SOUNDTRACK4LIFE: THE B-SIDES: Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 101

I could count on one hand the amount of Guitarists that I really liked so much that when they moved on from a band to form another I made a point of seeing them: Steve Diggle when he formed Flag of Convenience after Buzzcocks had folded; Stuart Adamson after he left The Skids to form Big Country; James Stevenson when he left Chelsea (along with other members of the band) to start The Smart and a whole host of other bands he played with after that including Gen X, Gene Loves Jezebel, Kim Wilde (okay didn't follow so closely there!), The Alarm and many more; actually James also played a small part in the history of The Cult (today's spotlight) having played with them on tour a few times in different periods of time. The other guy on that small list would be Billy Duffy, of whom I first stumbled upon playing guitar for Theatre of Hate (Kirk Brandon's next band following the demise of his brilliant band The Pack).

The Cult had begun life as Southern Death Cult and basically had a very short existence of around 16 months which saw them release one lonely single (Moya) do some touring on their own and alongside Bauhaus and Theatre of Hate (connection between Duffy and Astbury probably began there).

When the band folded in February 1983 Ian Astbury was not away too long as in April 1983 Billy Duffy had departed Theatre of Hate (after a year) and joined forces to form Death Cult and released one EP (the Death Cult EP featurng Brothers Grimm and three other tracks) and a lone single, God's Zoo, before changing their name to simply The Cult.

Their debut single as The Cult, Spiritwalker was #1 on the UK Indie Charts and flirted with the UK Singles Chart as well as did the follow-ups Go West (Crazy Spinning Circles) and Ressurection Joe. The album Dreamtime (here's a video of them live at the Lyceum at the time) reached a quite respectable #21 and in 1985 the surprise Top 20 hit She Sells Sanctuary really set them up for some major success.

Hearing Billy Duffy's guitar intro for Sanctuary always gives me goosebumps. It's one of my favourite intros (yes I have a list of them as well!).