July 17th, 1998 - Wiesen, Austria

July 19th, 1998 - Stuttgart, Germany

Aug. 14th, 1998 - Dresden, Germany

From Ree:

"Following a Cure song on my local radio station (CFNY 102.1 in Toronto), the host announced her reason for playing the song. Apparently Robert was at a Pro-Marijuana Demonstration in London, with the hope of changing the law towards legalization of marijuana for medical purposes. Another band that appear at the demonstration was Black Grape."

From Fran :

"I was listening to 102.1 again last night when they played Love Cats followed by a commentary that Robert Smith was one of the more notable faces at the march to legalize canabis at hyde park in england i believe."

Cure leader Robert Smith is in the studio with David Bowie guitarist Reeves Gabrels working on material for an upcoming Gabrels solo project. The two met at Bowie's 1997 50th Birthday concert at New York's Madison Square Garden, and Gabrels then played on the Cure's "Wrong Number"

South Park Gets a Soundtrack

That small town in Colorado where anal probes and warbling feces can be found is getting its own soundtrack. The Hollywood trades report that Comedy Central's South Park has signed a deal with producer Rick Rubin to compile multiple soundtracks featuring various artists for Columbia Records.

Rubin, who recently signed a long-term agreement with Sony Records after leaving Warner Bros., says the first South Park album should be in stores this fall. He hopes to "integrate music and comedy reflecting the admittedly twisted sensibility of the show." No artists have been mentioned as possible contributors to the first soundtrack, but obvious contenders include: Primus, who perform the show's theme song; Isaac Hayes, who voices the singing Chef; who has appeared as himself on the crudely animated show.

Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker will collaborate with Rubin on the soundtracks.

"I have phoned up the info hotline and this is what they told me:

The Cure will play on Saturday, 22nd of August at 10.20 p.m. untill midnight. The show will be broadcast on tv, either live or with a small delay in time. Other bands performing are Supergrass who are friends of The Cure and maybe, but that is just a rumour, Page and Plant. The tickets are already on sale. You can get tickets for one day or for the whole festival. A ticket for the whole festival including a camping space will be DEM 130,-- for each person. Currently, the organization of the festival is working on the website, so it will be updated within the next days (www.rockpalast.de)."

"This is what I read on videotext on german VIVA TV, today: 12th Bizarre Festival 21.8.-23.8. Cologne, Butzweiler Hof: The Cure, Portishead, Placebo, Therapy?, Green Day, a.s.o. Infos 0228/361015 or contact www.rockpalast.de .

They haven´t updated the web-site, yet. But I´m sure they will very soon. As far as I know, the festival is organised by german TV WDR ( a sub-channel of ARD ) and it will be broadcasted on the named channels. Well, that is what they did last year, where David Bowie headlined the festival. So I think, they will broadcast it live this year, too."

"I was just listening to 102.1 (in Toronto) and they said that the record company (Elektra) that is releasing the (X-Files) sountrack hopes that they can release the cure's track for the first single..depending on the song"

X-FILES, AVENGERS SOUNDTRACK DETAILS

D.A.M.N. has secured some information about two hotly anticipated soundtracks due this summer. The X-Files Movie: Fight The Future will feature contributions from Beck, U2, Sting, Foo Fighters, Sarah McLachlan, Bjork, The Cardigans, The Cure, Mike Oldfield, The Cranberries, Tracy Chapman and Mike Snow, the man who composed the original theme to the TV show. Expect the album to drop in mid-June, as close as possible to the film's U.S. release on June 19.

"I got email from the axion-beach-rock-team... they said it's sure that the cure will play there....and prodigy too... they'll update their page in a few weeks...."

Aug. 15th or 16th, 1998 - Hildesheim,Germany (Zillo Open Air Festival)

(The web page is in German, so I'm not sure of the location of the show.)

"I also wanted to let you know about a CD compilation that I am releasing next month - it is called "News From Nowhere", and it will be released on my label Plan Eleven. It should be of particular interest to fans of the Cure, as it will include an unreleased solo track by Roger O'Donnell entitled "This Side". The CD release date is Wednesday, April 22nd, and the CD is available through Plan Eleven.

Our catalogue is available on the web at: www.indiepool.com/planeleven and our mailing address is Plan Eleven, c/o D.S. Faris, 2238 Dundas St. W., #59101, Toronto, ON, M6R 3B5, Canada. A mail-order catalogue is available for free.

Also of note to Cure fans is the CD "Frustration" by the band Parade, released by Plan Eleven in 1995. This CD includes production and keyboard work by Roger O'Donnell on one track. "Frustration" is also available from Plan Eleven."

"people can order tickets on phonenumber (0)900/00565 and the tickets go on sale from march 20th...there are 2 stages, and the festival starts at 10am until 12pm...with the Cure as main act. after the day program there will be a beachparty with the Prodigy. The festival's website is on http://www.axionbeachrock.be but i checked it and it's still the program from last year but i guess they will update it soon..."

"Meanwhile, media sources including Performance and the L.A. Times are reporting that Lollapalooza is negotiating deals with Green Day (who is also rumored to be negotiating a tour with Weezer), Garbage and Scott Weiland. The Cure is also reportedly under discussion, and there's been talk of the surviving members of Sublime joining the tour, although that band is thought to have died along with late singer Brad Newell. The survivors have said they will not be replacing him.

This year, it appears that at least six headliners have rejected Lolla offers, including Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson, the latter two because neither act could guarantee their albums would be finished in time. Manson's manager Tony Ciulla told the L.A. Times that the problem was timing: his client couldn't take a chance and commit to touring. Sources close to Trent Reznor say that the latest Nine Inch Nails project is nowhere near being prepared to support a tour as early as the summer.

Lollapalooza didn't fare all that well last year; despite featured acts Tool, Prodigy, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Tricky, Korn and others."

"Lollapalooza was reportedly rejected by six potential headliners. The festival also rejected a proposal for a farewell tour with past major acts. Green Day, Scott Weiland and the remaining members of Sublime are reportedly potential participants this year."

This is just my opinion, but I do not see The Cure signing up for this fledgling tour. At least I hope not. Now if they could get a spot on Lilith 98......

`PALOOZA PLANNING: While most of the summer festivals are setting their lineups, Lollapalooza organizers have had both Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson turn down offers for their headlining slot, and both for the same reason: Each act is working on a new album and may not be finished in time for the tour. "The reason's simply the timing," says Manson manager Tony Ciulla. "We don't want to be in a position where we're committed to touring and the record's not finished." Several other acts are being put in place for other slots on the trek, with Green Day, Garbage and Scott Weiland all in current discussions. There's talk of the Cure signing on as the distinguished veteran presence.

"There is a 2 page interview with Roger in this month's issue of the magazine "Chart". It was done during the NY gig in Oct. I don't know if Americans get this magazine, it may be strictly Canadian."

"I heard The Cure will have a track on the new X-Files movie soundtrack (though I am not sure if the song will be in the film). Elektra head Sylvia Rhone is in charge of this project. It will be a new song, so let's hope it'll be as successful as their last soundtrack venture (with "Burn"-like brilliance)."

"Heard from the radio station CFNY The Edge-Alan Cross Show- (Toronto, Canada) on Tuesday, 17 February that the new Cure album is not expected to be released until 'September' now. No reasons were given for the delay."

SCIENCE MUSINGS Comets, stars, and rock 'n roll

By Chet Raymo, 03/02/98

An e-mail query from a young acquaintance: ''One of my favorite songs in all of explored space is ''Jupiter Crash'' by The Cure. One of the lines is ''...meanwhile millions of miles away in space/ the incoming comet brushes Jupiter's face...'' Well, I just read an interview in which Robert Smith alludes to the Jupiter crash as if it were an actual event. I had thought that it was just something he had made up. So if it is real, what exactly is a Jupiter crash?''

I had a pretty good idea what might be the ''Jupiter crash.'' But first I had to make a trip to the Internet to learn about The Cure, Robert Smith and the lyrics to his song.

The Cure is a British male rock band, formed in 1976 and still going strong. Robert Smith, who writes and sings the songs, was a founder of the group, which has seen a lot of faces come and go. He remains the band's central figure.

The song ''Jupiter Crash,'' copyrighted 1996, is about a nighttime encounter with a woman on the sand by the sea, which the lyricist likens to a comet crash in space - the irresistible attraction, the violent splash into Jupiter's gassy sphere, the disappearance without a trace. ''Is this how it feels?'' asks the lyricist. ''Is this how a star falls?''

No doubt about it, Robert Smith is referring metaphorically to the great comet crash of 1994, the most violent event ever witnessed in the solar system.

The comet was Shoemaker-Levy 9, discovered on March 25, 1993, by the prolific husband-and-wife comet-finding team of Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker working with ace comet-hunter David Levy, on photographic plates made with an 18-inch telescope on Palomar Mountain.

The comet, when it was discovered, had recently undergone a close encounter with Jupiter. Astonishingly, the gravity of the giant planet had ripped the comet into a string of 21 pieces, strung out in space like beads on a string. Nothing like it had ever been seen before.

The comet was still caught in Jupiter's gravity. Astronomers quickly calculated that after a short excursion away from Jupiter, it would cycle back and crash into the planet in July 1994.

Few astronomical events have caused so much anticipation and excitement among astronomers. The successive impacts of the chunks of Shoemaker-Levy 9, spread out over a week, were observed by countless telescopes on Earth and by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The scars on Jupiter's face remained visible for almost a year.

David Levy, co-discoverer of the comet, has recently published a little book, called ''More Things in Heaven and Earth,'' that compares the ways poets and astronomers read the night sky. He does not include rock lyrics, but poets like Gerard Manley Hopkins, John Keats, and Robert Frost figure prominently.

One of the loveliest astronomical images in Levy's book was penned by Hopkins in September 1864, less than a month after the pre-dawn appearance of Comet Tempel. The poet compares himself to ''a slip of comet,/ Scarce worth discovery.'' A comet comes out of space, brightens as it approaches the sun, then goes ''out into the cavernous dark":

So I go out: my little sweet is done:

I have drawn heat from this contagious sun:

To not ungentle death now forth I run.

A personal favorite Hopkins poem, omitted by Levy, begins:

Look at the stars! Look, look up at the skies!

O look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air!

The bright boroughs, the quivering citadels there!

The dim woods quick with diamond wells; the elf-eyes!

Another favorite astronomical image are these lines spoken by the Earth in Shelley's ''Prometheus Unbound,'' which beautifully describes something the poet has seen only in his mind's eye - the Earth's shadow, a long cone of darkness reaching out into space far past the moon:

I spin beneath my pyramid of night

Which points into the heavens, dreaming delight,

Murmuring victorious joy in my enchanted sleep;

As a youth lulled by love-dreams faintly sighing,

Under the shadow of his beauty lying,

Which round his rest a watch of light and warmth doth keep.

I have often thought of Shelley's image as I watched the moon move into the Earth's shadow during a lunar eclipse, especially during the wonderful April 1996 eclipse that coincided with the appearance of Comet Hyakutake.

David Levy has discovered or co-discovered more than 20 comets, including the one that crashed into Jupiter. Through his discoveries and writings he has made himself one of the world's best-known astronomers. However, he has never taken an academic course in astronomy; his degrees are in English literature, which helps explain the poetic sensitivity that he brings to the telescope - and to his writings about the spectacular demise of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.

''Yeah, that was it. That was the Jupiter crash. Drawn too close and gone in a flash,'' sings Robert Smith about his nocturnal encounter on the sand. These sorts of lyrics are not likely to touch the heart or mind of an old fogey like me, but it's good to know that poets of the rock generation have not lost their contact with the sky.

Chet Raymo is a professor of physics at Stonehill College and the author of several books on science.

This story ran on page D02 of the Boston Globe on 03/02/98.

© Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.