The Wish Tour (1992)

Lore & Background

By the time *Wish* dropped in late 1992, The Cure had already weathered the breakup-and-reunion cycle that split their career into two distinct chapters. The album was a conscious step toward the electronic and industrial textures that had been creeping into their studio work since *Disintegration* (1989), and the tour was the live translation of that ambition. Perry Bamonte, who had joined the band in 1989, became a central figure in the front-of-stage presentation, his keyboards and sequenced patterns forming the rhythmic and textural backbone of many tracks. The result was a set that felt mechanically precise yet emotionally raw, a tension that defined the era.

Robert Smith's stage persona during this run was as much a part of the show as the music. His towering frame, the curtain of black hair, the dark clothing, and his characteristic tendency to retreat into shadow between songs created a visual through-line that fans still reference as a defining image of the band. The lighting design leaned into that: long, slow washes of blue and white cutting through haze, punctuated by the sudden, almost violent snap of a spotlight as a guitar riff hit.

The tour also served as a bridge. While the *Wish* material dominated the first half of most sets, the second half routinely reached back into the catalogue—tracks from *Disintegration*, *Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me*, and even the earliest post-punk work—reminding audiences that the electronic experiments were layered atop a foundation of angular, bass-driven songwriting that had been The Cure's identity for over a decade.

In Their Own Story

The venue was already dark before the house lights died. A low, subsonic hum rolled through the floorboards, felt more in the sternum than the ears. Then a single beam of cold white light sliced through the fog and found Robert Smith standing center stage, motionless, his hair a black silhouette against the nothing behind him. The sequencer kicked in—a mechanical, almost surgical pulse—and the crowd exhaled as one. Porl Thompson's guitar answered like a warning siren, and for the next two hours the building became a single, breathing organism: five musicians locked in a narrow corridor of sound, ten thousand people swaying in the dark, the air thick with the smell of ozone and cold sweat. When the last note decayed into the reverb tail and the lights stayed off for that one extra, suspended second, nobody moved. Nobody breathed. Then the room detonated.

Reader's Guide

The Wish Tour ran across late 1992 into 1993, taking The Cure through UK arenas, European club and mid-size venue dates, and North American stops. The set typically opened with the more electronic, sequencer-driven material from *Wish*, establishing a cold, mechanical atmosphere before gradually warming into the guitar-forward catalogue tracks that fans had come to hear. By the second half of most shows, the set had cycled through highlights spanning the band's entire output, with the closer often landing on a high-energy or emotionally charged track to release the built-up tension.

Stage design for the run emphasized minimalism and darkness. The band played on a low, shallow platform with a large visual screen or projection surface behind them, used for abstract imagery and slow-moving visuals rather than video playback. Lighting was the primary visual instrument: long, sustained washes of blue, white, and occasionally red cutting through dense haze, with sharp, brief spotlights isolating individual players. The overall effect was deliberately austere—no pyrotechnics, no confetti—just light, shadow, and sound.

The tour was notable for featuring Perry Bamonte prominently at the front of the stage on keyboards and sequenced electronics, a visible shift from earlier tours where the keyboard role was more background. Jason Cooper's bass lines and Lol Tolhurst's driving, precise drumming provided the rhythmic spine, while Porl Thompson's guitar work—often drenched in delay and feedback—supplied the melodic and textural peaks. The audience scale ranged from intimate European clubs to mid-sized arenas, with the band maintaining a consistent, tightly controlled performance across all venue types.

Did You Know?

• Perry Bamonte, who joined The Cure in 1989, took on a highly visible front-of-stage role during the Wish Tour, with his keyboards and sequenced electronics forming the rhythmic core of many tracks—a noticeable shift from
• The Wish Tour setlists deliberately wove the new, synth-heavy material from the 1992 album together with catalogue tracks stretching back to the band's earliest post-punk recordings, creating a live narrative that spanne
• Robert Smith's stage presence during this run—his height, the curtain of black hair, the dark clothing, and his tendency to stand motionless in a single beam of light between songs—became one of the most visually iconic
• The tour's lighting design favored slow, sustained washes of color through dense atmospheric haze over rapid strobing or pyrotechnics, reinforcing the album's cold, electronic aesthetic and giving each show a ritualistic