The Cure

[Clint72]

I first listened to the Cure in College when this really hot chick, in a nerdy way, used to love them.

[southp]

I first listened to the Cure in College when this really hot chick, in a nerdy way, used to love them.

LOL....my ex is the one who got me into the Cure as I was only a casual fan before I met her. When we broke up I was in a deep depression and listened to the S/T album (2004) over and over again, further sending me down a spiral of darkness. It was a powerful combination of music and emotion.... "I can't find myself..."

Since then I can't really listen to that album, but deep down it's one of my favourites of all time.

[psychobain]

Last Dance, sometimes, is my fav Cure song.

[nyquillyn]

This is still my go-to band when I'm drunk.

[Birds in Hell]

[LetMeSleep]

Holy shit, now that's what I call a setlist....wish I could have been there..

Setlist: The Cure, Royal Albert Hall, London, UK, 3/28/14

1. “Plainsong”
2. “Prayers For Rain”
3. “A Strange Day”
4. “A Night Like This”
5. “Stop Dead”
6. “Push”
7. “Inbetween Days”
8. “2 Late”
9. “Jupiter Crash”
10. “The End of the World”
11. “Lovesong”
12. “Mint Car”
13. “Friday I’m in Love”
14. “Doing the Unstuck”
15. “Trust”
16. “Pictures of You”
17. “Lullaby”
18. “High”
19. “Harold and Joe”
20. “The Caterpillar”
21. “The Walk”
22. “Sleep When I’m Dead”
23. “Just Like Heaven”
24. “From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea”
25. “Want”
26. “The Hungry Ghost”
27. “Wrong Number”
28. “One Hundred Years”
29. “Disintegration”
30. “If Only Tonight We Could Sleep”
31. “Shake Dog Shake”
32. “Fascination Street”
33. “Bananafishbones”
34. “Play For Today”
35. “A Forest”
36. “Catch”
37. “The Lovecats”
38. “Hot Hot Hot”
39. “Let’s Go to Bed”
40. “Freakshow”
41. “Close To Me”
42. “Why Can’t I Be You?”
43. “Boys Don’t Cry”
44. “10:15 Saturday Night”
45. “Killing An Arab”

[Lament]

I'd leave after the first thirty-five songs and not feel bad about anything I missed.

[Birds in Hell]

What a band.



Notes for fact fans:

- 2 Late: first ever performance of this Disintegration-era b-side.
- Jupiter Crash: first performance since 2004 and first with this line-up of the band.
- Harold & Joe: see 2 Late, though it was the b-side of 1990 non-album single Never Enough.
- Freakshow: first performance since 2008 and first with this line-up of the band.

So happy to see Jupiter Crash reappear in particular, it's one of my favourite Cure songs.

[Jorge]

I'd leave after the first thirty-five songs and not feel bad about anything I missed.

Those hits are played with such aplomb though. A Cure show is an emotional journey, but then that final encore turns into a party.

[Birds in Hell]

I'd leave after the first thirty-five songs and not feel bad about anything I missed.

Those hits are played with such aplomb though. A Cure show is an emotional journey, but then that final encore turns into a party.

Totally!

Though the last Cure show I saw wasn't THAT great, it was during the 2005-2009 period that I think was easily the band's nadir, the hits-heavy end of the show was definitely the highlight. It was genuinely just so much FUN, y'know?

[Lament]

Yeah, I've seen them several times, and after the first one I had no desire to sit through those songs anymore. The worst was in 2005 when they played them all in a row at the end like they did here. I can handle them being spaced out, but all together like that just bores me.

The best Cure show I saw was Bloodflowers in Chicago in 2000. It was so absurdly bleak, even by their standards.

[Lament]

It's not even that I mind them stacking the hits like that. They just have a tendency to stack all of the ones I can't stand together. Catch, Close to Me, and Boys Don't Cry are the only ones in that last chunk that don't drive me nuts these days. The older I get the gulf between the Cure material I love and the Cure material I loathe gets wider and wider, and the amount of stuff that exists in the middle seems to get smaller and smaller.

[Birds in Hell]

He who is tired of 10:15 Saturday Night is tired of life!

[Birds in Hell]

http://thecure.com/news/1935/as_clearly ... y_as_i_can

AS CLEARLY AND SUCCINCTLY AS I CAN...


"Having said all that, I have no idea… I really don't. I'm really bad at planning long-term stuff."*

I HAVE LITTLE DESIRE TO BE DRAWN
AND LITTLE CONVICTION IT REALLY MATTERS THAT MUCH...
BUT ON THE BACK OF THE WEARY AND EVER MORE NEGATIVE INTERPRETATIONS OF MY SHORT POST SATURDAY RAH SHOW CHAT WITH XFM
I WILL TRY TO EXPLAIN A VERY SIMPLE CHAIN OF EVENTS AS CLEARLY AND SUCCINCTLY AS I CAN, GIVEN A NUMBER OF GENUINE CONSTRAINTS…

LIKE NOT WANTING TO NAME TOO MANY NAMES OR POINT TOO MANY FINGERS


IN 2007 THE CURE (ME, SIMON, JASON AND PORL THOMPSON) REHEARSED AND RECORDED 33 SONGS WITH THE INTENTION OF CREATING A DOUBLE CD ALBUM CONTAINING APPROXIMATELY 2 HOURS OF MUSIC:

13 SONGS ON EACH DISC, MOST WITH WORDS AND VOCALS, BUT A FEW WITH WORDS AND NO VOCALS (IE. 'INSTRUMENTALS WITH WORDS'…!) - THE RUNNING ORDER WAS FLUID, AS I WAS CONSTANTLY REARRANGING THE ORDER IN WHICH THE 33 A4 'MASTER SHEETS' WERE STUCK ON THE WALL OF THE CONTROL ROOM… CHOICE CHANGED DEPENDING ON THE PROGRESS OF THE RECORDING…

WE PLANNED TO RELEASE 4 OF THE ALBUM SONGS AS 'SINGLES', PLUS 4 'B-SIDES'…
LEAVING A 'MARGIN OF ERROR' (SHOULD WE NEED IT) OF 3 SONGS…

HOWEVER, TOWARDS THE END OF THE PROJECT, I RAN OUT OF THE ENERGY AND CONVICTION I NEEDED TO RESIST A GROWING COMMERCIAL (AND TEMPORAL) PRESSURE FROM INDIVIDUALS AND RELEASE STRUCTURES I WAS OBLIGED TO WORK WITH, AND (TO MY DISCREDIT?!!) ABANDONED THE DOUBLE ALBUM/INSTRUMENTALS PLAN…

INSTEAD I COMPILED '4:13 DREAM' (13 SONGS WITH WORDS AND VOCALS), AND IT WAS THIS SINGLE CD ALBUM, ALONG WITH THE 4 OTHER 'B-SIDE' SONGS ACCOMPANYING THE 4 (REMIXED) SINGLES, THAT WAS RELEASED IN 2008

COMPILING A SINGLE CD ALBUM REQUIRED A DIFFERENT APPROACH (FOR ONE THING THERE WAS NO LONGER THE TIME TO 'SPREAD OUT' AND CONNECT THE DIFFERENT MOODS AS I HAD ORIGINALLY INTENDED… )
AND AS A CONSEQUENCE A NUMBER OF (MY FAVOURITE!) SLOWER SONGS AND INSTRUMENTAL PIECES WERE LEFT UNFINISHED AND UNRELEASED

"AS CLEARLY AND SUCCINCTLY AS I CAN": I THINK '4:13 DREAM' IS AN EXCELLENT CURE ALBUM, AND ALL THE B-SIDES ARE FAB… BUT THE CULMINATION OF THE PROJECT WASNT QUITE WHAT IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN, AS 16 OF THE ORIGINAL 33 SONGS WERE 'LEFT ON THE SHELF'...

IN 2009 PORL THOMPSON LEFT THE BAND
AND THAT VERSION OF THE CURE WAS OVER
FOR GOOD
AND LIFE CARRIED ON…
IN 2010 THE CURE HAD 'A YEAR AWAY'
IN 2011 ROGER O'DONNELL REJOINED THE BAND AND THE CURE PLAYED AROUND THE WORLD…
AND ENOUGH TIME HAD PASSED…
AND I GOT THE URGE TO REVISIT OUR 'LIVE IN PARIS 2008' FILM TO SEE HOW FAR WE HAD GOT WITH IT…
AND FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 3 YEARS LISTENED TO THE UNRELEASED '4:13 DREAM' SESSION SONGS...
AND I FOUND I STILL LIKED THEM… ALBEIT I WASN'T SURE ABOUT SOME OF THE LYRICS...

…SO I STARTED WRITING NEW WORDS FOR THE INSTRUMENTAL SONGS
AND I STARTED SINGING THEM
AND RESINGING OTHERS
AND I BEGAN THINKING OF WAYS TO FINISH OFF THE PROJECT TO MY SATISFACTION

AND LIFE CARRIED ON…

IN 2012 REEVES GABRELS JOINED THE BAND AND THE CURE PLAYED AROUND THE WORLD…
AND (MAINLY BECAUSE OF THIS 'PLAYING AROUND THE WORLD' AND 'LIFE CARRYING ON' STUFF) OTHER UNFINISHED PROJECTS STARTED MOUNTING UP…
IN 2013 THE CURE CONTINUED PLAYING SHOWS AROUND THE WORLD…
AND THE PERFORMANCES GOT BETTER AND BETTER…
AND LIFE...


IN 2014 THE CURE CONTINUE(D) PLAYING SHOWS AROUND THE WORLD…

AND MY PLAN THIS SUNNY SPRING MONDAY AT THE END OF MARCH IS TO GET TO THE POINT IN THE NEXT MONTH OR THREE WHERE WE CAN RELEASE:

1)
A LTD EDITION '4:26 DREAM' DOUBLE CD ALBUM OF 26 SONGS (ALL REMIXED) - IE. 'THE ORIGINAL 4:13 DREAM SESSIONS CONCEPT ALBUM' (INCLUDING THE 'INSTRUMENTALS WITH WORDS') - OF WHICH 10 TRACKS OR MORE WILL BE PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED…

2)
A LTD EDITION '4:14 SCREAM' SINGLE CD ALBUM OF 14 PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED SONGS - ALBEIT SOME OF THEM MAY ALSO BE ON '4:26 DREAM'… BUT THESE '4:14 SCREAM' VERSIONS WILL ALL HAVE WORDS AND VOCALS…


"AS CLEARLY AND SUCCINCTLY AS I CAN"?!!:
ITS MAYBE STILL A BIT TRICKY TO EXPLAIN WITHOUT TITLES AND LYRICS AND…
MUSIC!!!
BUT...
OF THE ORIGINAL 33 SONGS RECORDED IN 2008
32 WILL GET RELEASED
(THERE'S ALWAYS ONE…!)
AND I WILL BE OVERCOME WITH AN IRRESISTIBLE URGE** TO FINISH SOME (ALL?!!) OF THE OTHER OUTSTANDING CURE PROJECTS
LIKE 'LIVE IN PARIS 2008' AND 'REFLECTIONS 2011' AND 'SUMMERCURE 2012' AND 'LATAM 2013' (AND 'RAH TCT 2014'?!!)

…AND CREATE SOME NEW NEW MUSIC WITH THIS CURRENT CURE LINEUP...


"Down, down, deeper and down… "
HA!
AND ONWARDS
RSX



PS
"AS CLEARLY AND SUCCINCTLY AS I CAN":
I STILL PREFER PHYSICAL RELEASES TO VIRTUAL… gulp!

PPS
*"Having said all that, I have no idea… I really don't. I'm really bad at planning long-term stuff." - ME, AT THE WEEKEND…
**"TRUE ART IS CHARACTERISED BY AN IRRESISTIBLE URGE IN THE CREATIVE ARTIST"… EINSTEIN, SOMETIME EARLIER!!!

[Jorge]

A LTD EDITION '4:26 DREAM' DOUBLE CD ALBUM OF 26 SONGS (ALL REMIXED) - IE. 'THE ORIGINAL 4:13 DREAM SESSIONS CONCEPT ALBUM' (INCLUDING THE 'INSTRUMENTALS WITH WORDS') - OF WHICH 10 TRACKS OR MORE WILL BE PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED…

I bet you this doesn't end up happening

[Birds in Hell]

Top 10:

Piggy in the Mirror
How Beautiful You Are
The Drowning Man
If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
The Same Deep Water As You
Just One Kiss
Dressing Up
Faith
Last Dance
Sinking

[Lament]

One Hundred Years
Primary
Want
Push
Cut Here
Charlotte Sometimes
Siamese Twins
Shake Dog Shake
The Figurehead
Wrong Number

[Birds in Hell]

Some solid choices there, Lament; The Figurehead and Shake Dog Shake could easily have made my list too.

I can't quibble over Want but, of all the post-1985 songs, why Wrong Number and Cut Here? I'm quite fond of the former but not a fan at all of the latter. Then again, I absolutely can't stand Push and everyone seems to love that one, so...

[Jorge]

I like "Cut Here" a lot because it sounds like The Cure doing a New Order cover

[Lament]

Some solid choices there, Lament; The Figurehead and Shake Dog Shake could easily have made my list too.

I can't quibble over Want but, of all the post-1985 songs, why Wrong Number and Cut Here? I'm quite fond of the former but not a fan at all of the latter. Then again, I absolutely can't stand Push and everyone seems to love that one, so...

Wrong Number and Cut Here both represent a direction I'll always wish they'd pursued for an entire album's worth of material. Wrong Number went a long way at the time towards burying my disappointment in Wild Mood Swings, and has the benefit of being tied up forever with my (very pleasant) memories of my first job, a record store where Galore over and over again (it actually came out on my very first day of training). I went a long time without playing it too often, but a few years ago when I was doing a new wave/classic alternative at the club I was working at I started playing it semi-regularly again and remember not only how good it was, but how many good memories it brought back.

Cut Here I've just always loved and played pretty regularly since it came out. I love everything about it. But I also love New Order, so...