A sonic anniversary tour: The Cult talk ahead of Birmingham show

Sonic Temple propelled Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy into rock’s super league as they swapped their native Bradford for Los Angeles and found themselves hanging out with David Bowie, Guns N’Roses and more.

It was a record that confirmed their earlier promise, building on the excellence of their third album, Electric, which was produced by Rick Rubin. It helped them to crack North America and persuaded them to start a new life in Los Angeles, California, where they are still based.

The band have little time for looking back under normal circumstances, even though their canon of work is exquisite. In truth, they are too busy looking forward – as evidence on their brilliant and most recent record, the 2016 opus, Hidden City. Rich in sound, brilliantly written and with exceptional blues-boogie-riffarama qualities, it was complex, sophisticated and thrillingly good.

And yet they’ve made an exception with Sonic Temple, for it was so good, so influential and it completely changed the game.

Speaking from Los Angeles, frontman Ian Astbury says: “To be honest, I haven’t really spent much time going back and reliving stuff from the past.

“This whole project was initiated by the label, Beggars Banquet. They’ve been re-mastering the records and this was the first time I wanted to step in. So I got involved in the creation of the 30th anniversary box set. We thought it was a great opportunity to talk about re-introducing The Cult to a bigger audience and using this as a moment to reflect on the DNA of the band.”

Astbury says the shift from the UK to LA was instrumental in creating Sonic Temple.

“The geographical aspect was huge. By the late 1980s, we were living in London but London was so intense. I was going out every night; I didn’t stay home at all. I was always out at films, shows, gigs and galleries – London is incomparable for that.

“But I was also getting a lot of attention and people knew who I was. I literally couldn’t walk down the street. I remember being out in Wardour Street, in Soho, on one occasion and being accosted by skinheads.

“So the management suggested we go to LA, where it’s totally different. LA is all about car culture and it’s more spread out. I was immersed in the mythos of Los Angeles from the moment we arrived. Y’now. Aldos Huxley was here, there were The Doors, that whole Laurel Canyon thing, Arthur Lee, Love and then the whole burgeoning post-modern scene. Add that to Chilli Peppers, Jane’s Addiction, bands like X and The Gun Club… LA had got it all.

“You could also access all sorts of people in this incredible and very intimate way. There was an opportunity to gather influences in an uninhibited way. My main mode of transportation in London had been taxis, tube and buses with a Walkman on. In LA you’d be driving a motorcycle or car and listening to great radio stations. I was always immersed in music. That was a really important thing.”

And that’s how Sonic Temple came about. Astbury and Duffy were influenced by hard, psychedelic rock, The Doors, The Stooges and Led Zeppelin.

They were living in an apartment block in which Metallica were also staying. And Astbury frequently bumped into one of Jim Morrison’s ex-girlfriends, who’d show him letters written by the frontman of The Doors. He met Timothy Leary, became immersed in the music of Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis and lived opposite the Whiskey A Go Go, near to the Viper Room. He bumped into David Bowie one night in a video store. “I was browsing and this guy comes up to me: ‘Hello Ian’. It was Bowie. He was looking for Trevor Howard films. We walked around the store together for 15 minutes, just chatting. He was incredible and very generous. He kind of gave me that acknowledgement that I was okay. You know, I’d seen Bono and Freddy Mercury at Live Aid. But Bowie was always another level because I was such an overwhelming fan of music.”

Sonic Temple gave the band huge commercial opportunities and changed their lives. And now it’s time to celebrate its impact as the band re-issued a beefed-up boxed-set version and also hit the road – they reach Birmingham’s O2 Academy on October 17.

“Birmingham is such an exciting. There’s so much going on there. So, yes, we’re looking forward to coming back on the Sonic Temple tour.”