The Cure - 1985 - The Head On the Door

 

 Geno might remember this, because he was there, with me in London, November 1985. 

We were on a school trip, there were only a few of us, and Geno and I, who were friends from the first day we met..the day after John Lennon was murdered... shared a hotel room in London. We heard a drunk older man singing out in the alley outside our room, we must have been on the third or fourth floor. We opened our window and spoke with the drunk man, and he could tell we were "Yanks" and he started singing a song about the yellow rose of Texas, and then the floor above us, some young men around our age opened their window and started shouting requests... it was kind of cool and magical. Nobody treated anyone poorly. It was fun.

One of the guys above us invited us up to their room. They were an Irish rugby team that were comprised of what we learned were 'Cureheads".. they had big hair like Robert Smith. I had heard the Cure from Glen, via Nick, their 1984 album The Top, and I liked it, but beyond that I didn't give them much thought. Well, hanging out with those guys in that hotel room - they were so friendly, so foreign, so cool - one of them talked up The Cure's new album.. this one, and he gave me his cassette. 

European cassettes were a little different than U.S. Well, I fell in love with the album, with England, with Europe, and here we are nearly 40 years later.

I eventually met Robert Smith, with Glen, in Minnesota in 1987. 

Robert Smith was so friendly and cool. Just like his Irish rugby fans in a hotel room in London.

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