Tuesday, December 20, 2016

40 years ago tonight...

Thanks, Petr @thecureCZ

From Lol on Facebook:

"This week sees the 40th anniversary of the the band of musicians/ friends that became the Cure! I’ll take the liberty here of quoting from my own book !

“Personally, I consider the first gig we did as the band that became The Cure to be the one that we did on December 20, 1976, the Malice gig at our old secondary school, St. Wilfrid’s. True, we had done a gig of sorts a couple of days earlier in the minstrels’ gallery at Worth Abbey for Upjohn’s Christmas party, and a rather strange “performance” in 1973 as The Obelisk, but this was our first full-blown concert.”

Actually since I wrote the above I’ve changed my mind a little bit. To me it is unimportant which date you consider, the 18th or the 20th, as the start of the band that became The Cure .

What I do think IS important , is the fact that The Cure is STILL a band, and that Robert, Pearl and Michael are STILL in my life forty years later!

It’s the testimony of time to real friendship that I care about. I feel blessed. Lx"

French 'Cured' out Jan. 19th, 2017

New Wave Christmas ornaments


From Matthew Lineham on Instagram:

"1/10 "HO HO HO! MERRY SMITHMAS!"

Exclusive New Wave inspired rubber die cut Christmas ornaments will go on sale this Friday! I'll be revealing the set of ten ornaments throughout the week. Keep checking back!"

Absolutely love these! They will go on sale here tonight at Midnight eastern, 11 PM central, 10 PM Mountain, and 9 PM pacific.

Update (Nov. 25th, 2016): Complete sets, along with Robert & Bowie ornaments, are sold out. Rest are still available individually. Matt says a restock is possible, but will take 3-5 weeks.

Update (Nov. 29th, 2016):  2nd run of the ornaments are now on sale. This run will NOT arrive before Christmas, but if you missed out on the 1st run, here's a second chance to get them.

Update (Dec. 20th, 2016): 4th run of the ornaments (sets only) will go on sale at 8PM eastern tonight. These sets won't ship until late January. BTW, got my set back on Dec. 7th, and they are even better than the photos make them out to be.

Live Sound Showcase: The Cure at MSG

From Prosound Network:

By Clive Young

NEW YORK, NY—The Cure first played Madison Square Garden in 1987, and 29 years later, the stalwart pop-goth band returned once again to the fabled venue to play the last indoor shows of its 2016 North American tour. The 26-date run took the production through a variety of venues, from arenas in Dallas and Chicago, to amphitheaters in Miami and Denver, to theaters in Kansas City and Las Vegas—and the journey isn’t over yet, as now the European leg is currently underway, running through December.

Working with the group every step of the way, much as it has since 1979, is UK audio provider Britannia Row, which fielded a full audio system for North America rather than pick up a stateside PA. FOH engineer Paul Corkett, who’s respectively engineered and co-produced two Cure albums with bandleader Robert Smith, explained, “Robert puts a lot of time and attention into rehearsals, listens to everything and he’s very hands-on and articulate about what he wants, so I think he wanted to carry one consistent rig with him.”

And what Smith wants coming out of that rig, it turns out, is an open-sounding show built around the dynamics of the carefully plotted arrangements. In many ways, “The band mixes themselves,” conceded monitor engineer Rob Elliot.

New Violet Vendetta EP & merchandise out now