Out of This World, Watching Me Fall, Want, Plainsong, Open, Trust, The Kiss, Shake Dog Shake, From the Edge
of the Deep Green Sea, End, Siamese Twins, 100 Years, 39, Bloodflowers

1st encore: Three Imaginary Boys, M, Play For Today, A Forest
2nd encore: In Between Days, Just Like Heaven, Boys Don't Cry ("Thank you...see you again next year").

'Pills, Thrills & Very Bad Bellyaches' - Benicassim 2002

Having dragged ourselves out of bed at 4am (thursday) diehards from both Europe and America arrived
bedraggled at the appropriately numbered Gate '39', at Stansted Airport, trying conserve all energy for what we
were about to take on at the 'Festivo de tortureo' - otherwise know as Benicassim 2002!

Everything was going alarmingly too well for a trip involving seeing The Cure; taxis and flights and even 'we'
were all on time, something wasn't quite right!

As we stepped of the plane at Barcelona with big smiles adorned in summery clothes we were greeted with grey
skies and drizzle!!!! urghhhh the 'Conegliano' nightmare seemed at the forefront of all of our minds. We found
the hire car with the windows left opened (!) so we began the drive round the maze of the airport car park and the
2 hrs down to Castellon feeling like we had wet our pants!

We arrived in Castellon having played several games of 'how-many-times-can-you-drive-round-a-one-way-
system?' and outside our hotel were gangs of groupies - little did we know but over the next few days most of the
big bands that were playing the festival were going to be staying in our hotel!

Exhausted from the trip we decided to try regain some strength for the day after, so obviously we all we straight
to the bar (!) 'Supergrass' had just checked in and then I find I'm sat drinking next to a 'flat haired' Mat Bellamy
from 'Muse', being cocky ripping up paper napkins and giving the barman grief, rock'n'roll!

So, the day of the Cure gig arrived and it began with short stroll which turned into long trek around the town
desperately trying to hunt down some more hotel rooms for the next night for the 13 of us ! The town of Castellon
was a building site; very smeggy and noisy and having followed signs for 'tourist information office' that then
pointed at none existent buildings it began to grate on everyone's nerves, as we were facing the rest of our trip
sleeping in cars in the increasing heat.

Due to the town being on 'permanent siesta' there were very limited eating places and having consumed a
'Salmonella Special Pizza' I then spent the remaining few hours before going to the festival in the toilet - talking
the 'porcelain god' from both ends!!?!!!

Feeling somewhat drained from the afternoon we set off in what felt like the middle of the night for the festival,
little did we know the 'delights' that awaited us over the next few hours...

We crawled through 8 miles of festival traffic only to find us being forced to walk around the entire festival site
(over motorways, bridges and hills) before approaching the chaotic and confusing system of 'queueing to queue'
to exchange tickets, then to 'queue' to change them into wristbands before finally queueing with 40,000 others
through the 6 small gates into the festival - the whole process worse than any mosh/crush I have ever
experienced!!!!!

After queueing for tickets for drinks, then queueing for the drinks themselves (!) we filtered through the 40,000
strong crowd to the front right of the stage at about 1am, struggling to cope with the echoing bellyache and
everyone's general exhaustion our endurance was being tested to its limit! At 2:10am the lights finally went
down and the smoke billowed on stage, The Cure looked like they wanted to be where we did (in bed!) they
seemed to plod through 'OOTW', 'Watching Me Fall' and 'Want' and only during 'Plainsong' did the band/audience
seem to wake up! Robert did his familiar walk about waving to fans jigging from side to side in a playful manner
as he approached where I was standing!

Throughout the rest of the main set 'Simon Gallup and his support band' were amazing, sounding very crisp and
filling the early morning air which echoed over the mountains behind (Open, Trust, The Kiss, Shake Dog Shake,
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, End, Siamese Twins, 100 Years, 39, Bloodflowers). Simon stole the show
completely, the spotlight followed him as he paraded around on stage almost pushing robert to the side and must
have walked about 8 miles during the show! He seemed like he was on 'happy pills' running around almost
taunting the audience, at the beginning of 'SDS' he ran towards the audience struck his bass and almost did a full
pirouette with the guitar!!

We were given 'Three Imaginary Boys, M, Play For Today, A Forest,In Between Days, Just Like Heaven, Boys
Don't Cry.' and although still suffering I managed to jump around with the spaniards trying to make the most of
my last gig, thoroughly knackered they finished around 4:30am! Even though Robert said ' I feel like I have 6 or
7 seven encores left in me'.......how cool would it have been to see the sun rise with them still playing?

Feeling drained on every level we slumped into the car and inadvertently began playing 'lets-find-the-hotel-in-
the-one-way-system' again accompanied by that well known pass time 'how-many-festival-goers-can-you-injure-
with-a-wing-mirror?' and finally collapsed around 7am into bed!!!

The next two days followed a similar theme and having 'Chemical Bros', 'Suede', 'Doves', 'BRMC' and 'Air' all
surrounding us in our hotels made me feel like I was in some bizarre dream......maybe I wish I was after my
drunken conversation with Jimi from Doves *blush*

So we had survived - I had been poisoned, deprived of sleep, 'Queued-for-England', exhausted, rained on, Lost,
crushed and dehydrated....hmmmmmm all in a days work following The Cure!

thanks for a great summer - see you October?!!

THE CURE SEDUCES WITH THEIR CLASSICISM IN BENICASSIM

The saying goes that youth is the stage in life where there is no space for memories and even less space for
acknowledging grown-ups ouvres -master's work-. In the opening night at Benicassim,  grown-ups  The Cure
questioned the saying with their show. They elevated expectations thanks to their sound  classisism in front of a
younger respectful audience which endep up inclining themselves under the weight of Robert Smith. The Cure
came out as the winners of the night of a Festival which at last has memory.

When the line-up for the FIB was made public, some sides raised eyebrows because The Cure's inclusion, a
veteran band with a jurasic touch and a less than independent status. At the day of the show, the doubt was
dissolved, how adequate Robert Smith's band inclusion was. For starters, black t-shirts, weird hairdos, tetric facial
make-ups which in their top expression were similar to spider-webs made their way to Benicasim. Cure fans wore
their best outfits for the occasion with the precision as a miniature collector paints the ribbons to the uniforms of
a napoleonic granadier. But there was more, in the backstage area, accessible only to artists and staff, a crowd
of curious people were standing there just to see Robert Smith to walk from the star-room to the main stage.
This never happened before in the history of the festival, not even with Bjˆrk, muse of modernity and
independence. But this time it was Robert Smith. This was approximately at two in the morning and the star was
about to make his statement (English for 'sentar catedra' anyone?).

Weird hairdo, black robes, painted red lips. Uniformed. Expectant crowd. Silence. Beginning notes. Obscure,
sinister sounds. Guitar lines, bass line, drum and Smith's deep voice, aching. Two long hours with very few
concessions. Very similar to the last time they toured Spain, in their (I've lost the count) farewell tour, they played
the less joyful set from their back catalog, visiting their classic records without playing the imaginable hits. A show
of auto-affirmation in its darkness in front of a colourful young audience. Only at the enchores they winked an eye
and looked beyond their core fans with songs like Three Imaginary Boys, Just like heaven and Boys don't cry.
They did their set, not a festival set, in hindsight this choice made them triumph but prevented them from tearing
the walls down. Citing the spanish opposition leader, The Cure achieved a quiet triumph. They were the kings of
the night.

[original source-> Luis Hidalgo EL PAIS 4/8/02]

"The paper also includes a brief of the press conference. The highlights are:
new album in 2003, solo work as a bonus to differentiate from The Cure's work , no internet release thinking of
fans in less developed areas as South America with no broadband access and asked about Lord Mick Jagger he
said 'There's very few people with true integrity and it's easy to be charmed  by the royals. If  I was offered such
honour I would tell them to put it up their assholes."

Also, in the way to the stage, a corridor of people cheering and clapping was formed as the band passed, and right
after the band, a couple of elders -in their seventies- made the same way and were honoured with the same
treatment. Were they Robert's parents? Yes."

(Thanks J)

"Just a couple of things: I totally agree with Ale of Orient Ambulance about the big bunch of so-called
blank-minded fibbers.
Now, the concert: loud and a very good performance, despite the setlist, which some fans expected to be far
different from the one in Budapest. Robert just didn't seem to bother to change the setlist paper, what's more, he
took out Lovesong. But this is just bad critics. For most people who couldn't show up to the dream tour here they
had the chance to get some of that 2000 flavour. And it's true Robert felt comfortable, as he said he could be
playing 6 or 7 encores but, as it usually happens in a country which DOESN'T go well, they had to stop at 4:20 am,
after 2 hours. The rest of the band was really into the show, specially Simon. Jason sped up a bit in the pause in
3IB, which caused the rest to have a laugh. Summing up, instead of the nearly 20-minute out of this world-watching
me fall pair other songs would've suit ed better, so I have to say! it was not the best setlist, but the performance
made it up to those who love The Cure, a performance a lot of people would've loved to see back in the weak
shows in 1998 (d'you remember?)."

"I haven't slept more than an hour but I'll try explain what happened last night and what it appeared to be the
best show in the benicassim festival history up till now (and forever).

I have been in several festivals during my life and ever waited for one to have scheduled The Cure within other
groups. This year The Cure had the  opportunity to astonish an audience as clinically stupid as the benicassim
one is: a beautiful city, a good festival, fine music but a crowd of such pedantry and fashion-like poppy scrappy
like the self-called "fibbers" are. The Cure could astonish them with everything they could have played, and
try to satisfy the festival promoters that didn't give  a damn about them (they also doubted to have the cure
scheduled till the last time and as it wasn't so expensive...as they said).
some newspapers gave the word as "the best group in the best's schedule in the benicassim festival history"
others simply throw the sentence "the cure or the nostalgic attack". Personally, I don't care about all this cos' I
would have the opportunity to see my favourite band live again. So They did show they were alive and gave the
festival an unexpected show for the non-fans, not only speaking about not playing too famous songs. It really
is about how POWERFUL is the setlist of this tour, so hard in every emotion. CRY, LAUGH, SHOUT, LOVE
LOVE AND LOVE.

I had to see 5 bands in the big stage to allow myself a better place in front of the band. so, after watching The
Cranes live in another stage, i held to the crowd and stood patiently in good humour. AUSTRALIAN BLONDE,
THE ELECTRIC SOFT PARADE, SUPERGRASS, LOS PLANETAS, MUSE and, finally, THE CURE. the
crowd grew in smells and disgusting behaviours in the last group, MUSE, and it made me wanna kill someone
but I still had to wait for 20 minutes until the cure appeared on stage (a very long wait!). I didn't care which
songs they would play, they wouldn't either be easily acceptable for fibbers. When they opened with Out of This
World I felt time would be slow and still, what a crushing beginning! and time stopped with Watching Me Fall,
people started to walk away and you could laugh at them. it wasn't funny but I expected them to do it, so it was,
so they were...
Want was the fury continued and held your breath. having read reviews and studying setlists you can't even
imagine the emotion of such energy displayed! more 30.000 people listening to  Plainsong! a long awaited song,
which Simon held  to stare at the crowd before playing the solo at the end. Robert sang with great voice, every
single word crashed in itself. Open was the swan song in the festival joyfulness, here guitars drove the crowd
crazy and to my surprise, they played Trust as Jason began playing a single rhythm in the raid. two songs from
Wish stroked by The Kiss: WHAT A SOUND! Simon and Perry jumping to every chord and Robert playing his
Wha Wha with such precision that you felt the sky was falling apart in red. The rain never came down but it had
rained during the morning though. Robert danced a bit in Shake Dog Shake and its end in whispers opened the
minds for the new blood so anyone who hadn't been touched with an inch of red cells could swim From the Edge
of the Deep Green Sea. another tour de force for an audience that didn't know whether it was the drugs or time
really slipped away. the hard effect on the bass of End breaked through this element: time had stopped a long
time ago and Robert sang every sentence changing: "I WAS none of these things!" samplers drove to the
simplicity of Siamese Twins (is it always like this? how great and how simple it is to be the best...) and another
sampler opened the drums for 100 Years. and so there was Jason playing every element to comfort the jumping
bass. there could be a 100 years but only 39 would be acceptable to think the opposite and re-establish the unity
between earth and sky. Bloodflowers has Robert asking for a louder voice, so he only had to sing such words to
encourage the crowd to look for their souls, probably sold out. he sang with his arms in a jiggle and lift his left
one very firmly to end "flowers of blood".

Encores came out very perfectly and surprises had to leave people with honey in their hands and broken jaws.
Robert came out and said he felt so good he could play for another two hours....and I can assure they could
have at least 20.000 people in front of them chewing their teeth with tears. one roadie was finishing tuning
Robert's guitar when they came out. They pinched his legs and came with the first one: Three Imaginary Boys
(how great to hear this song live with full band and jumping in fibber's feet....such words mean so much to me),
M (another great Lang movie favourite, crazy to play this as encore, people didn't get it), Play For Today (here
Robert and Simon laughed very much at the people screaming the keyboards....extreme foutade in both sides!),
A Forest (here people could play in safe ground, but crashing their heads with the trees cos' a fast single version
ended with a 92 bass end that Simon seemed to threaten the hand that clapped to control him, what did these
hands expect?).
second encore: Robert came out and said they would finish the concert with singles just to make it perfect; In
Between Days (such a happy damn love story), Just Like Heaven (Roger playing great piano. another love
broken and held up in time. you and you and you), Boys Don't Cry (hymn that robert had fun misunderstanding
the crowd with the words, laughing). The show was 2 hours and 7 minutes long and "Thank you...see you again
next year" left Simon laughing in one side of the stage. My only delussion was not to be able to watch Don't
Believe A Word or Faith Healer live. Maybe next year? So if you read any reviews, not a word of this of this is
true!"