Stiff Little Fingers, Newcastle Mayfair, 16 Mar 92

Met the band (then featuring Bruce Foxton) earlier in the day at a record signing - flags and emblems - only to have it nicked a few years later in a burglary :(

UK Subs were an excellent opening for the show!

The Sisters of Mercy, Birmingham NEC, 27 Jun 92

The Cure, Small Ads 1992

The Cure, 1992 Vinyl

A montage of the 3 releases from "wish" ~ high (12" clear vinyl), Friday I'm in love (12" marble vinyl) and a letter to Elise (12", normal vinyl in special printed sleeve)...

Babes In Toyland, The Riverside Newcastle, 29 Sep 92

The Jesus and Mary Chain, Whitley Bay, 27 Mar 92

A mind-blowing array of bands forming the "rollercoaster" tour in 1992. Blur were first on the bill and were watched by few! My bloody valentine played the epic "you made me realise" (featuring the white noise single cord for God knows how long !) and dinosaur jr kept the crowd happy with freak scene and their cover of just like heaven.

Jamc headlined and didn't let down. I recall sidewalking being a highlight...

Lush, Newcastle Polytechnic, 13 Feb 92

First saw Lush in 1990 at the garden party (Crystal Palace, with The Cure, All About Eve and James). Thought they were great, so was pleased to see their own show in '92 nearer home when they were promoting the "spooky" lp.

Took one of the posters from the Student Union bar after the show... A Riverside promoted show.

New Musical Express - 60 today

First issue was published in 1952... Here are a few of my cure covers from 1989 - 2009!

The Cure, Edinburgh Playhouse, 20 Nov 92

One of the original wish tour ads - several more dates were added as each venue sold out...

Back in 1992 I was still at university, so owning a car was a strict no-no. When the cure announced the UK leg of the wish tour a Newcastle date was invariably not going to happen, so as with most big-act shows, alternative methods of transport had to be sought ~ and for me Selbys Travel often came to the rescue, putting coach and ticket deals at reasonable prices to boot.

The Edinburgh show was no exception, and for £32 we got a coach ticket and stalls seat.

Cranes opened the show, with their standard five song set that culminated with the powerful "adrift".  A while after their appearance the tannoy announced that the cure had not yet arrived ~ they were apparently stuck in traffic!

So it was not until approximately 22.00 that the lights went down and the ominous sounds of the wish tour musical opener "tape" began.

The song list ended up being refined to a shorter set, a shame if it was the only wish-show that you were to see, but it was not without a few decent song-appearances. One hundred years appeared early in the list, while the kiss and primary were very well played in the single encore.

Simon Gallup was ill at this time - so bass duties were taken care of by Roberto Soave, from the 1989 support band Shellyann Orphan. Robert kept Roberto right, giving the nod during the kiss for the bass to start!

open

high

pictures of you

lullaby

just like heaven

fascination street

one hundred years

trust

charlotte sometimes

the walk

let's go to bed

friday i’m in love

fire in cairo

inbetween days

from the edge of the deep green sea

never enough

cut

end

 

the kiss

primary

boys don't cry

a strange day

a forest

 



The Kiss - possibly the worst concert pic ever, but you get the drift...



 

The show ended after mid-night - late for UK concerts, and we headed back home relieved that the show had gone ahead. The venue was pretty good, and a few years later, Radio City Music Hall in New York reminded me of the Playhouse somewhat ~ more on that in a later post ;-)!

Not the most inspiring cure ticket...

So that was that - we got back home in the very early hours, and on my way back I even got some abuse off a milkman, clearly he was not used to seeing a bedraggled, black lip-sticked, black eye-shadowed / eye-lined smith wannabe with rather alot of back-combed hair stumbling down a frosty street at 04.00...

More on the London shows soon ~

The Cure, Wish Tour 92: Merchandise

Yet another nostalgia trip back to the cures' 1992 "wish tour"...

Wish Tour Pin Badge

 

Wish Tour "High" Pendant



Wish Spring Club Tour Front



Wish Spring Club Tour Back

 

Wish European Winter Tour Front

Wish European Winter Tour Back

4 shows, 4 t-shirts: I attended 4 "wish tour" shows in 1992 ~ Newcastle Mayfair in April, Edinburgh Playhouse and two nights at Olympia, London (the middle 2 nights of a 4 night residency). In addition to the t-shirts there was a whole host of merchandise available - I bought a pendant and pin badge. The pendant resides on the front of my bass amp now...













The Cure, Wish Press Information, Early 1992

With the recent news that the cure have been back in a studio for 2011 rehearsals there has been some discussion and comment generated on Craigs' Chain of Flowers blog about the wish album, particularly with regard to the tracks included.

These two scans hopefully add to the discussion there... in the top photograph (scanned from a cutting from Q magazine I think, early 1992...?) the album track listing is being held by Chris Parry:

Open

High

A Letter to Elise

Trust

The Big Hand

From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea

Apart

Wendy Time

Friday I'm In Love

Cut

To Wish Impossible Things

End

This was the song list reported in February 1992 in Melody Maker:

The final track list was slightly different:

Open

High

Apart

From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea

Wendy Time

Doing The Unstuck

Friday I'm In Love

Trust

A Letter to Elise

Cut

To Wish Impossible Things

End

"The Big Hand" was later released on the single release of "A Letter To Elise"...

***

Coming soon ~ more from my 1992 wish tour scrap book: Winter UK tour dates and memorabilia.



Cranes & Cure: Wish Tour 92

Here's an alternative advert for the cure's "wish tour" - as advertised by the excellent 1992 cure support band: cranes...

There is a reasonable amount of banter on Chain of Flowers discussing the cure's wish album, so next up will be a peek at some early wish album cuttings... and later, more bits from my 1992 wish tour experiences.

The Cure, Newcastle Mayfair, 22 Apr 92: Press 2

Another trawl through my cuttings archive, and another cutting releating to the cure's show at Newcastle...

Click the image to enlarge to a readable version

The Cure, Newcastle Mayfair, 22 Apr 92: Press

Here are the scans of Melody Maker - a review of the first couple of wish tour shows. That "wannabe" on page 2, 2nd from left... is me & the better half! If you click the images they will open to a larger size, and hopefully will have readable text...

Here's what one of the local newspapers had to say when the tour date at Newcastle was announced...

And finally, here are a couple more photographs of RS, outside of the Mayfair prior to the show...

Happy days!

The Cure, Newcastle Mayfair, 22 Apr 92

It was a case of right place, right time on 22 April 1992...

In 1989 the sucess of the album "disintegration" made the cure one of the most popular stadium / arena bands of the time, so it was great delight that the release of 1992s' "wish" album was initially promoted with a small UK "club" tour.

Towns and cities were announced via a video broadcast at HMV stores throughout the UK when the first single "high" was released, and thankfully, Newcastle was listed for a gig the following month...

Tickets went on sale the following week, so it was an early start for me to queue for tickets (no internet pre-sale then!). Got there just after 06.00 to find a hundred of others already there...

So the 22nd arrived and the missus and I headed to the venue early afternoon to soak up the atmosphere and try and meet the band as they arrived.

We hung around the stage doors for what seemed quite a while, and by mid-afternoon some folk went back to the main entrance to try and secure a place near the front of the queue - the Mayfair (RIP) was an all-standing venue, so you had to be quick to get a place at the front.

We opted to stay near the stage door...



Porl Thompson - note arm in sling! - Porl had a bike accident just before the tour was due to start...



Perry Bamonte - the guy having his records signed had a sisters of mercy t-shirt on... Perry was telling him off!



Simon Gallup



Robert Smith

Although we had missed drummer Boris Williams arrival (we caught sight of him just as he snuck around the trucks into the venue), the rest of the group were great with the fans, spending time to chat and sign various items. Robert in particular stayed and for what seemed like an age ~  I was too dumbstruck to ask anything of worth, though the missus enquired if they would play the "hanging garden", to which Robert politely informed us that they would be trying "the figurehead" instead (We ended up waiting until 2008 to hear the hanging garden live!)

Back in the queue excitement rose as the afternoon progressed, and we were even paid a visit by the then cure manager, Chris Parry. Chris, like the band, was very chatty and even brought some tickets out for the sold out show.

Doors opened as dusk descended and we all piled in ~ our early arrival had secured a front row position, stage left infront of where Porl would be standing, and we enjoyed the show immensely. Here's what we heard (courtesy of http://www.cure-concerts.de/)

open, high, pictures of you, lullaby, from the edge of the deep green sea, just like heaven, apart, a night like this, friday i’m in love, inbetween days, the walk, let's go to bed, doing the unstuck, fascination street, never enough, cut, end,

E1: the figurehead, charlotte sometimes, boys don't cry,

E2: a strange day, a forest

 

All photographs taken on a disposable 35mm camera - infact, it was dropped on the floor during the concert and we were lucky to retrieve it in one piece afterwards!

The show was reviewed by the formed musical journal "melody maker" - and me and the missus managed to get our photograph in,having been stopped by the journalist looking for people with RS influenced hair... maybe I'll scan it next time I get the scrap-book out of the loft!