Cure - London Hyde Park, 27/7/2002

  by Anthony Strutt

published: 10 / 8 / 2002

intro

Long-term Cure fan Anthony Strutt watches the band play a stunning hardcore albums set of live rarities, and breaking the habit of a lifetime even some covers, at their first British show in two years

This was altogether such a lovely day. I woke up very late as it was a Saturday, with only one thought on my mind. Today I was seeing the Cure live ! With the Cure, it for me personal. You either love the Cure full stop, like the hits or hate them. I fall into the first basket of thought. This was also the Cure's first English show since their 'Bloodflowers' gig two years ago at Wembley, which was awful. The band looked bored and so was the audience until they played their last thirty minutes of encores. Today the doors opened up a 4pm and the sun shone down on Hyde Park, which was a blessing, because rain had been chasing Cure open air gigs all over the rest of Europe. The opening act came on pretty much as I got there. I didn't take much notice of him, but he was in the vein of Jeff Buckley. The Cranes followed at about 5.30 p.m. and were given a warm reception, which wasn't really a surprise because they pretty much did most of the support on the Cure's 'Wish' tour of 1992. The Cranes music is not really suited to a sunny afternoon, open field atmosphere, but their set was well received, whether the song was quiet or loud, and frontwoman Alison Shaw even played a guitar on the last song. Mogwai followed and played an hour long set. They had been asked to play by the Cure because they are Robert Smith's favourite band, and every other band is measured by them in his head. You are either as good as Mogwai, or better or worse. Several pints in, and the crowd started to swell and I began to get a real feeling of a sense of occasion. Around 8 the intro tape ran out, and the introduction to 'Plainsong' entered our ears while Robert did his religious walkabout. He seemed genuinely pleased to see us, and from here on in we got not by any means a standard Cure show, but a hardcore albums set, which pleased the majority of us there, apart from the odd few who had come for the 'Party' Cure .Robert announced in an interview on the wonderful Cure website www.chainofflowers.com that he wants the Cure to move on, and so over the space of 2 hours and 15 minutes we got live rarities like 'Siamese Twins', 'Pornography', 'The Baby Screams' and 'The Drowning Man'. For the first encore Robert told us that "25 years ago we played as a three piece ; this is the song that came out of that" before ploughing through '3 Imaginary Boys' followed by killer versions of 'M' ; 'Play for Today', which the audience sang along with, and the greatest Cure record ever, 'A Forest', which normally always closes a Cure gig, but not, however, tonight. For their second encore, the Cure, who like nearly everyone else it seems came out of the punk movement, paid tribute to their birth in 1975, but unlike Siouxsie and the Banshees or the Pistols, chose to play songs of two of Robert's favourite bands from that year. I have never heard the Cure play a cover live ever, but the songs were Alex Harvey's 'Faith Healer'and Thin Lizzy's 'Don't Believe a Word'. After this they finally turned into the Cure of 'Party' and delivered 'In Between Days', 'Just Like Heaven' and 'Boys Don't Cry'. A perfect day. Lots of beer, sunshine and even a free tub of Twix ice cream. Perfect. Too damn right. Set List : Plainsong Open The Baby Screams Drowning Man The Kiss Shake Dog Shake Siamese Twins From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea 100 Years 39 Blood Flowers Disintegration Encores : 3 Imaginary Boys M Play for Today A Forest Faith Healer Don't Believe a Word In Between Days Just Like Heaven Boys Don't Cry

Have a Listen:-

Picture Gallery:-