Live Review: The Cult – Manchester

Utterly pointless fact that even I have no use for: I’ve been watching The Cult since the Ceremony tour back in 1991, yet only ever seen them play on a Friday. Do with that information what you will but know that I suspect whatever the day of the week, when The Cult take the stage, musical fireworks are always guaranteed.

Support comes in the form of one-time Tribulation guitarist, Jonathan Hulten, who I last saw opening for Myrkur back in April. In full costume, it’s fair to suggest many the Apollo tonight are left a little baffled by Jonathan’s neo-folk direction. Beginning with a choral piece and wending his way through a series of ethereal passages, he both entertains and bemuses in equal measure. His is a style akin to that of a wandering minstrel, regaling tales and, in the right setting, his is a performance that can be captivating. Waiting for a full-on rock & roll band to blow the roof the building? Perhaps not quite the right tempo.

The partnership of Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy stretch back to the spring of 1983, when the pair performed in The Death Cult, before dropping the Death part in early 1984 and becoming the band we know and love today.

It’s been forty-years since the release of the Dreamtime debut and this tour is a celebration of those decades, distilled into seventeen songs. You might think using Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries from the Apocalypse Now soundtrack would come over a pretentious, but for The Cult it’s merely par for the course. In the Clouds, from the millennial Beyond Good and Evil album, gets things underway, finding Billy Duffy instantly reassuming the mantle of Guitar God and cranking out some dirty rock & roll riffs from the customary Les Paul. Ian Astbury must have been spending too long in sunnier climes as he doesn’t appear to take his coat off until the encore; his voice and additional percussion – through tambourine and maracas – only add to The Cult’s sound.

Rise, from the same record follows, but the introduction of Wild Flower turns the clocks back for almost the entire audience and gets damn-near the whole theatre up and dancing. The musical landscape in which the band found themselves in the mid-nineties was a very different one from the one that had birthed Electric and Sonic Temple, but tonight’s sole representative from their 1994 self-titled, Star, with it’s rhythmic slither and grind and Billy’s guitar skating over the surface, means the song can hold its own with any of The Cult’s more familiar tunes.

The Witch and, from the band’s most recent record, 2022’s Under the Midnight Sun, Mirror continue that dirty rock and roll feel; while the last of Beyond Good and Evil’s tunes, War (The Process) is possible one of the highlights of the set. The show’s simple lighting is given a full workout, the slow rhythms at odds with the speedy guitar, just goes to show The Cult have never lost that magic.

Resurrection Joe tickles the nostalgia factor, leading to an acoustic rendition of a frankly sublime Edie (Ciao Baby), which finds Duffy seated on a stool and Astbury introducing him as “Wythenshawe’s Finest”. Sweet Soul Sister features a mid-song jam, Lucifer has the stage washed with red lights and Fire Woman is greeted like the popular old friend it is.

Yet the biggest response of the night is reserved for Rain, the first of three Love tracks included, even though we’re almost at the end of the show. Front to back, side to side, the entire floor of the Apollo is in movement and voices are raised so high that they compete with the PA itself. Spiritwalker and the Start Me Up-influenced Love Removal Machine brings the main set to a close in style, with Astbury stating he wished he chosen another job.

It's pure Love for the encore, with Ian finally bereft of coat, and openly wearing an Everton shirt. Some light-hearted – and no doubt long-standing – banter ensures between Astbury and the City-supporting Duffy, as the band play through an epic-sounding Brother Wolf, Sister Moon and, of course, the finale of She Sells Sanctuary. Both made more special now Duffy has strapped on the iconic white Gretsch.

The Cult have always functioned as the meeting of the Astbury-Duffy axis, but they need rock-solid rhythm section to keep it all in check. Both John Tempesta and bassist Charlie Jones have been around long enough to know the score, with Charlie having spent time with Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and Imeda May, and Tempesta providing percussion for Testament, Exodus and Helmet, as well as White Zombie and Rob Zombie’s early solo career.

The Cult were a magnificent stroll down Memory Lane tonight, bumping into old friends you’d lost touch with over the years. But there’s enough here, in the more up to date material to confirm the band is still firing on all creative cylinders. So, rather than just being a look to the past, this is a reminder of how good The Cult actually is.