Hello everyone. I really want to share the great experience I had in Brno Last Sunday. Well, the concert was wonderful. I never thought I would have the opportunity to listen to songs like "Sinking", "Like Cokatoos", "Untitled" and "Prayers for Rain". It kicked!

Actually, the most beautiful song for me was Sinking. It was pretty amazing. Robert didn´t forget any lyric, and the others played pretty well. And they improvised a lot, I think. But the best was to come after the concert.

I am from Brazil, so I decided (throught internet) to stay in the Holiday Inn Hotel, just beside Velodrom (Sorry Radek, but I got really late at Brno and could not call you). The surprise was to see The Cure was staying in the same hotel I was, and what´s more, at the same floor. The recepcionist had told me no group from the festival was staying there. She lied very well, since before the concert I had seen Jason entering the hotel and Simon in front of my bedroom door and I just thought they look like them.

Well, when we got back to the hotel, there were a lot of Robert Smith like youngsters all over the lobby. And when I looked right straight to the lift, they were there, the door closing. I couldn´t believe my eyes. Nobody could go up, but I could, since I was staying there. When we (a friend was with me) got at our floor, we saw Roger getting some Ice in the corridor. I congratulated him for the concert. He said thank you and ran away. Too sad!

But then I waited in the corridor and had the opportunity to meet Jason, who was very nice and finally Robert Smith. I didn´t know he was so sweet. He spent a few minutes with me and he was very kind. Afterwards I would take a picture with him in the lobby as well. I also took a picture with Simon. Robert told me about the tour next year including south africa and south america. Great! And that he has had a great time in Brazil!!! That´s all people. Till now it seems hard to believe I had this experience, but it did happen. I feel really happy for that!!!

Around 2 pm we left Bratislava and we arrived to Brno at 15:30 thanks to our formula 1 driver Biba. We prepared ourselves for the concert in all possible ways like making ourself looking like vampires, screwing our hair with mascara and gel and of course drinking beer !

Around 19:00 a concert of annoying czech band Laura a jeji tygri (Laura and her tigers, but there was no tigers and no Laura) began and we went to get our place in the first rows, the best we got was a 2nd row, but it was good enough for us! After a bit more then 2.5 hours of crap and pure idiotism the cure came on stage opening with the amazing shake dog sake. The concert lasted almost 2 hours 15 minutes, and it was definitely one of the best concerts I saw from this tour. The setlist was incredible and included songs that weren't played at all on this tour, like push, strange day, like cocatoos and prayers for rain! Though the lights were quite lousy and the smoke didn't reach the normal level, the concert was unforgetable!

After the concert we met in front of our "mint car" with Sergey and Zuza , and Sergey told us that he has a plan and will tell us about later. Then we did chat with our curefriends. After we said bye to everyone, Sergey told us about his plan... Apparently he went to the backstage passes office trying to see if he's on the list, and when he discovered he's not, he somehow found the chief director of mediaworld (the organizator of the festival). He discovered from him that the band is having a private party in one of the most exclusive clubs of Brno called "Faraon" with their crew and close friends. After a short talk of Sergey with this guy, Sergey recieved 2 invitation for this party as press reporter, he couldn't recieve more because they were all given away already. So we started our way to this club, and after a short time we arrived there.

The cure didn't arrive there yet and we were trying to talk the doorman into letting in all 4 of us. We decided to get back in the car and think about a plan, we discussed many options, like paying money to the doorman, sending Sergey inside to get us invitations from there and many other things, until I saw a minibus coming. I jumped out of the car and ran towards the minibus, inside I saw all the band sitting and I got a shock, I couldn't move or talk, the only thing I could do is shouting "Sergey, Sergey!! Come here!!". While the band were getting out of the bus Biba, Sergey and Zuza came to the main gate, and the band was already getting inside. I shook Perry's hand and at that moment I got the idea of getting into the club in the crowd of the band and their friends. I started to walk and one of the bodyguards stoped me, I was lucky that the doorman didn't look at me at the same moment. So I stoped and called Biba to get into the club also, and when she came inside so the bodyguard walked away already and we walked completely into the crowd while Sergey is shouting "go go go" !

After a while Sergey and Zuza came in using their press invitations saying 'so we decided to go 2 of us...' and we started to check the surface. All the band was standing at the bar and drinking beer surrounded by the crew and the bodyguards. I was trying to talk to somebody but Robert's bodyguard asked me not to do it and wait an hour until they will rest and make a time to talk with the fans. So we all were standing at the side talking between us and waiting. After something like 20 minutes we saw Jason standing out of the bar and talking to someone , so we came there and started to talk to him. He signed all of my tickets and then we talked about this summer tour. He agreed with me that the concert in Dresden was one of the best and that the festivals in Hildesheim and Cologne were not so good and too massive, I also asked him why didn't they play a long version of forest because we all were waiting for it, but he answered "another time". He thanked me for my opinion and went to get himself drunk with some of his friends. By the way, he stayed at that place until the early morning, and even when we took pictures with him an hour later, he only turned his head and made a Brad Pitt smile!

The next victim was Perry, we didn't talk too much because he had many people around him, I just said when Biba came towards us "here's my girlfriend" he gave a look on our twin wish t-shirts and ankh signs and said "I realized that" with a smile. Some girls were waiting for him at a table so he just signed our stuff, we took pictures with him and then he went away.

After Perry we found Simon, told him how great the concert was, got our stuff signed, took pictures as usual and then I saw Robert standing near some table and speaking with people. I stepped toward the table and got myself a very comfortable place right next to Robert. He was talking with all those people about the people in Hildesheim and Bizzare and he said he didn't like them at all and the Festival in Dresden was the best of the last ones!

Then he turned his face to my direction and some girl asked him if they're planning to tour Australia, but Robert answered that they don't have such plans now but it might change in the future, I wanted to open my mouth at the same moment but some old Skandinavian fan asked about their plans to that part of Europe. Robert's answer was negative and I decided to use the moment and ask if they will come to Israel on the next tour but he said "proabably noat" and then I started my talk with him. He was amazed to hear I'm from Israel and asked "and you came all this way?" I answered "yes of course" and asked him to sign my festivals tickets and he said "oh, 3 concerts, huh?" and signed with a melting smile! Then I said that a lot of people in Israel would like to see them, and he said "yes, I was there once with Siouxie" and I said "yes, there's a theory you don't come there anymore because your shoes got stolen." And he asnwered me "hehe, yea, I was sleeping on the beach and somebody did steal my shoes. It wasn't funny actually, I was walking 2 days without shoes, like a hippie, hehe". I told him that it was pleasure to meet him, he thanked me, we took photos, and then he was signing to all the rest of the people who were there.

We walked away a bit and we saw Roger and his girlfriend standing still at the bar, so as usual I got my tickets signed and we took pictures! We relaxed a bit after meeting everyone and getting pictures with everyone, so we sat at a table, drank a bit beer and Sergej signed Perry to come to talk with us. After a while Perry came and we sat around 5 minutes, Sergej had to give him a package, we took another picture and he went away. At this point we were satisfied and just missed a picture with Jason, so we came toward him once more as I said before, he was quite drunk already, so we took the picutres and left him with his drunk friends.

After 10 minutes of hanging around and blinding every member of the band with the camera flash the band left and we decided to follow them to the hotel. When we go to the hotel we saw the legendary redburn transfer truck and took pictures with it. While we were hanging outside the hotel, we noticed that people are standing and sitting at the 2nd floor of the hotel, and we recognized one person as Simon, and then he left and we saw Perry. I decided to get up there. Sergej and Biba didn't want to go for some wierd reasons though Roger's girlfriend was signing us to come up, so I pulled Biba with me and we got up there.

In the lobby of this floor were many fans talking with Perry and Roger. Roger did ask who will wake them up and Perry answered that Jason will wake them up in a funny way! As I said before, Jason stayed in the pub to stuff himself with Czech beer until the morning. Roger left, and his girlfriend was looking after him with the elevator on each floor. We talked a bit with the fans and Perry wished us all goodnight and said "so see you next year". Perry went away and so did we, took the mint car and got back to Bratislava. Now our long trip after the cure is over, of course until the next year!

I'm back from Czech Republic and happy to tell my unbelievable experience. As the others, I had the chance to meet The Cure (I think we were about 20 fans to get in). And I remember the brazilian guy (hello!) who wore a soccer shirt.

So, after having waited more than one hour, the band arrived at the bar of the hotel to have a drink with the fans. I ran to Robert and asked to make a picture. He also signed my ticket, then I asked the others to do the same. I was very impressed and couldn't say a thing! Then, I told myself to be there and not to talk with Robert. I had the chance to speak with him more than one quarter! It was so easy, 'cause the other fans (except the brazilian one and two other) looked not to dare to speak with him. I must say he's very very kind (only Perry seems as kind as him) and polite.

He told lots of things I couldn't imagine he would tell me. For example, he told me he was feeling mentally old and it was very hard for him to get 40 (harder than 30, he added). About the next album, he said it will be excellent and very hard (!?!?!), not electronical at all. Released in march or april.

I also asked him why he didn't like to play "Forever" anymore. He answered it' s a song he used to like a lot, but, now, it's too difficult for him to play it because it makes him remember very personnal and emotional things. But he added that he could play it again very often in two or three years!

There was also an unbelievable moment: I told him I saw The Cure the first time in Brussel in 87; and, he said:" Yes, it was in Forest-National, wasn't it? I remember this venue because this gig was one of the best we done during the Kissing Tour". Imagine he haven't play this venue since 1989. About that year, Robert said his awaited lie (one lie per conversation?); he said:" I think the Prayer Tour was better in America than in Europe" and smiled. And when he left, he wanted to give me his beer, but as I had one in my hand, he gave it to my friend. And I kept the glass. Was it a dream???

Oh, yes, about the gig: unfortunatly, the sound was really awfull (Disintegration, for instance, was unlistenable), but the track-list (about 135 mins) was great. The highlights were, for me, A Strange Day, Trust, Wrong Number, If Only Tonight and A Forest. Simon was so aggressive (never saw him like that) and didn't stay with the fans in the hotel like the others; he looked very nervous and in trouble. The audience was rather calm, except during the last encore. As Robert told me when he left, see you another time.

All this way from Geneva just to see the last concert of the summer tour 98 …We went to Lyon (France) a month ago to see The Cure, and we can say there's no point of comparison. The Lyon concert was more emotional (see our review) whereas their acting in Brno was rather professional - from a musical point of view, it was perfect. Robert didn't forget any lyric and was very careful the way he was singing. It couldn't have been better. We weren't as lucky as Claudio and the others who had talk to them as we were two blocks away from the Holiday-Inn, however, we managed to stay all the concert long in the first row and we even grabbed a piece from the setlist: (the Roger's one). They had planned to play Cold but finally didn't.

If anyone has any information about pictures, tapes (video or audio) or whatever about this festival, or only wants to talk with us, you can E-mail us in French English or Spanish at:

Soria@Iprolink.fr or Sabrinalabbe@Netscape.net

I would like to join all fellows who were in Brno and give them my impressions about the concert. I’m from Poland and it was my second Cure concert after Rotterdam 96’ (I’m fan much, much longer). It all started on Saturday night when I was able to watch Cure in Cologne on German satellite channel ARD at home in Warsaw. So, I saw how they were doing just one day before the concert!!! I really was excited about “Sinking” and “Untitled” which are not very common songs during the shows.

I was going to the concert with other fans from Warsaw and had bad experience as our car had to be repaired on the way to Brno. We were a bit late at the concert but as I know the groups performing before the Cure were more than strange (I wonder who was creating the set of groups for the festival). And one more thing, part of Czech audience (I know there were a lot of Polish fans ) didn’t know what to do with themselves after the performance of pop Czech groups (incl. “the legend” of Czech pop – “Laura and her tigers”) and were annoying me during the show. The venue was not really impressive (old stadium) and the Cure manager would find much better and friendlier audience in Poland.

As for concert, it was great and Robert sung much better than in Bizarre Festival. My favourites were “100 years”, “Sinking”, “Untitled”, “Just like heaven”, “Kyoto song”, “Pictures of you”. It was for the first time I did liked “From the edge of deep green sea” at the concert (I think studio version is great, of course). I was really happy to hear “Inbetween days” in guitar-better-sounded version.

There were 3 encores, however, the first one disappointingly was only ”Untitled”. The second one encompassed 2 great KMKMKM songs. I was waiting for “Faith” or “Forever” at the end but I was not lucky this time.

To conclude, it was a tremendously great show and I didn’t regret that I made the long way from Poland. I hope the Cure will be touring next year and I will go wherever they will be playing to see them once again. The great number (incl. me) of Polish fans still hope not to go abroad to see Robert and the band. I think that Polish fans should convince somehow the band that the Polish audience is very friendly to them and looking forward to see them in Poland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Greetings to all Cure fans!!!