1981-06-24 Sittard - Terrein Serviam Haspelsestraat (Netherlands)

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Robert Smith
Simon Gallup
Laurence Tolhurst

Day of the week: Wednesday
Tour: 'Picture Tour'

Attendance: 903
Capacity: 903
Sold out

thanks to Petr H.

thanks to Pillowman

from Sven C.

from the book 'Ten Imaginary Years'

The Cure next embarked upon a tour of Holland in a circus tent - a bid, on their part, to avoid playing the usual venues.
Robert: "It started off well but, at Sittard on 24th of June, just before we went on stage for an encore, someone came up to Lol and told him to phone England urgently. They told him 'Your mother's dead' - simply, just like that. We went back on stage and played 'Faith'. Lol started, played for about a minute, and then stopped and just sat there without moving. We all returned to England the following day and we played the cassette of that concert at his mother's funeral. It was very strange."
"After the ceremony, we went to get drunk and Lol decided we absolutely must restart the tour or he'd go mad. It was very hard... horrible, even if the music was perfect for the circumstances..."

from utplatvorm.nl

The Picture/Circus tour on the "Knoakeveldje" on the Haspelsestraat made it to the Sittard council meeting in 1981. Council member Jules Hendriks spoke about the noise pollution that the surroundings would have experienced. "It was a unique concept in which we as Bureau Pinkpop, Donkiesjot and the organizer, brought a great act to Sittard. Fortunately, we had a good permit. 903 visitors (sold out) paid 16 guilders entrance fee, with a budget of 13,000 guilders. A glance at the list of additional "things" yields the following information: a bottle of dry white wine, medium white wine and 12 cans of beer. We later crossed out another bottle of white wine". In the Biography of The Cure we read that during the Circus tour in Sittard something remarkable happened. The audience is calling for an encore, which is not forthcoming. The drummer Laurence Tolhurst (Lol) of The Cure gets a phone call after the set in the tent. His mother has passed away. Despite this message, the band decides to give an encore. After a minute, the drummer can't take it anymore and The Cure stops. At the funeral of the drummer's mother, The Cure play a few acoustic songs and the setlist of Sittard. As thanks the drummer decides to go with The Cure to a very successful American tour.... The whole gothic concept of Faith was based on the death of Robert Smith's grandmother and the illness (cancer) of the drummer's mother. The music magazine "Melodymaker" spoke of a depressing but seriously underrated album. ...