Inge Bekkers Photography

Robert Smith at the Eindexamen Festival in Den Bosch (1984), photo by Inge Bekkers.

Inge Bekkers is a Dutch photographer and graphic artist. In the 80s, she photographed dozens of pioneering alternative and underground bands live. This year, Inge opened up her archives and started posting photos on her website. What has emerged is truly amazing. She seems to have been in the right place at the right time. The visual evidence of these legendary concerts is already great, but the composition and atmosphere of the photos make them works of art in themselves.

The biggest surprise for me are the wonderful pictures of The Cure live at the Eindexamen Festival in Den Bosch on 30 May 1984. This show is well documented in terms of sound, but I don’t remember seeing any pictures of it before. Quite unique. Inge’s website is worth an extended visit. Her photos of Siouxsie & the Banshees at the first Pandora’s Music Box Festival in Rotterdam in 1983 (with Robert Smith on guitar), are also gorgeous. And please check out the ones of Clock DVA, Dead Can Dance, Fields of the Nephilim, Front 242, The Klinik, The Mission, Skinny Puppy etc. etc. …

Circus Tour 1981

Tent2Probably the most exceptional tour The Cure did in the Netherlands, if not ever, is the Circus Tour 1981. Exclusively for the Dutch leg of the Picture Tour promoting the Faith album, The Cure chose a radical alternative to clubs or other concert venues. The band travelled zig-zag through the Netherlands performing their show under a circus tent with a capacity of about 2.000 people. During ten days the tent was being broken down after each gig, driven by trucks to the next town at night and then built up again to be in time for the show the following evening. There has been quite some (local) media attention for this short tour. I thought it would be nice to gather this information to create a sort of tour diary. Below is an attempt to do this. Of course I’m happy to add things if you have more stories, memories, pictures, clippings, anything to share…
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Ascension 1984

Countdown84-3The Cure spent quite some time around Ascension 1984, at the end of May and the beginning of June, in the Netherlands. It was the week in which Robert Smith was on the verge of a mental breakdown, forcing him to cancel the upcoming tour with Siouxsie & the Banshees and to take a break away from The Cure. Despite his state of mind, Robert delivered three powerful shows with The Cure in the Netherlands, with two of them on one day (!), and did a promo performance of the new single The Caterpillar for Dutch national TV. To understand what was going on that week, I think you would have to look back at about a year and a half before.

Since the last quarter of 1982, Robert Smith had been working non-stop with three bands. Next to The Cure, he became a guitarist with Siouxsie & the Banshees, recorded the hit single Dear Prudence with them, the live double LP/video Nocturne and their new studio album Hyaena. They had toured the UK and Europe in Autumn 1982, then Japan, New Zealand, Australia, some European festivals and Israel in 1983 and Europe again at the start of 1984. In the meantime, Robert had also formed a side project with Banshees-bassist Steven Severin called The Glove and recorded the album Blue Sunshine, released in August 1983. On top of it all, he kept The Cure going. Robert and Lol had recorded a string of singles with accompanying videos, did some shows as a four piece in the UK and the USA in the Summer of 1983 and then toured the UK and Europe again in Spring 1984. In addition, Robert had written and recorded the new Cure LP The Top, which was pretty much a solo effort. He alternately performed with the Banshees and The Cure on several TV shows (The Tube, Oxford Road Show, Top of the Pops) during this period. He had also helped out video director Tim Pope with his single I Want To Be A Tree. One can imagine he couldn’t carry on like this.

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