John
Peel (who recently passed away) was an institution on the English radio.
He hosted, for years (starting in 1967 !), a music program on BBC Radio
1 where he would broadcast promising bands that were starting, giving
them a chance to air on national radio. Killing An Arab made several times
the show in late '78.
Bands would also record special sessions for the show in BBC radio studios. The particularity with the Cure was that several times they recorded non definitive versions of songs ! Probably to have an idea about how the songs were sounding and what needed to be changed or improved. The first session the band recorded for the show on 04th Dec 1978 included Killing An Arab, 10:15 Saturday Night, Fire In Cairo, and Boys Don't Cry.
A second session occured in May 1979 and was the opportunity for Robert to reply to a review the Three Imaginary Boys album got in NME, as he changed the lyrics of Grinding Halt, using part of that review to mock the author and entitling this to "Desperate Journalist". Other songs included Accuracy, Grinding Halt (with regular lyrics), Subway Song, Plastic Passion.
The third one was recorded right after they finished mixing their second LP : Play For Today, M, A Forest, Seventeen Seconds. Excellent versions with Robert's voice mixed pretty low on purpose to give to the music all its dimension.
January 1981 saw the show airing the first versions of songs from the Faith album : The Holy Hour (different lyrics), Primary (different bass line and lyrics), All Cats Are Grey and the only studio recording of Forever (including reversed voice parts). Primary is sometimes refered to as the "yellow version" because of the line ("yellow such a happy color") but that was never an official statement.
The following session was also very interesting. It took place in January 1982, Robert Smith had all the lyrics already written for the Pornography songs except that some were misplaced comparing to the final versions. The guitar on that recording was especially taken care of, as Robert was really trying to find the sound he had in mind for the forthcoming album. Siamese Twins then included a metallic and oppressive guitar sound effect setting. (other tracks were The Figurehead and One Hundred Years).
Bands would also record special sessions for the show in BBC radio studios. The particularity with the Cure was that several times they recorded non definitive versions of songs ! Probably to have an idea about how the songs were sounding and what needed to be changed or improved. The first session the band recorded for the show on 04th Dec 1978 included Killing An Arab, 10:15 Saturday Night, Fire In Cairo, and Boys Don't Cry.
A second session occured in May 1979 and was the opportunity for Robert to reply to a review the Three Imaginary Boys album got in NME, as he changed the lyrics of Grinding Halt, using part of that review to mock the author and entitling this to "Desperate Journalist". Other songs included Accuracy, Grinding Halt (with regular lyrics), Subway Song, Plastic Passion.
The third one was recorded right after they finished mixing their second LP : Play For Today, M, A Forest, Seventeen Seconds. Excellent versions with Robert's voice mixed pretty low on purpose to give to the music all its dimension.
January 1981 saw the show airing the first versions of songs from the Faith album : The Holy Hour (different lyrics), Primary (different bass line and lyrics), All Cats Are Grey and the only studio recording of Forever (including reversed voice parts). Primary is sometimes refered to as the "yellow version" because of the line ("yellow such a happy color") but that was never an official statement.
The following session was also very interesting. It took place in January 1982, Robert Smith had all the lyrics already written for the Pornography songs except that some were misplaced comparing to the final versions. The guitar on that recording was especially taken care of, as Robert was really trying to find the sound he had in mind for the forthcoming album. Siamese Twins then included a metallic and oppressive guitar sound effect setting. (other tracks were The Figurehead and One Hundred Years).
The
final session (their 6th !) they recorded for John Peel occured in summer
1985 with The Exploding Boy, Six Different Ways, Screw, Sinking. The Exploding
Boy, it seems, was a key song in the batch of songs from The Head On The
Door album, although it ended up as a b-side.
It's quite surprising that to this level of popularity the band had reached at the time, they still did the show. That was probably because of a good relationship and because Robert was conscious how important (like many other artists) John Peel had been for the band. Not a lot of people remained on the radio, just doing this for the love of the music...
It's quite surprising that to this level of popularity the band had reached at the time, they still did the show. That was probably because of a good relationship and because Robert was conscious how important (like many other artists) John Peel had been for the band. Not a lot of people remained on the radio, just doing this for the love of the music...
