"Catch The Cure and Violent Femmes on Hard Rock Live Presented by Blue from American Express on VH1, premiering Saturday, February 19th at Midnight. Currently the longest-running weekly concert series on television, Hard Rock Live uniquely captures the live performances of the music industry's top recording artists. Integrating memorable moments on-stage with candid one-on-one interviews and documentary narrative, the critically acclaimed program continues to be a "destination location" for an unparalleled mix of musical styles . The program is taped in New York in front of a live audience. At the end of the century, Hard Rock Live will have taped over 60 episodes, and showcased nearly 100 artists.

Hard Rock Live Presented by Blue from American Express airs on VH1 Saturdays at Midnight and Fridays at 6 PM ET/PT. Check your local listings for encore performances each week. Upcoming premiere performances include Beth Hart and Tori Amos (1/8), Robbie Williams and Sixpence None the Richer (1/15), Bush and Buckcherry (1/22), Paula Cole Band and Meredith Brooks (1/29) Best of Hard Rock Live: Top Ten Hits (2/5), Motley Crue (2/12), Blondie (2/26), Duran Duran (3/4), Santana and Friends (3/11) and The Best of Hard Rock Live: Rockin Hard! (3/25).

Check out www.hardrocklive.com for more details."

(Thanks Fusae)

(Thanks Julien)

Also, 'Coming Up' runs 6:27 long and is a darker, heavier song with lots of electric guitar.

(Thanks to Manuel of Cure Nius. To subscribe, remember that it is in Spanish only, send an e-mail to Cure-nius-subscribe@onelist.com)

(Thanks Tommy)

" I was watching MTV this evening, only because they were showing live acts from the MTV Music Awards throughout the years. Many good bands. Even more shitty ones. They did not show more than a few seconds of any performer, and they showed them randomly, not chronologically. Sure enough, The Cure flashed on the screen doing 'Just Like Heaven'.

(Thanks Scotty-Dog)

"Here in Holland, almost every time I rent a movie on video, it starts with a warning against the illegal copying of videos. During this message a cover of A Forest is played. It lasts for about 30 seconds. I don't know who made this cover."

(Thanks Pieter-Jan)

April 8th - Stuttgart, Schleyerhalle

April 9th - München, Olympiahalle

April 16th - Berlin, Arena

April 17th - Hamburg, Sporthalle

April 28th - Oberhausen, Arena

(Thanks Dennis)

also, on Dec 26th german mtv repeated an old Most Wanted special, with the best of the show up to 1994 - of course, the final thing they showed were excerpts from 'the ride to olympia grand hall 11/92' - the special Cure Most Wanted edition with scenes from the tour bus and in the Most Wanted studio and before the show with Ray Cokes and Robert. And a part of 'Doing the Unstuck' was shown from that particular show.

(Thanks Dennis)

"The Cure ended up 11th in "De tijdloze 150" (let's say "Timeless 150" in English) on Studio Brussel last night (25th of december). This is kind of an alternative radio station in Belgium. Which song you'll ask? Well... A Forest from 1980. It was the first time in 10 years that they didn't make the top 10 (highest position ever was 6, lowest was 13)."

(Thanks Frank)

"The cure gig in Buenos Aires 1987 was voted as the best shows, read more in

http://www.pagina12.com.ar/1999/suple/no/99-12/99-12-23/nota1b.htm (in spanish)

The poll was organized by "Pagina 12" important newspaper, one hundred of argentinian musicians voted on it."

(Thanks Christian)

"Hello!! :)

Hope you're having a great holiday season. Here we are again, with some juicy Pink Pig news:

These are the very last steps of the project (right on! :) and your last chance to become part of the unique Pink Pig experience. There are 21 songs available for grabs. As everything has to be ready by January 15th, special reservation rules will be in effect. PLEASE NOTE: don't make reservations if you're not 100% sure that you will be able to complete the cover on time. 1) Submissions by mail: the covers must be on the mail by January 10th. No exceptions. 2) Electronic submissions (mp3): must be sent by january 15th. No exceptions. 3) There won't be any more follow-ups, consequently if we don't get your covers by the specified dates, the reservation will be lost.

These are the available songs:

- the weedy burton

- so what?

- i'm cold

- do the hansa

- primary

- a strange day

- the upstairs room

- perfect murder

- caterpillar

- dressing up

- in between days

- stop dead

- like cockatoos

- icing sugar

- hey you!!!

- fear of ghosts

- open

- wendy time

- scared as you

- dredd song

- cloudberry

In order to reserve a song, please send an email to pinkpig@interar.com.ar

Pink Pig set -------------

For all of you who were wondering how was the set going to be, here are some details: There will be 2 volumes, the first of which will be released by late February. This first volume will be a very comprehensive book that will include 11 / 12 cds (up to A sign from God). A similar second book (out by May/June) will include the songs from Bloodflowers together with the B-sides from its singles and a cool scrapbook illustrating the making of Pink Pig. The pre-orders will be taken between January 16th and 31st. On January 15th we will post full details on the final cost, shipping and methods of payment of the set. Each volume will be mailed on the correspondent release date and -in order to make things easier- payments will be made in one installment.

For more details check the news section of the Pink Pig site

http://usuarios.interar.com.ar/german/pinkpig/website/news.html

We'll keep in touch :) Love Flor, German & Juan Jose "

"French radio France-Inter had played Out Of This World this evening(Dec. 23rd) at 10:30 in the Bernard Lenoir(the french John Peel) program. What's interesting is that all the four last broadcast of this program can be heard in Real Audio at this adress: http://www.radio-france.fr/chaines/france-inter/lenoir/audio.php then click "jeudi 23" and it's at about 53'50''. It's intruduce by "and now your Xmas present". Bernard Lenoir said the album will be out in march but it must be a mistake."

(Thanks Emeric & Sylvain)

"Bernard Lenoir could play more songs next week as he did in 1989 for Disintegration in his show on France Inter from monday to thursday between 9:30 and 10:30."

(Thanks Eric)

Nadine & I would like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! We wish you peace, love and for all of your dreams & wishes to come true. And thanks so much for all of the support over the past year, we genuinely appreciate it. 2000 should be a very busy and exciting time for all us, and you can be sure that we will cover it all. Thanks again and have a magical and wonderful Christmas!

(Thanks to Manuel of Cure Nius)

"XFM radio have just played "maybe someday" at 10.45am 23/12/99....was this a world exclusive play on the radio or a mistake...?"

"There's another poll for the best albums of the century. This time it's by RTL, the biggest national radio in France. Everyone could vote by sending an e-mail with his 10 favourite albums but now it's over. The Cure made it with Disintegration at 23rd. You can see the total result here: http://www.rtl.fr/zikweb/zikweb-evenement.htm "

(Thanks Matthias and Dirk)

"A set of exclusive and lengthy Robert Smith interviews (recent interviews) have been posted on the internet for all to download. The interviews are in MP3 format and you will be able to listen to Robert Smith discuss such topics as The Cure's sense of nostalgia, escaping idiot images, their success, some of their more recent singles, and, among other things, why *not* to wear lime green and tangerine in public. There is lots of interesting things to hear and there is even an amusing little argument between Robert and the presenter!

I have looked around and it seems that nobody else has hosted these interviews before, so here they are! You can download the MP3s by visiting: http://www.fluoresce.u4l.com/  and visiting the "Interviews" section."

(Thanks Phillip)

(Thanks Jennifer)

(Thanks Chad)

(Thanks Jennifer)

"The new CURE album "Bloodflowers" will be released February 14th 2000 Europe and the rest of the world, February 15th 2000 America and Japan. The 1st single ships January 11th 2000. In the meantime, we've found a very rare track, "To The Sky", recorded during the "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me" sessions, we'll be featuring over the next few weeks in anticipation of "Bloodflowers"!"

Haven't heard anything official about the single being released on Jan . 11th, but I'll check into it.

(Thanks Robert)

"The 30 years old french magazine "Rock & Folk" published a vote of the best bands of the century by the readers. The results are:

1. The Beatles, 2. The Rolling Stones, 3. Led Zeppelin, 4. Radiohead, 5. U2, 6. Pink Floyd, 7. Jimi Hendrix, 8. Nirvana, 9. The velvet Underground, 10. The Doors, 11. The Cure, 12. The Clash.

(Thanks Emeric)

"Polydor released a second double cd called "Dressed in black II". One of the tracks on this compilation is "Like an animal" from The Glove.

As Robert Smith appeared on the first "Dressed in black" with "From the edge of the deep green sea" and as guitar player on the Live version of Israel (Siouxsie) this makes a total of three. Only Morrisey does better...

The cd is at sale at http://www.frontstage.com"

(Thanks Robbertc)

(Thanks Jennifer)

"I just saw on teletext on VRT that the cure will probably play in a small venue in belgium. it is not yet 100% but let's say 99% sure. it will be in a venue with an audience of 1,000 persons. tickets will be on sale at normal adresses, but i'm not sure if they are available through internet. You can read it (in dutch) on www.vrt.be/ magazine 8 page 804."

(Thanks Stephan)

(Thanks Genevieve)

(Thanks Alex)

"Uncut magazine have announced that there will be an article on 'Robert Smith on the return of The Cure' in their February issue. No date is given as to when the magazine will be available but I suspect it will be the end of December/start of January. It is a UK based magazine and costs £3.50 (with a free CD every month). "

(Thanks Ian)

"According to Polydor Japan, bloodflowers will be released on 2nd February, 2000 in Japan. They declared and denied The Cure's official news page... And it has an extra track "Coming Up" in the middle of the album.... In the middle of it !!! I'm angry about it and really hope it won't disturb the whole mood of the album... Obviously, the Polydor Japan (or Universal?) forced The Cure to put the extra track into the album.

Japanese labels always want to add one or more extra tracks to their releases, because Japanese copies are priced higher than USA copies, and you can buy USA copies everywhere at a reasonable price here. No one wants to buy Japanese ones if they have the same contents as USA ones. But I think Japanese labels should have tried to reduce the price first. They are very lazy and I don't like them."

Anyway, here is a track list of Japanese Bloodflowers:

Bloodflowers (Polydor / POCP-7458)

track list

(Thanks Fusae)

"I recently rented a video game for the Nintendo 64 called "Chef's Love Shack " so the game is based on a South Park theme. Most of the game is a trivia type style. Anyway they have a category called Robert Smith Kicking Ass. I've only been able to see 3 different questions in this category so far. I don't remember them word for word but they are something like this:

One was asking, which band did Robert Smith became part of when The Cure was on some down time.

Another was basically saying, singer Robert Smith is to the Cure as ________ is to The Smiths.

The 3rd one had to do with, what Cure album did (Stan or Kyle, I can't remember) say was the best album ever."

(Thanks Jeff)

"Last monday (Dec. 6th), the french radio France Inter broadcast an interview of Robert Smith. Though it is translated in french, you can listen to it in Real Audio at the following adress:

http://www.radio-france.fr/chaines/france-inter/playlist/semaine.php

then click Christian Lamet and select "Christian Lamet Lundi 6 decembre".

The strangest thing is that the interviewer say that Robert will write a screenplay and will produce a movie: I really doubt about this or Robert was drunk or/and joking when he said that."

(Thanks Emeric)

(Thanks Tom)

(Thanks Matt)

And more from Jack Off Jill:

"I got this list from my daily mail and jessicka from the band jack off jill named disintegration her #1 album of all time heres the list."

Jack Off Jill, Jessicka

Top 10 Of All Time

(Thanks Kenny)

"BBC Prime are running a show every week called "Sounds Of The '70's". Yesterday, they focused on the youth music TV-Show "Something Else", which had appearences by Joy Divison, The Jam etc. but also Siouxie And The Banshees featuring a very young and energic Robert Smith. The track the Banshees performed were "Love In A Void", and the show must have been from around '79 (not very later, since a very drugged out Ian Curtis appeared in the very same program)."

(Thanks Peter)

ROCK TRACKS (Billboard - December 18, 1999)

Nothing/Interscope 6754 (CD promo)

"Into The Void"-the second single from Nine Inch Nails' epic masterpiece "The Fragile"-doesn't possess the revelatory emotional upsurge of the album's first offering, "We're In This Together." Instead, this minimalist track mines Trent Reznor's influences in the claustrophobic '80s electro-pop of early Cure and Depeche Mode; the lyrical content, too, is hardly an advance on the abstracted angst of 1994's "The Downward Spiral." Yet no Cure or Depeche Mode song (or anything from "The Downward Spiral," for that matter) boasts the sonic sophistication of "Into The Void." Reznor and co-producer Alan Moulder are peerless in the game of organic machination, making their computers beat with something approaching a heart. There are far more striking songs on "The Fragile" than this, but the dark grooves of "Into The Void" will sound great on the radio."

(Thanks Jennifer)

(Thanks Davis)

"I just wanted to let you know that I went to a concert last night. As usual, they give you tons of flyers and I got an official one from Alias (the company who organizes many concerts in France). There was a list of gigs on it and they mentioned "The Cure - End of April". Actually the good news is that 99% of ALIAS concerts happen in small places. Meaning that the band may have chosen to perform before small audiences this time, as they did 4 years ago at the Bataclan in Paris two weeks after their huge concert in Bercy. I bet for the Olympia, probably the best place in Paris, where actually they performed in 1982 for the Faith/Pornography albums."

(Thanks desperately seeking charlotte and Marcio)

(Thanks Patrick)

"Robert Smith was featured on the VH1 show The List this weekend. The topic was top male vocalists of all time and the opening montage featured Robert and a short section on his incredible stylings. Lasted about 5-7 seconds. Unfortunately none of the featured guests had enough insight and taste to recognize his brilliance."

(Thanks James)

"In The December issue of GQ magazine (British edition, p. 107 ) Gaz Coombes of 'Supergrass' is posing in a full page feature with new fashion gear. At the side of page there is half a dozen-ish questions put to him and the first one is :

Who first inspired you?

"Robert Smith and The Cure. Killing an Arab was probably the first lyric I learnt off by heart"

(Thanks Steven)

"this is quite odd: on Antenna 3, a regional (small) indipendent north-east italian network they are showing a very long spot about sexy chat lines, and they're using Picures of you, Lovesong and Close to me (mixed-up versions) as background music, all mixed togheter and in loop! this is surreal, really, i think that cure music is a lot of things, but definetly not sexy!"

(Thanks Marco)

"At the end of VH-1's Fashion Awards, while the credits were rolling, The Cure's "Wrong Number" was being played. It was a very extended (and cool) mix, with the vocal parts all edited out. It played for a very long time and sounded really cool. The mix kept flipping from Roger's keyboard to the guitar solos. It was also loud (i.e. not background music)."

(Thanks Jeff and Jeffrey)

"there is a brief mention of robert in a Village Voice article about korn's lead singer, jonathan davis. here's the snipet:

Davis is the latest in a long line that includes Kurt Cobain, Freddie Mercury, Rob Halford, Robert Smith, Martin Gore, Iggy and Axl, maybe Elvis and John Lennon--tourtured outsiders with negative/positive charisma. Davis is not as poetic as these people, but he's blunt, and his lyrics come off as an abused kid's journal entries...

the article is on page 130...december 7, 1999 issue."

(Thanks Van)

(Thanks Dennis)

(Thanks Clay & Alex)

"THE CURE'S long-awaited new album will finally be in the shops in February. Entitled 'Bloodflowers', it will be the band's first release since 1996's 'Wild Mood Swings'. The nine-track set was actually completed and mastered last June, but band leader Robert Smith delayed the release because he felt the market was too overcrowded. "A fall '99 release was considered for a while, but it was eventually decided that a post millennium frenzy date was probably the best option," Smith revealed on the band's official website. "And anyway, I wanted the break." The full track listing reads 'Out Of This World', 'Watching Me Fall', 'Where The Birds Always Sing', 'Maybe Someday', 'The Last Day Of Summer', 'There Is No If...', 'The Loudest Sound', '39', 'Bloodflowers'. "

(Thanks Jennifer)

" On page 205 he says Robert co-wrote the music for the song "Torment" on the Marc and the Mambas double album "Torment and Toreros" (I actually thought it was just Severin the composer). He says: "...He (Steve Severin) began to lecture me on how "Torment and Toreros" was substandard. He and Robert Smith had written the music for the track 'Torment', and he was upset at what I'd done to his tune..."

And no pages 326 and 327 tells about the supporting tour of Europe as special guests of The Cure, a bitter experience for Marc Almond and La Magia. "...In Rome, Depeche Mode came to the show and, as the audience threw coins, I was transported back to that concert all those years ago in Rayleigh, Essex, when Soft Cell had played. I tried everything on those shows. Bob Smith was really understanding when I asked him if I could miss out a show. He is a sweet, kind guy." Check the book "Tainted Life" by Marc Almond. A fascinating experience."

(Thanks German)

"Last evening, Tori Amos performed at the WBRU Downcity Siege in Providence, RI. This was a benefit concert for the Rhode Island Center for Performing Arts. And as part of her set, she performed LoveSong, which she has played periodically in the past. "

(Thanks Jeff)