I will be a part of a discussion at Google in San Francisco on Monday afternoon with Phillip Glass. We are talking about...
Posted by Roger O'Donnell on Friday, April 8, 2016
3:45 pm pacific | "Unlocking Creativity" - A panel discussion featuring Philip Glass, Roger O'Donnell, Terrace Martin and Kenny Werner — four luminaries from the worlds of classical, rock, hip hop, rap and jazz traditions. Moderated by Michael Hawley, founder of EG Conference.
Watch it here. Show is over. I'll post the link to the archived video when it gets uploaded.
Update (April 22nd, 2016): Video has been posted on YouTube.
Set for November 14 2016, almost one year to the day after the attacks that have devastated Paris on November 13 2015, the reopening of the Bataclan concert hall could be inaugurated with a concert by British band The Cure. If the group led by singer and guitarist Robert Smith has not given a definitive answer, a proposal was made by his French booking agency, Alias, also co-manager of the Bataclan, as confirmed by its co-founder Jules Frutos.
The probability of this concert is reinforced by the fact that the legendary new wave band will be at the same time on tour in France, with a concert on November 15 at the AccorHotels Arena (former Bercy) in Paris before dates in Lyon, 17, and Montpellier, 18. If the size of their new production (32 employees on the road and several trucks of equipment for three and half hour long concerts) hardly seems compatible with the boulevard Voltaire venue, the Englishmen should be able to adapt for this inauguration. The authors of Boys Do not Cry indeed would share the bill with two other yet unspecified bands or singers.
After all, have the Cure not given their first French concert at the Bataclan on December 17 1979 at the instigation - already – of Jules Frutos, a few months after the release of their first album, Three Imaginary Boys, before coming back on November 6, 1996? The group's presence should be confirmed (or refuted) this week. In case of refusal on their part, the opening date could be moved to November 15." (Thanks Yanic)
"The cure have been contacted to play at the Bataclan, but not for the show celebrating the reopening of the venue" says Jerome Langlet, boss of Lagardere Unlimited Live Entertainment, owner of the venue. "The cure have been approached, like many other bands, to play at the Bataclan" he said, confirming an information from Le Monde, "but it's not for the reopening, that has not been defined yet." (Thanks Sylvain)
And now more stories are saying the early reports were wrong. The Cure have been asked to play at the venue, but not for the reopening show. Whatever the offer actually is, reports say they are expecting the band to accept or decline it soon. Possibly this week.
(Thanks also to Mauro, Guillaume, Julien, Olivier, Eric, Gildas, Marina, Rich, and Alexandre)
Update (April 21st, 2016): Billboard seems to think that The Cure might play in October, according to "insiders".
"Six months after the Bataclan was attacked by terrorists, the Paris club is rebuilding and refocusing and looking for a new foundation -- maybe with the help of The Cure. But with extremism still rampant in Europe, will American acts come back?
The live music industry in France is still coming to terms with a new world order six months after the terrorist attack at Paris venue the Bataclan, where, on Nov. 13, 2015, Eagles of Death Metal were performing when gunmen stormed the venue, killing 89. But the club is preparing to open its doors -- perhaps, according to insiders, in October with The Cure headlining. (A rep for the band, whose first gig in France was at the Bataclan in December 1979, didn't respond to Billboard's request for comment.)"
Hero Worship: Tribute Night and Chop Suey present the ultimate
celebration of the birth and life of Robert Smith, frontman and genius
behind The Cure. A full lineup of local music legends lend themselves to
all-night live performances, featuring Kimberly Morrison, Nicki Danger,
Joey Veneziani, Ryan Weadon, Alicia Amiri, Dan Paulus, Carter
Rodriguez, Kyle Kostrzewa, and Kirk Damer. Backing soundtrack to the
festivities will be provided by DJ Al Niño and Dee Jay Jack. Thurs, April 21 at 9 pm–2 am
Chop Suey
1325 E Madison St, Seattle, WA 98122
206-324-8005 http://www.chopsuey.com
(Thanks fmjews)
From Deadline: "Nostalgic trips into musical history run a very high risk of rotting the audience’s teeth out. However, seeing John Carney’s name attached to Sing Street should be taken as a very, very good sign indeed. No one makes movies about how music is made with the energy, intimacy and authenticity of John Carney (Craig Brewer’s Hustle & Flow being a notable exception), and the Once director’s latest, a coming of age tale inspired by his own upbringing and set in 1980s Dublin, is playing playing Sundance 2016. As such, a U.S. trailer has been released, and you can watch it here.
Sing Street follows Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), a 14-year old boy in 1980s Dublin transferred to an inner city public school when his parents’ financial problems mean they can no longer afford to pay his private school tuition. When meets the beautiful and very cool Raphina (Lucy Boynton), he hastily invites her to star in his band’s music video in an attempt to woo her. The fact that he doesn’t actually have a band means he has to hastily form one with his friends, and so Conor immerses himself in the music of the era as he attempts to win the girl. As you can see from the trailer, the film is a deep dive into the pop music of the era, featuring songs by A-Ha, Duran Duran, Hall & Oates, The Cure, The Clash, Spandau Ballet, and The Jam, among others.
Along with Walsh-Peelo and Boynton, it stars Maria Doyle Kennedy, Aiden Gillen, Jack Reynor, and Kelly Thornton. Anthony Bregman, John Carney, and Martina Niland produced."
(Thanks Perfect.Murder)
Update (01/29/16): From MTV - "The evolution of the music in “Sing Street” is one of the best elements of this delightful film. Connor’s older brother Brendan (Jack Reynor) becomes his musical guru of sorts, lending hims records and giving him tips on how to impress Raphina. As Connor learns more about Duran Duran, The Cure, ABC and other bands from Brendan, he shifts his musical styles and looks. For example, when Connor discovers the happy-sad music of The Cure, he comes to school the next morning in eyeshadow and eyeliner. It’s a wonderful ode to ’80s music and style. And whenever anyone asks him what kind of music he plays, he says he’s a futurist — always looking forward, not back."
The article mentions 'Just Like Heaven', but also says the film is set in 1985, so hopefully, JLH (from 1987) isn't the Cure song used in the film. (Thanks Perfect.Murder)
Update (April 20th, 2016): The film's soundtrack will be released April 29th, and it says the song used is 'In Between Days'.
And there's a nice interview and feature at Consequence of Sound today: "Whereas your brother is there to try and make you happy and hope that you’ll just be happy in life and doesn’t care if you’re gay or straight or transgender, or if you’re into the Cure, or if you want to become a banker or a road sweeper. Your siblings don’t care; they just want to see you happy. Your parents want to see you happy, but they also want to see you rich and doing well."
From Kate: "I just attended a screening of Sing Street. It was a great film! The
music is fantastic, and the Cure referenceS (yes, there is more than
one) are light-hearted yet respectful. Highly recommend.
"
Splendour in the Grass
North Byron Parklands, Australia
The Cure headline on Saturday July 23rd, 2016
On sale April 21st at 9 am AEST
Ticket prices: Single day - $159 / 3 day - $375 Ticket link Update: Sold out! They suggest you get on the wait list for tickets.
And if you don't want to go to a festival show, remember that other Australian dates will be announced soon.
The Cure’s ‘Faith’ at 35: A Lysergic Rainbow Seen From an Ice Floe By Tim Sommer • 04/14/16 10:00am
Glacial, monumental and devastatingly simple, Faith, the third album by the Cure, is the spirit of ’76 slowed to a crawl, infused with Satie-like spaces, and re-imagined as a sad opium dreamscape. It is one of the greatest accomplishments of post-punk, and April 14 marks the 35th anniversary of its release.
For the most part, the first flowering of British punk was a sunless and airless brick, condensed for maximum effect; it needed to be that way so it could crash through the sugar-glass of the post-Sunshine Superman ’70s. “Attention must be paid!” said the punks, as martial/Marshall guitars defined a clean break from the field hippies, lovers of FM filigree, the flute and lute players stinking of patchouli and hash, and all those wearing hip-hugging bell bottoms stained at the bottom by two inches of earthy slime.
But around 1979, artists began to use air and space to fracture the solid wall of the punk palette. Compact sheets of rhythm guitar were supplanted by airy arpeggios, weighted silence, glassy sparks and gasps of atmospheric synth; anxious rhythms and thudding toms were exchanged for simple snares, front-mixed kick drums and atmospheric splashes of cymbals; and the hectoring announcements of punk were replaced by plaintive, emotive, even muezzin-like vocals.
The first shot of this cool war was fired by Public Image Ltd. on their debut album, First Issue, released in December of 1978; retaining punk’s energy, simplicity and attitude, it inserted breathing room, an unhinged and almost viscerally emotive creativity, and a touch of art-frosted hashy wheeze into the punk template.
35 Years Ago: The Cure Go for Goth Glory With Their Third Album, ‘Faith’
If 1982’s Pornography was the peak of the Cure’s goth period, then its predecessor, Faith, was the gloriously gloomy mist near the peak that you have to pass to reach the top. Even the album cover is an image of an old, fog-enshrouded English estate and each of the eight songs are similarly swathed in an expertly textured haze.
Of course, the Cure emerged in 1976 at the heart of the post-punk era, delivering concise, angular and relatively speedy cuts like “Boys Don’t Cry” and “Jumping Someone Else’s Train” that matched Robert Smith’s anomie with classic pop hooks. But by their second album, 1980’s Seventeen Seconds, the Cure began crafting music to match the moodiness of their lyrics.
Though their first few albums never gained much mainstream traction even in their native England, the Cure quickly achieved cult status. The suicide of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis (England’s post-punk/proto-goth icon) was only a few months in the past when Smith, bassist Simon Gallup and drummer Lol Tolhurst gathered to record their third album. In fact, Smith often dedicated early live versions of “Primary” (the only single from Faith) to Curtis. And when the Cure solidified their own standing as masters of modernist melancholy by following up the rather gothy Seventeen Seconds with something even more atmospheric and angst-riddled. It was like sending out a signal to all those Lost Boys and Girls that stage-whispered, “Commiserate with us.”
Even though they may not have been striving for it (and either despite or because of their relative lack of commercial success to that point), the Cure were becoming new poster boys for legions of disaffected, anorak-wearing British youth. And speaking of youth, it ought to be remembered that Smith was just 21 years old when the Cure recorded Faith, and the 1981 album is a compellingly murky account of his desperate search to find his place in the world.
Nine years since their last New Zealand appearance, THE CURE will make a
very welcome return to Auckland this July for one special show.
Renowned for their sublime two-hour-plus performances, The Cure will
play one night only at Vector Arena on Thursday July 21, marking the
band’s first NZ date since August 2007.
Update: And the trailer uses 'The Caterpillar'. (Thanks spiralcure)
Writer/Director Marina Person recounts her struggle to get the rights to use 'Killing An Arab' in her new film, 'Califórnia':
Most tricky in Person’s long quest to curate the perfect soundtrack was securing the rights to The Cure’s “Killing an Arab.” The song, inspired by Camus’ “The Stranger,” has been mired in controversy since its release, due to racist misinterpretations of the song’s lyrics. Because in “Califórnia” it accompanies a particularly moving sequence and helps to define a major character, Person reached out to The Cure’s people before filming to receive tentative permission to use the song. However, by the time she was in post-production months later, and had the cash to secure the rights, she was greeted with an altogether different reaction.
“The answer was like, ‘What?! You cannot use it! What?! Who told you you could? You know [Cure frontman] Robert Smith wants to forget he wrote a song called “Killing an Arab.” ’ They were really upset,” she reveals, postulating that the Charlie Hebdo attacks may have rendered parties more wary of giving the go-ahead. Nonetheless, she did not give up.
“I said, ‘No, you know, you have to! I’m going to London and, like, go on strike. I’m going to do a hunger strike in front of Robert Smith’s house; he must let me use it!’ I was kind of desperate,” she recalls.
Following this rejection came a weeks-long process, during which Person scribed several extensive emails detailing her reasoning behind wanting to use the song, which found their way to Smith — who tried to convince Person to use a different Cure track in its place instead. After much debate and handwringing, she was eventually granted permission, which brought Person some much-needed relief. “I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat. I was totally obsessed with it.”
“Califórnia” screens Sat., Apr. 16 at 6 p.m., Mon., Apr. 18 at 9:15 p.m., and Fri., Apr. 22 at 7:15 p.m. at Regal Cinemas Battery Park (102 North End Ave., at Vesey St.). Screens Thurs., Apr. 21 at 3:45 p.m. at Bow Tie Cinemas Chelsea (260 W. 23rd St., btw. Eighth & Ninth Aves.). Visit tribecafilm.com or call 646-502-5296 for tickets ($20 plus $3.50 phone or web processing fee; $10 for the Apr. 21 matinee, plus processing).
I know this goes without saying, but you need to be careful about who you're dealing with when buying/selling tickets online. Perfect.Murder offers up this recent example of a possible scam:
"I was contacted yesterday by someone who sounded legit initially, offering me 2 tickets to Copenhagen shows (i am asking for tickets for that particular show in the European tour section on your page).. After a couple of back and forth i grew suspicious until this morning’s final email which i will copy paste below.. When Western Union and Ghana shows up in an email…. alarm bells SHOULD START ringing. Some fans may not be that wary, hence my email ……
THESE ARE THE EMAILS FROM THE SENDER, WHICH WENT UNDER THE NAME OF: LEXIE NEUMANN EMAIL lexieneumann@yahoo.com
Patrick Dalziel has a great interview with James Graham from The Twilight Sad. Lots of Cure Tour & Robert Smith talk. Some highlights:
Everything seems to be going quite well for you guys, after a decade you have four LPs, playing the Hydro and getting asked to guest on other people’s albums. As well as all this you have The Cure support slot on their massive tour! Is that nerve wracking or exciting for you?
I think it’s a mix of everything which is good, cause if you were just terrified about it, then you’d be just worried about it. The one thing I’m more nervous about is playing in front of The Cure. The thousands of people that are going to turn up to see them, if they’re going to like us or not, I’ve kinda decided in my head that we’re just gonna do what we do. But, it’s playing in front of your idol every night. I’m nervous about that, but I’m really excited.
It’s the opportunity that even bands that have money flung at them, that are signing big record deals and all that stuff would love, it’s like the best tour support of all time. And the way that it’s happened as well, that we’ve been asked by Robert Smith to do it. Not just because, someone else knows their management company or they’re on the same label, no this guy like what we do! It’s the best way you can get asked to do something. So, I want to go and prove to him that he’s made the right decision to take us away.
But, we were watching the wrestling back stage earlier on and an old Summer Slam came on, showing a helicopter’s view of Madison Square Garden, and I was just like “God! We’re going to be playing there!” That was scary. It’s a mixture of emotions, but it’s all pretty phenomenal. We’re just a bunch of pals from Kilsyth getting to do this stuff. If you’d told 15 year old me that this would be happening I would have punched you, or tried to cause I can’t fight.
You said that Robert Smith approached you with the idea of touring, he also covered your single “There’s a Girl in the Corner” How did that come about?
We’d been in contact, well Stuart from Mogwai sent Robert an email saying that he recommended our latest album (“Forget the Night Ahead” 2009), and Robert said he was already a fan of us. Stuart sent us his email and I was running about my house like the kid from Home Alone shouting “Aaah!” That was enough for us, we were just like “Robert Smith likes our band, that’s cool” Then we had a remix album (“No One Can Ever Know: The Remixes” 2012), and we were going to ask Robert to do that because we saw he had done stuff with Crystal Castles. He said he was up for it but it just didn’t work out.
So then we thought for our release of “It Never Was the Same” we thought we’d like someone to cover one of our songs. We asked friends if they wanted to, and there were people kind of interested and then we thought “Fuck it, we’ll email Robert Smith and see what he says” Lo and behold he got back to us saying he’d love to, we actually asked him to cover “It Never Was the Same” But he got back saying he’d rather do “There’s a Girl in the Corner” And we were like “You can do, whatever the fuck you want” And then one night after playing San Francisco, Andy (Macfarlene- guitarist) got the email through with the track on it. We listened to it about four or five times kinda speechless, like there’s this guy who’s an icon in the music industry singing the words that I wrote in my bedroom. Pretty surreal. But, it’s the biggest compliment you could ever be paid.
Have you met The Cure yet?
No, not yet. We’ve tried to meet up a few times at some of our gigs, but we’ve not been able to make it happen. If I was them I’d be worried, like he invited us out for the rest of the year to tour with them, and the reality is we’re a bunch of absolute rockets. So, after two days he could be like “What the fuck have I done?” But, I’ve heard he’s a really nice guy. Stuart from Mogwai and him are really good friends, and I’ve only heard that he’s really nice. And, he’s proven that with what he’s done for us on the tour! He’s went over and above to help us out, to make sure everything is the best it possibly can be, and I would never expect anyone to do that. cause once you get on the tour, it should be your own job to do stuff. But he’s looking after us, he’s taken us under his wing.
Over the past month, Charles Libin has been posting some fantastic videos of The Cure playing at Hurrah's in NYC from April 1980. The videos were shot by Charles Libin & Paul Cameron. Thank you so much for uploading them! And thanks to @guillaume_g_z for showing them to me.
Update (Feb. 26th, 2016): 'M' has been added. Update (March 9th, 2016): 'In Your House' has been added. Update (March 18th, 2016): 'Killing An Arab' has been added. Update (April 2nd, 2016): 'Fire In Cairo' has been added.
