roger's california trip diary...

the phone rings: "hello, it's ita, i'm going to need your passport", "why?", "because you're going to do some shows in california!"...
excellent news... that's how most of us(!) found out about this trip, and after six months of writing and being at home everyone was very excited to go off and do a couple of shows.

it isn't easy to mobilize the cure though; it takes a lot of work and organization to do even two shows... here's how it all went...

rehearsals: after six months off i'm sure everyone thought they'd forgotten all the songs, but it came together pretty quickly... it was great to be playing again - all we had to decide was what songs to play! we had a repertoire of about 75 songs on 'the swing tour', but the festivals only allowed us 75 minutes... it's always difficult to decide which songs to play, especially when it's not "our" audience, and people are there to see all sorts of different bands - from blur to the chemical brothers - quite a wide range of tastes there!

we spent four days in the rehearsal studio; the first one, friday, was more of a technical set up to make sure everything functioned; my set up is quite complicated, as is jason's, so we were both very happy when it plugged in and worked straight away (thanks to martin bell our keyboard tech!)

saturday the four of us (minus robert) ran through various songs, and sunday robert joined us... it's always amazing how it all comes together as soon as robert arrives and we start to sound like a band again...

daryl was busy putting the finishing touches to hotel and flight bookings, making sure the gear was picked up on time and that none of the details that are necessary for us to go anywhere had been overlooked... steam was coming out of his laptop by the end of the weekend...

roger - "i'm sure i play the string part round four more times, play the high part again, and that's the end"

simon - "no, it's sixteen times round before the end"

roger - "i believe you, but it doesn't sound right to me"

robert - "roger, you're leaving out the bit where you down to the g, where i hold 'the long note'"

roger - "oh shit, i completely forgot that bit"

simon - "aha, i rest my case!"

robert - "haha, once more i reminded roger of something other than... "

so, happy that it was sounding good, we break on monday (the final) night and the gear is quickly packed away to be picked up and air-freighted to san francisco... about four and a half metric tons, and that's travelling light!

the flight... an early start thursday morning to catch the day flight to san francisco; everybody gets picked up around 8.30 am, not a time of day the cure see very regularly, and unfortunately the people at check-in aren't very sensitive... after a few delays we head for the plane and are last on as usual... we meet some old friends - ian mcculloch of the bunnymen and the rest of his crew are on the same flight... hhmmm... it's not a short flight to san francisco - about 10 hours, and everybody tries to get some sleep... as usual all the stewardesses want to come to the show, and start badgering daryl for tickets; he's so nice of course he invites them all... u.s. immigration are a bit bemused by 'the english invasion' as they call it, and decide jason is the british brad pitt! i can't see it myself... they ask me what i do in the band, and robert scoffs openly when i say i play keyboards! ahh, the camaraderie... a quick chat with ian and co to see what they've been up to, and then downtown to check into our hotel...

san francisco: after checking a few things for approval on the web site(!) we head to the wharves for a bit of sight seeing and shopping en route to the shoreline amphitheater for a soundcheck... the weather is beautiful, sunny but not too hot down by the water; everybody agrees it's already the nicest time we've ever had in san francisco! after a quick beer(s) and a walk around the shops (where teddy buys a couple of weird hats)...

...we're off on the one hour drive to mountain view california...

the weather has turned 'very brisk sir' once we reach the gig, and the wind is howling and blowing dust everywhere. the guys from olb, alfred, craig and ron, are feverishly setting up their computers for the web cast tomorrow night... we run through a few songs to get the sound on stage right, which will prove invaluable in the chaos of tomorrow's show... absolutely frozen and by this time suffering horribly from jet lag, we head back to san francisco and dinner with the olb boys to discuss the future of the web site and what the many possibilities are... we seem to have rather over ordered at the chinese restaurant as rice arrives by the bucket load; we've all been up for about 24 hours and after a few more drinks we head back to the hotel and bed...

the gig: amazingly everybody seems to get at least some sleep; jason and me head to the famed 'hippy central' of haight ashbury, while the others go back to the wharf to buy more holograms and beer and silly hats! we meet up at around four and head out to the gig in time to see the bunnymen. it's great to see ian singing 'those songs' again, and we all feel very comfortable to have them on the bill with us. the crowd is very receptive, and it's a lot warmer than yesterday - all the makings of a good gig. we've set up our computers backstage and everyone joins in a 'cure chat' in the conservatory; we take it in turns, and have fun chatting to about 50 people who've crammed in. (keep your eyes open for future 'cure chats'!) next it's off to the autograph booth, and we try to sign as many things as we can in the 15 minutes we are allowed; we actually sign just about everything there is to sign - but we apologize if we missed you out!

well here we are doing our hair and putting on our make up; it's just like the tour never ended - we're even all wearing black! the tape starts rolling and we're back on stage... a little jittery at first, but once we get to 'from the edge of the deep green sea' everyone has settled down; unfortunately it's the end of the set and we're just warming up! that's the problem with being used to playing for three hours a night. unfortunately the stewardesses from yesterday's flight decided it would be fun to watch the show from onstage during erasure's set, and have all been unceremoniously thrown out!... all in all the show is a success, and it's real fun to be back on stage again... but only half way through the tour and we're exhausted already...

kroq weenie roast: i'm not really sure what a weenie roast is... we fly south to los angeles (or more accurately orange county john wayne airport) and on to the gig, irvine meadows, via a quick stop at the hotel... everything seems to be a little less laid back here and more out of control... lots more bands, thousands more road crews, altogether much less relaxing... me and jason wander out front again to watch the bunnymen and oasis, who are surprisingly entertaining... its funny when you go out front at a festival - all it does is make you very nervous, because you suddenly realize why you're there, and that all of those people are going to be watching you very carefully in a couple of hours... i had a good chat to the chemical brothers about ancient synthesizers and 'tech stuff', and then realized it's getting very late and we should be going on soon...well if last night went smoothly tonight was the complete opposite; we had just about every problem we could possibly have had and were even delayed going onstage by an hour, by which time everybody, including parts of the audience, were getting really tired. we finally went on at about 12.30 am (which of course was 8.30 in the morning for us!); not very conducive to playing a cure set... by the time we came off everybody was exhausted, but sad that the "tour" was over... it's kind of cruel to just do two shows - we were just getting started... still, lots to do when we get home; straight into the studio to record some singles, and from the sound of the demos they're going to be amazing...

lots more to come this year as well; promotion for 'the singles album' and then into the studio again in late autumn to record a new album - yes! no four year wait this time...

after four days of continuous sleep i think i've just about recovered form 'the california trip'! we hope everybody who got to see or hear the shows enjoyed them, and we'd like to thank live105 and kroq for inviting us to do them...

ps. we are going to rebroadcast the webcast for anybody that missed it so watch out for an announcement of the date and time...

love roger (and the others!)

pps. thanks to all the crew!

daryl (it's a logistical nightmare) bamonte, tour manager - roy (the cure on ice) bennet, lights - jon (i'm glad you said that) lemon, front of house sound engineer - bryan (jimmy) olsen, monitor engineer - tommy (bobby de niro) wilson, drum tech/stage manager - jez (tripod) web, guitars - nick (allo mate) ayres, basses - martin (fiddly) bell, keyboards and samplers...