JANUARY

Out of the drummers that recorded with the band, Jason Cooper emerged as "the only real Cure drummer". So he officially joined. Roger O'Donnell was called back on the following month, the band was now a five-piece again : Robert Smith, Simon Gallup, Perry Bamonte, Jason Cooper, Roger O'Donnell.


MARCH/APRIL

More songs were recorded at St Catherine's court including a track for a Stallone movie soundtrack, Dredd Song. But overall, the new album was far from finished as confessed by Robert : "I just can't get the vocals right". It was decided to take a break from recording to play live and do ten summer festivals in Europe. So the following month was dedicated to rehearsing for live shows and to test how the new line up would sound on stage.

The repertoire included 30 songs : Killing An Arab,10:15 Saturday Night, Boys Don't Cry, Three Imaginary Boys, A Forest, Charlotte Sometimes, Forever, A Strange Day, Let's Go To Bed, The Walk, Dressing Up, In Between Days, Push, Close To Me, A Night Like This, Why Can't I Be You ?, Just Like Heaven, Shiver and Shake, Pictures Of You, Lullaby, Fascination Street, Disintegration, High, From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea, Friday I'm In Love,Trust, End, Want, Jupiter Crash, Mint Car.


JUNE

The first show of the new Cure (in Athens) was a pretty good one considering the pressure. One of the three new songs, Mint Car, sounded pretty unfinished or under-rehearsed (like on following shows actually). Trust's live versions gained complexity thanks to Roger's skills on piano (adding notes to the regular tune). And the band was sounding much better after a few dates. Also worth noting was the drum sound, completely different from the following years.

Porl Thompson (playing with Page & Plant) joined the Cure on stage a couple of times for a few songs whenever both bands were on the same bill (in Milan and in Glastonbury). The Cure would also have signs reading "Chirac die" stuck to guitar amps (a way to protest against French nuclear bombing tests in the Pacific).


JULY

Strangely the group played before REM (even if both bands were on top of the bill) in Torhout's Rock festival. So that actually meant a shorter concert for them. Of course, the encore wasn't supposed to happen but they did it anyway. The next day in Werchter, they tried 1979 songs for the first time as an encore (TIB, 10:15, KAA).

Then they got to France where most of the festival audience were Cure fans. An evening where everything worked well according to Robert. Maybe that explained the bit of You Really Got Me (by The Kinks) sung before In Between Days there.

The last concert of the summer took place in Madrid and was an unexpected extra : the band agreed to replace REM that cancelled their show there. A great version of Forever concluded the evening.

Then the Cure was back to St Catherine's court, and scrapped everything they recorded because it wasn't working according to Robert Smith. They also covered of Young Americans (David Bowie) for an Xfm compilation and used a new methodology for the record.

The Wild Mood Swings sessions produced 25 songs and the process would last the rest of the year. The band would only come out of the studio to participate in the last show of Most Wanted on MTV (hosted by Ray Cokes). Of course, a quite funny interview of Robert resulted from that : "Drunk ? I kind of get like most people, ultimately out of control, slip over and fall unconscious. I only get drunk usually amongst people I feel confortable with."


GO TO 1996 PART 1