Kyle Retterer has put samples of "Wrong Number" on his Fascination Street page. (removed at Elektra's request)

"A few notes on last night's show....

I tuned in at 7.15pm expecting it to last for 1 or 2 hours. It finally finished around 1.45am! Yes, that's right - 6 and a half hours. I think the second track was a new Cure song. I remember thinking 'this is good, I wonder what it is?' and then, towards the end, I realised the voice was remarkably like Robert's. Before you cry 'It must be Wrong Number', I should point out that this came later on, right near the end. I think I've got it on tape somewhere so I will play it later and post a description if anyone's interested.

All the lads except Simon were in the studio. Simon came off his bike the day before and was in hospital with concussion.

There wasn't an awful lot of chat but there was an awful lot of excellent music - really too much to be able to give any useful details.

I succeeded in 'winning' a phone in competition (apparently I was the only person to phone). I think I've got an autographed tape of the show on the way. I also had a few words with Robert. Unfortunately, I was a bit fatigued by this time (around 11.30) and couldn't muster anything intelligent to say. Needless to say, I have thought of a thousand things since.

All in all, the best 6 hours radio I can recall."

It's official,The Cure will be guest DJ's on XFM (104.9) today (Aug. 29th) starting at 7 pm. (Thanks to KP78 for the info)

Leader Robert Smith co-produced album to mirror band's highly successful Standing On The Beach.

Robert Smith recently finished work on "Wrong Number," a brand new Cure song to be released with their yet-to-be-titled upcoming hit singles compilation (Oct. 28). The collection, which covers Cure singles from '87 to the present, will echo the essential Standing On The Beach singles compilation, which featured singles and b-sides from 1979-1985. "Wrong Number" was recorded in studios in Sussex and London, and was produced by Smith, Mark Saunders and Mark Plati. The Cure's most recent album, Wild Mood Swings, was released in the spring of '96. "Wrong Number" will be released to radio in early October. (Thanks to Daryld for the info)

Billboard now has a U.S. release date of Oct. 28th for "Galore" , but is marked tentative.

XFM, London's new alternative music station, has lined up a week of free shows in the capital to celebrate their launch on Monday (September 1). The shows, which go under the name of A Week Of Xccess, include gigs from SPIRITUALIZED, SPACE and GENE. Spiritualized's show will be broadcast live by the station. All gigs are co-sponsored by Miller Genuine Draft. Entry can only be gained by wristbands, which will be given out by XFM. Details of where wristbands can be obtained will only be revealed by the station on the day of each gig. NME has ten pairs of XFM Xccess cards to give away. These entitle the holders and one friend to gain entry to every event in the Week Of Xccess. The number to call is 0700-900 0302. Calls cost no more than 20p a minute and last less than a minute. Lines close at midday this Friday (August 29). Three callers will also receive a case each of Miller Genuine Draft. Over-18s only, please.

The full running order for the free gigs is:

Monday (September 1): Finley Quaye and Jah Wobble at the Jazz Cafˇ. Space, Silver Sun and Speedy at the Astoria.

Tuesday (2): Creation night with 3 Colours Red, 18 Wheeler and Nick Heyward at the Garage. Echobelly and Headswim at the Monarch.

Wednesday (3): Stereolab at the Vibe Bar. David Devant & His Spirit Wife and Murray Lachlan Young at the Borderline.

Thursday (4): Gene, Ultrasound and Libido at the Dungeon Club. Asian Dub Foundation, Monkey Mafia and The Hybirds at 333 Club.

Friday (5): Spiritualized and Adventures In Stereo at the Garage.

Saturday (6): Longpigs and Cinnamon Smith at the Falcon.

All details are correct at time of going to press. XFM are appealing to NME readers not to contact the venues but wait for further details to be broadcast by the station. XFM will also be announcing other surprises on air during the Week Of Xccess. XFM begins broadcasting on 104.9FM at midday on September 1. Test broadcasts this week will feature Pulp, The Cure and Underworld playing some of their favourite records.

Xfm is opening its studios up to four of the UK's biggest bands to help fine-tune its service in the last week of test transmissions.

The London station's chief executive Chris Parry says Prodigy, Pulp, The Cure and Underworld are being invited to play whatever they like and also bring their own guests into the studios before the new programme schedule comes into effect on Monday (September 1). "We want them to come in and hijack the radio station," he says. "It'll be fun to hear these characters and it is what we are all about, being flexible and accommodating things when they happen."

Parry also reveals that the station is going live with almost the full complement of DJs who worked at the station during its restricted service licence days. Of the nearly 20 DJs ­ including Gary Crowley, who will present the weekday mid-morning show and Paul Anderson, who will host the Drivetime show in the afternoon ­ there are a handful of new faces such as 20-year-old Ian Camfield, who is presenting an evening show Monday to Thursday and Claire Sturgess, whose early afternoon show will feature live sessions. Parry says the DJs will be able to play around half a dozen records of their own choice during a typical three-hour slot.

"Someone at Fiction has told me that "Wrong Number" is quite "Hendrixy and rocky", which separates it from the other new stuff they have been doing in the studio which is more "laid-back and funky". "

As XFM prepares for launch, NME has a history of the station in it's Aug. 23rd issue (pay close attention to the 1st paragraph):

After five years' effort, London's first 24-hour alternative station takes to the air next month. MAT SMITH charts its history, and talks to founder Sammi Jacobs.

XFM, the London-based station dedicated to cutting-edge, independent and alternative music, begins test broadcasting this week in preparation for their official launch at midday on September 1. The test broadcasts for the station, which was granted an FM frequency (104.9FM) for London in January this year, will include Prodigy, Pulp, Underworld and The Cure DJing some of their favourite music. The station will also be hosting a series of free gigs around the capital in September to celebrate their official launch. XFM has an initial projected listenership of 500,000 and can be picked up within the radius of the M25.

According to station founder, Sammy Jacob: "If people think that indie rock is being covered by radio at the moment, or that it's in the mainstream, I think they'll be shocked by what XFM is gonna do. The programming won't differ at any time of the day. Whereas most specialised stations will have more accessible stuff during the day and go really specialist in the evenings, we want to mix in the difficult stuff with the accessible. That, to me, is exciting radio. "When XFM comes on air what will be discovered is that actually, what we're hearing is just the tip of the iceberg and in fact there are a lot of other bands who are nearly as good as Oasis. If people think that Radio 1 is it, they're in for a massive fucking shock." XFM first hit the airwaves in 1992 and since then has transmitted five, month-long trial broadcasts. In that time it has conducted over 140 artist interviews and has promoted 18 gigs in the capital.

Its launch makes it London's first ever official 24-hour alternative music station. Much of the credit for XFM's success in finally gaining a licence must be put down to the tenacity and dedication of the 34-year-old Jacob. Jacob DJed on a number of pirate dance stations between 1983 and '86. However, it wasn't until the end of the '80s that he hit upon the idea of a station dedicated to alternative music. "I started a pirate station in 1988 called Q102 which was the first truly dedicated alternative indie rock station. It's where Steve Lamacq first started. I was doing it from my living-room in Walthamstow." Jacob had also been working as a sound engineer at both the London Town & Country Clubs (now the Garage and the Forum) and had promoted shows by The Cure, Manic Street Preachers and Carter USM.

In 1991 he applied for and was granted a Restricted Service Licence (RSL) to host a radio station at the Reading Festival. "After that, I attempted to get a similar licence in London. I wrote to the Radio Authority and they wrote back saying, 'You say an indie station, what's that, is it Indian music?' They granted a licence and that was the beginning of it. Cure manager Chris Parry (whom Jacob had met while promoting) had heard I'd got a licence and started calling me." Parry invested £50,000 in the venture and allowed the newly christened Xfm to use his Fiction Records office as a base.

Jacob says it was important that anyone who he was going to do business with understood his priorities. "Music for me has always been the most important thing in my life. Some people say that's sad but I can't help it. I wanted any station I was involved in to put the music first, the station second and the presenter last." To that end, Jacob chose the name XFM as much for what it didn't suggest as what it did. "I didn't want the name of the station to give people a preconceived notion of what the station is about. You've got Jazz FM and if you're not a jazz lover you're not gonna tune in. In maths X is the unknown quantity - you have to find out what X is. If you want to find out what XFM is about you have to tune in." Highlights of the first two XFM broadcasts in April and September 1992 were an interview with U2, then in the midst of their Zooropa tour in America, and a live House Of Love transmission from the Forum.

In 1993, when the London news station LBC lost its licence, XFM put in an application. "We did the Great Xpectations bash at Finsbury Park with The Cure and Carter USM to draw attention," says Jacob. "It was attended by 27,000 people. But we lost out to London News Network." Jacob battled on and Xfm won another RSL in December 1993. The highlight this time was a live transmission of Suede's Christmas Eve gig at the Forum. The show turned out to be the band's last with Bernard Butler. By now, XFM was on a roll. However, they were sent reeling in 1994 when the Radio Authority, in a shock move, awarded two vacant licences to AOR stations Virgin and Heart. "It was like, 'What's going on?'" says Jacob. "At that point we wondered whether to give up. But we pressed on and applied for two more RSLs in 1995."

By now, XFM's influence had been noted by Radio 1, who had jettisoned Simon Bates, DLT et al for a group of younger presenters including, ironically, Xfm's Mary Anne Hobbs and Steve Lamacq. "I know XFM influenced Radio 1 enormously," Jacob says. "If they deny it I would say, 'How is it you've taken Mary Anne and Steve away from XFM?' When we didn't get the licences they must have thought, 'Brilliant, thank you very much'." The highlight of XFM's final RSL broadcast in October 1995 was undoubtedly Noel Gallagher's acoustic session in the basement of the station's Charlotte Street offices. "He played 'Wonderwall', 'Don't Look Back In Anger' and 'Cast No Shadow' and he really was fucking brilliant. The hairs on my arms were literally standing on end," Jacob remembers.

To aid them in their next licence application, the station took on backing from European media company CLT and a UK radio investment and advisory company called Enterprise. Harvey Goldsmith and Cure singer Robert Smith also have stakes in the station. "Robert was interested in what we were doing," Jacob said. "It was a format of radio that he was very keen on. His practical involvement is minimal. Now and again he may pick up the phone and tell me about a new band he's heard. But he doesn't have any more of a role than that." NME will also perform an active role in XFM. Various NME writers, including Keith Cameron and Simon Williams, will DJ, while NME will go live on air every weekday evening to deliver bulletins from the news desk.

Next week, NME will reveal details of the string of free gigs in London to celebrate XFM's launch.

I figured since the cat was already out of the bag I'd give you something you could actually use. I was also in the CUSeeMe Curevision chat thing on Saturday and Sunday nights (CA time). The first night Robert Smith was talking to those present he suddenly asked if we would like to see the cover for the new single. Naturally, we all said yes. At first he couldn't hold it straight, because he was awfully tired at that point. But Nick (last name I dont' know right now) helped. The name of the single is Wrong Number. Three tracks were mentioned, Wrong Number, a remix, and a new b-side.

The cover features a bathroom and a tv set, "like you find in American hotel rooms" said Smith. There was some attempt to allow us to hear the mixing, but the program couldn't handle it. According to Roger, there is very little keyboards in the song, and the video will be directed by Tim Pope.

Mixing was completed over the weekend, and Curevision is, for the moment, closed, however there was talk of seeing us in two weeks. A bit of a question revolves around the release date. Some say Oct 2nd but I'm certain Roger said Sept 4th, but that could just be the date Curevision returns.

Here's some possible news on the new single that was sent to Babble :

i haven't seen anyone else post anything about this, so i guess i will...

in the cu-seeme chat area the past weekend, the cure were mixing their new single, which is titled "wrong number." according to roger, it is supposed to be released around oct. 2 or so.

something to perhaps look forward to...

jessica

XFM TO LAUNCH NEW ALTERNATIVE CHART WITH CIN

Xfm will launch a mixed sales and airplay alternative music chart when it takes to the air at the beginning of next month. The London station's chief executive Chris Parry says the CIN-compiled rundown will form the centrepiece of a Saturday afternoon chart show broadcast by Xfm and could provide a way forward for the industry.

The chart will be compiled up to the end of Thursday, using Xfm airplay data and sales of Xfm-supported tracks on a one-to-three ratio. A series of test charts were produced by CIN earlier this year using airplay data from a different station with non- Xfm-style repertoire taken out.

Parry says the tests show the chart will prove slower than the singles chart and could provide the industry with an alternative to the current distribution-based indie chart. The chart will not exclude records which are released or distributed by major companies: "It will be a slower chart, an impact chart, showing what records are breaking through in the Xfm area. This will go some way towards breaking the ice on the issue of the independent chart and it is also a possible option for the main singles chart."

Xfm's chart show will broadcast between 1pm and 3.30pm each Saturday, hosted by Andy McCloskey. Xfm programming controller Sammy Jacob will unveil further details of the station's schedule to around 100 pluggers and promotions executives at London's Jazz Cafe this Thursday (August 14). Among the station's presenters will be Gary Crowley, Claire Sturgess and Paul Anderson.

Xfm begins three weeks of test broadcasts on 104.9FM today (Monday 18), building up for the launch at midday on Monday, September 1.

Jacob says the station's playlist will comprise an A-list of current alternative tracks which will be aired three times a day, a B-list of breakthrough acts (twice a day) and a C-list of classic alternative tracks.

The playlist will apply to all daytime output - between 7am and 9pm Monday to Friday - and will comprise 75% of the station's output. The station's DJs will select the remaining 25%.

MTV News is running a short interview with Robert about the new album in connection with a story about "Career Girls". Unfortunately,it's not being shown on the Week In Rock.You can view a quicktime version of it on the MTV News web site . Here's what they have to say (thanks Curegirl):

August 8 [16:00 EDT] -- Cure lovers can look forward to a new greatest-hits compilation this fall, culled from a decade's worth of singles dating back to 1987, plus two new tracks.

The band previously released a singles collection in 1986 ("Standing on a Beach") to chronicle the group's first ten years, and now the Cure's second decade will get the same treatment. Listeners can expect to hear tracks like "Heaven," "Why Can't I Be You," and "Love Song" among the 16 classic tracks on the collection.

The mope-rockers' devotees can also start getting excited about a new Cure studio album, which is currently in the works. The band is in the studio pounding out two new tracks for its greatest hits collection, and is also recording material for a new album that should arrive early next year.

"We're starting to record with an album in mind because we want to do a new album called 'Christmas,'" frontman Robert Smith told MTV News. "We want to work a bit faster than we have in the last couple of years. That's really the prime reason for me saying 'yes' to this and bringing the group over is to get us back into the idea of playing music because it's very easy to lose touch."

Here's a couple of items about the new movie "Career Girls" which opens today (Aug. 8th) in the U.S.

from terry marshall's daily insider, 8 aug 1997:

"the cure's music figures prominently in 'career girls,' the new film from acclaimed 'secrets and lies' director mike leigh. six of the cure's classic tracks, 'the lovecats,' 'the walk,' 'the caterpillar,' 'the upstairs room,' 'just one kiss' and 'let's go to bed,' will be heard in the comedy about two girlfriends who reunite for a weekend six years after leaving college. the cure have been in the studio intermittently this summer working on new songs for possible use on an upcoming singles compilation."

And this from David Hart (Thanks David!):

Apparently, the Cure will be featured prominently on the soundtrack to Mike Leigh's (Secrets and Lies) new film, Career Girls, according to an interview in the IndieWire (an email publication) today. Leigh says, "I kept hearing The Cure. And I sort of thought, we could have The Cure. So we approached The Cure and they turned out to be fans of mine and they said, as long as it was always them, and nobody else, we could pretty well have it for nothing -- which made it possible to do, cause those things can be exorbitant and prohibitive." The music is used in extensive 80's flashback segments.

What does one do after one stops listening to the Cure? That question, in some small way, is at the heart of Mike Leigh's new film, Career Girls. A sort of melancholy, minimalist suite after the full-throated chamber opera that was his previous film, Secrets and Lies, Career Girls tells the story of two young women of 30 who get together one weekend in London to look back at a friendship fractured when they were housemates ten years earlier. And while Leigh's films are customarily virtuosic in their cross-cutting between different sets of characters' stories, Career Girls experiments more daringly with editing structure as it continually flashes backwards and forwards, using the passage of time to allow us to understand the film's heroines in ways we might otherwise be unable to.

The film opens in the past, immediately banishing the feel-good vibe that concluded Secrets and Lies, with a closeup of Annie's skin condition--a scaly rash that runs up and down her cheek. Annie and Hannah share a flat, dress in black, listen to the Cure, and seem at odds with the world and each other. We cut forward and find Annie, sans rash and clad in gentle beige colors, travelling to London to visit Hannah, who now works as an executive in some sort of stationary company. But we quickly realize from both women's behavior, in which traces of their old insecurities remain, that while they may seem different, they're still trying to answer the same old questions.

Of Hannah's character, whose earlier hysterical aggression has mellowed into a biting, self-protective humor, Leigh says, "If you didn't see her in the present, you wouldn't understand how she behaved when she was 20. The way she's being a grown-up seems so different, but then you realize that she's dealing with the same affectations."

Leigh says the idea for Career Girls came out of his reflecting about the process he uses to make films. He's famous for developing his stories and screenplays with his actors, using a series of workshops and rehearsals to define both character and story.

"It's quite simple," Leigh says. "I've made lots of films where a great deal of time is spent with the past, but I've remained within conventional chronology. In the preparation for my films, we live through years of a character's development. A huge amount of preparation in the rehearsal period of Secrets and Lies [involved creating] years and years of family relationships. Normally, this function works retrospectively as 'experience'. In this film, I wanted to arrest those moments in the past and use them to motivate the action."

Still, while Leigh's process may be both unusual and enviable in this era of development hell--he's able to be greenlit before turning in a script--Leigh cautions that one shouldn't make too much of his working methods: "To be honest, the process is the same as all processes. Whether you sculpt or write, you have techniques. The key is not to be too distracted by the process. Obviously, I feel different things and say different things in my films. Like all creative people, you wind up with an interaction between the artist and the medium."

Leigh concluded filming Career Girls just days before he won the Palme d'Or in Cannes for Secrets and Lies. That film, a sort of family epic that reconciled class and racial divisions with emotion and humor, built large new audiences for Leigh in many countries, most notably France and the United States. Career Girls, which isn't as purposefully funny as Secrets and Lies, is a change of pace. Its bittersweet tone lies closer to earlier films like High Hopes; Leigh builds this narrative with counterpoint, avoiding the full-throttle resolution of his previous film. In fact, the emotional climax of Career Girls comes out of left field when a minor character makes a surprise reappearance in a quietly devastating tour de force.

"The challenge is to try as much as you can not to repeat yourself," says Leigh. "In that sense, each film is defined by its predecessors. With Career Girls, this was a much lower budget film and we had less time so it was going to be a tighter piece. But emotionally, its very much a part of my family of films. It's about remembering, getting on, and relationships."

There's a small, telling moment towards the end of the film: Anne and Hannah stop before a Cure poster advertising a new album and tour. Ten years later, the band plays on. Annie asks Hannah if she still buys their albums. No, Hannah replies. Offhand, Hannah admits she still does.

Leigh says, "They have a bit of money, they're independent, their lives are different, but it's a role they're playing--it's not what they're actually doing. They have become 'career girls'. [The title] is not about 'work' but the way [the women] are now playing it. The way people change and the ways they remain the same--the film, it's that really!"

The always-reliable British tabloid the Sun has tipped us off that Cure frontman Robert Smith has refused to allow one of the band's songs to be used on the U.K. TV show Stars In Their Eyes. A contestant, John Smith (no relation), scored an appearance on the show with his dead-on impression of the singer, but he wasn't able to do it for the greater British public when Smith didn't give the go ahead.

A spokesman for the show expressed his apologies to John Smith, but there were no regrets forthcoming from Cure's spokesperson. But knowing the more famous Smith, we're not surprised — he doesn't even get along with his own bandmates.

But saying this, we must admit that we're quite impressed that the ornery Mr. Smith has managed to keep his current lineup intact (you might remember, Smith is notorious for firing band members mid-tour or simply getting into fistfights with them). Not only is he using the same band that recorded Wild Mood Swings, but also the same guys that took Mood Swings on the road. We're guessing those anti-depressants are worth their weight in gold.

Cure just left a London studio in smiles (should we be worried?), where the band was recording a raft of singles intended for a singles compilation or its greatest-hits compilation, Galore, due out Oct. 28, according to the band's representative. There are plans for a new studio album, which is tentatively penciled in for the middle of '98.

"I noticed recently that there have been a lot of people trying to figure out how to get into curevision. So I was wondering if it would be possible that you can post the directions on what people should do. The Cure have been on curevision for the past few weeks now, working on their new album of course.

Here's the scoop that the band forgot to post on their site. Software used for curevision is cuseeme that can be downloaded from their site http://www.cuseeme.com/

To connect to the site, the address is 206.97.1.5 "