Love in a Cult climate

It was 25 years ago that The Cult released the record that changed lead singer Ian Astbury's life.

He and guitarist Billy Duffy - the band's two songwriters - were still in their early 20s when they came up with the songs for 1985's Love.

Influenced by bands like The Clash, The Banshees, and The Ramones - all acts Astbury went to see live as a teenager - as well as Led Zeppelin, The Doors, The Stooges, Velvet Underground, and Joy Division, they created powerful, and at times raw, serenades like She Sells Sanctuary (arguably the band's finest moment) and lilting ballad Revolution.

"What The Cult was to become was worked out during that album - it was psychedelic rock meets post-modern punk and it changed my life," says Astbury.

Almost overnight The Cult went from alternative British rock band to the top of the mainstream charts with She Sells Sanctuary - and 25 years on they're on the road to celebrate.

They play Love in its entirety at Auckland's Trusts Stadium on Monday with a finale made up of greatest hits including Wild Flower, Fire Women and Love Removal Machine.

They last played in New Zealand at the Big Day Out in 1995, when Astbury looked spectacular in shiny silver pants - although his voice was anything but on form. The Cult split up later that year.

"It's been a while. Too long," he says of coming back to New Zealand and keen to avoid talking about the state he was in last time.

"You get to the stage where the nostalgia element starts playing into your consciousness," he continues. "We didn't particularly want to go out and do the 25th anniversary of anything, because it's almost like the work is dead and it's become a museum piece; because to me these songs are very much alive. So the idea behind choosing Love is probably because it's our truest record - when we were completely unaffected by the record industry. When we were making music for music's sake."

His relationships were documented on songs like Rain and She Sells Sanctuary; and self-discovery, Buddhism, and the metaphysical world were also explored on songs such as Brother Wolf, Sister Moon and shimmering finale Black Angel.

"The idea behind She Sells Sanctuary ... it's definitely about a woman, but I was getting interested in the feminine divine, shamanistic technology, and indigenous perspectives. That's what I was fascinated with, I grew up with a grandmother who was a clairvoyant, we were a pagan household, so there were always strong feminine-patriarchal opponents. In many ways, that went into She Sells Sanctuary."

Following the release of Love they went on an ill-fated tour of America in a van with a road manager "who was a junkie and stole all our money".

"We got left in airports without tickets. We were playing dives. That was a rough one," he laughs.

It was around this time things started to get reckless and the next album, Electric, was a rough-and-ready rock album - and the band's most popular.

Astbury says the change in direction comes down to the lifestyle they started living after Love, where they were touring non-stop, doing 180 shows a year and drinking heavily.

"When you spend that time on the road travelling, you become hardened and certainly part of the lifestyle is about hard drinking. We were different people by the time we made Electric. It's stripped-down, in your face and was about where we were at. More about a gang of kids against the world. We just wanted to go out make a straight rock 'n' roll record that was reminiscent of the Stones, AC/DC, and early Led Zeppelin."

Then came the polished power of Sonic Temple, with anthems Fire Women and Sun King, which made them even bigger in the US. But with this success, things started going awry.

Their next album, Ceremony, was weak and adding to their problems, the band were sued by the parents of the Native American Indian boy on the album cover over the unauthorised use of his image.

By the early 1990s, the feuding between band members - especially Astbury and Duffy - was getting worse due to alcohol abuse and they split up in 1995. "He's from Manchester," jokes Astbury these days.

They reunited in 1999 for Beyond Good and Evil, but their true return to form came with 2007's Born into This.

"Oh, you grow up and you learn to appreciate each other's differences, and also I can walk away from The Cult and do whatever I want. So the music is fresh for me when I come back."

LOWDOWN

Who: The Cult
What: British rockers play classic 1985 album Love in its entirety
Where & when: Trusts Stadium, Henderson, May 3
Essential albums: Love (1985); Electric (1987); Sonic Temple (1989); Born Into This (2007)