Here’s something a bit different. How about we talk about The Cure for a while? I’ve been a fan of individual Cure songs for about as long as I can remember, but it hasn’t been until relatively recently that I started picking up some studio albums and live unofficial material in hard copy. With their new album “Songs Of A Lost World” getting some great reviews and accolades from new and old fans alike, this is a great time to talk about some of their “underground” stuff. The Cure is one of those bands, like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, The Smiths etc. that are consistently popular in the bootleg record world. Just being conventionally popular is not enough. In order to remain in high enough demand that labels want to press this stuff, collectors have to want the band’s live and rare material. There also has to be enough of it available. The Cure, like all those other aforementioned bands, certainly fits those requirements.
For many years, even though I liked some of their stuff, I would always pass on Cure material when it came up for sale. Even though I wasn’t buying any of it, I could see what other collectors wanted and got excited about. I could also see what retail websites and private sellers from around the world sold out of the fastest. So, when it came time that I finally caved and decided to pick some of this stuff up for my own collection, I had a pretty good idea of what the good stuff was. Swimming In A World Of Magic Show is one of the more recent box sets that I heard talked about a lot, and I knew it was one of the releases I had to get.
“The Godfatherecords” is a really fantastic label that always puts out great stuff. I have reviewed a few of their releases before, but I have many more than I haven’t written about yet. They seem to focus on a limited number of bands, with two of the most common being The Cure and Pink Floyd. As a rule, their stuff is not only among the best audio and pressing wise, but the physical quality of the material is certainly at the top of, if not the absolute best in the industry. Swimming In A World Of Magic Show is no exception to this and is, without a doubt, a good value for the money.
This 3 LP set is available on either red or blue vinyl and comes housed in a beautifully printed box with a resealable outer bag, complete with an individually numbered hype sticker. As usual, The Godfatherecords releases are limited, and in this case, there are only 250 copies of each color available worldwide. I decided on the red version and couldn’t be happier with it. The vinyl is a very cool looking clear red, and all the artwork and labels look great. In addition to the LP’s, we also get the full show on 2 pressed CD’s, complete with matching artwork. I always love the inclusion of CD’s which I can rip to FLAC files for my Digital Audio Player or just put in the CD player on days when I don’t feel like messing with records. Additionally, the set also comes with a 4-page foldout booklet listing the tour dates, and a matching numbered certificate card unique to whatever number box you received.
This is a relatively older release compared to a lot of the stuff I write about on this site. It’s not ancient by any means, (maybe a little over a year old by this point) but it’s certainly out of print. So, I was relieved to see that my copy was still in pristine and unopened condition when it arrived. I cleaned all the LPs as usual, but they were all flat with no visible dust, dirt or defects. All of my discs had poly lined sleeves which is always a nice touch. After cleaning everything and giving it a good once over, I gave this set its first spin. As far as my copy goes, I was happy to find it to be a perfect pressing with no detectable surface noise at all.
Content wise, this show was part of the 1992 Wish Tour, which was mainly in support of their 1992 album Wish. This specific show was recorded at the National Ballroom in Kilburn, UK, and the audio quality is excellent. This is listed as an FM broadcast recording, and in my opinion, it’s good enough to be an official release. LPs 1-4 are the main concert, which consists of a mixture of both old and then current material. The entirety of LP 5 is all the encore material, which consists of five songs performed over two different sets. I haven’t seen The Cure live before, but two separate encores seems really cool.
Live Recording (FM Radio Broadcast) – National Ballroom – Kilburn, UK – 3rd May, 1992
1-1 Tape
1-2 Open
1-3 High
1-4 Pictures Of You
2-1 Lullaby
2-2 Doing The Unstuck
2-3 Just Like Heaven
2-4 Apart
2-5 A Night Like This
3-1 Wendy Time
3-2 The Walk
3-3 Let’s Go To Bed
3-4 Friday I’m In Love
3-5 Inbetween Days
3-6 From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea
4-1 Fascination Street
4-2 Never Enough
4-3 Cut
4-4 End
5-1 In Your House
5-2 M
5-3 Three Imaginary Boys
5-4 Boys Don’t Cry
5-5 Charlotte Sometimes
6-1 Primary
6-2 A Strange Day
6-3 A Forest
As you can see from the setlist, this is a perfect concert, even for casual fans. It’s got all the hits people know and love, including “Pictures Of You”, “Just Like Heaven”, “Fascination Street”, “Boys Don’t Cry” and many more. I’m not ashamed to say that I still look for these songs on the track listing before I buy something. I also look for “Stairway To Heaven” on the back of Led Zeppelin releases and think twice before buying something if it’s not on there. If this makes me a cliché fan or whatever, I couldn’t possibly care any less. These songs are a big part of the reason I love these bands, and I am totally into hearing a thousand different versions of them.
Unlike other bands that I talk about most often, I don’t have the knowledge to do a super deep dive on the lineup here or discuss the specific nuances about song selection. What I can tell you is that with this particular show, as well as most of their live shows I have on vinyl, The Cure is never afraid to play their hit songs, and they aren’t phoning anything in. This is a great performance all around, and since it’s a radio broadcast, the levels are totally perfect. There is a normal amount of crowd noise that one would expect to hear on any live recording, but it’s not distracting or overwhelming.
I actually listened to the vinyl version of this concert twice in its entirety before writing this review, which is pretty unusual for me. In a way, it’s very exhausting to be a “super fan” of a particular group, since it changes how you listen to the music. I feel that with Pink Floyd or Ozzy for instance, it’s easy for me to listen to that stuff too intently at this point, which can sometimes cause me to miss out on one of the best parts of listening to music… the part where you can sort of turn off and just relax. The Cure is a perfect solution for me, where I don’t find myself trying to overthink things. While the band is great and the songs are legendary, Robert Smith is certainly not a guitar hero like Randy Rhoads or David Gilmour, and also not a modern-day Shakespeare like Morrissey is. For me at least, their music is just a different kind of thing, and that’s ok.
Overall, I can’t recommend this set enough for long-time fans of The Cure and new fans alike. As I get more into the studio albums, I’ve been realizing that in general, I like the live, unofficial stuff better. Swimming In A World Of Magic Show seems to capture the band at a particularly magical time, and it’s really hard to believe that this 1992 tour would have been over 30 years ago. Most of the hits people think of when they think of the band are all here with excellent and unique live versions, and the setlist is great overall.
Rating wise, as far as pressing and packaging, this set is an easy 10/10, which shouldn’t be surprising for collectors who know about the quality of everything The Godfatherecords puts out. The audio source itself is also excellent. I don’t think this was recorded directly off the radio on a cassette tape or anything but rather sounds to me like someone got ahold of the FM broadcast master. Sometimes, the volume on radio broadcasts that are pressed to vinyl can come out wrong, (usually too low like the last one I wrote about) but this one is perfect where it is. So, needless to say, it’s a 10/10 on this front as well. It might take a little effort to find this set in the wild these days, but if you have read this far, I think it’ll be worth the effort. As always, good luck in the hunt!