch...


GO TO 1989 PART 2