The Cult are an English
rock band, formed in 1983.
They gained a
dedicated following in Britain
in the mid
1980s as a post-punk and gothic rock band with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking
mainstream in the United
States
in the late 1980s as a hard
rock band with singles such as "Love Removal Machine". The band
fuses a "heavy metal revivalist" sound with the "pseudo-mysticism
... of
The Doors, the
guitar-orchestrations of
Led Zeppelin,
and the three-chord crunch of
AC/DC, while
adding touches of post-punk goth rock".
Since their earliest
form in Bradford
during 1981,
the band has had various line-ups, and the longest serving members
are vocalist Ian Astbury and guitarist
Billy Duffy, the band's two
songwriters.
After
moving to London
, the band
released the album Love
in 1985, which charted at #4 in the United Kingdom
, and which included singles such as "She Sells
Sanctuary" and "Rain".
In the late 1980s, the band dropped their post-punk sound in favour
of hard rock with their third album,
Electric, and their fourth
album,
Sonic Temple, which
enabled them to break into the
North
American market. By the early 1990s, the band was fraying
behind the scenes, due to
alcohol abuse
and off-stage tensions, leading to a split-up in 1995. The band
reunited in 1999 and recorded the album
Beyond Good and
Evil, and they reissued all of their albums in Asia and
Eastern Europe in 2003 and Japan in 2004. In 2006, the band
reformed again to perform a series of worldwide tours. In October
2007, the band released the album
Born into This, on the
Roadrunner Records label. According to a
July 2009 interview with Astbury, The Cult may never release any
more studio albums.
History
Southern Death Cult
The
origins of the band can be traced back to 1981, in Bradford,
Yorkshire
, where vocalist and songwriter Ian Astbury formed a
band called Southern Death
Cult. The name was chosen with a double meaning, and was derived from the
14th century Native American religion, the Southeastern Ceremonial
Complex or Southern Death Cult as it sometimes known, from the
Mississippi
delta area, but it was also a stab at what the band
viewed was the centralisation of power in Southern England (including that of the
music industry); there has long been
a perceived notion of a North-South divide
based on social, historic and economic reasons. Astbury was
joined in the band by Buzz Burrows (guitar), Barry Jepson (bass)
and
Aki Nawaz Qureshi (drums); they
performed their first show at the
Queen's Hall in their
hometown of Bradford on October 29,
1981. The
band were at the forefront of a new emerging style of music, in the
form of
post-punk and
gothic rock (then known as positive-punk), they
achieved critical acclaim from the press and music fans very early
on.

Astbury while in the Southern Death
Cult.
The band signed to independent record label
Situation Two, an offshoot of
Beggars Banquet Records, and
released a three-track, triple A-side single,
Moya, during
this period.
They toured through England
headlining
some shows on their own and also touring with Bauhaus and Theatre of Hate. The band played their
final performance in Manchester
during February 1983, meaning after only sixteen
months the band was over. A compilation under the name
The Southern Death
Cult was released, this being a collection of the single,
radio sessions with
John Peel for
Radio One and live performances - one of which
was recorded by an audience member with a tape recorder.
In April 1983, Astbury teamed up with guitarist Billy Duffy and
formed the band "Death Cult". Duffy had previously been in
The Nosebleeds, Lonesome No
More and then Theatre of Hate.
In addition to Astbury and Duffy, the band
also included Jamie Stewart
(bass) and Raymond Taylor Smith (later known as Ray Mondo) (drums),
both from the Harrow,
London
based post-punk band, Ritual. Death Cult made their
live debut in Oslo
, Norway
in late June
1983 and released the Death
Cult EP in July 1983, then
toured throughout Europe. In September 1983, Mondo was deported to
his home country of Sierra
Leone
and replaced by Nigel Preston, formerly of Theatre
of Hate. The single "God's Zoo" was released in October
1983. Another European tour, with UK dates, followed later that
autumn. To tone down the gothic connotations of their name, and to
gain broader appeal, the band changed its name to "The Cult" in
January 1984 before appearing on the (UK)
Channel 4 television show,
The Tube.
The Cult
The
Cult's first studio record was recorded at Rockfield Studios, in
Monmouth,
Wales
in 1984. The record was originally to be
produced by Joe Julian, but after having already recorded the drum
tracks, the band decided to replace him with John Brand. The record
was ultimately produced by Brand, but guitarist Duffy has said that
the drum tracks used on the record were those produced by Julian,
as Preston by that time had become too unreliable.The band recorded
the songs which later became known as; "Butterflies", "(The)
Gimmick", "A Flower in the Desert", "Horse Nation", "Spiritwalker",
"Bad Medicine (Waltz)", "Dreamtime", "With Love" (later known as
"Ship of Fools", and also "Sea and Sky"), "Bone Bag", "Too Young",
"83rd Dream", and one untitled outtake. It is unknown what the
outtake was, or whether it was developed into a song at a later
date. Songs like "Horse Nation" showed Astbury's already intense
interest in Native American issues, with the lyrics to "Horse
Nation",
"See them prancing, they come neighing, to a horse
nation", taken almost verbatim from the book
Bury My Heart at Wounded
Knee, while "Spiritwalker" dealt with
shamanism, and the record's title and title track
are overtly influenced by Australian
Aboriginal beliefs.
On April 4, 1984, The Cult released the single "Spiritwalker",
which reached #1 on the independent charts in the UK, and acted as
a teaser for their forthcoming album
Dreamtime. This was followed
by a second single, "Go West (Crazy Spinning Circles)", that
summer, before the release of
Dreamtime in September; an
album which reached UK #21, and sold over 100,000 copies in Britain
alone. On July 12 1984, the band performed five songs live in the
BBC Maida Vale 5 studio. Both before and after
the album's release, The Cult toured extensively throughout Europe
and England before recording another single, "Resurrection Joe" (UK
#74), released that December. Following a Christmas support slot
with
Big Country, The Cult toured Europe
with support from
The Mission
(then called The Sisterhood).
Dreamtime was released
initially only in Britain, but after its success, and as The Cult's
popularity grew worldwide, it was issued later in approximately 30
countries.
Mainstream success (1985-1990)
In March 1985, The Cult recorded their fourth single, "
She Sells Sanctuary", which charted at
#15 in the UK charts. It re-entered the charts at #56 in September
1986, spending 41 consecutive weeks on the charts. The song was
recently voted #18 in VH1's Indie 100. In June 1985, following his
increasingly erratic behaviour, Preston was fired from the band.
Big Country's drummer
Mark Brzezicki
was picked to replace Preston, who died in 1992. Brzezicki was also
included in the video for "She Sells Sanctuary". The Cult recorded
their second album,
Love
in July and August 1985. The band's music and image shifted from
their punk-oriented roots to 1960s
psychedelia influences.
Love was a successful independent record, selling 300,000
copies in the UK, 500,000 copies in Europe, 100,000 in Australia,
and eventually over 1.5 million copies in North America. To date,
the record has sold over two and a half million copies
worldwide.
From mid-1985 to 1986, the band went on a worldwide tour with new
drummer
Les Warner (who had previously
played with
Julian Lennon and
Johnny Thunders). Two more official singles
from the
Love album followed; "Rain" (charting in the UK
at #14) and "Revolution" (charting in the UK at #30). Neither of
these singles charted in the US.
Another single, "Nirvana", was issued
only in Poland
. The
album version of "Rain", as well as the remix "(Here Comes the)
Rain", were used in the Italian horror film
Dèmoni 2.
Once back in England, the band booked
themselves into the Manor Studios
in Oxfordshire, with producer Steve Brown (who had
produced Love), and recorded over a dozen new
songs. The band were unhappy with the sound of
their new album, titled Peace, and they decided to go to
New
York
so that producer Rick
Rubin could remix the first single, "Love Removal
Machine".
Rubin agreed to work with the band, but only if they rerecorded the
song. Rubin eventually talked them into rerecording the entire
record. The Cult's record company, Beggars Banquet, was displeased
with this, as two months and £250,000 had already been spent on the
record. However, after hearing the New York recording, Beggars
Banquet agreed to proceed. The first single was released in
February 1987, and the new version of the album appeared in April
that same year as
Electric, reaching #4 and
outselling
Love. The band toured with
Kid Chaos (also known as "Haggis" and "The Kid")
on bass, with Stewart on
rhythm
guitar. One more single, "Wild Flower", was released later in
summer 1987. (A few tracks from the original
Peace album
appeared on the single versions of "Love Removal Machine", and "Lil
Devil". The full
Peace album would not be released until
2000, when it was included as Disc 3 of the
Rare Cult
box set.)
In the US, The Cult, now consisting of Astbury, Duffy, Stewart,
Warner and Kid Chaos, were supported by the then unknown
Guns N' Roses.
The band also appeared at Roskilde
Festival
in Denmark
in June 1987. When the world tour wound
through Australia, the band wrecked £30,000 worth of equipment, and
as a result they could not tour Japan, as no company would rent
them new equipment. At the end of the tour the
Electric
album had gone platinum in Britain, and sold roughly 3 million
copies worldwide, but the band were barely speaking to each other
by then. Haggis left the band at the end of the Electric tour to
form
The Four Horsemen for
Rubin's
Def American label.
Astbury
and Duffy fired Warner and their management team Grant/Edwards, and
moved to Los
Angeles
with original bassist Stewart. Warner sued
the band several times for his firing, as well as what he felt were
unpaid royalties due to him for his performance on the
Electric album, resulting in lengthy court battles. The
Cult signed a new management deal and wrote 21 new songs for their
next record.
For the next album, Stewart returned to playing bass, and John
Webster was brought in to play
keyboard. The band used Chris Taylor to
play drums during rehearsals and record the demos, with
Kiss drummer
Eric
Singer performing during the second demo recording sessions.
The Cult eventually recruited session-drummer
Mickey Curry to fill the drumming role and
Aerosmith sound engineer,
Bob Rock, to produce.
Recorded in Vancouver
, Canada
in October,
November and December 1988, the Sonic
Temple record gained multi-platinum status
worldwide. The band went on tour in support of the new album
and new single "
Fire Woman" (UK #15) with
yet another new drummer,
Matt Sorum, and
Webster as keyboard player. The next single, "
Edie " (UK #25) has become a regular song
at concerts for many years.
In Europe they toured with Aerosmith, and in the US, after
releasing another single "Sun King" (UK #42), they spent 1989
touring in support of
Metallica before
heading out on their own headlining tour later that same year.
A fourth
single, "Sweet Soul Sister" (UK
#38), was released in February 1990, with the video having been
filmed at Wembley
Arena
, London, on November 25, 1989. "Sweet Soul Sister"
was partially written in Paris
and was
inspired by the bohemian lifestyle of
that city. Released as a single in February 1990, the
song was another hit in Britain, and reportedly reached number one
on the rock charts in Brazil
.
After
playing a show in Atlanta
, Georgia
, in February 1990, the band's management told
Astbury that his father had just died of cancer. As a
result, the remainder of the tour was cancelled after a final leg
of shows were performed in April. After the tour ended in April
1990, the band were on the verge of splitting due to Stewart
retiring and moving to Canada to be with his wife, and Sorum
leaving to join Guns N' Roses.
In 1990,
Astbury organised the Gathering of the Tribes festival
in Los Angeles and San
Francisco
with artists
such as Soundgarden, Ice-T, Indigo Girls,
Queen Latifah, Iggy Pop, The
Charlatans, The Cramps and Public Enemy appearing. This two
day festival drew 40,000 people, and inspired
Lollapalooza, which started in 1991. Also in
1990, a ten CD box set was released in Britain, containing rare
songs from The Cult's singles. The CDs in this box set were all
issued as picture discs with
rice paper
covers, housed in either a white box called "Singles Collection",
or a black box called "E.P. Collection '84 - '90". In 1991,
director
Oliver Stone offered Astbury
the role of
Jim Morrison in Stone's
film
The Doors. He
declined the role because he was not happy with the way Morrison
was represented in the film.
Ceremony and the lawsuit (1991-1994)
In 1991, Astbury and Duffy were writing again for their next album.
During the demo recordings, Todd Hoffman and
James Kottak played bass and drums. During the
actual album recording sessions, Curry was recruited again to play
drums, with
Charley Drayton on bass,
and various other performers. Astbury and Duffy's working
relationship had disintegrated by that time, with the two men
reportedly rarely even in the studio together during recording. The
resulting album
Ceremony was released to
mixed responses. The album climbed to US #34, but sales were not as
impressive as the previous three records, only selling around one
million copies worldwide.
Only two official singles were released from
the record: the explosive and Cult definitive "Wild Hearted Son"
(UK #34, Canada #41) and "Heart of Soul" (UK #50), although "White"
was released as a single only in Canada, "Sweet Salvation" was
released as a single (as "Dulce Salvación") in Argentina
in 1992, and the title track "Ceremony" was
released in Spain
.
The Cult's
Ceremonial Stomp tour went through Europe in
1991 and North America in 1992.
In 1991 The Cult played a show at the
Marquee
Club
in London, which was recorded and released in
February 1993, packaged with some vinyl UK copies of their first
greatest hits release. Only a handful of CD copies of it
were ever manufactured originally, however it was subsequently
reissued on CD in 1999. An incomplete
bootleg video of this show is also in
circulation.
The band were sued by the parents of the Native American boy
pictured on the cover of
Ceremony, for alleged
exploitation and for the unauthorized use of the child's image.
This image of the boy is also burned in the video for "Wild Hearted
Son".
This lawsuit delayed the release of
Ceremony in many countries including South Korea
and Thailand
, which did not see the record's release until late
1992, and it was unreleased in Turkey
until The
Cult played several shows in Istanbul
in June 1993.
A world tour followed with backing from future
Thin Lizzy drummer
Michael Lee and bassist Kinley Wolfe,
and keyboardist John Sinclair returning one last time, and the
Gathering of the Tribes moved to the UK. Here artists such as
Pearl Jam performed. The warm-up gig to
the show, in a small nightclub, was dedicated to the memory of
Nigel Preston, who had died a few weeks earlier at the age of 31.
Following
the release of the single "The Witch" (#9 in Australia) and the
performance of a song for the 1992 Buffy the Vampire
Slayer movie soundtrack entitled "Zap City", produced by
Steve Brown and originally a B-side to "Lil' Devil", two volumes of
remixes of "She Sells Sanctuary", called Sanctuary Mixes
MCMXCIII, volumes one and two, and in support of Pure Cult:
for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, a greatest hits
compilation which debuted at #1 on the British charts and later
went to number one in Portugal
, Astbury and Duffy fired the "backing band" and
recruited Craig Adams (The
Mission) and Scott Garrett for performances across Europe in 1993, with some shows featuring Mike
Dimkitch on rhythm guitar. This tour marked the first time the band
performed in Turkey, Greece
, and the
Slovak
Republic
.
The Cult (Black Sheep) (1994-1995)
With the same line-up still in place, the band released
The Cult (also referred to
as the "Black Sheep" record) in October 1994, produced by Bob Rock.
Astbury
referred to the record as "very personal and very
revealing" songs about his life, with the subject matter
ranging from sexual abuse at the age of 15, to the death of Nigel
Preston, to his directionless years spent in Glasgow
in the late 1970s. The record achieved
little success, only reaching #69 in the US and #21 in the UK.
Duffy remarked that he thought that the record wouldn't sell well
due to the offensive lyrics. The record went to number one in
Portugal also, but quickly dropped out of sight. The single "Coming
Down (Drug Tongue)" was released with the band going on tour in
support of the new album. Only one more single, "Star", was
officially released with a live appearance on UK TV show
The Word. "Star" began life in 1986 as
"Tom Petty" and was recorded at the "Sonic Temple" demo sessions as
'Starchild", being dropped by the band during rehearsals. In 1993
the song was resurrected and was finally completed for the record
in 1994 as, just simply, "Star".
When the band began the
Beauty's On The Streets tour in
winter 1994, they augmented the line up with
James Stevenson on rhythm guitar.
As with
the Ceremony record several years earlier, no other
official singles were released, but several other songs were
released on a strictly limited basis: "Sacred Life" was released in
Spain and the Netherlands
, "Be Free" was issued in Canada and France
, "Saints
Are Down" was issued in Greece, but none of the songs gained much
commercial success. During this tour, The Cult made their
first ever appearance in Norway.
Break-up (1995-1998)
During
the Black Rain tour of South America in spring of 1995,
despite the fact that several more new songs had already been
recorded, the tour was cancelled after an appearance in Rio de
Janeiro
in March, and the band split up citing unspecified
problems on a recent South American tour. Astbury started up
a
garage band called
Holy Barbarians a few months later.
The band
made their debut at the 100
Club
in London in February 1996 and released their first
(and only) record in May 1996, and toured throughout North America
and Europe for the rest of 1996. The band started writing
material for a second record in 1997, but the band was dissolved
and Astbury began writing and recording a solo record. Throughout
1997 and 1998 Astbury recorded his solo record, originally to be
titled
Natural Born Guerilla, later called "High Time
Amplifier". Ultimately the record remained unreleased until June
2000 when it was released under the name
Spirit\Light\Speed. Astbury played
one solo concert in 1999.
In November 1996, a number of CD reissues were released: the band's
American record company released
High Octane Cult, a
slightly updated "greatest hits" compilation released only in the
US and Japan;
The Southern Death Cult, a remastered
edition of the fifteen-song compilation CD; a ten-song compilation
CD by Death Cult called
Ghost Dance, consisting of the
untitled four-song EP, the single "God's Zoo", and four unreleased
songs from a radio broadcast; and a remastered repackaging of the
Dreamtime album, containing only the ten original songs
from the record in their original playing order and almost
completely different but original artwork.
Dreamtime Live at the
Lyceum was also remastered and issued on video and for the
first time on CD, with the one unreleased song from the concert,
"Gimmick".
Reunion (1999-2001)
In 1999, Astbury and Duffy reformed The Cult with Matt Sorum and
ex-
Porno for Pyros bassist
Martyn LeNoble. Their first official concert
was at the
Tibetan Freedom
Concert in June 1999, after having rehearsed at shows in the
Los Angeles area. The band's 1999
Cult Rising reunion tour
resulted in a sold out 30 date tour of the US, ending with 8
consecutive sold out nights at the LA
House of Blues. In 2000, the band toured
South Africa for the first time, and
North and South America, and contributed the song "Painted on My
Heart" to the soundtrack of the movie
Gone In 60 Seconds. The
song was featured prominently and the melody was fused into parts
of the score. In June, Astbury's long-delayed solo record was
finally released as
Spirit\Light\Speed, but it failed to
gain much success. In November 2000, another authorised greatest
hits compilation was released,
Pure Cult: The Singles
1984 –1995, along with an accompanying DVD, which was
later certified gold in Canada.
In November 2000, Beggars Banquet released 15000 copies of a
six-disc boxset (with a bonus seventh disc for the first 5000
copies) titled "Rare Cult". The boxset consists of album out-takes,
demos, radio broadcasts, and album B-sides. It is most notable for
including the withdrawn "Peace" album in its entirety. In 2001, the
band signed to
Atlantic Records and
recorded a new album,
Beyond Good and
Evil, originally being produced by
Mick Jones of
Foreigner, until Jones bowed out to tour
with Foreigner. Astbury and Duffy co-wrote a song with Jones, an
odd occurrence, as in the past, neither Astbury or Duffy would
co-write their material. Bob Rock was the producer, with Martyn
LeNoble and
Chris Wyse as recording
bassists, as Mike Dimkitch played rhythm guitar on tour, and
Matt Sorum returning as drummer. Although
Sorum has previously toured with the band on the Sonic Temple tour
in 1989, this was the first time that he had recorded a studio
album with the band.
However
Beyond Good and Evil was not the comeback record
the band had hoped for. Despite reaching #37 in the US, #22 in
Canada, and #25 in Spain, sales quickly dropped, only selling
roughly 500,000 copies worldwide. The first single "Rise", reached
#41 in the US, and #2 on the mainstream rock charts, but Atlantic
Records quickly pulled the song from radio playlists. Astbury would
later describe the experience with Atlantic to be "soul
destroying", after Atlantic tried to tamper with the lyrics, the
record cover, and choice of singles from the record.
After the first single from the record, the band's working
relationship with Atlantic was on paper only, with Atlantic pulling
"Rise" from the radio stations playlists, and stopping all
promotion of the record. The second single "Breathe" was only
released as a radio station promo, and the final single "True
Believers" was only on a compilation sampler disc released in
January 2002 (after The Cult's tour had already ended). Despite
"True Believers" receiving radio airplay in Australia, both singles
went largely unnoticed, and both Astbury and Duffy walked away from
the project. LeNoble rejoined the band for the initial dates in
early 2001, and
Billy Morrison filled
in on bass for the majority of the 2001 tour.
The European tour of 2001 was cancelled, largely due to security
concerns after the
9/11
terrorist attacks, and the band flew back to the US to tour again
with Aerosmith. But the eleven-week tour was considered by fans to
be a disaster, as the band played only a brief rundown of their
greatest hits. In October 2001, a show at the
Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los
Angeles was filmed for release on DVD. After the tour ended in
December 2001, the band took most of 2002 off, apart from a few
shows in the US to promote the release of the DVD, with Scott
Garrett and Craig Adams rejoining the band.
Second hiatus (2002-2004)
In late 2002, Ian Astbury declared the Cult to be "on ice"
indefinitely, after performing a brief series of dates in October
2002 to promote the release of the
Music Without Fear DVD.
During this second hiatus, Astbury performed as a member of The
Doors (later dubbed The Doors of the 21st Century, later still
renamed D21c, and most recently known as
Riders on the Storm) with two of the original members of that
group). D21c was sued numerous times, both by Jim Morrison's family
and by drummer
John Densmore. Astbury
supposedly started work on recording another solo album that would
later become the backbone for The Cult's
Born into This.
At the same time, Duffy was part of Coloursound with bassist Craig
Adams and ex-
Alarm frontman
Mike Peters, then
Dead Men Walking (again with Peters) and
later
Cardboard Vampyres. Sorum
became a member of the hard rock
supergroup Velvet Revolver.
In 2003, all of The
Cult's records were issued on CD, with several bonus tracks being
issued on the Russian, Belarusian
, and Lithuanian versions. These eastern
European releases had many printing mistakes on the jacket sleeves
and lyric inserts. In October 2004, all of The Cult's records were
again remastered and issued again on CD, this time in Japan in
different cardboard foldout sleeves. "She Sells Sanctuary" appeared
in the 2002
video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice
City, playing on rock station
V-Rock.
Second reunion (2005-2007)
In 2005, the band reunited to prepare for the
Return To
Wild world tour in 2006, making their first live appearance in
three-and-a-half years on
The Late Late Show with
Craig Ferguson. Their lineup consisted of Astbury
(vocals), Duffy (lead guitar),
John
Tempesta (drums), Dimkitch (rhythm guitar) and Wyse (returning
as bassist).
Their first stage show was held in March
2006 in San Francisco, California
, at The
Fillmore
. The
entire tour was recorded by
Instant
Live and sold after each show. In May, they did an eight date
tour in Canada.
Later that summer, they toured central and
eastern Europe and played their first concerts in Bulgaria
, Poland and Serbia
. An
eleven-date UK tour followed as well as several more dates in the
United States, finishing with a
South
American tour in December. That year, Duffy began the band
Circus Diablo with Billy Morrison,
Sorum, Brett Scallions and Ricky Warwick (
The Cult -
Hollywood 2006, pictures by Sherry Lee).During these tours, the
band occasionally played an extended set, including several songs
the band had not performed in decades:
King Contrary Man
and
Hollow Man, neither of which had no been performed
since 1987; also,
Libertine was performed approximately
three times, for the first time since 2000, and
Brother Wolf,
Sister Moon, which was only performed one time since 1986 (for
this particular song, the band played an abridged version which has
never been performed before or since)
Astbury announced in February 2007 that he was leaving Riders on
the Storm and returning to The Cult. He stated: "I have decided to
move on and focus on my own music and legacy." The Cult was
featured on
Stuffmagazine.com's list of ultimate
air guitar players. On 21 March 2007, it was
announced that the band would be touring Europe with
The Who. The first confirmed tour date was in
Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in early June, with at least a dozen
shows set to follow.
The band played a gig in London's West End at the CC Club on June 7
2007, along with nearly two dozen shows across continental Europe
during summer.
The tour also includes the first performance
in Romania
and Croatia
.
Born Into This and beyond (2007 onward)
On 29 May 2007, the band signed a deal with major metal label
Roadrunner Records. Their 8th studio album, titled
Born into This was released on 16
October, and was produced by
Martin
"Youth" Glover, bass player for
Killing
Joke.
Born into This was released as regular single
disc and limited edition double disc, the second disk being a bonus
5-track CD holding the following tracks: "Stand Alone", "War Pony
Destroyer", "I Assassin (Demo)", "Sound of Destruction (Demo)" and
"Savages (Extended Version)". Prior to the album's release, the
band played festival and headline dates, and supported
The Who in Europe through summer 2007, with a US
headline tour to follow.
The band's appearance at Irving
Plaza
in New York City in early November 2006 was filmed
and was released in 2007. The Cult New York City, issued
by Fontana North and is The Cult's first high definition DVD
release. Meanwhile, Astbury lent vocals on two tracks of the 2007
Unkle album "
War Stories", one of them being the
first single from the album, "Burn My Shadow".
The band performed a UK and European tour in late-February and
early-March 2008. On March 24, they began their North American tour
including a major 13-city tour in Canada. During September 2008,
The Cult did a brief series of dates in the northeast United
States, and they will tour in Brazil as part of the South American
tour in October 2008. As of May 2008, according to The Gauntlet,
The Cult are currently unsigned and no longer under contract with
Roadrunner Records. In October 2008, it was announced that The Cult
would headline the inaugural Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Antonio,
to be run November 16, 2008.
The Cult announced plans for a tour
showcasing their 1985 Love album across the USA and then the UK in
October where they will play at the Royal Albert Hall
.
In a July 2009 interview with El Paso Times, Astbury stated that
the Cult may never release any more studio albums. He
explained:
There will be no new album.
I don't think we'll ever see a Cult album.
Albums are dead.
The format is dead. iTunes destroyed
albums.
The whole idea of an album.
Albums were established in the '70s and '80s and into
the '90s, but they've been dead for a long time.
Nobody buys albums.
It's been proven.
It's an arcane format, as much as the 78 rpm or writing
sheet music for an orchestra.
It's an old form and, for me, it's much more about if
we have a great song we really believe in, then we'll record it and
release it.
For me, the idea of making albums is dead. The idea of spending a
year and a half in the studio arguing over agendas and trying to
fit into a format that's settled before we started the creative
process (is unappealing).
Discography
References
- The Cult to release new album via
Roadrunner
- Roadrunner Records - The Cult
- Comeback album The Cult also available as double
disc set
- The Cult web forum
- The Gauntlet
-
http://www.chartattack.com/news/69921/the-cult-bring-love-to-life
Retrieved 15-06-09
External links