1980 PART I

1980



JANUARY

4th
Rehearsals for the Seventeen Seconds studio recording at Robert's parents house: A FOREST, SEVENTEEN SECONDS, PLAY FOR TODAY, M, IN YOUR HOUSE, ANOTHER JOURNEY BY TRAIN, AT NIGHT. All instrumental versions.

11th
More rehearsals at Robert's parents house: SECRETS, THE FINAL SOUND, Untitled (A REFLECTION).

13th-20th
Morgan Studios - London, England

SEVENTEEN SECONDS

A REFLECTION
PLAY FOR TODAY
SECRETS
IN YOUR HOUSE
THREE
THE FINAL SOUND
A FOREST
ANOTHER JOURNEY BY TRAIN
M
AT NIGHT
SEVENTEEN SECONDS

11 songs were recorded with Mike Hedges as producer. The band actually lived and slept in the studio because of the limited time that was booked. The budget was very tight indeed as proved by the recording of the FINAL SOUND (meant to be a long instrumental piece but the tape reached the end). Once the backing tracks were recorded, the band browsed through pages and pages of lyrics to sort out which ones would fit the music. AT NIGHT was largely inspired by a short Kafka novel with the same title.

FEBRUARY

4th-10th
Morgan Studios - London, England

Another week in the same studio, but mixing the album this time. Most of the songs were actually mixed on the second to last day and A FOREST (most produced track) took a large part of the final day.

MARCH

10th
Maida Vale Studios - London, England

John Peel Sessions

The band recorded A FOREST, SEVENTEEN SECONDS, PLAY FOR TODAY, M for the radio show. A good session with Robert Smith's voice pretty low on the mix to give the music all its dimension.


14th
Nogent sur Marne, Eurock Festival
A festival held in Paris' suburb. Robert dedicated AT NIGHT to Mary.

APRIL

5th

A FOREST/ANOTHER JOURNEY BY TRAIN single is released. A video for the song was filmed (along with PLAY FOR TODAY on the same day).

A FOREST - VIDEO
PLAY FOR TODAY - VIDEO

10th
Short American Tour started (just the East Coast).

15th
Hurrah's - New York

20th
Allston, Underground Club

FIRE IN CAIRO - VIDEO
SECRETS - VIDEO
IN YOUR HOUSE - VIDEO
GRINDING HALT - VIDEO
SUBWAY SONG/ACCURACY - VIDEOS
KILLING AN ARAB - VIDEO

Last night of the tour and a few hours from Robert's birthday. The show was filmed by local art students.

24th
Top of the Pops: A FOREST

A FOREST - VIDEO


25th
Beginning of the UK Tour (16 dates). The SEVENTEEN SECONDS album was also released.

MAY


11th
London, Rainbow Theatre

Final date in the UK. The beginning of the show was a bit weird with an approximate version of A REFLECTION - probably not rehearsed enough to this point. It could also be the first time he band tried it live (SETLIST).

13th
The next five following weeks were spent touring in France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Scotland. The live set became slightly different. The group also started to play THREE with different lyrics whenever they did the song.

23rd
Paradiso - Amsterdam, Netherlands

24th
Stokvishal - Arnhem, Holland

28th
Kant Kino - Berlin, Germany

29th
Marthalle - Hamburg, Germany

31st
Herford, Scala
A classic great night on stage. The most interesting part was THREE, played in the encores, dedicated to Simon for his 20th birthday. The party atmosphere brought the band to perform four encores total.