The Cure

[Birds in Hell]

Very weird that the RRHoF has amended the induction list to include Reeves (essentially a touring guitarist for the band at this point) particularly when there are past members not being inducted who played on classic 1980s Cure albums (Andy Anderson, Phil Thornalley, Matthieu Hartley).

[Birds in Hell]

The Cure Will Headline Vivid Live 2019
The ticket ballot is now open for four shows celebrating the 30th anniversary of Disintegration.

Vivid Live has announced its headline act for 2019, and it’s a good one. Legendary British rock band The Cure will take to the Opera House’s Concert Hall stage for four nights, playing their influential 1989 album Disintegration in full, along with hits from their other albums.

The world premiere shows will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disintegration, which features some of the band’s best-known songs, including Pictures of You and Lovesong, and was hailed as a return to The Cure’s gothic style after several poppier recordings.

Robert Smith (and his eyeliner) will perform with both current and former members of The Cure. Smith wrote Disintegration while he was experiencing upheaval in his personal life, thirteen years after the band formed. His aim was to create a masterpiece, and the three million copies sold – more than any other Cure album – are a testament to his success. It was also the band’s most critically praised recording.

American digital music publication Pitchfork wrote in 2010 on the re-release of the seminal 1989 album: “It’s a single, grand, dense, continual, epic trip into core stuff The Cure did well … listening to Disintegration is more like standing in the middle of some vast, empty space – the kind of ocean or plain where you can see the horizon in all directions.”

Due to the anticipated high demand, tickets will be available via ballot. Fans can apply for them over a six-day period (to reduce website congestion) starting at 7am today.

Vivid Live is part of the annual Vivid Festival, which includes light installations, music and talks. Vivid Live is held across all six venues of the Opera House and in the past has featured performers such as Brian Eno, Lou Reed, Kraftwerk and the Pixies.

https://www.broadsheet.com.au/sydney/en ... -live-2019

"Current and former members" - (please be Boris, please be Boris, please be Boris)

Definitely going to attempt to get tickets to this.

[Birds in Hell]

He only announced he was terminally ill about a week ago:

[Birds in Hell]

Definitely going to attempt to get tickets to this.

Going to the Saturday night show.

[LetMeSleep]

Good news. Completely forgot about this as we just moved house.

[Birds in Hell]

Must be the week for it, we’re in the middle of the same thing; moved most stuff yesterday but still a few bits and pieces left to shift.

[E.H. Ruddock]

I'm moving this weekend

[Birds in Hell]

Inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame tonight.

Kind of disappointed they played five songs and yet, despite having a whole gaggle of rarely-seen former members present, only the current line-up performed:




(L-R: Michael Dempsey (!!!), Lol Tolhurst, Perry Bamonte, Boris Williams (!!!))

[Birds in Hell]

Pearl's really letting the band have it on IG:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BvnZzk9n6PJ/

It's a video of he and Perry sitting at their table looking rather unimpressed while the Cure are on stage playing Lovesong, captioned: ...JUST WATCHED THE GREAT HALL OF FAME TRIBUTE BAND (((if only you knew the shade of it all))) *

I guess this deflates my expectation that the band may bring back Boris and/or Pearl for the Disintegration shows. If it's just the current band playing those songs, my interest level has starkly moderated. I have the tickets and flights booked already but now it seems like kind of a drag.

[Jorge]

Uh-oh! Drama

Wonder why Bob wouldn't allow them on stage. He had Boris doing additional percussion for the Greatest Hits acoustic sessions, and he let Lol play along during those Faith shows. So it's not about keeping "band integrity" or whatever.

Also, super weird that Reeves was inducted along with the rest. He hasn't even played on a released album yet!

[Birds in Hell]

Never knew there was a film clip for this song:

[Birds in Hell]

Uh-oh! Drama

Wonder why Bob wouldn't allow them on stage. He had Boris doing additional percussion for the Greatest Hits acoustic sessions, and he let Lol play along during those Faith shows. So it's not about keeping "band integrity" or whatever.

Also, super weird that Reeves was inducted along with the rest. He hasn't even played on a released album yet!

It is weird, and Reeves wasn't originally announced as being included either; I presume there was some behind-the-scenes pressure to include him.

I think some of those band relationships are a bit more fraught than those brief appearances would indicate, e.g.:

- Pearl used to be married to Robert's sister for many years however his ending that relationship roughly coincided with his leaving the band again around 2009;

- Perry Bamonte left under pretty strained circumstances too, as his brother Daryl was a long-term part of the band's road crew but was (supposedly) fired by Robert around 2004 which strained Perry and Robert's relationship to the point where Perry suggested they'd stopped speaking and it became so uncomfortable that he felt forced to quit;

- Roger O'Donnell and Pearl seem to loathe one another for issues that stretch way back to the late 80s; aside from 1987-1989, they've never been in the band in the same time and Roger in particular (including on Twitter in response to Pearl's recent IG post) has made a few snarky remarks about Pearl;

- Lol having written his book seems to have strained his relationship with Robert (again) - he mentioned in one interview that he sent Robert a copy of the manuscript before it was published but he hadn't heard from him ever since, and considering they're really the co-founders of the band, there was no particular warmth displayed between them at the RRHoF show and I don't believe they were photographed together even once.

[tattooedeverything]

I see more similarities between Robert Smith and Trent Reznor these days than I had previously. TR has had some semi- or fully acrimonious band member exits over the years, such as Charlie Clouser, Richard Patrick, and Jerome Dillon. He also has Robert's bad habit of announcing things that he wants to release and then not follow through on them.

[Birds in Hell]

I hope one day there's an in-depth investigative biography of the band, there's surely enough material and interview subjects out there (I'm very sad that Andy Anderson passed away before this could happen).

I can readily understand why there could be some disgruntlement among former members; while Robert writes all the lyrics, the band's music has always been a collaborative endeavour and some members in particular have played a significant (and not proportionately credited) role in writing the band's music.

[run2death]

Happy 60th, Mr. Smith.

[Jorge]

[LetMeSleep]

5th Vivid show announced with live YouTube stream.

https://hd.sydneyoperahouse.com/the-cur ... tream.html

[Birds in Hell]

My favourite thing about this is Robert hugging Boris at 12:49.

5th Vivid show announced with live YouTube stream.

https://hd.sydneyoperahouse.com/the-cur ... tream.html

I'm cautiously looking forward to these shows.

In a perfect world it would be incredible to see the Disintegration-era band playing those songs but I think it'll still be an enjoyable night.

[Birds in Hell]

This interview with Robert is fantastic; I’m only halfway through and he’s very chatty and reflective.

[Birds in Hell]

In a perfect world it would be incredible to see the Disintegration-era band playing those songs but I think it'll still be an enjoyable night.

I was wrong. It was not an enjoyable night.

Crowd was unbearable to the extent that it completely ruined the night for both my wife and myself.

The sound mix was also both not great and way too loud for such a small venue.

It was interesting to hear some songs they've never played before and almost certainly won't again but it just wasn't a very enjoyable show.

Mercifully, they didn't play for as long as I'd thought they would. I was ready to leave well before the end of the show.

Anyway, setlist was:

Noheart
Fear of Ghosts
Out of Mind
Esten
2 Late
Babble
Delirious Night

Plainsong
Pictures of You
Closedown
Lovesong
Last Dance
Lullaby
Fascination Street
Prayers for Rain
The Same Deep Water as You
Disintegration
Homesick
Untitled

Burn
Pirate Ships