Standing On A Beach – The Cure (1986)
So….does it mean that Standing On A Beach coming in at #13, one place ahead of Singles Going Steady, is the more favoured record?
Absolutely not!!!
I couldn’t separate them in terms of preference, but a couple of things led to me putting The Cure just above Buzzcocks.
Firstly, the two sides of vinyl consist entirely of A-sides. Secondly, unlike the Buzzcocks compilation, Standing On A Beach was a commercial success, reaching #4 and selling around 100,000 copies. Part of this might have been down to a greater willingness of fans to now shell out for compilation albums, but it might also have had something to do with the fact that its contents spanned the period 1978-1985 and a number of the earliest 45s were increasingly hard to find.
There are 13 tracks all told. Side One goes from Killing An Arab (1978) through to The Hanging Garden (1982). For the most part, these seven songs represent The Cure at their most gothic – well, at least to that point in time, as there was more dark material later in the career. Only two of the tracks had actually made it into the Top 40 when originally released.
Side Two goes from Let’s Go To Bed (1982) through to Close To Me (1985) and generally represents the more commercially successful era of early Cure, with four of the six songs being top 20 hits.
I remember thinking at the time that the career-spanning compilation was perhaps a sign that Robert Smith & co were considering calling it a day. Just as well that I never went to a bookie and asked for odds, given that there have been a further seven studio albums and two more singles compilations in the ensuing years, not to mention remix and live releases and the countless tours that have been undertaken. Smith might now be 64 years of age, but he shows no signs of slowing up.
mp3: The Cure – Primary
Now….at this point I had intended to offer up Primary……but Dirk featured it recently as part of his wonderfully curated 111 singles series.
Primary is not one of their better known singles in that it peaked at #43 in 1981. It’s the one more than any other which highlights how close they were, melodically speaking, to the early-mid 80s Bunnymen. Or maybe that’s just me…….
Along with A Forest, this was regularly aired at the ‘dining room disco’ on Saturday nights at Strathclyde Students Union – that was the location where the playlist was eclectic and spanned the years whereas the upstairs Level 8, as well as being the hall in which bands played live, was also the disco where the pop hits of the day would be played. It was where many of us lay down our raincoats and grooved……
Primary, despite not making the Top 40, was responsible for The Cure’s first ever appearance on Top of The Pops.
And, as Dirk also mentioned, the song was made with two bass guitars and drums. No keyboards or six-string guitars…..just an innovative use of effects pedals.
So….instead of that, here’s one of the big hits. A song that is up there with the best 45s from the 80s.
mp3: The Cure – In Between Days
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
What a collection. This record, Substance, Songs to Learn and Sing, Catching Up, and Louder than Bombs marked a turning point out here. All these bands started really taking off out here and these comps were huge. I really think that many in the US didn’t even know they were compilations.
This compilation evokes so many wonderful memories of a certain west end bedroom. Two compilations, as I recall, vyed for attention this and The Fall’s A-Sides. I was content to be entertained by either but if I had to choose…
…it’d be this.
For my money the very best singles band of the entire 1980’s. Not just from an alternative standpoint either. Inbetween Days. Close To Me. Love Cats. Lovesong. Some of the best pop singles of that decade. I came to love their gothier 70’s moments much later in the late 90’s but this was my first Cure album (on cassette no less) and I was jealous of Shelley at school not just because of her amazing goth wardrobe but also because she had a twofer cassette of all the B-Sides in a big brick of a case where as my tape was only a slender single. God she was cool.
Ooops, sorry for ‘stealing’ the tune, mate! But thanks for the video, unbeknown to me so far. How young he was back then, our Fat Bob, wasn’t he …. he hasn’t aged that well alas … then again, nor have I 🙂 !!
Me, I simply loved ‘Beach’!! Bought the German pressing w/ gatefold sleeve when it came out, which, chronically being skint back then, was a bit of a luxury thing to do – I mean, I already knew all of the tunes, so basically I didn’t need it at all. Plus it meant I had to leave another album in the shop. Still, I never regretted this purchase!
Got me through so many bad times as a shy goth.
I first encountered the Cure via John Peel – ‘Killing an Arab’ connected with me as it coincided with a General Studies ‘O’ level course, when the teacher Mr. Hislop mentioned ‘The Outsider’ by Camus in the context of existentialism. After the first album they drifted out of my life until the string of hit singles, topped with ‘In Between Days’- yes JC, one of the best singles of the 80’s. However although’Standing on a beach’ is there as I flick through my albums, it is not played at all here at JiveLad Towers. Why? Dunno…………I will give it a spin over t’weekend before we start to get to the heart of the 60@60………….
PS I am still banking on just 2 more ‘bingos’ that match selections in my top 40 from 2 years ago (plus one semi bingo).
Probably my most played Cure album but I’d go for the previous year’s Head on the Door as my favourite Cure LP. I also had a tape of the tape of the B-sides Staring at the Sea extras. A complete contrast to the more pop like A-sides, and brilliantly morose for it.
I have a copy of the original Small Wonder issue of Killing an Arab, current median value on Discogs of about NZ$200, or 100 of your useless post-Brexit pounds. Must be one of my most valuable assets (apart from the house…) I’m not a big Cure fan I have to say. I bought the first album and would have got the second had other priorities not intervened, as I quite liked A Forest too. But there it ended for me for some reason.
Hmm, chosing between The Cure and Buzzcocks is more than difficult because both records mean a lot to me but I would also go for The Cure – only because I saw them live a couple of times.