It´s been 3 years since the last european summer festival. And although we all sweared "no festival tour again" each of us drove to Zeebruege Axchion festival - to see "the cure" again! The festival was located directly at the beach of Zeebruegge. It was a sunny, but very windy weather. After one hour waiting at the backstage entrance every part of the body was full of beach sand.

At 19.00 o´clock the band arrived at Zeebruegge, except Robert. He alone was driven to the gig in an Renault Espace at 20.00 o´clock. About 30 waiting cure fans only could get a short view on the band, as the busses directly drove into the festival area...so no chance to talk to the band, as it used to be on the swing tour...

The concert delayed about 30 min. But the sun still shined directly onto the stage. So during the first part of the gig there was no lightshow. About the audience: It was very crowed in front of the stage, but compared with the other belgian cure gigs I saw so far, the athmosphere was quite low.

At 21.00 o´clock the cure went on stage. Robert weared his black army trousers - the same as in London 1997 - combined with a black t-shirt with blue stripes on it.

Here the setlist with my personal thoughts:

Only one encore was a bit disappointing. But, finally I must conclude, that the performance was very good - although short!

Robert was in a very good mood,talking a lot (I did not understand) and walking, laughing, animating the crowd. The crowd unfortunalety was quite low...this amanzingly changed 20 min later, when PRODIGY went on stage...but that´s definetely not my cup of tea!

Apart from this, this "Koto" gig was worth the trip!

I went to the Zeebrugge festival yesterday. The Cure show was very good with a terrific setlist (already sent in I saw). They played for ca. 1hr30-1hr45.

Already from the two opening songs it was clear they were going to perform a show similar to the ones at the end of the '97 tour and were not there just to play some hits. When they announced '100 years' a huge part of the crowd where I was standing went totally wild.

After that song Robert said they were going to play a song they hadn't played for at least 12 years or so. I don't know if this is correct, but I hadn't seen Kyoto song live yet and I love the song very much. It was the only song Robert made use of the stage piece that went 'in the crowd', if you know what I mean (sorry, my English isn't that good), and of course there was a lot of yelling towards him then.

Then came Pictures of you, with the intro played three times or so (Simon went even to ask Perry when he was finally going to start, making clear with his hands that the intro was lasting very long - maybe Robert was searching for the text, I don't know). This was followed by (the you-you-you version of) JLH, which was the first song recognized by the entire crowd.

After JLH he announced a song that they 'hadn't played for even a longer time then Kyoto song', and a nice version (great guitars!) of Sinking followed.

Next piece of the show was very similar to the final part of the first Shepherd Bush show on december the 16th last year, only they didn't play Lovesong and Boys don't cry and they played Wrong Number first.

A few remarks: The festival was at the sea so Robert of course sung 'and we watched the sun come down...' in stead of 'go up' ; Untitled was the final song before the encore, it was just awesome, for me it was the best song of the night, with beautiful keyboards at the end ; at the beginning of the short encore he said something like "I'm fucked up playing The Walk" before starting 10:15.

And of course he ended by saying "See you next year.... at a pop concert" (after Simon smashing his guitar and leaving stage before the rest of the group), which was the end of a very great show!

Jason played very very well on drums, for the ones that should still have doubts about him.

It was 21.00 when Jan Hautekiet, a famous Flemish radio d.j. announced that The Cure would be on stage 30 minutes later. At 21.30 they started the European tour with Shake Dog Shake, in front of a 50.000 crowd. Fascination Street was played like the single version, starting with Simon's bass-solo. One Hundred Years was played with a rhythm-composer and Jason on drums.

During Kyoto Song Robert walked on the cat-walk before the stage into the audience. Kyoto Song was announced as "a song we didn't play for the last 12 years" only The Cure played it for the last during The Prayer Tour in 1989. Sinking was a song I never heard live (I saw The Cure for the first time in 1987 and since then I saw them 15 times).

During Wrong Number it went a little wrong at the end but hey, this was the first show since december last year. The end of the show was harder (as usual) with a slower Untitled (Robert had a problem with his Fender VI but thanks to Perry it ended well).

Only two encores were played. Robert freaked a little bit out at the end of 10.15 Saturday Night. The only question I have after this good show is: Why was Perry's keyboard on stage if he didn't use it ?

The Cure went on stage at 21:30, almost unnoticed by the audience, as this time there was no introduction like "tape" or the chimes before "Plainsong". They started their show with "Shake Dog Shake", which is certainly a good song to get in shape for the whole event.

"Torture" and "Fascination Street" were the next 2 songs. "We're gonna play some older songs tonight", Robert said and "One hundred years" and "Kyoto song" followed, which was the first big surprise of the show. I was really excited to hear the hidden classics, the classics of the real fans. But I got the impression during the whole concert, that most of the crowd were not so enthusiastic about the set-list, as I was.

Not surprisingly, the hits "Just like heaven" and "In-between days" were the favourites of the audience. They clapped their hands, started to yell out loud and even began to dance ! Absolutely right, these songs are great, but The Cure play them on every show.

But it is the surprise of what will follow next that makes every event so unforgettable. And that night made no difference. That is why my favourites were "Sinking" where the stage was filled with mist and a deep green colour and "Untitled". "Untitled" was the last song of the main set-list and it was so unbelievable to hear and see The Cure playing that song live. Well, at least that is my opinion and I haven´t seen The Cure playing this track live until yesterday.

I was a bit disappointed in the guitar play of Robert and Perry. It seemed to me as if they weren`t in good mood concerning that, although Robert`s vocal performance was great. But I´m sure, the audience was a reason for less improvisation in the guitar parts. The sound wasn´t that good, too. A bit too dull, but the reason for that may be the show of "The Prodigy", who played as headliner after The Cure.

And I´m still wondering what was going on with Simon, who talked to Perry and Robert for several times. He also left out the last chords of "10:15 Saturday night" and ran off the stage as first during the last tunes of "Killing an Arab".

Finally, let me say that the audience was awful, although the set-list was great (or maybe because of the set-list, as hits like "Friday, I´m in love" or "Boys Don`t Cry" or "Lullaby" were left out ?? ). But nevertheless, I was happy to be there and I´m looking very much forward to the next festivals.

Let me end my report with some questions: Why haven`t they played a single (!) song from their current album "Wild Mood Swings" ? I would really like to hear songs like "Want", "Jupiter Crash" or "Bare". And why have they left out so many of their hits like "Boys Don`t Cry", "Lullaby" or "Why Can`t I Be You?". Well, I was surprised but also amazed by that. "Back to the roots, back to darker, more emotional songs, Robet ??" I would appreciate that very much, although I also like their pop songs like "Just Like Heaven" or "Doing the Unstuck" or "The 13th" very much.

"See you next year", Robert ended the show. "See you within the next weeks", I answer!!

P.S. I just read the other reviews. I must say that I stood a bit more from distance to the stage, where the entire crowd was listening. And I soon got very angry about that. I promise you, the next time I will stand closer to the stage.

The guitar play during "Sinking" sounded interesting, but was shorter and in my eyes not so good as on "Live In Orange". The highlight was of course "Untitled" !! No doubt. But I hate it when The Cure play so beautiful and slow songs like "Sinking" and people around me start to talk.

Concerning Jason on the drums, I´m still of the opinion that Boris was the much better drummer. This time I recognised that during "Cut", where Jason got his problems to put as much power into that song as Boris did.

I was in Zeebrugge and I'd just like to add a few things to the previous reviews or answer some questions: first, I think the second keyboard was there because the band intended to play "Trust" as an encore (as they did the day after in Wiesen).

Simon threw his bass on the ground at the end of "Killling an arab" and looked very angry because, I guess, he wanted to play more. Indeed, during the last notes of "Untitled", a guy from the organisation came on stage to speak to Robert; then, Simon came to ask Robert what this guy wanted. So, they left the stage and came back immediatly to play this quick encore of two songs.

You must know that the gig began half an hour late and I think it was a big problem because of the other sets of the night (Prodigy). Finally, at the end of "Killing", this guy was beside the stage asking, with his hand, the band to leave the stage quickly. Simon looked angry and threw his bass before leaving. Robert stayed very smily (as during all the gig, in very good mood!) and kindly thanked the audience (a boring audience!).

Oh yes, to end: there was about 50,000 people, and not 15,000. Too much for this square on the beach. But a great Cure gig! I think I will be in Brno for the last one (they announce a three hours gig).

i thought they all looked quite good

simon has a new hair cut, at least it is new since i saw them halloween 97. it is shorter and shaved underneath, 1/2 pulled back and curly

robert looks good. not so thin as he seemed at the end of last year he didnt seem too worn out, at least not yet since it was the first of the summer festivals i dont recall too much talking, only that right before the encores he said something along the lines of having a 'fucking long' catwalk before him and trying to figure out how he could walk all down it with a guitar and cord it was cute

and at the end of the show, he said' see you next year, hopefully with better conditions' dunno if he meant the rain (it had poured earlier that day) and it was cold too or perhaps he meant the photographers who flashed cameras in their faces for the first 3 or so songs, and also blocked the view for the audience to the right side of the stage people were poltiely irritated and threw shit at the photo-hogs, and finally they moved when they felt they were ready

robert did walk the catwalk as the sun was sinking, and i got some (hopefully) good panoramic shots of this. i must develop my photos now i have arrived home today

sadly i couldnt see jason at all from where i was postioned, so i cant offer a description of him

roger and perry looked good, and unchanged from the last time i saw them

About 15000 persons, on the beach, front of the sea. All the band dressed in black, Robert with black army pants, I've never seen him so fat before!!!!, We really enjoy the gig, even if they need to practice a little...

Hi, i'm one of the many Cure-fans who went to Beachrock (but one of the few who could reach the first rows!). The Cure was great as usual! You've already heard about the wrong ending from Wrong number (what's in a name), but the rest of the song was more than OK, so everybody was yelling and clapping. Smiths reaction was great: he smiled and said: "You must be kidding! It was the wrong chord!".

I still haven't landed back on earth !

Robert was in top form at the Axion Beach Rock in Belgium, his voice was powerful and clear and emotional and just very impressive.

The total number of people during the entire festival was reported to be around 50,000, but most of them were not there for the Cure, there were more people during the Prodigy performance than the Cure's. I'm surprised Robert gave us such a great show, considering the lack of enthousiasm from this crowd.

But the show was incredible, and the highlights for me were Untitled, performed beautifully, and Sinking, which caught me completely by surprise. Another case of Robert memory loss when he announced he hadn't performed it in 12 years.

I attended the Seattle and Portland shows in December here in the US, and in the beginning of this show I was worried that it would be the same set list at those shows, but once I heard Kyoto Song, I knew I was in for a treat. But again, Sinking was the song that impressed me the most. The lighting, Robert's singing, everything, it was just a perfect performance.

There was a little platform in the middle of the crowd, and Robert walked out on that, the bright white lights shining upon the crowd, the harsh cold wind coming in from the water, Robert wailing "i'll never feel again"....oh this is what Cure shows are meant to be. Both my boyfriend and I have been to 7 shows, he in europe and I in America since Wish, and we both agreed that this was the best show we have seen.