The Cult Interview

Issue four of Kindred Spirit featured an interview with The Cult. Reading back over the interview now I don’t think I could possibly have appreciated at the time what a fascinating snippet of the band’s history it would become.

To start the ball rolling, I’d like to give a little background information about the band running up to us carrying out the interview in May 1984.

The band Southern Death Cult was formed in 1981 by vocalist Ian Astbury, who was then living in Bradford in the UK. The band was one of the forerunners of what was at that time an emerging style of music known as positive punk (a mix of post punk and gothic rock).  

As a result of time spent living in Canada as a child, Ian developed a fascination for Native Americans and this is reflected in the band’s interesting name. Southern Death Cult had a double meaning. Not only was it was derived from the 14^th century Native American religion, sometimes referred to as Southern Death Cult, but it also referred to the distinct social and economic differences between the north and south of the UK.

After signing to independent record label Situation Two The Cult toured England. They headlined some of the gigs but also supported Bauhaus and Theatre of Hate.

Southern Death Cult performed their last gig in Manchester in February 1983. Two months later Ian Astbury formed the band “Death Cult” along with guitarist Billy Duffy, bassist Jamie Stewart and drummer Ray Mondo.

An interesting little nugget is that prior to joining Death Cult, as well as playing with post punk outfit Theatre of Hate, Billy was in a band called The Nosebleeds along with Morrissey.

In September 1983 Ray Mondo was replaced by Nigel Preston, formerly of Theatre of Hate and Sex Gang Children.

In January 1984 the band changed their name once more to “The Cult”. The band’s line up as it stood at this time was the line up when we interviewed them.

Beyond this point the band has undergone a series of line up changes but they have continued to tour and record to the present date. Ian and Billy are the only two remaining founder members.

Nigel Preston sadly died of a drugs overdose in 1992 aged only 28.

Jamie Stewart retired from the music industry in 1994 but made a number of guest appearances with The Cult, first in 2009 then again for their 25^th anniversary tour in 2013.

For current information, take a look at The Cult’s Facebook page.  You can also find up to date information via Twitter 

As the interview we did with The Cult was without a doubt one of the highlights of my fanzine writing career, I decided to call on my friend Pete (the font of all knowledge where music is concerned) to help me elevate this post into another sphere. He has absolutely blown my socks off with what he has delivered!

To start off with, here is a selection of picture discs by The Cult.

For some reason interview discs were something that completely passed me by back in the day, but being a former fanzine writer I am fascinated by the whole idea.

For those unenlightened people like me, here is a little additional information about interview discs:

Bands were often interviewed over the phone or using a dictaphone by freelance journalists. Interviewers would sometimes go to extreme lengths to obtain the information. This led to the sound quality on interview discs being generally very poor to the point of being inaudible in some cases.

It’s hard to imagine now how difficult it was to get hold of information about our favourite bands in the pre-internet days. I remember treasuring any little nugget I came across in music papers, fanzines and on record sleeves. I think that’s what interests me about the idea of these discs – they are a real piece of music history.

And finally below is a selection of tour programmes and posters.

The picture below shows the second version of the programme sold on the Electric World tour. It was available at gigs in November and December 1987.

Below is a tour programme from The Cult’s 1989-90 Sonic Temple tour followed by two posters advertising two of the gigs on the tour. 

The first is for The Cult’s final gig of the 80s which took place on New Year’s Eve 1989 at the Long Beach Arena in California. The second is for a gig the band played at the Irvine Meadows Ampitheatre in California on March 31st 1990. The show opened with metal act Tora Tora and Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols. Second on the bill were Austin rockers Dangerous Toys.

This poster was advertising a 2015 gig featuring The Cult and Primal Scream at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon. I managed to find some cool photos taken at the gig on the Faces on the RadioFacebook page. I bet the foundations of the Crystal Ballroom rocked that night!

A massive thank you to Pete for providing me with all of these gems. I hope you will enjoy looking at them as much as I have.

Now to the interview…

The Kindred Spirit team went along to watch The Cult on the Dreamtime tour at the Tower in Hull back in May 1984. After a blistering live show we somehow or the other managed to talk our way into going backstage to interview the band. I have to mention at this point that of all the bands we did interview The Cult were one of the most friendly and obliging.

The interview below was carried out shortly after the band’s final name change and the release of the legendary single “Spirit Walker”. I managed to find a set list for a gig on the same tour over at setlist.fm which I’ve reproduced below:

1                    83^rd Dream

2                    Gods Zoo

3                    Gimmick

4                    A Flower in the Desert

5                    Go West

6                    Butterflies

7                    Bad Medicine Waltz

8                    Dreamtime

9                    Christians

10                  Spiritwalker

11                  Horse Nation

Encore

1                    Ghost Dance

2                    Brothers Grimm

3                    Bone Bag

4                    Moya

I seem to remember seeing Death Cult on The Tube some time ago now and ever since this vague picture of Ian, basking in the limelight, Ian with face brightly painted, Indian chief, warrior bold, one man show etc etc has sort of stuck in my mind. Any illusions I may have held however, were immediately wiped away whilst watching a recent performance given by The Cult.

Far from being your average “posi-punk” outfit The Cult have positive rock power, as well as a red hot stage show which would shake the foundations of the Bank of England. They can revel in the glory without standing aloof from or turning their backs on the audience… and from the moment they explode upon the stage, in a flash of electric blue smoke they work together as a team.

We met up with them after the first date of their recent 14 date tour. A good night had most certainly been had by all and the band were in a relaxed frame of mind. 

Originating from London, Liverpool and Manchester respectively all four members now live in London. 

Billy: We seem to go down better in London and the south east, St Albans and all around that area. I don't really know why. A lot of the new bands in London find it very difficult to get started. For some reason people don't seem to want to give them gigs.

Do you see many fanzines?

Jamie: I used to read a lot. There are plenty of good ones around like 'Vague', that's very good.

Billy: Fanzines are okay as long as you can read what's being said underneath the awful print and Xerox photographs!

Jamie: It's the same for fanzines as it is for a lot of small bands - they're people with good ideas who want to do more, but just haven't got the money to do it.

Why have you changed the name of the band so many times?

Jamie: The first time it was a change of personnel.

Ian: When we changed over to Death Cult we were exploiting the fortunes of Southern Death Cult, but now we're stronger and more integrated than them so we can stand on our own two feet.

Billy: With a name like Death Cult people kept tying us in with bands like Alien Sex Fiend and Specimen. We don't like all that black spikey hair and gothic image. We should never have called ourselves Death Cult in the first place.

Ian: We don't need any "death" we're a celebration!

Did you like many of the bands who were classed as positive punk?

Jamie: I used to like Sex Gang Children, but that was just personal taste.

Billy: Look Back In Anger are very good. They haven't got a following but they write good songs. I don't think there ever was such a thing as positive punk though.

Jamie: Everyone who was supposed to be involved didn't know it!

How do you feel about the way you've been constantly been compared to Killing Joke?

Billy: Killing Joke are just a heavy metal band, and they drink far more than we do too! If we'd been around in the 60s we wouldn't have been compared to anything. No-one cared about the way anyone else looked in the 60s. Everyone looked daft! Nowadays all bands seem to end up being compared to someone else. I think it'll get worse too. Killing Joke feel the same way about us as we feel about New Model Army; we're one step ahead of N.M.A. so they try to steal our audiences.

Doesn't that bother you?

Billy: Having a following doesn't really matter that much. You'll always get about 50 people following you around all over the place for one tour then they switch to someone else afterwards. Trends and fashion aren't important to us, we just want everyone to hear our music. 

Are there any hard feelings between you and Kirk Brandon?

Billy: I'd already decided to leave Theatre Of Hate anyway, but Brandon sacked me before I had the chance to actually do it. 

Ian: He's just striving for perfection with Spear Of Destiny which is something he'll never get.

Billy: Especially if he keeps on wearing white socks!

Do you think you're ever likely to reach the Top 40?

Billy: It's quite possible that we'll get into the charts soon. We don't want to be classed as an "independent" band. One way of explaining what we want to achieve would be to ask people to imagine themselves driving along the motorway at 90 miles per hour when it's pouring with rain and the radio is on full blast. Only one record in every ten will stick in your mind, and we want to be the one in ten.

That shouldn't be difficult, you don't use a synthesiser!

Billy: We used to use synths which was good in a way because it meant that you could play almost anything. but look at people like Howard Jones! It never ceases to amaze me how someone as old as him - and he's as old as my brother so he must be old - gets all these teenage girls screaming over him! (Jealousy, jealousy.) 

Jamie: I don't think synth music will ever take over because people like music that is alive.

If the material played at the aforementioned gig was a taste of things to come on The Cult front, then it would be worth snapping up a copy of their forthcoming LP which is due for release in September.

But what about the future? Will they stand the test of time?

Ian: I think we'll be like The Who. We've been in the same studio as Pete Townsend and it was an absolute joy to meet him. I can see myself in 20 years time walking around in roll neck sweaters. I can see myself doing this in 20 years time.

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Well perhaps with hindsight the prediction about the roll neck sweaters wasn't quite right, but The Cult have most certainly stood the test of time.

Thanks for reading as always. Your comments are always welcome.

Kindred Spirit Fanzine  


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