Archive for the ‘The Cult’ Category

19 Aug

Death Cult Redcar 1983 and The Cult Newcastle 1985

Posted by vintagerock in Death Cult, The Cult. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

Death Cult Redcar 1983 and The Cult Newcastle 1985
Ian Astbury is an interesting and impressive guy. He was born in Liverpool, lived for some time in Canada, and discovered music through The Doors, punk and Crass. I first became aware of him in Southern Death Cult, first saw him live in Death Cult, and then in the later incarnation of the band, The Cult. The last time I saw Ian was fronting The 21st Century Doors in the vast Manchester Arena, featuring original Doors members Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek. He is now back fronting The Cult. This is a guy who is clearly living his dream. My first encounter with Ian Astbuty was in the Death Cult, at Redcar Coatham Bowl in 1983. Ian was sporting a painted face and bandanna, strutting his stuff to the goth / new wave music of this post-punk supergroup, which he had formed with Billy Duffy from Theatre of Hate. Pretty impressive stuff, but just a taste of the rock splendour that was to follow a couple of years later. Support for the Redcar gig came from Goth band Look Back in Anger. The next time I saw The Cult in concert, they had transformed into a fully fledged rock band, and were touring to support the “Love” album. “She sells Sanctuary” had been high in the charts for a number of weeks, and their new single “Rain” had just been released. Ian was now very much the heavy rock god. I remember being particularly impressed by Ian’s performance and by Billy Duffy’s guitar playing that night. I had a seat pretty close to the front and recall that the gig was very LOUD; my ears were ringing for some time after. “Love” and the follow-up “Electric” are both great albums, the former more psychedelic rock, and the latter much more hard-rock oriented. The City Hall concert was pretty electric, and the band went on to tour the USA to phenomenal success. Not certain who the support act was for the City Hall show; it may have been Balaam and the Angel. Setlist: Love; Nirvana; Big Neon Glitter; Revolution; Brother Wolf, Sister Moon; Rain; Resurrection Joe; Dreamtime; She Sells Sanctuary; Go West; Spiritwalker; Horse Nation; The Phoenix; Hollow Man; Wild Thing / Louie Louie