The Cult “Fire Woman” 1989. 12″ single, promo copy. Today, April 4th, is the birthday of both Craig Adams (bass, b. 1962) and Nigel Preston (drums, b. 1963). Preston does not play on this single: he was fired from the band in ‘85 after being deemed unreliable because of drug use. After working with Nile Rogers, DeLuca and The Baby Snakes he spent time in prison for armed robbery and died in ‘92 of a drug overdose. Adams joined The Cult in ‘93 (post-Sisters of Mercy and The Mission), staying until the band’s first dissolution in ‘95.

So while neither musician plays on the single, it’s fine because this isn’t one of my favorites – the band had moved away from its goth/post-punk sound and into more commercial hard rock, also I heard it about a million times and became really really tired of it. The song appears on Sonic Temple, which reached #10 in the US buoyed by “Fire Woman” (#2 on the Modern Rock Tracks Billboard chart, #46 on the Hot 100 chart in the US, #15 in the UK). The promo copy has the LP version of “Fire Woman” on both sides. The commercial single’s 7″ B-side release is “Automatic Blues” and the 12″ single also has “Messing Up the Blues” and two “Fire Woman” remixes.