Teenage Cancer Trust 2006 
(https://www.teenagecancertrust.org/main/)


April 1st, 2006 - London, England (Royal Albert Hall)

Open, Fascination Street, alt.end, The Blood, A Night Like This, The End Of The World, Play For Today, If Only Tonight We Could Sleep, The Kiss,
Shake Dog Shake, Us or Them, Never Enough, Signal to Noise, The Figurehead, A Strange Day, Push, Inbetween Days, Just Like Heaven, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, At Night, The Drowning Man, M, The Baby Screams, One Hundred Years, Shiver and Shake, End

1st encore: Lullaby, Hot Hot Hot, Let's Go To Bed, Friday I'm In Love, Why Can't I Be You (extended version with Young At Heart)
2nd encore: Three Imaginary Boys, Fire In Cairo, Grinding Halt, 10:15 Saturday Night, Killing An Arab
3rd encore: Boys Don't Cry, A Forest (Robert: "See you later in the year").

Show was 3 hours and 6 minutes!

Soundcheck: Fascination Street, End of the World, If Only Tonight We Could Sleep, Us Or Them, Never Enough, Push
 

(Thanks to Olivier and Grzesiek for the setlist and to Marcello for the soundcheck)


Photos

COF - Getty Images - DEFSnap


Audio

Full show is available at www.thecure.pl



Video

The Kiss - Push - Just Like Heaven - Fascination Street - 100 Years 1 - 100 Years 2 - 100 Years 3 / Shiver & Shake - Why Can't I Be You?
Intro / Open - alt.end - A Strange Day - 17 clips from blacksaturn


 
Reviews


The Cure Depeche Mode
BY PAUL MORLEY

At the Royal Albert Hall, The Cure take time out from recording their 13th studio album to play the final night of Roger Daltrey's Teenage Cancer Trust Week. They play so many songs it would take this whole review to list them. For a while it seemed they might play as many as the number of years they've been around - so, a night of 30 Cure songs. The final track of their main set was song No 28, but they then returned for a series of encores that suggested they might end up playing as many songs as the 47 years their leader, singer and spirit guide Robert Smith has been alive. (He's accompanied by bassist Simon Gallup and guitarist Porl Thompson who have been in the group on and off since the late 1970s - drummer Jason Cooper joined in 1995 - making this Cure line up, about their 20th and as always built in Smith's damned, dreamy image, a remote hint of the original group.)

In the end, the delicate slackers, they pull up short of Smith's age, at about 38 songs. It took a shade over three hours, but The Cure did such drastic things to time that there were moments when it seemed as if the outside world had ceased to exist, and the diabolically alluring Smith was in control of eternity. Occasionally, you wanted to scream at them to stop the dissolving guitars, stifled wailing and desolate rhythm. It was as though they were possessed as much by Grateful Dead as Edgar Allan Poe, making music to furnish a coffin. Sometimes, you just went along with Smith's screwy plan, happy, oddly, to be dragged slowly face first through the cobwebs, shadows and blooming gloom. And then suddenly, time would flash by, usually when they were playing some of their vexed but euphoric pop songs, one or two of which ('Friday I'm In Love', 'Boys Don't Cry') are candidates to be the greatest pop song ever written. It was as if they were possessed as much by David Bowie as Bram Stoker.

The discreetly amused Robert Smith remains magnificently oblivious to any consideration that his appearance is preposterous for a man of his age. He more and more resembles a bulbous scarecrow crawling out of Liza Minnelli's decayed body, but his voice is as exquisitely plaintive as ever, the ultimate loner's moan. The encores, a whole separate set in themselves, see The Cure unapologetically and flirtatiously tumble back to their punk-pop early days, when emotionally they were slightly more up than down. They party, sort of, and leave the audience feeling a weird kind of cheer. At the end, fans and band seem ready for another three hours and indeed another 30 years.

Like The Cure, Depeche Mode have not been chased down by time, outwitted by newcomers, or humiliated by changing fashion. Their new music is powerful enough that they can play the old songs without seeming merely nostalgic. Both bands' latest albums are among their best and freshest.

At the first of two Wembley Arena shows that finish off their European tour, Depeche don't quite have The Cure's grandiose three-hour stamina and stubborn commitment to depressed, meandering album tracks, but they artfully present themselves as exactly what they are - an effervescent, baby-faced early-Eighties synth band that has evolved into a sophisticated, cocksure arena-rock act without sacrificing their flamboyantly enigmatic electroglam spirit.

Singer Dave Gahan is part perky popstruck electrokid, part skinny, chest-baring, tattooed rock monster, part mincing salsa teacher with 43-year-old buttocks the size of beans. The angelically demonic Martin Gore, Mode's musical mastermind, is Harpo Marx springing out of Marc Bolan. Third man Andy Fletcher is the amiable geography teacher struggling to maintain cool in front of an unruly class. This strangely irresistible trio confirm they're one the greatest British pop groups of all time and leave an audience wanting at least another 25 years.

- London Daily Telegraph (April 9th, 2006)


ALSO PLAYING
BY FREDDIE WINDSOR

THEY'RE STILL A MAGIC CURE ...

Booking a band called The Cure for their showpiece benefit may have been wishful thinking by the organisers of the Teenage Cancer Trust, but there can surely not have been a soul in London's Royal Albert Hall left unaffected by this sublime performance (****). For nearly three hours these past masters of the macabre led fans on a marathon through history, playing songs from almost every Cure album.

He may be a little too old and a little too tanned to cut quite the same Gothic mustard as in his Eighties heyday, but Robert Smith's voice still sounds fantastic. The newly keyboardless four-piece band performed at least 35 songs, with 11 from Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me and The Head On The Door, on which three of this line-up first played together. Of these, Smith sang especially well on The Blood and A Night Like This, while a gleeful romp through back-to-back hits In Between Days and Just Like Heaven had the audience chanting the missing organ parts at the tops of their lungs.

One of The Cure's great strengths has always been their ability to deliver the funereal and the joyous with equal conviction; no sooner had Smith finished tearing into aching religious crisis Faith and the scathing One Hundred Years than he was titillating us in the first of three encores with the frothy Let's Go To Bed and Friday I'm In Love.

The band saved the best for last: four back-to-back songs from debut album Three Imaginary Boys, before searing renditions of Killing An Arab and Boys Don't Cry. The evening ended with bassist Simon Gallup playing the final note of A Forest on his knees before collapsing in mock exhaustion. On this evidence, though, there's plenty of life in these love cats yet.

- London Mail On Sunday (April 9th, 2006)


The Cure
*****
 Royal Albert Hall, London

Betty Clarke
Tuesday April 4, 2006
The Guardian

Maybe it's age, maybe it's the un-goth-like surroundings, but five songs into what becomes a three-hours-and-15-minutes set - the last of a week-long series of Teenage Cancer Trust gigs - Robert Smith has an admission to make. "I just felt like I was here during that song," he says, his eyes scanning the cavernous hall as though he had been led on stage in a blindfold and suddenly thought to whip it off.

But it could just be that the Cure rarely play the UK. Since their last appearance, at 2004's Move festival, they have lost their keyboard player and swapped old guitarist Perry Bamonte for even older Cure comrade Porl Thompson, who first played with the band in 1976.

With no synth sounds to bring out the droning darkness from their songs, it's left to Thompson and Smith to work up the atmospherics, something they do astonishingly well. Hunched over his guitar with an inscrutable look on his face, Smith plays chiming rhythms and swooping chords, discovering the beauty within the pained self-awareness.

Sharing conspiratorial smiles with Thompson and bass player Simon Gallup, who bounces about so much that his slicked-back black quiff falls over his eyes like a drooping tail, Smith makes jangly the jagged introspection of The End of the World, from the band's most recent, self-titled, album.

The Spanish-flavoured The Blood elicits whoops of joy from the crowd, but Smith restricts himself to the odd shudder, and he's scared silly of stage patter. "Imagine if you were me, talking to lots of people who came to see this person," he says, desperate to explain his awkwardness but tailing off with a defeated sigh. "One day, I will learn to do this."

Luckily, the songs speak for themselves. The set-list encompasses the highs and abject lows of a passionate love affair, the perfect pop of Just Like Heaven and Let's Go to Bed nestling warily beside the claustrophobic intensity of The Drowning Man and M.

Reaching back to the Cure's earliest days, Smith throws himself into the creepy Three Imaginary Boys and magnificent, punk-rock kitchen-sink drama of 10.15 Saturday Night. He may not know where he is right now, but where he's been is a revelation.

- The Guardian


The Cure
Pete Paphides at Royal Albert Hall
3 out of 5 stars

YES it was Robert smith up there-but until he opened his mouth to sing, it could have been one of several tease-haired, panda-eyed look-alikes dotted about this Teenage Cancer Trust benefit. With no new album to promote, it was a perfect chance for these hardy Goth emissaries from Crawley to have some fun with their 250-strong canon of recorded songs.

This was a set lovingly put together for the diehards who have followed The Cure through thick and thin (and Smith’s waistline through thin and thick). And it was heartwarming to register their reaction as obscurities such as A Strange Day and At Night were exhumed from their slumber. Some scrubbed up surprisingly well.

Played by a more accomplished four-piece than the group who recorded it 26 years ago, Play for Today hurtled along with hitherto unimaginable abandon.

Originally on “suicide premonition” album The Top, the macabre funk of Shake Dog Shake set about replicating the sound of a thousand ghosts being rattled out of the ether.

At their best, these old songs reminded you that The Cure were always a great pop band in the making. Just as many though, seemed to underscore the limitations of the genre from which they emerged.

It didn’t help that The Cure’s video backdrop evinced the production values of an old episode of Mini Pops. Hence, on faux-flamenco wig-out The Blood, we saw a Spanish señorita gliding across the screen; on the squally 1991 hit Never Enough, an image of brightly coloured pills appeared. That the lighting suddenly went monochrome for The Figurehead should have served as a warning for anyone whose early 1980s weren’t spent forsaking food and heating for snakebite and black hair dye. Five minutes into the song, the 46-year-old frontman’s hair had conspicuously succumbed to gravity — as had the less devoted sections of the audience, who took to their seats.

Images of what news reporters term “the human cost of war” accompanied One Hundred Years and you wondered whether it would have been so bad to have some of those Cure songs that cheer people up when played on the radio? Twenty-seven songs in — with only Inbetween Days and Just Like Heaven to leaven the mood — Robert Smith reached the same conclusion.

Addressing the audience, he announced, “Here’s some pop because we just remembered it’s Saturday night”.

Lullaby, Hot Hot Hot!!! and Friday I’m in Love followed and, finally, we had cause to believe in a just and merciful Goth.

- The London Times


Just like heaven for fans of doom, gloom and existential angst
(Filed: 03/04/2006)

Andrew Perry reviews The Cure at the Albert Hall

At 7.50pm, Roger Daltrey appeared to introduce the final night in this year's Teenage Cancer Trust concerts. A brief, uplifting film about the charity's activities was shown. "Cancer's not all doom and gloom," Daltrey concluded, smiling perhaps a little ironically in view of the entertainment in store.

Some taped choral music sanctified the atmosphere for a few minutes, and then the Cure appeared, Robert Smith's hair in its trademark liquorice tangle.

Without a word of greeting for the packed house, the stripped down four-piece line-up launched into a sequence of some of the Cure's most forbidding and torrid music. More than three hours later, well past 11pm, the same four musicians were still at it, and all without recourse to the tactics usually deployed by "long-distance" live acts - no drum solos, and hardly any chatter between songs.

At times, you wondered if Smith would ever call a halt, and what life would be like if he did, a bit like when you're so absorbed in the portrayed reality of a movie that you forget about what's outside in the real world.

The first hour or so was, in fact, almost entirely doom and gloom. Much of it came from 2004's self-titled album, which saw the band revisit the gruelling existential angst of albums such as Pornography and Disintegration.

Its relatively tuneful single, The End of the World, offered rare light relief in a barrage of shrieking anguish that reached a zenith nine songs later with 1987's The Kiss, Smith distorting his guitar sound via savage abuse of the wah-wah pedal.

There was a brief flutter of merriment for Just Like Heaven and Inbetween Days, the latter's synth melody filled in on behalf of the keyboard-free ensemble by a jubilant crowd. This, though, was a show for serious fans, who clearly savoured the presence of key Cure sour-pusses Simon Gallup (bass) and Porl Thompson (guitar). Through the second hour, many spectators in the front rows were literally blasted back into their seats. Behind them, dotted around the tiers, lone apostles had their epiphany.

For the encores, refreshingly, Smith introduced some "pop stuff" ("We just remembered it's Saturday night," he quipped), including a funky Hot Hot Hot, Let's Go to Bed and Friday I'm in Love, and then a run from early post-punk days, including Killing an Arab. Smiles all round.

Boys Don't Cry, beautifully slowed-down, and A Forest sealed it - this was surely the definitive Cure performance.

- The Telegraph


The Cure, Royal Albert Hall, London
Self-loathing superstar still strikes chord with fans
By Nick Hasted
Published: 03 April 2006

This turns out to be a sprawling double-album of a gig, three hours and 36 songs which range promiscuously through every cranny of the Cure's career.

Nearly two years after they last played the UK, it's a generous gift to the Teenage Cancer Trust, which it is a one-off fund-raiser for, and to the fans packed into this stately hall.

Some have bird's nest hair, many wear black. They all build an atmosphere of raucous expectation before a note has been played, and roar along to Robert Smith's every word. Smith (who, with bassist Simon Gallup, is the band's one remaining long-term member) is still a fascinating figure. His eyes are still ringed with black mascara, and at first look as if they've rolled up into his head, only the whites showing, an unnervingly demonic sight. More often, though, he flicks coquettish, sidelong glances at his fans, who gaze back with furious longing.

The music the Cure play for the first hour or two shows why, of all Britain's gloomy post-punk groups, they were the ones who repeated this fervour most deeply in America. The sound is dark, heavy and dense. Even one of their jangly pop moments, "The Kiss", sees a circling swirl of guitars surround the bitter sentiment at its centre. "Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me," Smith is singing; but also, "I wish you were dead".

The squirming discomfort with himself and the world which defines his lyrics, and the sonic claustrophobia with which the Cure enact them, were always going to strike a chord with the sort of alienated young Americans who later fell for Slipknot, just as much as with small-town British Goths. Nu-metal producer Ross Robinson's work on 2004's the Cure made this strange marriage explicit, and saw a 25-year-old British band make that bad genre's finest work.

There is certainly variety in this pummelling early assault, from the Mexican cantina strum and Catholic turmoil of "The Blood" to "Shake Dog Shake"'s swinging rock. Relative obscurities such as "Play for Today" are responsible for as much wild dancing and singing in the stalls as the more universally known "In between Days" (which Smith grins his way through, while singing its own lyrics of secreted darkness - "Yesterday I felt so cold, I felt like I could die"...). But to the uncommitted observer, it all begins to feel relentless, with little of the melodic beauty with which the Cure have smuggled 30 million albums into people's homes.

The three encores, virtually a show in themselves, take care of all that. "Anyway, some pop," Smith decides on his return. "We just remembered it's Saturday night back there..." So we get the oriental arpeggios and lyrical slyness of "Lullaby", about a black widow's clammily murderous love, which sees Smith clutch himself as he sings, "Don't struggle..." Soon after, he introduces "a totally unorthodox song for us": "Friday, I'm In Love". The sort of effortless, jangling single Smith always has up his sleeve, in tonight's context it feels like a sunburst. It's the second encore which finally makes this a special Cure gig, though, as they play half of their 1979 debut, Three Imaginary Boys. The scared, lonely reverie of the title song feels like a yellowing, potent portrait of Smith at 20, as does the passion of "Fire in Cairo".

Their first, notorious single, "Killing An Arab" is taken as a redemptive punk thrash (with the lyric now changed to the death of a "stranger"). The gently hopeful "Boys Don't Cry" breaks the mood, before "A Garden" returns to the Cure's roots.

Post-punk guitars grind and pulse, while Smith, lit white, looks deathly. These are the mysterious moments which explain why this band, and their fans, remain, indestructible and almost immortal.

- The Independent


Marathon set is perfect cure
By Chris Elwell-Sutton, Evening Standard

Since 1979, Robert Smith has been mercilessly backcombing his hair, incompetently applying lipstick and leading his unique punk/goth group in what seems an endless deluge of credible, commercially successful releases.

Much of The Cure's recent output has taken the form of greatest hits-type material and their live appearances are now limited to special events such as this concert for the Teenage Cancer Trust, their only gig until after the summer.

With this seemingly in mind, they were determined to make it count, delivering a fan's dream: an amazingly thorough tour through their mammoth back catalogue, which ran to 37 songs over the best part of three hours.

There was little banter or display of emotion during the first few numbers, which included Eighties tracks such as Fascination Street and The Blood, containing the familiar gothic elements of trilling, echoey lead guitar, minor keys and sinister lyrics.

Smith was in fine voice, with his range, purity and curiously pained vocal quality apparently unaffected by the ravages of the past 25 years. The rest of the band were also on point, faultlessly recreating the barrage of sound that characterises so much of their older material.

It's an occasionally dirge-like sound that has not aged well, a problem not helped by the cruel fact that a well-built 45-year-old singing about cutting himself with razor blades provokes far less pathos than an emaciated twentysomething singing about the same thing. This fact marred the more miserable tracks such as Shake Dog Shake.

It was only during the bigger, brighter songs like In Between Days that Smith came out of his shell and engaged with the crowd.

But Cure fans didn't come to see jollity or intimacy. They wanted Robert Smith in his dysfunctional glory, and they got it.

- This Is London


I’ve thought long and hard about this review because, as always, I was blown away by the concert itself; but I wanted to organise my thoughts about this latest incarnation of my favourite band.

I became aware of The Cure in the Head on The Door days and I fell in love with their sound on Kiss Me. As for this latest, guitar-only line-up, a lot of the songs work superbly well without synths. The 17 Seconds, Faith, and Pornography albums were so pared back they translate easily and really well to this line-up. But I suspect that some of the most wonderful songs for diehard fans will always have a ‘something missing’ feel to them if Robert decides to stick with a guitar-only sound going forwards.

For me, The Cure have always been a live band. I love the albums and listen to them over and over, but the songs really come to life live. I don’t care that Robert can’t put a coherent sentence together between songs – if anything, it’s preferable to the usual: ‘You’re such a beautiful, beautiful audience, it’s great to be back in INSERT TOWN here, gaaaad I just love you all.’ The Cure just get up and play their asses off and thank heavens for it. I can’t wait for the new album and my breath is bated for a supporting tour. But Robert crafts his songs so perfectly with his weaving melodies that he is really going to need to go back to the drawing board to bring some of the biggies to life. Charlotte Sometimes without the soaring synths? Trust without the achingly beautiful piano? Same Deep Water without the 6-string bass and keyboard counterpoint? All Cats Are Grey? Prayers For Rain? Waaaaaah! That being said, it’s Robert’s bat, Robert’s ball and Robert’s stumps and he will no doubt play cricket exactly as he wants in the future.

RAH highlights … I was 30-40 feet from Porl’s spot up at the side. Loved his platform-shoes-and-corset look. Loved the obvious joy the band had in playing together. Lots of sidelong glances between the brothers-in-law, big smiles from Simon to Jason and Robert. The good humour very much spilled over into the music and the band were thick as thieves and tight, tight, tight in their playing. And with my almost-backstage view I could see that Porl’s guitar techie really earns his money.

Open: taut, filled with tension and flawlessly executed
Fascination Street: great version. Robert and Porl having to work very hard to make up for the keyboard fills, but they pulled it off so well. Simon pounding away good-o.
alt.end: one of Robert’s perfect 4-minute pop songs. Nice, nice version.
The Blood: Wow! You can see why Porl was branded a “guitar hero” back in his teens.
A Night Like This: an unexpected treat and I was surprised how well this worked without the iconic piano intro. Lovely to hear some stuff from HOTD
The End Of The World: this song never really did it for me. Good soaring guitar breaks though.
Play For Today: I loved the way the crowd supplied the keyboard parts.
If Only Tonight We Could Sleep: My first time to hear this live. Atmospheric. Eerie. Breathtaking.
The Kiss – Stonking! Robert in fine voice, and definitely channelling Jimi Hendrix for the big guitar. I thought Simon would break his bass in two at the end.
Shake Dog Shake: Stonking times two.
Never Enough: Just great; Porl spinning like a top.
The Figurehead: Sub. Lime.
A Strange Day: Always a treat and this stripped-down version worked really well.
Push: Yeeeeeees! I’ve been waiting to hear this live since the Cure In Orange video and it did not disappoint. Such great songwriting; fabulous intertwining sounds.
Just Like Heaven: Robert’s most perfect, perfect popsong. Ecstatic reaction from everyone in RAH. But I did miss the keyboards …
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea: This gets better and better from its early live renditions on the Wishing Tour. And I’m sorry, but it’s better with keyboards …
The Drowning Man: Gobsmackingly good. Were they using a backing tape of some sort for the rattlesnaky sound?
M: Jangly and good as ever.
The Baby Screams: Jangly and great!
One Hundred Years: Lovely to see that faithful completely freaking out to this one.
Shiver and Shake: No one seemed to know what this one was until Robert sang the first chorus.
End: Powerful beyond belief and, of course, Jason’s BIG moment. I was sitting up at the left hand side of the stage with Porl, Robert and Simon in a line across from me, so, for the first time ever, I could see every move that Jason was making. Wow! At one point he did his Animal-from-the-Muppets head shake and then resumed his attempts to obliterate his entire drum-kit with two small pieces of wood. Towards the end of the track, it looked like the entire drum riser was vibrating - I expected to see it start moving across the stage at any moment.
Lullaby: Great fun and I enjoyed Robert’s tremelo guitar to make up for the keyboard line. But … it’s better with keyboards. It just is.
Hot Hot Hot: Loooove that bassline.
Why Can't I Be You: Flight to London £80. Ticket £75. Food and sundries £50. Robert Smith singing a ‘Young At Heart’ snippet - priceless
Fire In Cairo: Whooop! I’d love to hear the slower, no-drums version from the Prayer Tour again someday.

- Rowan


Remarkable performance. Gotta say I had my doubts over seeing The Cure in an all seating venue like the Royal Albert Hall. I remember previous
seating gigs (NEC Swing Tour, Wembley Arena Dreamtour) being amongst my least favourite Cure experiences but Saturday was different, and very
special for various reasons. Firstly, what a stunning venue the Albert Hall is, without doubt one of the most impressive concert venues I have been to and the acoustics in there are fantastic, we had a really clear sound where we were just behind the mixing desk in the stalls. Also it was a pleasure to be in what can only be described as opulent surroundings, to see your favourite band in a venue like this...I guess it's the stuff dreams are made of!

Secondly, The Cure's performance was incredibly good, and out of the 25 shows I have seen since the '96 Swing Tour this was one of the best, powerful and most energetic...hell, I was left knackered by the end of it and we were sitting for the first quarter of the gig so god knows how the band were feeling by the end of the 3 hours! Then thirdly, the crowd. I said earlier I had my doubts over the all seating nature of the gig, but the crowd were brilliant, especially from Push onwards. All the Arena floor and most of the Stalls were stood up throughout and it made for a great atmosphere, I even saw what must have been a 60-odd year old couple get up and start groovin' a coupla rows infront, good for them! that really summed up the good feeling, it was like a big party with your favourite band playing the music. Everyone was in high spirits...great to see and great to be a part of.

Onto the setlist - the highlights for me were The Blood, how great it is that this is back in the sets, The Kiss, a much welcome return, intense! Figurehead (with the creepy video that was used during Trilogy) was a great surprise, then the run of Push, Inbetween Days, Heaven which ,as a
reviewer said earlier, got everyone on their feet (where we stayed for the rest of the gig!) a beautiful Drowning Man, complete with really nice video ('bloodflowers' over a sea). One Hundred Years which was blended into Shiver and Shake, has got to be the most intense 10 minutes of any concert anywhere!

There was a really electric atmosphere as the crowd bayed for the band to come back out - we knew what was to come before Robert explained "we
almost forgot its Saturday night so lets play some pop". Then followed some of The Cure's finest pop moments, Lullaby (with different guitar work by Robert which added a new dimension to the song, which I liked). Hot Hot Hot was perhaps the biggest suprise as they'd not played it for a few years I think? Groooovy! Friday got everyone in the Albert Hall dancing and the extended Why Can't I Be You was alot of fun and Robert danced around the stage abit. The second encore comprised of the REALLY early stuff...was nice to hear Fire In Cairo and Killing An Arab (which Robert changed the words to Killing an Other, politcial correctness gone mad?!). They finished with a rousing Boys Don't Cry and A Forest, complete with a thrashing of the bass at the end from Simon...

To sum up, a fantastic night and a concert that will stay with me for years, one of the best Cure concerts ever? Quite possibly. Espeically considering the band haven't played live since the Summer '05 festivals they were in great form. The Cure deinitely won't be fading out quietly as they get older, if anything this was one of the most impassioned, most enthusiastic performances I have seen. It was fierce! Top venue, top crowd, top performance! (just drop 'Us or Them' from the setlists please Robert!)

p.s. I'd just like to give a quick mention the charity that this gig was supporting too, Teenage Cancer Trust. I hope alot of money was raised, it was quite moving to be a part of something supporting such a good cause.

- Cureboy


The April 1 at the RAH was a very special night for me. The Albert Hall is a really nice place to play concerts, it´s a classical opera venue in Kensington. The ambient pre-concert was really magic, it was sound a classic music, like church music, really magic...(remember the first scenes in the "Nocturne" live video-Siouxsie and the Banshees) when the fans were outside of the RAH.....amazing!. The saturday night was something like
this....Perfect concert for a perfect venue. The concert was really long, three hours.The Cure played with a lot of energy and the songs sounded really good. At the beginning the people in the RAH was very quiet....but in the middle of the concert the people was much more happy... The set list in my opinion was correct, good....classic singles and a lot of songs of the first years. Simon and Porl was fantastics with the bass and the guitar... and Robert of course with a perfect voice. Jason a great drummer...It was a concert for fans and not for fans, to everybody.....really perfect. Probably, one of the best Cure-concerts of my life (13 concerts seen since Wish Tour 92). I was in the "Circle" zone in the RAH, and i was a good view to the stage...Congratulations to the band for a great concert! To fly from Barcelona to London was a great pleasure!!

- Alex Vítores


Just back from London and I have to say it was good , but not as good as I hoped. Having traveled to London from Scotland via Manchester for Depeche Mode, maybe I was just tired. Our seats were in the circle, pretty much over the side of the stage, and this area was pretty much devoid of atmosphere. Also the accoustics this high over the side of the stage were pretty poor. Great setlist but what about Disintegration -- Fascination Street and Lullaby ok but what about Plainsong, Prayers For Rain, Pictures of You, Disintegration itself. OK these tracks maybe a bit hard without keyboards,but they seemed happy using backing tracks for a good few songs they did play. Dont get me wrong I loved hearing all the old tracks, ones
that havent been played the past few tours, but a bit more of there most defining album other than Pornography would have been nice.

- Colan


I'm 25 and a Cure fan from just 2002 and this was my first Cure gig - Freakin' fucking wow!!! What a great night!  I didn't sit down and stop moving for the 3+hours, my feet were aching so bad afterwards but I didn't give a monkeys - this was one of the best nights of my life!  The Cure were very tight and pretty much spot on.  The sound was incredible - Jason's drumming was powerful and thumping especially during Push and The Kiss. 
Robert was on top form as was Porl and Simon.  The crowd was very mixed, I think some were expecting Love Cats and Cure-pop all night long, how gravely mistaken they were, in fact I saw people leaving within an hour in - sad!  I think 'the angry trio' of Shake Dog Shake, Us Or Them and The Kiss may have been too much for them.
Open started it all and it sounded great, the phenomenal sound and light show blew me away, as did the guitar-laden Fascination Street and refreshing
Signal To Noise which sounded brilliant live too.  The white strobe lighting during the final lyrical and guitar crescendo of One Hundred Years was
mental!  Highlights for me were The Figurehead which found me transfixed on Robert and his lonely voice and lyrics echoing round the hall.  The same goes for If Only Tonight We Could Sleep which was also amazing and hugely atmospheric in the hall immersing myself in the sound.  Also the trio of Push, Inbetween Days and Just Like Heaven sent much of the crowd in a dancing frenzy as did the 1st encore of Lullaby, Hot Hot Hot, Let's Go To Bed, Friday I'm In Love and the fantastically extended Why Can't I Be You?  - thats when the crowd really came alive - I couldn't fathom why so many people were either sitting or standing still beforehand, some even looked bored - I'd say half of the audience were far too poppy, tis a shame.
So it was a great night, hugely memorable for me and the first of many Cure gigs I plan to go to in the future.  The Royal Albert Hall was a great
setting and lived every bit up to my expectations.  Thank you Robert, Simon, Porl and Jason - you done good!!

- Jonny


Finally got back home [the Netherlands] from London. Seeing the Cure playing at the Royal ALbart Hall. No suprises for me, i've seen them on Lokeren 2005 and Taormina 2005. The setlist was good. Just the same songs as they did last summer. Just like Robert told us on his forum. I was hoping they would do Forever after A Forest but they didn't. The crowd wasn't much noisy. Porl was playing an awesome guitar. I think he did the paintjob himself. Very nice! I had some great pictures but sadly to say i lost my camera. It's a Konica-Minolta DiMAGE Z10. If somebody finds my
camera, i would be very happy. I dunno exactly where i lost it, but i still had it when i got back to my Hotel :(
Can't wait for the next Cure gig, See you later this year Robert said.... well, let's hope so...

- n!c


We were promised 3 hours, and 3 hours is what we got - plus a bit more!:) I say Robert's an angel.:) PRAISE THAT MAN!!!!!:):)
 
Praise all four of them!!!:) A whopping great thankyou to Robert, Simon, Porl & Jason for a totally unforgettable night!!!:)
 
It was great that they gave us such a variety of songs! :) they played songs from EVERY album except WMS & Bloodlowers!
 
I was so glad that they played the really early stuff like songs from T.I.B & Seventeen Seconds and one from Faith. They did a particularly good live version of The Figurehead, The Kiss, Push, Fascination Street, Open, A Strange Day, Play For Today, Drowning Man, M, Grinding Halt, 10:15, Why Can't I Be You?, Alt.end, Signal To Noise, Just Like Heaven, A Night Like This, A Forest, At Night, Baby Screams, Hot Hot Hot, 100 Years - pause for breath - OH MY GOD the list goes on!
 
So basically all 38 songs were brilliant !!! Robert's voice just sounded so amazing!!!:) He MUST'VE been having a good time.:) He's absolutely
beautiful in every way.:)
 
Like so many others, I only have to look at him and I instantly want to hug him!He seems quiet and shy, but also very friendly at the same time.:)
 
He's so PURRfect!!!!!:):) I can't ever stop loving him.
 
I wonder when & where the next London gig is? I really really hope I can go...
 
- Rad.


It was in my eyes an exceptional concert. Before the concert a classical music put immediately in a particular environment. I believe well that it is the singer of the group” who” (?) who starts to present this evening. During this time a screen  behind the stage with the testimony of sick children.
It was not a  "méga concert charity" but only an atmosphere with much of modesty and poignant.
 
Royal Albert Hall is a splendid hall.The only small problem of the hall, people are not stand up in front of the stage ....so no dance,and jump..consequently  people were in the rather static way... Many cameras were installed. A screen to alternate pictures of the Cure and certain
drawings animations or small movies.
 
Open: very strong, the tone is launched... also recalling me that Porl is a very good guitarist. Robert found his voice of the most beautiful days..., Simon ahhhh!
 
Fascination street: Simon, played song on a very energetic way. Jason very applied to the drums
 
alt.end: Pleasure to listen  this song again since last summer... I feel that the impact on people are less strong that the two preceding songs ..
 
The Blood: the songs of head on the door in a general way are really very pleasant to listen in live especially since the return of Porl. pure a pleasure. the whole under a red halo . Super solo of Porl...
 
a Night Like This: excellent,  very beautiful plan of the group projected on the screen the whole under a blue light.

The End Of The World: Robert gives an another chance again for this one, played well without any problem.

Play for today: Enough surprising to see this song placed at the beginning of set list.. Fill with enthusiasm people but not listen “oooohhhhh”  of fan in the audience...I think there was 50% of fan in the audience.
 
If only tonight we could sleep: Traditional of “kiss me” with the pocket of the album in the screen, voice very clearly of Robert. Superb.
 
The Kiss: Under a red halo, yellow, purple... massive guitar of Robert/Porl .. The cure is well a group also "shoesgazzing" has not to forget.... and to meditate for some people..
 
Shake Dog Shake: Powerful and effective with on the screen an animation of two dogs beating..amazing!
 
us and them:I think that this song very suitable for Simon who was very nervous “us (the group) and them” (people with No moving)....
 
Never enough: Demonstration of the group..in particular way Porl and Robert. I think the noise had a better impact in the high of the hall than in front of the stage.
 
Signal to noise: I love this song, moving and poignant. Thank you Robert.
 
The figurehead: of circumstance... making the song very intensive and beautiful with ones superb picture representing a face in statue, with one part broken up face and the other part alive.... “english girl”

strange day: masterly

Push: euphoriant.

in betweendays: very good pop... awaking a part of people on the level of the” circles”....

Just like heaven: enthusiasm people, sometimes difficult to make the difference  with the drums with in between days...

From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea: Splendid, fascinating with on the screen a small movie on the moving of the waves from the sea.

At night: poignant and magic.

The drowning man: the beauty of the melancholy... with pictures of a pink (bloodflowers) on the ocean.

M: traditional, charming

Baby screams: explosive

One Hundred Years, Shiver and Shake, End: very very good Cure, the best for me I think. These three songs represent well the group and especially Robert.. strong moment of the show... amazing.. picture of war, human suffering, on “one hundred years”,  recalling us at every moment that we are nothing or a “little life thing” on the universe...

1st encore: anthology of singles, very pleasant to see Robert smiling. People certainly deafens by what it had just heard....so....breathes,
clap on your hands and dance on these beautiful pop song.
 
2nd encore: But what requires people? Magic moment recalling me the encores in Berlin for the trilogy... Burn like fire.IN CAIRO.. dreams come true.... and killing an arab, transforming on killing an other.

 3rd  encore: boys Don' T Cry, A Forest: To note on A forest the violence of Simon at the end of the song, exploding his bass, recalling us that the cure is also a punk group and nihilist... Thanks Simon, Porl and jason (very good) and Robert saying : "We' ll see you later this year".
 
An “enormous”  thank you to Robert for all his generosity, for his love of music , and this desire to fight the time which passes. Robert is exceptional,and especially he believes on what he sings... Thank you for all this happiness, and dreams.... the existence of the real life can take again....

Anecdote: the parents of Robert and Franck Bell were present. Mrs and Mr Smith, humble and really very charming.

- Unseensign


Just got back home from London, after an amazing gig last night.

The Cure were perfect. OK, a couple of songs did suffer slightly from the lack of keyboards - notably Lullaby - but everything else was spot on, with 10:15 Saturday Night and Killing an Arab/Other being totally exceptional. Best I've ever heard them.

I can verify Benj's comment that the stalls seemed to be very quiet looking though - I was in the 16th row of the arena seating, and it was disappointing how quiet everyone in front of me was. "Put your hands in the sky"? Maybe half a dozen of the people in front of me did. People did stand up, particularly for the hits, but that seemed to be enough effort for them - actually moving, or anything even beginning to approximate dancing seemed to be beyond the majority. I know seating can have that kind of effect on the atmosphere, but even allowing for that, the crowd down there was a bit disappointing - although a notable few did their best throughout! A decent sized group around me did finally clap along with the bass at the end of A Forest as well.

Other things; Porl got a bit carried away and nearly fell over at one point, Robert commented several times on not being very good at the talking (I think he said that next time they'd give Simon a mic and let him do it!). There was some official merchandise for the gig available (with profits going to the Teenage Cancer Trust). Black t-shirts, with 'The CURE' in large letters on the center of the front, with the concert location and date above and 'TEENAGE CANCER TRUST' below, and the Teenage Cancer Trust logo on the back. Also Cure badgesets. They certainly sold well - of the t-shirts with the blue writing, they only had small size left by the time I got to the front of the queue (just as well I'm on the skinnier side of things!), and the pile of those was going down rapidly. People also seemed to be donating quite generously generally as well, which was good to see.

Incidentally, there were a few signs up noting that the concert was being recorded - there were certainly plenty of cameras and the back projection occasionally used them. The sound mix where I was seated was perfect - one of the best I've experienced, can't really fault it - so I really hope the recording becomes available at some point!

- Rob


I thought it was a great night!. They played pretty well everything you'd expect them to play, lets face it they could have played all night and there still would have been some little gem they could have played.  We were sat right next to Simon at stage height looking across the stage "it felt like you were on it" They really did seem to enjoy themselves, there were lot of little things that went wrong, and the eye contact between Robert and Simon was brilliant when this happened. And what about Simon at the end of A Forest smashing his bass guitar in two!! "I really think he meant it". And Robert almost hit Porl in the face with his guitar at the end of the first encore that could have been really painfull. It has to be the most perfect venue for a gig ever, it really added something else to the night. My highlights were The Kiss, Push, One Hundred Years, The Drowning Man.... I could go on but there were sooo many!!
I hope they do play again, sooner rather than later.
 
- Chris


It was a Great gig from the boys last night.  My favourites of the evening were Strange Day, 10:15, Boys dont cry and forest to end the show.
The lack of keyboards was different - Edge of the deep green sea and Lullaby were not quite as crispy but overall I thought that Porl did a good job of
covering that sound.
Can't wait for their next show, soon I hope!!

- Andrew and Kat


Well it was amazing, what can I say. I agree, Lullaby suffered, but some of the others were great, especially towards the end. Also, I think a lot of the public wasnt strictly Cure fans, as not everyone was moving about. I was in the stalls and only 50% of people around me were standing let alone moving like mad .... as for people in the galleries though, it was actually forbidden to stand up, due to safety, thats' why they looked quiet.

- Fede


Just returned from a fantastic night of 3 hours of The Cure in London. First off would like to say that the band really did sound great in the abscence of any keyboards with Porl filling in admirably in all the sections that previously had that synth sound. With this change in emphasis the set had more of a tight guitar edged feel which worked particularly well for songs like The Drowning Man ( a surprise ), M , At Night & The Baby Screams all sounded great. The only one that suffered was Lullaby of which Robert screwed his face up and shook his head at Simon as soon as he played the opening keyboard part on guitar. Mainly the songs that were chosen worked well. The run of Push, Inbetween Days & Just Like Heaven had the Albert Hall on its feet as did the 1st encore with Hot!Hot!Hot! & Why Can't I Be You with Robert making every attempt to say hello to the crowd
enveloping the back of the stage. 3 cheers also to Roberts personal beer roady who was kept busy all night!
All in all a great show and with the promise at the end for a 'London gig later in the year.'
 
- Carl


This is my review of the Royal Albert Hall gig, which I have just come back from.

This gig was part of the Teenage Cancer Trust series of gigs at the Royal Albert Hall, a venue that has existed since 1871 and usually hosts classical
or jazz concerts.  The building is very beautiful, but everyone was seated and this, in my opinion, had an impact on the atmosphere.  However, our
favourite band managed to get everyone to their feet by the end of the evening.

The action started at about 8pm with "Open", which, for some reason, I thought was rather unusual.  Then it continued with a setlist which was similar to the gigs of last year.  In the main set, I really enjoyed hearing "If only tonight we could sleep" and "The Kiss" which reminded me of the encores of Berlin in 2002.  The other songs were very good as well, particularly "The Blood", "A Night Like This", Play for Today", "The Figurehead", "A Strange Day", "At Night", "The Drowning Man" and "M".

Overall, I thought the setlist was very varied, mixing old favourites with songs from the most recent albums.  I thought the band were very "tight" and
didn't make any mistakes (that I could notice).

I suppose it was partly due to the wine I was drinking, but I really started enjoying myself during the encores.  The first encore was very "pop" with
"Lullaby", "Hot Hot Hot!!!" which doesn't get played too much, "Let's Go to Bed", "Friday I'm in Love" and "Why Can't I Be You?"

The second encore was a great trip back to the end of the 70's and the beginning of the 80's with "Three Imaginary Boys", "Fire In Cairo", "Grinding Halt", "10:15 Saturday Night" and "Killing an Arab".

- Fab G


they were fantastic and the set list was great, but my only complaint would be that the stalls seemed to be very quiet looking down from my position in the front row of the circle. being the 17th time i've seen the cure it's rates up there as one of the best and ending with the forest was fantastic. best song = a night like this.

- Benj


Gig was excellent and the promised 3 hours +. For me the best songs were Drowning Man and (unexpectedly) The Kiss - just wish they'd opened with this. Only song I wasn't keen on was Baby Screams as the Albert Hall acoustics didn't really lend themselves to it (least where I was located). I was hoping they'd finish off with Faith but they seemed to want to end with the old favourites - last time I saw them at the RAH they played an excellent version of Faith. Still never mind - it was, all in all, a very satisfying experience.

- Darren


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