from 'Ten Imaginary Years':
On 10 April, The Cure went to America for the first time.
Robert: "We'd obtained cult status out there but we only played New York, Philly, Washington and Boston. We played three nights - 15, 16 and 17th - at Hurrah in New York and it was packed."
Simon: "It was done on a shoe-string budget but it was lots of fun. Instead of having cans of beer backstage, we'd have shots of Southern Comfort!"
Robert: "It was like a holiday. Even at this point, everything we did, we didn't think we'd be doing again so we used to go to bed at about five in the morning and get up again at eight just to go out and see New York."
On his return, Robert told Record Mirror how America meant "being bombarded by people who all ask the same questions and all want to shake your hand . . . you just find yourself getting sucked into the whole rock 'n' roll trip which we're trying so hard to get away from" while Sounds' Phil Sutcliffe, who'd accompanied the band to New York. told, in an article "Somebody Get Me A Doctor", how Robert had done his utmost to avoid having his picture taken with Debby Harry.
Robert: "My 21st birthday happened in Boston and, after the gig, Bill and the four of us got taken to some art media event by this guy who was making a video of us. We had some drugs. I remember a TV and a set of homemade videos and we got bored and insisted this bloke drove us back to our hotel so he took us in his Beetle - the five of us and his girlfriend!
"It was a little cramped so I got out and sat on the bonnet - it was about five in the morning so we thought we'd take the risk. Bill then decided to drive and went the wrong way round a roundabout without thinking. When he realised it, of course, he just kept on going round, laughing insanely and then he got hysterical, got a flat, slewed across the road and I fell off the bonnet.
"I tried to change the wheel - I don't know why I was doing it - but I couldn't understand why the hub-cap wouldn't go back on so I started kicking it, and it was only a few seconds later, when the pain suddenly reached my brain, that I realised the reason the hub cap wouldn't go back on was because my thumb was trapped underneath it. I'd just reduced it to pulp! "After that we drove to New York overnight but ended up in Cape Cod because Bill had taken a wrong turn! We eventually arrived at the airport just in time to catch the plane to get back to London for Top Of The Pops."
thanks to for the scan
thanks to for the scan
