1978-11-24 High Wycombe - Town Hall (England)

Mainset:

Fire in Cairo
Killing an Arab

Robert Smith
Laurence Tolhurst
Michael Dempsey

Songs played: 2 (2)

Day of the week: Friday
Tour: Supporting Generation X

Attendance:
Capacity:

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from the book 'Ten Imaginary Years'

On 24th November, The Cure embarked on an educational string of dates supporting Generation X, driving back after every gig to sleep on the floor at Parry's house near Watford.
Robert: "I remember we arrived at High Wycombe and this bloke said to me 'Are you using the lights?' and I thought 'Well, obviously we want to use lights otherwise no-one will be able to see us' so I said yes. Then he said 'D'you wanna use the PA?' and I said yes again so he said 'Okay, £25' and I said 'Is that all?' I thought he was saying, if we used the lights and PA, that he could only pay us £25. He looked at me peculiarly and I suddenly realised that he was charging us! So I said we hadn't got the money - we only had about £15 for petrol and stuff to get back from High Wycombe - and he said 'No £25, no lights or PA'. So I said 'Right, we won't use them then'. "We'd brought along these two Yamaha A40 bins which we used in pubs as our PA system and we were going to use them as monitors and I had this HH mixing console as I always mixed from the stage with someone in the audience giving me signals for bass up or vocals down, so we wheeled it out and we had two standard lamps either side of us and we played like that.
"The blokes who were doing the lights and sound for Generation X were called Mac and Nigel and they thought it was great that we reacted like that. So the next night, at Northampton Cricket Club, they came up to us and said we could use the lights and PA for nothing."
Mac: "I thought they were really nice people. It took me some time to get used to their music though - I didn't think it was that brilliant at first." Robert: "Mac was my older brother's age and we thought he was kinda funny. Nigel and he were amazed to be able to talk about Hendrix and Nick Drake with 18 year olds."

from the book 'Cured - The Tale of Two Imaginary Boys' (Lol Tolhurst)

The first tour in which we played gigs outside of London and environs, just fresh from the pub and village hall circuit, was with Generation X, Billy Idol's first band. As a sort of pop-punk band, they had had a couple of hits, so they were playing to larger audiences than we could reasonably expect to pull in on our own.
The first gig was in High Wycombe, a large market town just west of London. The venue was the town hall: an old Georgian red brick and white stone façade building. A little different from the downtrodden pubs and clubs we had been used to so far. Inside we could see the stage had been set for Generation X, with many large amps and a huge silver drum kit with double bass drums. The big time beckoned enticingly.
Alas, it was not to be the glamorous affair it seemed from the outset. We were approached by a large, brutish-looking man and informed fairly quickly of the harsh realities of touring as an opening act. "You're going to use the lights and PA, right?" the large man asked us. "Er, yes," Robert replied. "Okay, £25 then," said the large man, who by now had introduced himself as the tour manager. "Is that all?" Robert asked. He, like Michael and myself, who had been following this conversation, had assumed that the tour manager meant £25 was all he was going to be paying us if we used the PA and lights. Suddenly a look of understanding crossed Robert's face as he realized the large chap wanted to charge us £25 for the privilege. "We haven't got the money for that," Robert said. "We only have enough for petrol to get home." The tour manager then pulled out what he thought was his ace card. "No £25, no lights or PA!"
We had heard of this type of rock-and-roll chicanery, and as flag bearers of the new reality were having none of it. So the look on his face was priceless when Robert replied to his ultimatum. "Right then, we won't use them!" Robert turned and motioned to me and Michael to go back and start pulling our gear out of the van. "We'll use our own PA!"
We wheeled our small club PA system onto the large town-hall stage and stuck a couple of floor lamps we used in pubs on either side of us. Punk self-sufficiency. I don't know how much that endeared us to the tour manager, but it certainly interested the lighting guy, Angus "Mac" MacPhail, because he is still the lighting director for The Cure today. I think because he felt sorry for us being bullied by the tour manager, Mac put up a couple of channels on the desk—lighting-director speak for giving us a couple of lights to see by and by which to be seen onstage-and we were grateful.
The doors opened and we were ushered onstage almost immediately "to warm the punters up," as the tour manager informed us. I'm sure Robert gave him a disdainful look as we marched onstage. We were not the same as these old hippies running the show. That much was obvious to all. However, we welcomed the opportunity to play, even if it meant we had to deal with the predictably capitalistic remnants of the counterculture from time to time.
Mostly people ordered drinks at the bar when the opening act was on, or arrived halfway through the set. That happened for the first gig or so on the "Gen X" tour, but pretty soon people were staying out of the bar and watching us play. Our conviction in what we were doing was obvious to everyone. We played for about thirty minutes and then removed all our own gear. No roadies for us!
The Gen X show was quite a spectacle of punk rock. As the opening number, "Ready, Steady, Go," started, Billy Idol, resplendent in a red leather jumpsuit, strode to the front of the stage, and then, almost on cue, a thousand gobs of spit came arching over the stage front like arrows shot from longbows into the spotlight toward Billy. To our amazement he didn't recoil from this assault of phlegm, but positively reveled in the ghastly gobbing frenzy. Suddenly, the purpose of the red leather suit became shockingly clear. It was the only suitable material for such an onslaught, especially considering that this same scene was repeated every night of the tour. We watched from the side of the stage for a few more minutes, transfixed by the spectacle of Mr. Idol being drenched with sputum. I think we were all secretly glad that the audience had decided we weren't worthy of their shower of spittle.
As we adjusted to the feeling of actually being on the road for the first time, we made a startling discovery. Generation X's dressing room had a lot of beer in it and it was apparently free! After that we made sure that every night, as Billy and Co. went onstage, we paid a visit to the free beer room and grabbed a couple of cans to drink while either watching the gig or talking to the new fans we were making. Little by little, we seemed to be getting across to people who actually watched the opening act.

from Martin63 at wycombegigs.co.uk

I don't recall the Vents set but I do recall quite a lot about the Cure. Dempsey had a see through perspex bass that impressed me and I did wonder what the Middle Eastern fixation was all about with 'Fire in Cairo' and 'Killing an Arab'.