The Cure In Brazil - The History In Brazil

The Cure - The History In Brazil

Any person who mentioned something about The Cure in Brazil before 1985 would be considered as an ‘outsider’.
Unfortunately, the country just got to know about the band, effectively, after the early 1985, while other european bands like Sisters Of Mercy, Alien Sex Fiend, Bauhaus, Banshees, Joy Division/New Order, X-Mal Deutschland, Cocteau Twins, Jesus And Mary Chain... were already making their way into many people from Southern and South-Western states (mainly in two major cities: São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro).
Shrouded by an atmosphere of obscure bands, the first ‘gothic aspirations’ were getting more evident in São Paulo and the musical scene suffered great changes.
At the same time the album Concert was the first seen in the shops (after one year wait). Concert has gotten so much success - sold 500 copies in just one week - that were exported to Argentina (Brazil was the first country in South America to put out Cure records). Anyway, the group was still unknow to most of the public.
In the late of 1985, a second Cure album was released in Brazil: The Head On The Door, which sold more copies than the first one, projecting better sales for the forthcoming albums. In fact, The Head On The Door was, at the time, the Cure work that most influenced the rock bands from São Paulo, one example of it is a band called Voluntários da Pátria, which recorded a version (in portuguese!) of “In Your House”.
But the brazilian Polydor didn't seem to be so interested in putting Cure records on the market: the most example of this is the cassette version of Concert that has not featured the Curiosity/Anomalie, the Lyric of “Sinking” was not published in The Head On The Door's dust jacket and the release of the album The Top was delayed - a serious case of neglect and lack of respect for the fans!
Little by little, all these european bands started to standing out in the mainly newspapers and magazines from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, which usually dedicated some notes to them - critics labelled the bands as true musical paradigmas whereas some radio stations got ‘in true’ with them. It aroused the interest (and curiosity) of the public - these bands offered something totally novel to the listeners. However, no one could have imagined that The Cure - a band that one year before had such a restricted public - would become the most popular english band in Brazil in a very short period of time.
1986 was, undoubtedly, the best year for The Cure in our country. After the release of Standing On The Beach, a feverish of excitement invaded the ‘brazilian lands’. The band astonishingly became venerated by the public. The hits “Inbetween Days” (which even taken part in a brazilian soap's sound track), “Close To Me”, “Let's Go To Bed” and “The Walk” quickly made the top charts from here, being constantly played by the brazilian radio stations.
As Standing On The Beach became a best selling album, the public rushed to the stores in order to buy the previous records: Concert and The Head On The Door, and thousands of letters were sent to the Bizz (a brazilian magazine dedicated to music) eargely asking for new pressings about the band, while newspapres also started to revere the group, publishing several articles (sometimes one page ones).
To increase their popularity, at July 13 1986 a brazilian Tv channel called Tv Manchete showed a special about The Cure called “Les Enfants du Rock” (produced one year before by the french Tv). Below, you have the advert (published on Bizz) of this special:

Also, many fans also used to gather together in the weekends to watch Staring At The Sea The Images. The Cure then became the most commented band in the country...
At the same period something peculiar started to happen in Brazil: while in Europe the ‘doom and gloom’ myths didn't surround the band anymore. In our country there was a complete revival of them. Once the fans and critics were frequently listening and making comments about the albums 17 Seconds, Faith and Pornography, which were literally worshipped (the critics usually compared Robert Smith's lyrics to Charles Baudelaire's poems...)
As the band was on the verge of a worldwide tour in 1987, the rumours about their shows in Brazil were spreaded. The Bizz magazine dated March 17, 1987 (an edition totally dedicated to The Cure) brought the confirmation of this possibility.
On March 19, 1987 - at exactly 18:00 pm - The band arrives in Brazil. After a confused show in Argentina, they disembarked in Brazil (a completely different country!) but indifferent to the screams of the fans who had waiting for them on the air port.
The total number of shows was eight, and the last three ones in São Paulo for approximately 20 thousands people at each show.
Brazil was one of the first countries where some songs of the album Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me could be appreciated live. This privilege was the way the band found to thank the brazilian audience - a kind of gift given to all the public who took Robert Smith by surprise (what a great surprise! Robert knows...)
The brazilian Cure tour was so much successful that the sales of the album Standing On The Beach reaches 250,000 copies (at the time, the album sold more copies here than in England), and one of the shows in Rio de Janeiro was broadcasted by the brazilian TV.
This scene ‘forced’ the brazilian Polydor to release (after a unforgiven delay) the album The Top, right after the tour.

Certainly, The Cure was one of the english bands that most enchanted and mesmerised the brazilian critics. These two quotations below - extracted from two brazilian magazines after their tour here - confirm this statement:
“1987 was not a bad year for Brazil in terms of international shows. Many bands came to our country, among them we can mention our beloved The Cure” (Gigantes magazine)
“One of the best pop bands of the world, in great shape, showing the best of their repertoire, it doesn't happen very often below the equator line...” (Bizz magazine)
Despite such a great rise, it was still too early to state that The Cure has already consolidated their position in the brazilian musical market. After 1987, many other bands were brought to the eager brazilian listeners. As a consequence, it seemed that the veneration nurtured by the public was little by little vanishing. They directed their attention to new bands taken The Cure for granted.
Thus, the album Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me didn't sell as much as Standing On The Beach, though the sales were not that bad...
In 1988, The Cure practically abandoned the pages of newspapers and mags, because no one album was released then. In fact, they weren't in the spotlight anymore, since the brazilian musical scene was ‘overcrowded’ by many other new bands.
The following albums, Disintegration and Mixed Up, weren't so highly regarded by the critics that had ‘idolised’ the band before. Anyway, the album Disintegration ‘rocked’ Brazil!
1992 seemed to open new horizons for the band in Brazil. After being released, the album Wish soon became the fourth best-selling record and “Friday I'm In Love” also taken part in a brazilian soap's sound track. In the late 1993, Show was broadcasted twice by the brazilian TV and the album Paris sold according to the expectations.
However, the success in 92/93 cannot be compared to its equivalent between 1986 and 1987, those really were ‘golden’ years...
In January 1996, the Polydor issued Staring At The Sea - The Cure In Brazil, a special CD edition with a totally different picture sleeve to promote the forthcoming The Cure shows, and in February the band was here again, playng in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, at the Hollywood Rock Festival.
Because of a petition with 21484 signatures (came from several states), and this shows the decrease of public interested on the group.
So, after everything that has been written, can we assume that The Cure managed to achieve - fast and unexpectedly - the apogee of the fame among the brazilian public, but after 1988 the band is in a slope?
Personally, I don't think this statement is totally right. We've got to remember that their quick rise to the Brazilian Top was due to the fact that many songs were constantly played on the radio stations, what drawn the listeners interest. I believe that, if the album Standing On The Beach hadn't contained the songs “Inbetween Days” and “Close To Me”, The Cure would not have been so successful here in Brazil.
Nowadays, if there were another brazilian Cure tour, the shows in São Paulo should certainly have around 5 thousands spectators (whereas in 1987, 20 thousands people attended each show).
Such a decrease in the number of public is not totally negative, once it precisely shows the huge amount of the people who simply went to the shows because the band was a temporary fad in Brazil. But on the other hand, we can be sure that there are 5 thousands loyalful and trustworthly Cure fans in São Paulo.
To complete this history, I would just like to emphasize as well a important aspect about The Cure fans in Brazil: they differ themselves from each state. It is impossible to imagine the fans from São Paulo listening to bands like Nirvana, Ride, My Blood Valentine, Oasis... most of them (90% surely) just have their attention directed to gothic and electro gothic bands. However, in Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre or Minas Gerais there is a complete mix of musical inclinations came from the fans.
Also, a lot of fans in Brazil just have some of the band works recorded in cassettes, once PolyGram doesn't release their records the way they should (specially singles), what is totally frustating... another example of it is the release of the brazilian Wild Mood Swings which has been delayed by PolyGram, and a lot of fans had to appel to the importer shops to buy a USA or UK copy.

It is somewhat difficult to come to a conclusion about how The Cure is really seen in Brazil.
Whenever any comment about the band is made, many people come up with a wide scope of denominations: pop group, dark pop group or even gothic group are the most used here.

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