"I was horrendously sick on stage for the first time the
other day. It was just a combination of tiredness and
those mythological 24-hour bugs, but I could feel it
coming, spun round and did this real Exorcist-type spray
all over the place. Quite spectacular, really."

Despite the rumours which flooded the Italian press that
The Cure's latest tour had been immediately cancelled,
Robert Smith is sitting backstage in
Ghent's Flanders Expo hall looking tickety-boo. Hair still a
bottle of conditioner's worst nightmare. Lips and eyes still
reeling under the assault from the Boots make-up counter. In
short, business as usual for the leader of these hardy
perennials of rock kookiness. Unwelcome interruptions by
projectile vom aside, The Cure are doing very nicely, thank you.

No-one doubts that Smith is the guv'nor. He makes the
setlist up 30 minutes before the band go on stage and is
the focus of 20,000 eyes straining to see
him as that famous plaintive tone engulfs the hall. He's in good
form, leading from the front as the band ebbs and flows in
response to the barest signals from their frontman. Want
immediately demands serious nodding from the Belgian boys
crushed up against the barriers. 

Tonight, the set is no simple exercise in giving the people
what they want. There are a whopping nine songs from Wild
Mood Swings to contend with,
including the difficult Club America, for which Smith insists on
trying to sing in the same low register he delivered on the
album. Whatever, you can always get away with wilfulness if you
throw in Strange Attraction, beautifully dappled with calypso
touches, or Jupiter Crash, a lovely piece of whimsy. The welter
of cheapo lighters that spring up during This Is A Lie aren't
too clever, though. This trying-to-make-sense-of-it-all song is
no stadium ballad, just a bit on the slow side.

The Cure clearly enjoy themselves. Bereft of the
rollerblades that scooted him around the empty hall
beforehand, Perry Bamonte is hardly a blur of
movement now, but he gives it just enough onstage fruggery to
whip Gallup to invincible heights of lunacy. As The Blood starts
pumping, Gallup tears around the stage like a prize filly
heading for home with Pat Eddery about to be censured for
illegal use of the whip. Meanwhile, Smith looks on like a
particularly indulgent father.

After 20 songs and a breather spent supping tinnies around
a candelabra backstage, the band return for what feels like
the second half of a set rather
than just the encore. It's as if they've been teasing us, for
the next 50 minutes sees The Cure hit-factory go into overdrive.
Play For Today is greeted by a beer-fuelled audience singalong,
swiftly accelerating to religious fervour as Boys Don't Cry,
10.15 and Killing An Arab tumble over one another to be heard.
By the time Why Can't I Be You? sees the band back to their
dressing room, Smith has lost his guitar and his inhibitions and
is stalking the stage like he owns the joint.

Finally, A Forest wraps things up for the night in a big
old bluster of noisy guitar humming, which finally makes
sense of Smith's claims that Hendrix was
one of only three pop stars he ever lost his mind over (Bowie
and Alex Harvey being the other two). The Cure going apeshit?
Now there's a concept.

I went to the WMS-show yesterday and i must say,it was PRETTY FUCKIN'
AWESOME!!!!They started at 20u20 and that was only 20min.too late,but i
didn't care because they started with...PLAINSONG !!!!!!!!! The crowd went
nuts,and so did I!Then came a few WMS-songs (want,club america,this is a
lie,.. i think) and they were soooooooo much better live!The mood was
set and there was a pretty good atmosphere but there was a lotta pushin' and
fallin' down goin' on in the front rows:( But after a few more songs
everybody seemed to be setteled and the place really started rocking!!IT
WAS FANTASTIC everybody started dancing when they played inbetween days,AND
THEY DIDN'T STOP FOR THE REST OF THE EVENING.One of the highlights was
killing an arab,beacause they played this kind of a dance-version
REAAAAALLLLLY NEAT.The band seemed to like it that the crowd was dancin'
and having fun,because they didn't play the songs as-on-the-records,there
was a lot of variation!Why Can't I Be You for ex. lasted for over 10min.
and Robert went off the stage!!! and he didn't 'sing' the song,he just
kinda talked his way through.Same for Let's Go to bed.There were 3
encore's but they didn't play faith,3 im. boys,M , ... :(
The Show lasted for about 2u30.

This is what i remember of the set-list (incomplete and not in order:

plainsong,want,club america,the blood (good!),Lovesong,Prayers for
Raaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin,Fascination street,Lullaby,Just Like heaven,Jupiter
Crash,The Kiss,Bare,From The Edge... (one of my favorites),Inbetween
days,Killing an arab,Play For Today (crowd singing as on Paris but
louder!),Boy's don't cry,Mint Car (super-solo-by Robert),Return (I like
that song now),A forest (10 min minimum ended in total chaos :))),10:15
sat. night (cool guitars),a night like this,dressing up (Robert tried to
exlain how hard this was for him to sing,but his french is NOT good,and we
don't speak french here!), ....

It was a very good concert.The atmosphere was great.The band was is a
good mood.A few things comes to mind:

- Very emotional version of Cold.I saw Robert wiping his eyes after the
  song.
- He announced lovesong.There was a discussion on the list about that.
  Now he did it (I think in french,i couldn't understand it except for the
  title)
- A spoken word version of Inbetween days,which was very odd.He was
  holding a conversation with himself (different words,same chorus).
- Robert teasing Perry while he was playing the intro of lullaby.
- Very cool version of WCIBY,with a lot of improvisation.
  Robert went of stage for about 10 minutes.
- They played 10.15 Saturday Night at 10.15, and it was Saturday :-)
- Very cool version of A forest.I was hoping for forever,like they did in
  Rotterdam,but was also very good.Very fast jamming end.
- Unbelievable long Raaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiin

I managed to get my photocamera inside. I don't know how the pictures 
are (yet), but I'm very curious.

2 weeks till Essen.....

A bit more info on the show:Great show!!! a very special version of why can't
i be you with Robert dancing on a tiny rope! A forest was a total freak
version, that ended up t totally speeded up,Robert also went towards the
audience and reached hands.
At the end of a Forest Robert played a little piece of Joy Division's
'Isolation'. The whole show was recorded on video by one of the crew members
(new 'show'?) and Robert performed also directly into the camera.