As regards the show in Nîmes, I think most fans were very disappointed. The show began at midnight and most people came to see the band that played before The Cure, Louise Attaque (a French band). At the end of the Louise Attaque show, many people left the Arena.

Just for the story : they played the first notes of The Lovecats.

Once again, there were many, MANY technical problems. Guitars not working, bad volumes. For instance, Robert had to lengthen the middle of From the edge of the deep green sea because, Perry's guitar was not ready for his solo!

In the second part of the show, the Arena was almost empty. Guitars did not work better, and the beginning of Trust (encore) was absolutely awful. Simon played only two notes at the end of A forest (tata.... tata...) and left the stage.

'A Roman Arena & a Roman Theatre, what can one ask more to see The Cure...; its' my 15th & 16th concert, and this is to be excellent. So for Nimes, this was quite a big venue (for a Roman Arena), i guesse som 10.000 persons. Quite impressive place. Unfortunately, the Cure started only around 11.30 to finish some trwo hours latter. I was standing with some friends all on the top of this Arena (one could have jumped easily) really impressive...

Enough about the venue, what about the Cure's performance: well not that good I must say, the accoustics was not too good, Perry kept having problems with his wah-wah pedals, I saw Simon rather angry throwing his back. I think they were a bit tired to go out so late.

And Robert... well he couldn't keep up with the lyrics: it was rather strange, either singing too late or, forgetting lyrics, or adding others. It left me with some strange feelings. I can't tell you what I was feeling exactly: id say somehow confusing.

To end on a good note, they played Strange Day and a SUPERB version of a Forest. Though without any additional lyrics, i think this has, musically, been the most perfect performance by Robert solo on his guitar on A Forest (some 20 min ). And that around 2 AM, in this arena. Too good! But the rest was to similar to the Belgian gig.

The arenes are a nice place for The Cure to play, and this night was an opportunity to see the band in an interresting place like in the Orange show. But we're not in 86 anymore, and The Cure is not as popular as they were.

This was a festival with some French bands first, so it gives me time to buy some drinks before entering the arena. Me and my friend made ourselves confortable in the grass near the arena, wondering what The Cure'll bring this time, as the distant sound of others bands surrounded us.

After dawn, it was time to enter. It was crowded inside, and looking at people it seemed to me that a lot of people came for this band before The Cure, the french band "Louise attaque" which appears to be a band for french teenage girls. Fortunatly, they were playing their last songs. I placed myself in front of the stage, on a seat in middle height and waited. Midnight came, and no one on stage still.

20 mn after, the lights felt down and the 5 guys walked on the front of the stage. Shake dog shake opened the set, installing The Cure for about 2 hours. Fascination street was the short version and not very powerful, the sound of the bass sounded too loud, and guitars were too weak.

Then came A strange day directly followed by the first beats of the machine drum for this terrifiyng version of 100 years . Wow. It was so great to hear the original, as people who had nothing to do there begin to leave ! Kyoto song came. This one is not one of my favorite, but sounded well, very clear. Pictures of you was better than Fascination street, and Robert sang the you-you-you version of Just like heaven (in the second verse) as people reconized the tune and begin to move their ass.

Sinking was one of the best tonight, with more guitars than usual and less echo in the voice than the oldest versions. Robert sang high and clear. Lullaby came back on the set, and is always nice to hear. Wrong number is definitly not a good song, but sounded better live, then they played Never enough and In between days with not much convictions...that made them boring.

Cut was bad. The drum was so slow and the voice too weak. The same for Disintegration. I loved so well the Boris-Porl-Robert (with his 6 strings bass) version, that I doubt I could hear Disintegration that strong again. And now, and for the first time, it seemed to me that Robert could not bring his voice high the way he did. The song that suffered the most from this problem was From the edge of the deep green sea. Robert was talking instead of shouting so the song couldn't get that high and didn't work: disappointing .

Disintegration (the NOT 6 strings bass version) ended the set. Unfortunatly no Untitled, and just one encore. Trust was nice, Boys don't cry made people dance as usual and A forest (Simon beginning the song with no boring intro) concluded the show.

And yes, i forgot : Robert seems to like Prodigy 'cause he did the intro "firestarter" before playing...(hum, i don't remember when)

The Arènes of Nimes have a capacity of about 10,000 people. The Festival started 30 minutes early with Welsh guitar band the Stereophonics who played for almost an hour. Then Sinclair came on to play some French 'Jamiroquai meets James Brown' pop funk. The crowd were starting to enjoy themselves. Next on were French rock band Louise Attaque and the crowd were getting wild.

I thought that the atmosphere was going to be even better for The Cure. Unfortunately we had to wait what seemed like ages before they came on and when they finally did many people had left.

Then there were the technical problems with Roger's keyboards not working properly for the first two songs and many other difficulties. Robert appeared to be a little bit too drunk by the end of the night and his performance was affected. He forgot and/or changed a few of the lyrics and at the end of 'A Forest' he decided to launch into a guitar solo. After a while the other band members left, seemingly annoyed at Robert's determination to carry on forever. He had to finish the song on his own which was a bit strange. Overall it was a good setlist affected by bad conditions...