"There is an interview with Robert Smith in the dutch newspaper 'Algemeen Dagblad'. The interview is also online (in dutch)."

(Thanks Mark and Floos)

"On Monday 3 December at 8.30 (ESST) on MusicMax (Foxtel) there is a 1 hour The Cure Special."

(Thanks Jo)

(Thanks Dan)

"It seems that Universal has chosen Brazil for it's most stupid decision concerning the GH. Next week they'll release the regular edition only.... and in January the limited edition for double price!! How those brilliant minds can't realize that the regular edition won't sell ? Everyone will wait for the January release, or rush to the import cd shops... "

(Thanks Antonio)

The Cureheads xmas party

December 29th

@ The Garage, Highbury, London.

(The Ex-" Town & Country 2")

Early Doors 6pm ( Onstage 6.30 pm )

Xmas Presents, Mince Tarts, Pyrotechnics.

There will also be an auction of Cure memorabillia in aid of "The BBC Children in Need Charity" Including one of Robert's old CCP Ice Hockey Shirts & several other special bits & bobs.

(Thanks Gary)

"Hi, I was surfing around when i bumped into this page. If you know anything about The Cure and it's use of the Fender VI this is a page that will make your skin crawl. I don't know who the writer is, but he's obviously a jerk. http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/rushdie/229/dreamguitar.html

(Thanks Anders)

The Cure for ailing fans

24.11.2001

The Cure have retired from the corporate music business with another hits collection. Robert Smith talks to GRAHAM REID.

He's had a day of interviews yet few people have asked Robert Smith of the Cure the obvious question. Something to do with their age, he laughs.

The question is simple: The Cure have a Greatest Hits album out - not their first such collection - but there's a notable omission.

So Robert, was it the political climate, pressure from the record company, or are you just so sick of the controversial albatross that you decided not to include the band's first single Killing An Arab?

"I honestly don't think it would have made any difference if we had included it actually because I've already gone through this during the Gulf War. It's on the first album [Three Imaginary Boys] and on Standing on the Beach: The Singles and I resisted a certain lobby that wanted it pulled from that album, and another which tried to force record shops not to stock it."

The seminal, cerebral '78 song with the much-misinterpreted title was their extraordinary distillation of a few pages of Albert Camus' existential novel l'Etranger (The Outsider). In a few words and even fewer instruments, Smith captured the ennui of the novel's central incident, and wrote himself into headlines. But the reason for its absence on this collection is that it didn't conform to his definition of a hit, which meant "songs which had to be commercially successful and mean something to the band in a wider context".

"So if a song wasn't a 'hit' it would still be considered because I didn't want to exclude some of the earlier ones which didn't sell much, or even some of the later ones which didn't sell as well either. But of the early singles, Boy's Don't Cry meant the most to the band and A Forest came next.

"I have to say though if we weren't in the current climate I don't think anyone would have noticed [the absence of Arab]. But if I had my time over I wouldn't not write the song - although I would change the title. If only that book had been set in Greenland."

Smith is in a chatty mood and has a bit to get off his chest. The Cure are one of the longest-running bands of their era. With his distinctive smudged lipstick and fright of hair, Smith is such an identifiable character he's appeared on South Park: "The highlight of my career. I await the action figure with trepidation, the one where the arms and legs don't move."

Part Goth and part moody pop, the Cure released 20 albums, but after their last, Bloodflowers, were free of responsibilities to all their international labels. Smith has declined to re-sign either the band or as a solo artist. Their parting gesture is the greatest hits collection with a bonus disc of recently recorded acoustic versions of the 18 tracks which stretch from Boys Don't Cry to a couple of previously unreleased songs.

It's a value-added package in an industry which hasn't accorded this long-running British band a box set or even the digital remastering of their catalogue. He doesn't doubt they'll come, but only when the companies realise they no longer have the band and will try to rejuvenate the catalogue while they still own it.

"It'll be a commercial decision, and that's why I decided not to re-sign, because every decision over the past six or seven years has been purely commercial. There's no sense of loyalty because the band has stayed with the same label for 20 years, in fact we're treated pretty shabbily. "Bloodflowers was the last straw because it was hugely underpromoted. Despite that, we toured and played to half a million people and sold a million albums. And they sit back.

"This seems like a good time to try something new. We're free and the band name carries a certain cachet. It's a good brand in market-speak, and with the internet it's the perfect time for a band like us to discover new models of distribution. It's quite exciting, for the first time in my adult life I don't have to seek permission to do anything."

The first of the new projects will be the much-delayed solo album which will be completed in the new year. Smith says that four years ago he was disillusioned with the band and one of his frustrations was that his songs would never progress beyond the Cure's audience. .

"So it felt like a natural time for me to do something afresh. I didn't feel comfortable with the band and solo thing coexisting because then I would just be 'Robert Smith of the Cure' taking a holiday from the band.

"So I started recording stuff without the band in mind and it was liberating because I wasn't constrained by the traditional methodology I'd adopted over the years. I think the band works well within a particular idiom, whereas liberating myself from that was very satisfying. So I've continued that and feel no conflict now. I'll be 'Robert Smith of the Cure' no matter what I do."

The package offers some tantalising hints of what Smith - a self-confessed lover of melody, chords and good tunes - might explore. The acoustic disc was his idea, a bonus for Cure followers.

"Bloodflowers got us such goodwill and people were looking forward to something new, but a greatest hits isn't high on anyone's wish-list. So this album is aimed at an audience of lapsed Cure fans, the people who might only buy one album and that's a greatest hits because they're on safe ground."

And so the Cure close off their career, at least temporarily, and Smith steps confidently into the great unknown. Distribution via the internet, some real world distribution by small companies? Sounds like he's back to the indie-land he started in.

"It does feel like we're closing the circle, and commercially we're about the same level we were in the mid-80s. We enjoy ourselves off in the shadows, and there's an audience for us."

* The Cure's Greatest Hits (with bonus acoustic disc) is out this week.

(Thanks Fernando)

(Thanks Manuel)

"This was an advert for the ARTE live broadcast on thursday 26 november in the french newspaper "Liberation". It shows a Cure fan searching desesperatly a ticket for the show and holding a cardboard sign with "Searching for a ticket for The Cure's gig" written on it. really funny !"

(Thanks Jerome)

"Just a few words about GH/Cut Here situation in Slovakia and Czech republic as far as i know.

a) the GH is out ONLY in the bonus (two disc) version, for double price (kill the bastards at Universal - fans only want the concert and the others the regular compilation, so no one is buying the GH for double price now. the Smashing Pumpkins GH sell for regular price INCLUDING the bonus disc.)

b) Cut Here is nowhere to be seen at all. they told me in various places they only will bring in copies on order from fans! however, the one store which actually did bring in 50 copies of Cut Here in Zilina sold them in two hours.

not to mention there is NO airplay or promotion at all."

(Thanks Alex)

"You can find here a link about ARTE TV MUSICPLANET2NITE with THE CURE : http://www.arte-tv.com/musique/mp2nite/ftext/index.html

after you go on it, go on:

1.) Extrait audio(on the right of your screen): to see 3 songs of this show: LULLABY, JUST SAY YES(with SAFFRON of REPUBLICA), BOYS DON'T CRY you've have the choice to see it with low connexion or high connexion

2.)Interview(on the right of your screen): to see extract of interview for MUSICPLANET2NITE or the press conference in Paris of 26 October (in English)"

(Thanks Pierre-Yves)

"A few interesting points mentioned by Robert in the interview on Arte...

1. The band have booked a studio for the beginning of 2002 in order to record a new album.

2. Robert wants to play for another 10 years at least (not fresh news but it confirms another interview)

3. All songs from his solo album have been written. It will take time to record it because he will collaborate with 8 people, 3 of them currently working on their own albums.

4. The band will play in Paris next year.

(Thanks Bruno)

"It's not a word to word transcription 'cos Robert's voice was covered by the translator's but, anyway, here are the main things within the interview :

E2 : How old are you ?

RS : 42 (in french !)

E2 : Do you speak french ?

RS : No !

E2 : Do you lie during interviews ?

RS : I used to, but now with the internet, it's no use, it's impossible to lie anymore.

E2 : Do you remember when you told a japanese journalist you'd bought a cow flock ?

RS : Yes I do remember, but it's not true.

E2 : What is 'Cut Here' about ?

RS : This song is about Billy MacKenzie who was singing in The Associates. He was with us for the 'Mint Car' video. We were having a drink at a table and were supposed to meet the week after to have a drink together. Then he left and Billy's family announced to me that he'd killed himself. Of course I had different feelings, as anyone would have when a friend commits suicide, anger, culpability, and obviously sadness. I'm happy this single means something to me, 'cos most of the time, singles are just made for radio.

(CUT HERE)

E2 : During Pornography, which was made under acid, you had a strange project of releasing an album made of conversations recorded as the sessions went on ? Did you throw this project to the garbage ?

RS : Hopefully yes. In fact with Roger, we put some demos on our website, and we'll also put some conversations, including some of the Pornography time.

E2 : Do you remember what these conversations were about ?

RS : Yes, we often record our conversations and years after, the humour of the band comes from these conversations when we remember them. Sometimes when you take alcohol or drugs, you're convinced that what you do is great, is kind of like poetry. But in fact it's not. It's just funny but humiliating. It's the other side of the group.

E2 : You're a bit sad about fans trying to wear as you do, make up as you do, waiting for you to out of your house completly drunk.

RS : Well, to be honest, it's a tricky question. Sometimes I make up at home when I want to outside of myself or want to be a bit glamour, but I do not make up when I go to do my shopping. If I see people looking like me, I do not feel sad. It's just a way for them to tell they're Cure fans. And those who are waiting for seing me like the Robert Smith as in the songs, it's another thing, 'cos he doesn't really exist, except when I'm on stage. The make up is just an extention of appreciating The Cure. If I was as in the songs, I would have no life, I would be no one. It's a complex topic 'cos the first time I saw someone looking like me was in France, in 1985. I felt uncomfortable but I had to deal with it. With the time, it became a normal part of being in The Cure.

E2 : Made up as a stolen car, as we say in french. Mint car, is it the same thing ? What is it about .

RS : I don't know. It's a Simon's song. Sometimes he says he's happy as he was getting a brand new car, a mint car. It's the idea of being with friends in a car and going somewhere.

E2 : What is happiness for you ?

RC : I don't know. The reason I can't say is because I just know it when I'm happy. When I'm not, I can't remember how it looks like.

E2 : How did you meet Mary ?

RC : She descended with a cloud from Heaven.

E2 : If music didn't exist, what would you have done ?

RS : I have no idea. I can't imagine the world without music. Music is everywhere. It's not being a hippie but too many people forget the pleasure of listening to music. I receive many critics especially in the UK 'cos I haven't grown up; But it's exactly why I make music.

E2 : But if you haven't been in The Cure, what woud you have been ?

RS : A journalist, to do interviews. No in fact, I would have been a gardener.

(ADS : G.H. ad)

E2 : You play every instrument, is that true.

RS : Yes, very bad

E2 : Last year you released called 'Bloodflowers', which was brilliant, but don't you think it was avant-garde, don't you think it would have been better to release it now ?

RS : It's quite difficult to answer. I'm not sure I understand what's behind the question.

E2 : I mean it's more 'relevant' now than it was when it came out.

RS : You know, what The Cure do has nothing to do with what's musically fashionable. 'BF' is the best thing we've done for the last 10 years. It's impossible to know how the world will react in front of a new album. Our public is so diverse, from teenagers to people reaching their 50's. The only thing they have in common is that they love The Cure, maybe nothing else but that they love The Cure.

E2 : Do you collaborate to the visual side of making videos ? Yes, we used to work with Tim Pope, who was very able to reflect the visual side of our music. But the initial idea for a video is always mine. I'm still intrigued by the fact that 'BF' could have been avant-garde. It's maybe true. I'm interested even if I can't really understand why.

E2 : It's only a feeling I had when I listened to it again, stronger than when it came out.

RS : What we do today, this local gig, is really good fun, like it was to make the accoustic version of the singles. But what we did last years, like playing song like 'BF' 's is what the band want to do now. We want to play some long emotional songs, even if singles are funnier. We want to start from 'BF' and continue.

E2 : Good idea !

(LOVE CATS)

E2 : What do you have in your pockets ?

RS : Humm ... a plectrum ... a DAT.

E2 : Oh please, give me your plectrum, I've got a whole collection !

RS : Give it to you now ?

E2 : Yes please ...

RS : OK, I won't have anything now, but...

E2 : What do you think about the french people ? How do you recognize a french person ?

RS : They are very 'sympathique', to us they are ! I don't have a quite comprehension, but kind of like an admiration for the french culture. All those french poets and writers, their vision of trying to make a better world. It made me feel that the world was bigger. I always hope to make something of The Cure that could be bigger than for the 'english zone'. I hope that even if you don't understand the words, you can experience something within The Cure's work.

E2 : For example you've been inspired by Camus when you wrote 'Killing An Arab' ...

RS : Yes but I don't want to talk about that now. It's too hot regarding the past events.

E2 : What is the most stupid thing you heard about you ?

RS : There are so many rumours spreading on the internet... One that comes along very often is that I'm dead, killed in a crash place or even killed by my mother. But as you can see, it's not true.

E2 : Let's talk about 'Lullaby', a song for children, for who ?

RS : For me. One of uncle was coming for week-ends, telling some scary stories to me and my little sister. My mother and father didn't agree with that but we did love this strange uncle, so I try to do the same for my nephews and nieces.

(BOYS DON'T CRY)

E2 : You released about 12 albums, 8 live and compilation or remixes albums. You're often reproached to recycle your stuff.

RS : It's really unfair. In 22 or 23 years, we made in average an album every two years. We also made 3 live albums, 2 singles collections and 1 G.H. . 'Mixed Up' doesn't count 'cos it was other people who wanted to make something with our songs. It really annoys me 'cos some bands (he doesn't want to tell which ones) release a G.H. after 2 or 3 album, but they won't get any criticism if they're fashionable. The versions on live albums are better that on the original releases and if you're a Cure fan, you'll like them. If you're not you can easily say we recycle the same stuff. Some songs have been release 3 or 4 times, but hundreds have only been released once.

E2 : What are you afraid of ?

RS : Nothing. Well I don't have any desire to die. All of irrational fears come from the fear of death. It's funny 'cos I was asked this question by Brian Molko, from Placebo. It's a weird question. For instance, Brian is afraid to go to prison, for a drug affair or something. Being jailed, being raped further times. He's also afraid of becoming stupid or sick when he gets older. I never think about those things.

(Friday I'm In Love)

E2 : Robert wants a glass of champagne, he won't say anything more if he doesn't get it. Is that true that 'Just Like Heaven' was asked by Antoine De Caune (former french journalist of 'Les Enfants du Rock') ?

RS : Yes, it was for the first serie of 'Les Enfants du Rock' and at the time of the 'KM' sessions in Miraval. I wrote the music first. And after that, during the sessions, I drank a bit of french wine, and then wrote the lyrics.

E2 : Do you like your body ?

RS : No I don't like the limits of having a body. The last time I have a good feeling with my body, I was 7 years old. I fell down very hard but wasn't hurt. Now when I'm front of my parents, who are getting old, it's strange 'cos I feel very real, very strong.

E2 : Do you sometimes go on a diet ?

RS : Yes but it's not to loose weight. Sometimes I try to always eat the same thing like breakfast cereals or fish. It's no diet at all.

E2 : Yeah, I sometimes do the same : eating potatoes for 3 days ...

RS : Arghh...only potatoes..., I could kill someone for that !

E2 : 'Why Can't I Be You' , who would you like to be ?

RS : No one else but me. The song came from a question asked by a fan. Even if I understood the sense of his question, I tried to explain to him that it was impossible. There are so many reasons why you can't be someone else. I personnaly thing that we all have more or less the same life : we're born, we live and die. This idea of being someone else can create a terrible feeling of alienation. Maybe the technology will allow us to see somebody's dreams, how one sees the world. It would be fantastic even for one day.

(Why Can't I Be You)

E2 : Do you still have a big dream to accomplish ?

RS : A number of things. It's a strange paradox again. When I was young, I had no precise idea about what to wait for. Becoming older, I have big projects for the time left to me. Now that I've reached my 40's, I've got some kind of plan, at a personnel level : books to read and understand, people to meet, projects to undertake. There's a big difference between being young and thinking you have things to do, and getting older and having done more than I imagined. I think I should, more than I could, do something else.

E2 : 'G.H.' : is it the last thing The Cure will release ?

RS : No, I hope no. But it's impossible to know. 'BF' was supposed to be the last thing. And I would be happy if people thought "They ended their carreer with the best album they've ever done". But I hope it won't be the last thing.

E2 : In french, we say 'merde' (shit) to wish someone good luck. So 'merde' to you.

RS : It loses something in the translation, but thank you very much !

It was a bit difficult to translate from what I heard of the interview. Sorry Robert if I misrepresented your thoughts and words."

(Thanks David)

"the Cure-Special on MTV Spin which aired monday was quite interesting. They showed a few videos and had a big interview with Robert. He mainly talked about the things he mentioned in all the other interviews. There were only two new things: 1. They recorded five new songs for the Greatest Hits album to make sure they had two songs, that were good enough to make it on the album. 2. Asked for the possible guests on his solo album and especially for Severin, Robert said that his relationship to Severin is quite strange and that he thinks that someday there will be a kind of The Glove Part 2, even though this won´t happen soon..."

This special will be aired again tonight at midnight.

(Thanks Martin)

ZERO HORA -- Porto Alegre, Brazil, November 28th 2001

Critic: Marcelo Perrone Translation: Marcos Ludwig

THE CURE'S FUTURE BELONGS TO SMITH

The British band's third singles collection brings an extra album with new acoustic versions

Cure fans pay no longer attention to him. Robert Smith, the emblematic figure with spiky hair, conducting genious of one of the most important British pop groups in the last 20 years, threathens now and then that they're releasing their last album, touring for the last time, that he's tired of being a superstar, wants to take a break and dedicate himself to solo projects, and so on.

If these GH really indicate the Cure's farewell, only Smith knows. Released as a double album, it features 16 all-time hits, two brand new songs e acoustic versions of all of them.

But a band with the Cure's acomplishments doesn't deserve to quit with a simple compilation. When this GH album was announced, no-one understood very well the point in releasing another singles collection, as the Cure already have two in their curriculum, STANDING ON A BEACH and GALORE, each of them focusing a different half of their carreer. Smith explained: the BLOODFLOWERS album (2000) marked the end of their contract with Universal/Polydor. As the record company keeps the rights of all the band's catalogue until 2002, it was for sure that the executive people would take advantage of the Cure's greatest classics in an ultimate release.

To prevent the GH album of seeming like a fraud, Smith decided to give a special bonus to the fans: a second record featuring new acoustic versions of the first record's songs. In Europe and in the US, the album was released in the middle of November and it costs the price of a single album.

In Brazil, the Universal record company is sending next week to the stores a single CD, featuring only the regular single collection. The double album, featuring the acoustic versions, should be out in January.

The collection's repertoire is faithful and reliable. It puts together hits from different eras, but it would probably take the risk of remaining on the shelves in the stores, even with the inclusion of the catchy "Cut here", which already is the Cure's greatest hit in years, written to pay homage to a friend who committed suicide. In the end of the day, the people who like the band already have their fundamental albums, or at least one of their single collections, and probably wouldn't spend their money on an album just because it features one new song which can also be found as a single or on the internet (audiogalaxy.com, kazaa.com and similar sites).

What makes the GH really attractive is the acoustic album. It was recorded in a one-go session, as if it was a gig -- Boris Williams, the Cure's ex-drummer, takes part on it and plays percussion --, and no further studio repairing was made, which ensures authenticity and also a thrilling feeling among the musicians. On the hurry of having the record made (last August), so that it could be included as a bonus, there was no time to try new arrangements or to experient with different textures. Therefore, almost all of the acoustic versions sound very similar to the original songs.

A parameter to comparison with what the Cure could have done can be found in what the band itself has done in the past: in 1991 they recorded an acoustic performance to MTV Europe, which was never officially released and has become a permanent object of desire to be found only in bootlegs. Those versions of "The walk", with plastic cornets conducting the riff, and of "Just like heaven", featuring a tiny toy piano, are unforgettable.

In relation to the Cure's future, Robert Smith jokes that he's tired of decreeting the end of the band: "I think the Cure can stand for another 25 years". By now, one can only be sure that his first solo album is on the way (there are rumours that he would work with David Bowie and Billy Corgan, among others) and also that the band will release a DVD featuring the videos for the GH, a collection of all of the Cure's B-sides and a live album from the highly successful Dream Tour. A new Cure studio album, says Smith, could eventually be released by a new record company, sold only on the internet or it could even never happen. Can one trust in what this guy says?

--Marcelo Perrone

(Thanks Marcos)

"Multiple versions of Greatest Hits aren't limited to departed superstars, however. The less stellar Beautiful South and Cure have decided once around the block wasn't enough, and are unveiling their second compilations, which contain pretty much the same songs as the first. As a sweetener, The Cure have thrown in a bonus acoustic CD, but one would need to be a Robert Smith fanatic to sit through it."

Not very nice, but they ARE giving away 10 copies of the 'Hits'.

(Thanks Steven)

"On Natalie Merchant's Web site (www.nataliemerchant.com), she has answered some fans' questions in the Q&A section. Here's one referring to Robert.

Mike K. asks: "On the Cure website Robert Smith has you posted as one of his 'favorite music makers'. So my question to you is, Do you like the Cure, if so would you consider them an influence?"

Natalie answers: "I am flattered to hear that Robert Smith enjoys my work. We share the same label and in the mid 1980's the two of us met when he came to a Maniac's show in NYC. He invited us to open a few shows for his band in the U.S. and Canada. Those were very exciting concerts for us, our first exposure to playing shows outside the club circuit. I thought Robert was very charming and fiercely intelligent, with a wry and perceptive sense of humor, it was no surprise that he was responsible for such great music. Among the first songs that the Maniacs covered was "Boys Don't Cry". I can't say he's been a huge influence, but I have long been a fan."

(Thanks Steven)

"The Onion" (weekly required reading) had in this week's horriscope for Capricorn:

Capricorn: (Dec. 22—Jan. 19) "In Between Days" is the best Cure song. That's all there is to it, and Capricorn doesn't want to hear any different."

(Thanks Matt, James, Jasonand Shadrach)

"Just bought the new Mick Jagger solo album. Track two is a Forest. Just listen. So much for Jagger sueing The Verve to pay Robert to pay Saffron ?"

(Thanks Gary)

"On Tuesday afternoon I went to the Darty household appliance shop ("Grand Ciel" Ivry shopping center near Paris, maybe the seller will recognize each other ? ) to buy a new phone, and after listening to Madonna & Co... what a surprise I could hear the intro of 10:15SN, I thought it was on the radio, this song is very rarely played!!! So I looked around me and I saw the seller who was playing the Cure song on a HiFi System (he was changing the volume). Then I could hear BoysDC and JumpingSET (Staring at the sea CD). Unfortunatly I had to go, but a few hours later the Ray Cokes's show was played on the french TV Channel ARTE : thanks guys & Saffron for this wonderful show."

(Thanks Olivier)

(Thanks Pierre-Yves)

(Thanks Chris)

The Simon Mayo show on BBC2 was disappointing. They only aired 2 of the 4 songs recorded for the session (and Simon Mayo talked over the beginning and end of them) and the interview with Robert was very brief and was mainly about Easy Cure and Malice. For the record, the band recorded A Forest, Just Like Heaven, Friday I'm In Love and Cut Here for the show, but only the first two made it on air. Oh well, can't have everything. The mp3 should be up later today.

"Next week on a french tv channel (MCM), it will be diffused "Le JDM" at these time :

* monday 3th december 2001 : 22h45 (french time)

* wednesay 5th december 2001 : 22h45 (french time)

* friday 7th december 2001 : 22h45 (french time) "

(Thanks Rodolphexxx)

"There will be a Cure night on MTV French on January 22nd, from 7pm on. According to the news, Robert will talk about his solo project."

(Thanks Bruno)

THE CURE- GREATEST HITS (Rated 9 out of 10)

With The Cure’s demise (and frontman Robert Smith’s long-threatened solo album) still shrouded in gray uncertainty, Greatest Hits arrives to remind us of all that went before—and to show us what The Cure are doing now. Sixteen past classics, from ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ to ‘Wrong Number,’ hit the expected high points, while the crunchy ‘Cut Here’ and the exuberant ‘Just Say Yes’ spin off from early-2001 sessions and sound, of course, exactly like you’d hope they would.

Some of the best hits singles of the last 22 years are the main attraction. Early copies of Greatest Hits, however, come with a bonus disc reprising the entire album with newly recorded acoustic versions that are as lightheartedly madcap and fluffy-haired grinny as only The Cure can be. From the claustrophobic depths of ‘A Forest’ to the arachnoid quickstep of ‘Lullaby,’ and on to unexpectedly triumphant reinventions of ‘Never Enough’ and ‘Wrong Number,’ Greatest Hits is also a reminder that The Cure don’t simply make great records. They write great songs as well. (Elektra) Dave Thompson

Kindred Spirits:

Siouxsie & The Banshees’ Once Upon A Time—The Singles

Magazine’s Maybe It’s Right To Be Nervous Now

New Order’s Substance

SELF ANALYSIS with the fluffy haired wonder, Robert Smith

This singles set has been described as The Cure "sung with a smile." Was this in reaction to the darker Bloodflowers?

There's a more prosaic reason—it's the first project that we've ever undergone that hasn't been driven by us. It wasn't suggested by me; it was actually the record company. And we were right at the end of the contract—we only had to deliver one more album—so I kind of reached an agreement that the greatest hits would be that record. I'm out of contract with the major labels, everywhere, for the first time since I was 19. It pleases me immensely. I've been free for the last month.

What are you doing with the new found freedom?

I'm undecided, really. I was intent on pursuing the line that "I look forward to these next 25 years of the band. And it's been a great part one." I'm traditionally expected to wrap the group up with every release. I thought this time around I'd probably aim for like at least another decade of The Cure. I have no idea. I was determined to enjoy some kind of creative freedom because I think, particularly with the Internet, there are some great opportunities. I fear that it's going to be closed down very rapidly, a lot of the opportunities. So I thought I'd better do it now or I'll never get a chance.

Makes sense. Your official Web site was pretty funny—you guys seemed a little exasperated trying to get the news out about the album.

Now it's hardware manufacturers trying to run the software, is effectively what the music business has become, and it's pretty soul-destroying if you don't fit into the niche. We've kind of escaped it to a degree because we're left alone, we sell X amount of records, we're always making them money [laughs], and so they sort of think we're just this kind of like anomaly. But it's been frustrating, really. The greatest-hits thing... I think it's a really good record. The last two years of the band, I've really, really enjoyed it. I thought the shows that we played last year around the Bloodflowers stuff, dusting off some of the really old songs that we haven't played for a long time, it was such good fun. And the band got on really well, and we pretty much sold out everywhere we went. And it's funny, because we're still genuinely an alternative band. It's quite bizarre—we're kind of going around and yet we don't get that much attention. And yet a lot of the songs on this record are—especially when people look at the track listing—there's a few kind of genuine hits on there.

Have you done any more work on your solo record?

It's all done, actually, apart from the guest artists' putting their bits on. I mean, it's not mixed, but the basic tracks are all recorded. Ten songs—that's what I was doing earlier this year. There is a Cure album kind of half-written as well. I still am undecided. I suppose in the back of my mind I'm waiting to see how the greatest-hits album does, which is being brutally honest. I figure if it does well the profile of The Cure's name will go up and it will probably be a good time to bring something out rather than wait. But at the same time, the part of me that thinks that would be a fantastic way to do something on my own, because it would completely fly in the face of reason. The solo stuff... Jason [Cooper]'s playing drums on it, and Simon [Gallup]'s playing bass on a bit of it. It's a blurring of lines; in my mind there isn't that clear line there probably was when we were doing that Bloodflowers thing. I thought, "Right, this is a Cure album; now I'm going to do my own stuff." It's kind of become slightly more blurred, the divided line between the two projects, 'cause when it comes down to it The Cure is kind of driven by me anyway. It's sort of like a sidecar, I suppose, this solo project. I feel like I'm still steering the motorbike."

—Annie Zaleski

(Thanks Jason)

" there was a greatest hits review in the brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo today... and it goes like this... the (!!) are my own comments, and it seems that they dont know about the accoustic CD as well. There are some small mistakes in dates and other things:

Folha de Sao Paulo

It wasn't this time. Since the album Kiss me Kiss me Kiss me, from 87, the Cure, the legendary english pop (!!) group, says that it's over and that the singer Robert Smith will go in a solo career. The crazy thing is that, even after concerts and records supposed to be the last, the band goes on living like it never had the intention to dissolve. Better for the fans. Now, Cure puts in the market the Greatest Hits CD, a compilation that covers the band's work since the beginnings, in the 70's, and brings one (!!) new track. It's "Cut Here", that you can find on the Internet, in places like KaZaa (www.kazaa.com).

"Cut Here" is the first Cure single in four years. The song was composed in 2001 (!!), but could have been in the Disintegration record, from 89. It's a crying rock, right in the style of the love songs composed by Robert Smith. It's melodical, has a repetitive guitar, with a catchy riff, overdubbed keyboards and sad vocals.

Until the 7th track, the record isn't new for those who have the classic "Staring at the Sea", also a compilation, released in 86. The album that has the old man on the cover also has the anthems "Boys Don't Cry", "The Lovecats" and "Close to Me". And "Greatest Hits" goes on in Cure's discography. It has songs of the records "Kiss me..." and "Disintegration". There's no release date set for Brazil yet. While this, the small "Music Tape" puts in the market the record "The Cure Live", recorded live. There are 15 songs with the audio quality near as a bootleg *. But the variety of the tracks is much more interesting than what you can hear in "Greatest Hits". Don't mind the ugly cover art, that tries to mimic the Cure from the days of "The Head on the Door" (86). What is interesting here are the renditions, even in a bad sound quality, of "10:15 Saturday Night". "Three Imaginary Boys" or "Fire in Cairo"

review written by Claudia Assef for the brazilian newspaper "Folha de Sao Paulo"

* I have this CD, bought it a couple of weeks ago, in some brazilian online store. It's a bootleg, for sure. The sound quality is not "soundboard", but it could be rated something like 8/10. From the setlist, it seems that it is a concert from 81, but there aren't any details about it on the booklet, and I dont think I had listen to it before. Before some song there is someone speaking english in the audience with an american accent, so this can help to find where it was recorded."

(Thanks BACO)

Dotmusic

Tue 27 Nov 2001 12:45

Released on: Mon 26 Nov 2001

THE CURE - 'GREATEST HITS' (POLYDOR)

It's a mark of an ultimately vintage band that even complete novices recognise the indelible mark left by that voice, those basslines, and that hair! For fans past and present the wound goes deeper than that - the soundtrack to light and dark, day and night. In a word, life.

'Greatest Hits' starts with the unsurpassable 'Boys Don't Cry' released in 1979. NINETEEN SEVENTY NINE! It's incredible that in 22 years the skinny tied, proto punksters have morphed into funeral-obsessed genre-defining gods of goth not to mention household names, selling millions of albums and filling stadiums along the way. True, age has finally caught up with Sir Bob to the point where he's an easily ridiculed figure from a bygone era but that's no disgrace. Just look at the sumptuous delights they've left behind.

Firstly, ignore the fact The Cure's past have already been recycled to death - 'Standing By the Sea', 'Galore' plus the two fairly recent live albums 'Paris' and 'Show' - this definitive 'Greatest Hits' is another reminder of what we are sadly short of at present - a globally adored and bloody marvellous British band.

Lest we forget that Robert Smith was the man who launched a nation of teenage goths; who smeared a million faces with shocking red lipstick; who single-handily sustained the UK baggy jumper industry for two decades; who built the Doc Martens empire; and who wrote some of the finest British pop songs of the last twenty years.

The king of bedroom doom-and-gloom survived the multi line-up changes, the drugs, the fades and the odd commercial downturn to produce a enormous creative output rivalled by few. 'Greatest Hits' obviously selects the lighter moments of their career rubber-stamping the notion that The Cure were a prolific singles band throughout. There's a wealth of variety here from 'Head On The Door' dream-induced beauties ('Inbetween Days', 'Close To Me') to some of 'Disintergration's' finest moments and even the latter day pop gems, most notably 'High', glisten.

Without question Sir Bob deserves a place on the list of the twentieth centuries truly great lyricists. Listen to the lovesick tale of 'Boys Don't Cry', the surreal feline musing of 'Lovecats', the unbridled joy of 'Friday I'm In Love', the 'if only' sentiments of 'Pictures Of You', and the mind curdling 'Lullaby' then try tellling me different.

It's a pity that there's two new songs included here. Why? They conclusively prove that it's time to move on for all concerned and not tarnish The Cure's name further but instead look forward to Smith's debut solo album promised for 2002.

Style is temporary, class is permanent. It's just like heaven.

Chris Heath

(Thanks Dudley)

France: "Greatest Hits" has dropped to #16 on the French compilation chart. / G.H. is down to # 9 in the FNAC stores chart (fnac.com).

Switzerland : # 24 (swisscharts.com)

Belgium : # 13 (ultrapop.be)

Austria : # 34 (charts.orf.at)

Norway : # 24 (vg.no)

World : towerrecords.com : # 24, cduniverse.com : # 1, cdnow.com : # 32

(Thanks Fab G, David)

"Just wanted to let you know that last night... I was watching VH1..and they were doing this classic "Arsenio Jams" show. Boy George was the special guest. I assume this taping was from like..1992 or so... but anyway... they were talking about how bands are all told what to do by their record companies..and forced to do material that they don't like..etc... and all of a sudden... Boy George tells Arsenio that the reason so many people like the Cure..is because of the fact that they are a real band that writes their own songs. I thought this was SO cool..and definately a cure spotting!"

(Thanks Jennifer)

(Thanks Ian and Pierre-Yves)

"In the current issue of German alternative music magazine ZILLO, there is a two page interview with Robert. This is a summary of what he said.

Robert says TGH is not the end of the cure, that he doesn't quit the band. He really enjoyed the "Bloodflowers" tour and doesn't want to stop it. If he did, he would feel angry about it all his lifetime.

He tells the story of Cut Here and Billy MacKenzie. Robert is glad that he eventually wrote some "ambitious" lines instead of some "nice" ones.

Then he tells the story of TGH: that he wanted to set up the song list and order and add some values... The accoustic hits: it was more relaxed than with MTV unplugged, like no cameras and no audience. It was Jasons wish to have Boris with them because he believed not sounding "fat" (intense) enough. It must have been a bit boring to Jason because everybody else played a bit different than normal but he just had to add the beat. Boris did very well. It was nice to work with him again.

Roger originally wanted to reunion all ex-Cure members for this album and to make them play on the songs they had participated on. But Simon vetoed it because he didn't want to play Phil Thornalley bass on "Love Cats". So they dismissed this idea. Robert tells that he makes his living with all ex-Cure members very well. He planned to have them all on-stage and play the last waltz. So they saved that for some other time.

There will be not TGH-tour because Robert doesn't want to play WCIBY. These times were over.

About his solo album. It's almost finished. He just need some people to play on it. He originally thought that would be easy: just call them and ask if they would do it. But that's not that easy because he isn't on a big label anymore. Most of american companies are distrustful and addicted to control. They want to know exactly how a project looks like and on which label it will be released. Otherwise they do not free the artist (?). But Robert haven't made up his mind yet. Maybe he'll release it just over the Internet. This does not comply with the ideas of the participating record companies and managements. This is why he doesn't want to have anything to do with "the industry".

The Safran-of-Republica-Case: it was easy to record the song. but now he has fax-battles with her lawyers. They don't accept the deal both of them had agreed on. Because it isn't good enough for them. Robert hasn't got any lawyers so he has to do it all alone. If there will be no settlement he will not be able to publish the song. In his words, this were be a tragedy. Robert didn't came to the idea of getting payed for "friendship services".

Back to the solo album project: Robert has given all canditates time until xmas to make a decision. If they don't cleary say "I'm with you and everything's OK!", he will look for someone else. Until now, he's got the final OK from 3 people but there are 7 more.

Billy Corgan? Robert cannot acknowledge gossips. "But when you look at the fan pages, there are a lot of names. And four of them happen to be mentioned a lot. <grin> It is quite clear with whom I want to work with." Basically he had beared with only 10 people in the last 25 years, this limited the thing.

How does the album will sound like? Robert has 2 version of every song - one vocal, one instrumental. On the one hand he has try to make a format that "goes into the head" (transl.?), on the other he made it very loose, improvised. He has more and more problems to write text. Maybe it's the age he says. Robert will probably combine both approaches. He will keep the unreleased songs until the next time. He is absolutly free when to release songs. Releaseing songs lasts only some seconds nowadays. Isn't that bizarre?

How is it like to work w/o pressure? Doesn't it makes you lazy? Robert has the feeling that he has more fun this way - because he doesn't have to worry. He has his audience - 500 000 people during prayer tour. It were much more ten years before, though. He calls it "our natural level", the percentage that always comes to the shows. Since they have an established (?) page and a wide net of fan pages. Cure fans are very web oriented. This is very important for the band. They are not played on VH-1 'cause they are considered too alternative while MTV doesn't play them 'cause they are too old. Isn't that insanity?"

(Thanks Erik)

(Thanks Fabrice)

"Robert announced every disc with a few phrases why they're so important for him. As I was at work during the radioprograms i've only heard the first and the third day and I remember him saying about Nick Drake that he has never heard such a sad voice as Nick's and that's what he likes so much about him. About Ziggy Stardust: this was his first record he bought himself. He was still at school at that time and he remembers that the days after the release of that disc, the boys at school were divided between people who liked the record, and people who didn't and found it weird..."

(Thanks Roel)

"Just noticed that warner vision Australia have the greatest hits dvd listed on their site. It gives all the details including a note saying that there are 3 hidden tracks. The site includes a few pre-order links for the Aussie fans. Release date is January 21, 2002. http://www.warnervision.com.au/bio.asp?id=1673 "

(Thanks Richard and Fuji)

(Thanks David)

UK: "Greatest Hits" has dropped to #52 in the UK album charts.

Belgium: The GH has entered the Ultratop 50 at #10. It was this weeks highest new entry. The Ultratop 50 is the official list for CD in Flanders.

In the Stubru 50, which is based on the official sales but leaves out the more commercial and 'non Studio Brussel' music, the GH entered at 35 last week and climbed to #2 this week, which made it the fastest climber It was only beaten by Madonna's GHV2.

Cut Here is at #20 in it's third week in the Afrekening of Studio Brussel. You can vote for the single at www.stubru.be

Spain : The GH has entered the Spanish charts at #29.

Australia: 'Greatest Hits' debuted at # 36 on the Australian charts.

Russia: After the sixth week of rotation on Radio Maximum broadcasting at Moscow and Saint Petersburg The Cure's CUT HERE moved to the fourth place: http://www.maximum.ru/charts.asp (it's highest position in the charts).

You can support it in Russian charts by voting online at: http://www.maximum.ru/charts_voting.asp You should choose three songs and after that press the yellow button at the end of the page.

(Thanks Alex, Stephan, Fab G., Alexey)

"Just some news on the Greatest Hits album in South Africa. Although a few weeks have already passed since the album's international release it is still only available here in import form (the version featuring "The Walk") in very limited supply. Thankfully the brilliance of the acoustic hits disc made it worth forking out the equivalent of $24 for the album (new CDs generally cost the equivalent of $12)

This is rather odd since all the band's non-live albums since Mixed Up have had local pressings, although there is always quite a delay before Cure material hits the shops ("Bloodflowers" was only available here about a month after the international release date while albums by Britney Spears, Michael Jackson etc etc are here within days)

I'm not sure if this is caused by an alarming general lack of interest in the Cure's music in South Africa although "Cut here" has had some airplay on an alternative show on national radio. Strangely I have only heard the dj play the acoustic version though.

Hopefully the DVD will eventually also see the light of day here."

(Thanks Nils)

"On November 27th the Get Up Kids release their new cd, "Eudora." This includes their cover of the Cure's "Close to Me" (previously available on the various artist compilation "Before You Were Punk Volume 2.") "

(Thanks Rust)

"thursday night on Swiss TV TSR1 there was an episod (don't know its title) of 'New York 911' in which Kim (the blond girl), before reconciliating with her sister, and letting her son go and live with her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend, has a talk with her mother about guys who've gone that women want to have back. And while they are 'arguing', in Kim ancient bedroom in her mother's house it seems, one can see a 'boys don't cry' poster on the wall."

(Thanks Fabien G)

"To begin with, I have to say that it was a fantastic show, and for several reasons. First, because it's was a very small venue and it was just like having the band playing at home. Second, I think that Robert should start a comic career, because he was very funny during the gig, honestly.

So, the place was very small (it's called La Scène and is located in the 11th district in Paris). A few tables and armchairs had been placed in the first rows, for some people (not the fans, of course...)

The band really seemed to enjoy being here to play acoustic versions. Hey, this is a kind of challenge, after all... On stage, there were several guitars and basses, among them regular guitars as well as 12-string ones. There was a huge piano for Roger, and near the drums there were... percussions. Yes! Boris was there, so there were 6 people on stage, which never happened since the Kissing Tour in 1987, did it? It was great to see Boris again! All members were sitting on confortable armchairs.

Just before the show,a guy shouted "Just Say Yes" and Robert simply answered "Well... no." :)

The Lovecats was soooo perfect. It's got to be jazz and it was! Mint Car sounded like the acoustic version on The Greatest Hits album. So did High, except that Robert didn't really remember the lyrics, wich explains why they played the song twice. Just Like Heaven was, as usual, very good, Lullaby too. Cut here : OH MY GOD ! Very nice an powerful. Incredible, fantastic, I LOVED this version, really different from the acoustic version on TGH, Robert keeping his eyes closed when singing. Wow. Believe me, it was one of the best song in the set! For Why can't I be you?, Robert stopped playing the guitar and took a tambourine instead. He said "Roger has lent it to me". And then, taking his glass (not sure it was beer) and talking with the voice of a drunk man : "Thaannkksss Roger..." Robert also said something like "Et ensuite voici un autre simple" (now here' another single) and adding "bla bla bla bla. I know I talk too much." Friday I'm in love was great, too (Perry, if you read this, you are forgiven... twice :) After Boys don't cry, the set was supposed to be done. BUT Robert just wantd to play some other songs. Of course we wanted them to play again and again. He said something like "ok, we're going to play another song, but we need to interview". Roger came to the rest of the band and they start discussing. Silence in the audience. Robert adds "Ok but just keep on talking..." People started to shout song names while he band "interviewed". After 3 or 4 minutes, they're "back" and play Lovesong. "This is totally unscheduled". Robert searched for some chords just before playing the song. I really think that it was unscheduled! Then A forest OH MY GOD (I know, again...) This song sounds so great in its acoustic version!!! Then they played High again, Robert explaining that he forgot the lyrics and wanted to record it again. Fire in Cairo : yes! a fews guys couldn't stop shouting the name of this song and Robert finally said "Ok, then" and started to play it alone with his guitar. Simon started to play the bass line and Jason followed. For sure, THAT was totally unscheduled! Friday I'm in love: "Ok, I didn't have the Friday I'm in love feeling but NOW I have the Friday I'm in love feeling..." They had to restart the song after 5 secs because Perry... well, you are forgiven again... Boys don't cry: new take, Robert just saying "Again?" as if this is what we were thinking. Inbetween days: final song, this time for real.

In fact, they were supposed to play for 30-40 minutes with the original setlist, but they really gave us a great gift since they played much longer than expected!

Robert was very funny, the band was generous, Boris was here, the acoustic songs were great. Well, again, thanks..."

(Thanks Bruno)

"I was at this show and made a record.. These are the songs they played, in the right order. Everything was acoustic.Boris was here with jason

The second friday had been stopped during the intro because of Perry mistake. I saw the official setlist..it stopped at Boys (the first one).

Arnaud

Audience were great.. Robert had fun, audience too.."

(Thanks Arnaud)

"in the italian charts, cut here has dropped to #23 and then, this week, to #47. well, at least it's over lenny kravitz's single!

also, the GH has entered this week at #30 the album chart."

(Thanks Pietro)

"It was at "la scène" near Bastille again. The show was supposed to start at 3:30 pm, but actually started at 4:30 pm. Even people who didn't have tickets came in. They came quietly on stage, Jason, Boris, Pery, Simon, Robert, and Roger. The first song was "Lovecats", which sounds terrific live. Then "Mint Car", "Just like Heaven", (I'm not sure about the order of the songs now) "High", "Lullaby", "Cut Here", "A forest", "Friday I'm in love", "Why can't I be you? (Robert dropped his guitar, and played tambourine. He said he had stolen it from Boris).

Before playing "Lovesong", something strange happenned : all the members of the band stopped playing for 5 minutes, and they were just chatting; every body was surprised to see this. Roger was laughing, and no one got why. They played "Boys don't cry" too. As a gift for the public, they played "Fire in Cairo", which they hadn't played since the "Prayer tour" I think. And then something unbelievable happenned. They palyed another time "High", "Friday I'm in love", and "Boys don't cry".

Officially, it was because Robert had forgotten the lyrics on "High", because he was not(I quote him) "in a Friday mood to play right "Friday I'm in love"; now I am in a friday mood". but more seriously I think there were recording problems during these songs, so they had to play them again. They finished the show with "Inbetween days".

The show was terrific, they were all accoustic songs. The band seemed happy to be on stage again; and even Simon was smiling, when the public shouted his name. It was really amazing to see them in this way, we were about 100 people in the public. But we were sorry they didn't do any encore. But they did signed some autographs, and I could talk with Roger a short moment,really nice; and I asked Robert if they were going to make a live album; he answered that it is possible, but it would be available on the web site only. At the end of the show, Robert said : "see you next year..." It seems that The Cure are not as dead as they are said to be. Maybe we will meet again."

(Thanks J-Baptiste)

"I'm just back from Paris where I saw Cure this afternoon, I didn't have a VIP invitation but -as they did at the Reservoir - security let people came in anyway… It was a small venue, we were an hundred or few more. First big thing: Boris were here to play percussions!!!!

They have started with Lovecats, Robert was in a very good mood. Then they played Mint car, Just like heaven, High, Lullaby, Cut Here (Robert said that it was the first time they played it), Friday i'm in love, Why can't I be you?, Lovesong and Boys don't cry.

At this time the band had to play again songs that didn't sound good enough (?) High, because Robert had forgot some of the words then Friday I'm in love and Boys don't cry because the sound of Simon's bass wasn't good enough too!!! To be honest, the all band sounded perfectly.

Between Friday and BDC, Robert played Fire in Cairo!!!! A friend of mine was shouting very loud asking the band to play it since the beginning of the show… so Robert finally did it, with Simon and the rest of the band coming along.

Then they played an excellent version of Forest and finished the set with Inbetween days. It was a fabulous show, and how fantastic it was to see them in a very very small venue and with a pop but enjoyable concert!

At last, Robert told the audience: "See you next year…" Boris seemed to have fun and sure we did too!"

(Thanks Julien)

"You've already announced that Robert would choose 5 discs this week on belgian radio Studio Brussel in Masters@Work.

He's chosen:

- Nick Drake: Five Leaves Left

- Jimi Hendrix: The Jimi Hendrix Experience

- David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

- The Sensational Alex Harvey Band: Next

- Van Morisson: Astral Weeks "

(Thanks Roel)

Switzerland - just want to inform that "Greatest Hits" has entered the Swiss Album chart at #24 this week. Cut here was already in the charts last week but only on #94!!

Ireland - Just like to let you know that the greatest hits album has come in at No. 4 on the Irish HMV chart! Yeah I seen it today when I was in store, it was playing all week and is displayed very well."

Germany - According to www.amazon.de The Cure Greatest Hits will enter official German album-charts at # 22 next week.

I've just discovered, that here in Germany, GH is #1 in WOM-album charts. WOM (word of music) is a major german record store. (week 47) additionally, Cut here is #36 this week in WOM-single-charts and apperently was #11 last week.

Entered Germany Music One chart at #10.

Canada - The Cure Greatest Hits enters Canadian album charts at # 54.

Just got back from HMV (Toronto) where GH is #37 on the charts.

US - On CD Universe Thursday evening, greatest hits (2CD was number two on their top sellers behind Pink Floyds double disk greatest hits. WOW!! I found this suprising considering the chart position!!!

France - Fnac Stores : entered at #6 and not #3

(Thanks Simon, Marlon, David, Simon, Erik, Benny, Phil, Peter)

Here is an almost complete transcript of Robert's interview with VLAM on French channel la 5eme last wednesday. (Sorry for the blanks but Robert speaks so fast on this one that I could not get everything he said)

"In the old days I used to lie all the time and no one ever knew whereas now with the internet everyone knows."

About the Greatest Hits album : "The record company came and said "Do you want to do an album called Greatest Hits?". I first thought it woud be us doing a new album called Greatest Hits (..) and then I realised that they wanted old songs. I picked a photograph of a... It's an old black and white photo of a swim in a New-York park with a little girl walking off in the distance and that with Greatest Hits I thought was really good. So I sent it off with really high hopes. I got an email and faxes back saying ? ( The record company answered that they wanted Robert on the cover. ) You do have to have a certain ? of perseverance because you deal with so many idiots."

"It's like discovering something in an attic you had played with as a child, it instantly transports you and it makes you feel a very strange feeling that in fact no time has passed and that your entire life has actually been a dream, fabricated by someone. When I look back, I think a lot of things I have done with The Cure, I kind of subconsciously have had that sort of tension between the pop sensibility side as it is showed on the Greatest Hits, and the other side of The Cure you know... It's not really experimental but it's kind of atmospheric, it's kind of long songs of emotional music."

About The Cure influences : "Unconsciously, the biggest influence on me has been the Beatles. When I was 4 years old, my older sister used to play the first Beatles album over and over again in our bedroom and I knew all the words by the time I was 5. There are artists like Hendrix who made me feel like there was another world out there that was brighter, more colourful, bigger than the one that I knew and allowed me to kind of think there is more to the world than this."

About The music : "Musically we are not that good really, The Cure, I mean we are not virtuoses. We have had some, you know... Jason is a fantastic drummer and Simon is a great bassist, he looks great. (..) But within the context of The Cure, when we are playing well, we make a really good sound (..) We are not particularly good individually but as a band we can make it work. And probably I am reasonably limited as a songwriter but I am able sometimes to transcend and I am always trying to do something that means something to me(..)"

"Put down the guitar?(..) No I will never put down the guitar. I write more music now than I ever have done in my life. I write with pleasure. 90% of what I do is never listened by anyone apart from me. When I get really drunk, I always end up writing music but I don't... (smiling) All the music I have written has not been written when I am drunk. I can write as much as I want and make music but I can't tell if anyone is always going to want to listen to it so that is the part that, if it disappears before I want it to, that is the part that I will miss, but I don't know... (smiling) There is always the local pub that will help me... (joining hands) Please no! No local pub!"

About the Greatest Hits promotion : "Last week in the UK, I saw that we were not able to get on VH1 because we were considered to be too alternative for VH1. People from VH1 think The Cure are too weird. Two days later, Universal went to MTV2 and they said The Cure are too old to be alternative (laughing) so (..) I wasn't aware up until last week that I have become officially too old to be alternative... Too old to be alternative... Too alternative to be old! That's my grave sign. I feel like I have done so much that I should be dead!"

(Thanks Sylvain)

"About half an hour ago the announced interview in the MTV News Mag was shown. It was only a very short interview made by host Markus Kavka. Robert only told again that no fan would need another compilation. So they put some new songs on it. Shortly he talks about the ended contract with the record companies. He has done it to be more spontaneous ans faster in the future as they were in the beginning of their career. Most interesting was that Markus Kavka talked about his youth. He was a Robert Smith lookalike ans so it was great this person whin has influenced him so much. By the way that´s defintly true because Markus lived for a long time in my hometown and of course he went to the same places were I was. Also he was great DJ for Indi Music."

(Thanks Matthias)

And more from Germany:

"Well, yesterday i've watched the news on MTV (germany). There was a little interview with robert. he said that THE CURE will get a new, smaller label and that they hope to bring out some new stuff soon. he said that they like to work as they did it at the beginning of their carrer, so that there won't be such a long time to wait for new albums or live-albums or what ever! I think the interview was a part of the cure special which is going to be shown on monday, but i'm not quite sure.

And for all the germans out there: the magazine "musikexpress" has an interview with robert in which he describes the CURE-FICTION problem!"

(Thanks Martin)

"on the last number of the italian magazine netTV there is a small article about robert's solo project. here is the text, in italian and then traslated by me:

Robert Smith continua da solo Dopo essere stato ripetutamente rinviato, sembra che stia per prendere piede il progetto solista di Robert Smith, storico leader dei cure. lo stesso cantante ha confessato che le registrazioni del disco inizieranno nei primi giorni del 2002. nell'attesa, gli aficionados della più importante dark-band degli anni ottanta possono ripiegare sul recente Greatest Hits, che contiene alcuni famosi brani dei Cure in versione acustica più due inediti.

Robert Smith goes on alone After being delayed several times, it seems that the solo project of Robert Smith, historical cure leader, is starting. the singer himself admitted that the album recordings will begin in the first days of 2002. in the meanwhile, the fans of the most important dark-band of the eighties can fall back on the recent Greatest Hits, including some of the most famous cure songs in acoustic version with two new songs."

(Thanks Pietro)

"I just wanted to let you know that Elektra's lack of promotion may be partially to blame for the lack of sales.. Some of the major record stores here in Western New York state (and even some of the independent stores that usually carry even rare Cure import singles) don't have the Greatest Hits in stock yet..not even the normal 1 CD version... Many record store employees seemed completely baffled at the mention of new Cure material (i.e. "Do you have the new Cure import single?" "Huh? New Cure? What? Uuuhhmm..no, I don't think we'll ever be getting that in").. I don't remember seeing the hits album on any upcoming release lists....

So, the album's #58 debut in the US may be partially due to the fact that in some areas you wouldn't even know the album even exists.... Hell, like I said, some of the stores don't even seem to know it exists..and others don't seem to have bothered ordering it... It's kinda sad when you actually have to search like 5 stores to find a new major label release... I guess that sort of speaks volumes about Elektra's promotion of the band... "

(Thanks Josh)

"the cut here video, is the video of the week on the mexican music chanel "telehit", on the other side, mtv latin america is not playing the video, vote, to telehit@televisa.com.mx telling "quiero ver el video de the cure en el top 10" this means, i want the cure video on top ten"

"CURIOSITY, the Belgian coverband needs a guitarist.... It's easier to live in the Liège Region for the rehearsals, but..if you are interested, send a mail to : vincent.crepin@teledsinet.be "

(Thanks Vincent)

"Find below the URL where all Cure fans will be able to get a copy of THE French Cure bio. This is the site of music books editor "Camion Blanc", which also offers books about Joy Division, Sonic Youth, Morrissey... I own one of these babies and it is well documented, interesting and probably the best bio available on these shores.

http://www.camionblanc.com/cure.htm"

(Thanks Cécile)

"I just want to let you know that next friday (23rd November) there will be a Cure party in Chieti Scalo at "La Terrazza", in via Ortona 7B (Zona Stazione F.S.). You will listen to a lot of rare stuff from various live shows, and you'll watch lots of rare tv appearences and live shots!!! For more infos about what you'll see and listen next evening, go to http://utenti.tripod.it/fgtrading"

(Thanks Francesco)

"Yesterday I saw Scottish band MOGWAI play live at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. They started their first (and last) encore -an astonishing mind blowing version of My father / my king- with the intro of A forest"

(Thanks Niels)

Update: Well, Janice put them on about 30 minutes early, and I missed some of it. What I did hear was performances of 'Inbetween Days' and 'High', and Robert admit that he's just started listening to Korn. No comment on that from me. : ) Anyway, if you managed to get it in MP3, e-mail me. Thanks. Now, here's a more complete report on the show:

"Janice Long Show is just finished on BBC2.

They played Boys don't cry, In Between Days and High (before which Robert said " we don't do this very often so... good luck everyone!")

In between there have been funny bits of interview, more or less the very same questions and answers recurring in the other interviews but the tone was very relaxed and funny at some points.

Robert said that one of the next thing he would like to do in between recording new stuff with the band next year is to put together the B-Sides Collection because this seems to be the most appropriate moment and it could be "a companion to this collection which by the way does not tell anywhere near the whole story about the band": Perry said that there would be a "Darkest Hits" Collection and Robert laughed saying that "this is rather a Great Misses since the songs on it do not represent a whole side of the band".

Another funny bit was when the interviewer talking about contemporary music asked "what have you recently bought ... or blagged" and Robert said "I never blag, I pay for everything" in a very amused way.

Other interesting bits said by Robert from the interview :

about Just say yes: "it was intended to go on Bloodflowers although this may seem strange: I'm always worried to get within the process of recording songs that are already finished but don't eventually fit in the record. JSY was intended to be a song bringing some delight in a record which is pretty much driven by atmospherical songs, but never made it because I have never been happy about it although I thought that it was a good pop song. So when the thing about the GH came out it was almost natural to think about using it, but once again I wasn't really satisfied with it: it didn't work it sounded as if I was crying or imploring rather than enthusing! So I needed someone who could uhmmm pep me up and I thought about Saffron since I vaguely guessed about how much she could be pretty uhm vivacious" ... "it's been funny since I haven't experienced someone dancing in the corner of my eye in front of the mike since I was in the Banshees and at some point I was exhausted like uhm <oh, please stop!>"

about how they are doing in the UK: "it's strange since we've always been struggling a bit more in the UK at least for the last seven or eight years: the perception of the band is different in the UK. We're kind of attacked more for what we do than for who we are and what we're supposed to represent and the UK media has sort of put us in a position and they always re-inforced their attitude against us whatever we do; but that goes beyond my conspirational nature of me, I mean we know that there's an audience for us in the Uk and that's nice so it's just that we have a difficult relationship with the media, but I cannot be bothered. I mean I don't think I have done a single interview here apart from a couple of TV things ... but now we are on Radio 2!"

about music industry: "I've never enjoyed being part of it. It's the worst part of what we do and only recently I have realized how difficult it is to make anything since everything is a purely commercial decision anyway and it's incredible how difficult it is to get anything done whereas previously there used to be some broader margins. In the old days (laughs about this thing and pretend the voice of a very old man) I mean when we started, things were a bit more fractured and there was not a marketing strategy for everything: it was more like we went places and we played and if people liked it then we would have gone on whereas now it has a lot more to do with marketing and placement of a product so i think it's better for us trying to continue making music shifting away from all of this"

about what's next: "I really think that we will go to record something new and in the interim I wouldn't be surprised to see that some sort of B sides collection or an anthology comes out as a companion to this GH. The thing is that normally a GH tell you almost anything about a band and about the best they've done, but with the Cure this is not so: we have sort of always had a double life and this GH tells something about us but also does not cover a lot more. (Perry: So probably there's gonna be a Darkest Hits). Yeah, a greatest misses collection!"

about why not touring now: "the last tour was fantastic and we also still remember the promotional tour which we did for Galore another collection out in 97 and that wasn't very enjoyable. Also we haven't really played these songs in a while and this indicates that the band is not interested in doing them and I would feel strange about being onstage playing these singles. Particularly with the kind of climate that we have now I am really pleased that we have decided not to do anything since I think it would feel strange: I mean not confronting an audience, but going around jumping onstage at this point in time would feel weird" (i think it's the first time he says something about this topic)

about the likes of music contemporaries: "I think Mogwai are the best band of the present generation, I also enjoy listening Deftones and lately I'm gettin into Korn: yeah, I'm drifting into new metal nowadays! So you'll have to be worried ..."

Another funny bit: JL says "right, are you gonna play something else for me ... I mean for us" and Robert "Yes, oh come on, we know you're pretending this (the interview) is going out ..."

And then she went on like "if someone told me one day you're gonna sit down with the Cure I would have said <Oh, God, I'M NOT!> because I couldn't have believed it" and Robert: "yeah and if after this someone's gonna ask to do it again then she would say <Oh no, I'M NOT!>"

hope this makes it enjoyable for everyone as much as it was for me

(Thanks Davide)

(Thanks Bruno)

In comparison, 'Bloodflowers' debuted at #16 (70,953 copies), 'Galore' debuted at #32 (36,413 copies), 'WMS' debuted at #12 (74,000 copies), 'Wish' debuted at #2 (135,348 copies), 'Mixed Up' debuted at #14 and 'Disintegration' debuted at #45 (before slowly climbing to #12 and staying in the chart for 55 weeks!)

(Thanks Dan)

(Thanks Benny)

"Today i heard some promo for the greatest hits album on studio brussel, i heard it at least several times and in the afternoon it was even at least 2 times an hour. there is also a flyer from studio brussel in the greatest hits cd, saying the frequences of studio brussel and there are two stickers on the cd: one from studio brussel and one from radio 21."

(Thanks Stephan)

"As part of the surprises planned for The Cureheads xmas party and Final? gig at The garage on December 29th. The Cureheads are desperately seeking an extra guitarist, a live string section and a sitar player. If you are interested in trying out please contact The Cureheads on cureheads@btinternet.com for more details. Tickets for The Event can be found at www.stargreen.co.uk and http://www.musicnonstop.co.uk/store/erol.html and the fee is going to The BBC Children In Need Charity."

(Thanks Gary)

To unlock The Caterpillar video: From the main menu, choose Song Select, scroll until The Walk, press the Down key until the star disappears and then click quickly and several times with the right key. The video will play.

To unlock the Pictures of you video : From the main menu, choose Song Select, scroll until The Friday I'm in love, press the Down key until the star disappears and then click quickly and several times with the down key. The video will play.

To unlock the Close To Me (remix) video: Put the cursor on Close to me in the Song Select screen, then press Up and the star will disappear. Press up several times and quickly, this will play the Close to me remix video.

This DVD is a GREAT gift. Nice presentation, nice menus, new version of lullaby in the main menu, the acoustic hits are just perfect, the new Just Say Yes video is terrific..."

(Thanks Bruno)

(Thanks Fab G)

"THE CURE ARE DOING AN EXCLUSIVE 24HR VIDEO WEBCAST TITLED "H.O.B" A MTV U.S.A EXCLUSIVE! ON TUESDAY,DEC.11th, 3:00PM ET. "

(Thanks Sterling)

"OUT ON HIS OWN: Cure founder Robert Smith working on his first solo album, a collection of collaborations with several of his friends, including members of Siouxsie & the Banshees. The Cure's Greatest Hits collection hits stores on November 13. "

(Thanks Shadrach)

"It is a bit weird that people were not able to get the greatest hits CD on Monday when it was released. I had pre-ordered it through Sanity in Perth and got the phone call on Friday to say it was in. I was able to get it 3 days before the actual release date so I don't know why it wasn't available in other stores."

(Thanks Jo)

"Greatest Hits album is now available in stores in Jakarta. The stores here sell the 1 CD Edition only. I think Universal Indonesia (Asia) only release this kind of CD (not the 2 CD). on Cassette is the same (without acoustic version). They only give the CD (the 1 CD Edition) a sticker written : Special Asian Edition. However, few copies of imported 2 CD Edition might show up here. That's for sure. It is likely that the 2 Cassette Edition will be available but i'm not so sure."

(Thanks Akbar)

"Well today I was looking at a Jane Magazine, and in the reviews section I spotted The Greatest Hits.. It mentions that "Greatest Hits","packages often blow." Then it mentions "The Cure, however solved this problem. One disc is filled with fresh acoustic takes on all hits that carry you to new, happy places. Then there's a disc of those same ditties in all their dark, original splendor." I glad to hear that Billy ( believed to be reviewer) enjoyed it.. I know I do..."

(Thanks Jennifer)

"There's a fantastic show called the on-going history of new music on edge102 where the host alan cross does lots of "stories of" and trivia bits about a band every sunday night.

there was a little snipit where he saw fit to include the cure.

he had a quote from robert about the mp3 possibilities the cure may adopt after finishing their record deals, and then said, "so, he's getting tired of dealing with major labels... let's watch this folks, this could get very interesting indeed..."

kudos to mr. cross by the way, he has always done a good job of promoting the band when he can - yea alan."

(Thanks Caro)

"How fitting that on the day of the release of the Hits here in Australia (Nov 19th) that The Cure pop up on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" The question asked was what "post-punk" band were famous for songs like Lovecats, Boys Don't Cry and Friday I'm in Love. Unfortunately for the contestant, after opting for a 50/50 he selected The Clash instead of The Cure. I wonder if it's just coincidence that this question happened now."

(Thanks Michelle, Jo and Night Star)

I translated the tentationes story...although Robert states in it that he hopes nobody translates it into English. lol. I hope he doesn't read it.

"The Cynical god" (picture):"Robert smith, with king Midas' hands. Here are the confesions of a pop myth, Robert Smith, an intelligent and sarcastic person, the leader of The Cure. We spoke to him today, the day their band comes out with The Greatest Hits.

Gatwick, London airport, south terminal: there have to be a a thousand better places to spend your monday mornings. Robert Smith arrives, forty two years, alone, dressed in black, pants wide and an open shirt. A South Park suitcase, and a distracted gaze. No representatives, or secretaries; alone.

South terminal, Hilton Gatwick, room 3.232, The Cure's leader puts on make up before beginning the interview and pictures. He serves himself a cup of coffee and sits down with a foot on top of the other. Lips painted, hair flaring.

The Cure presents a CD of their greatests hits, whose title, "Greatest Hits", reflects the perfection of the orginality of the proposition. It is made up of 16 classics by the band, along with two new songs. "This is the first project not started by the band. It was the company that asked us. They didn't like Galore (an earlier compilation, which appeard in 1997) and the contract ended with the last album, Bloodflowers (2000). I decided not to renew, but during a couple of years they had the rights over all my songs, so it was clear that they were going to take advantage of it." Smith confirms that his only condition at the time of the collaboration in the production of this disc was to be able to choose the song titles. A career of twenty two years, twenty discs, and almost 28 million albums put into one album. He also insisted that there be two new songs, an extra disc with acoustic hits, and to participate in the promotion. "This time, the interviews are easier, because I don't have to convince anybody that my last disc was better. It's obvious that my last disc is the better one."

"I dissolve the group more or less every week," he said, cynically. There have been thirteen distinct members to pass through the Cure. The actual band today has lasted six years, a record with a base philosophy. "I've grown. I don't suffer from attacks of hysterical anger. If I get angry with someone, I don't throw it on the band like I did before." He admits that he doesn't see the band members outside of their strict professional duties, and even like that, he likes to do things alone, in his own way. This is confirmed later in a phone conversation with a member of the company. "Robert wants to do all the press himself, if you want to meet with the rest of the band we can arrange that separately." Smith affirms that this is circumstancial, "I never wanted to be the personality of the group. When I was with the Banshess, I was only a guitarist, and it's great being just that. What happens with this group is that the others don't talk, only when they're drunk. Well, Roger (O'Donnel, keyboardist) speaks all the time, but what happens is he just speaks stupidities. I hope nobody translates this interview to English. Roger, I'm sorry, I didn't want to say that." He laughs and continues. "Seriously though, I listen to the others. Politically, I am totally against the opinions of two of the group members, but I tolerate playing with them. And I'm still waiting for the day that I hear an argument that convinces me."

The Cure began in 1976 under the name The Easy Cure. When they started, they would play in Smith's parent's living room. "The next morning (after practicing), I had to pick everything up with a terrible hangover. That's the price you pay for fame, I guess." Smith left the University, and told his parents, and a time passed until he got a contract. "My parents, surprisingly enough, understood and did not get fed up with me, and told me to go on. I went out of the studio thinking, 'they've gotten angry with me, and don't love me anymore.'" In six months, the kid had a contract. "I spent time like a rebel, I would go to the interviews with no shoes, I didn't want them to give me any lip." Three years later, his band followed Siouxsie and the Banshess, a group which Smith became the guitarist during their touring. Meanwhile the Cure slowly grew. Smith looks back and thinks it good. "We wouldn't have been able to handle the fame if it would've hit us all of the sudden. When I was young I always dreamed of having a group that was adored by few and ignored by the rest of the world, like Nick Drake. Fortunately, when we became famous, I had no time to reflect upon anything anymore."

Nonetheless, there are a few instances in which the Cure's rise to fame that were especially traumatic. The first, a few months before Smith turned 25. "I tried with all my might to not reach twenty five. And almost got it. I ended up in the hospital, and when I was there, I thought that dying was probably not that good of an idea." He stops a while and smiles again. "Then I got home and turned 25. I was now old." The second came at the end of the 80's, when Smith had to leave London, the life in the capital was about to ruin his health. "I left a few months to france and then to Ireland." Ireland? Why? "Well, I don't know. I think that we had gone on tour and I had had a great time. I had acquired a home in three months near Dublin, and at the end, decided to return. I drank so much Guinness that I couldn't even get into the door." Beyond these two frustrated attempts at leaving the UK, Smith has returned to Sussex, a county SouthEast of London. "I am not at all patriotic. What happens is that I prefer to live in a culture I understand. There are many things that bother me about England, mostly this anti-european feeling that defies all reason. But, aside from this generalized iditioness, I have a formed opinion about things here. At times, when outside, I even ignore the weather."

"I never have worried about the consequences of the things I do or say in public, because......let's see if I can say this without being a pretentious prick(?)." Smith tries to answer the question about if he believes himself a role model and if he believes he should restrict his actions and words. "I never believed that if I did bad things, they'd be imitated because i was someone to follow. Maybe because I've always tried to live a life which I would be proud of."

THE RESTRICTED KID

Smith also believes that his band's fans are more intelligent than the record industry gives them credit for. A few executives told him once that his fans were mostly males, between the ages of 30 & 40. Smith said that he doubted it, and the executives conducted some market research. "It turned out it was males and females both at 50%, and that they were between the ages of 25 and 35. When I started, I knew that the music was a business, but I didn't thing that they'd end up doing investigations like those." Smith says that he spends his time reading and recording things, 99% of which nobody would listen to. He's preparing a solo album, in which there will be six collaborators, but he can't give names. He doesn't go to parties, nor talk to tabloids. But he can't stop these from talking about him. The last time, saying that he is a pathetic and sour person. Robert Smith, was the first and only artist to restrict(?) the kid that was going to imitate him in the English version of starry night. "I didn't like that kid, he laughed at me, I thought that I could live without that in my life."

Last night he was in front of the television--he likes television more now, since the South Park episode in which he saved the world from Barbra Streisand--to see A Tribute to Heroes, a benefit concert that American artists offered in order to help the victims of Sept. 11. Which brings us to the question of why he thinks American radio stations haven't prohibited his song Killing an Arab. He laughs and speaks against the "establishment." "I saw it, and thought it was a cultural happening. But it horrified me. Without sounding too cynical, I have to admit that these things bother me, always the same people, they are a net, like crying people. Plus, the music was terible, everything in which I rebelled against when I was 15 was there, it looked as if time had not passed." Time does pass, but each person transpires distinctly.

(Thanks Hypno San)

"The Cure Greatest Hits has entered the Irish album charts at number 11! Not too bad really, and higher than other new entries like International Superhits by Green Day at number 18, the new radiohead live album at 22 and The Beautiful South's new greatest hits at number 30."

(Thanks Alex)

"I thought that I may have cracked one of the hidden features on the DVD, I may be close but I haven't quite got it. I have discovered a few things though. If you go to the individual song menu and scroll all the way along to Just Say Yes, press right on your control again and a new star will appear just to the right of where it says "Just Say Yes". Now press play and a big picture of the Greatest Hits cover appears and floats slowly towards the screen Another thing I've found is when you are in the same menu (track select), select The Walk and press down on your control. The star which highlights the selected track disappears. It does this on another song, Friday I'm In Love I think.... I've tried other combinations of buttons whilst doing the above and nothing yet, but maybe I'm heading in the right direction ? (Note, I am using the UK - Region 2 version of the disc, it may be different in other regions)."

(Thanks David)

"as a secondary to the note about the hits release in melbourne - it was due out everywhere in australia today but failed to make it to the shelves of any stores at all here in perth, having been somehow delayed. the best bet was to try again on wednesday, i was told (apparently this also applies to a smashing pumpkins release that was due out today). so again, it is probably fair to say that the release has been underprioritised here in australia. i was happy to find a copy of the single, but later discovered it was an import, costing AU$17! worth it, though :)"

(Thanks Andrew)

(Thanks David, Steven, Fab G., Mark)

(Thanks Lars)

"DVD has been released in Poland!!! First thought what are these bonuses...Second, how JSY clip is like...... and how Acoustic Hits was recorded...

So I will reveal a bit.... There are 3 bonuses: videos for Caterpillar, Pictures of You and Close to Me (92) but how to find them that's your problem :) I am still fighting with this 30-min film riddle and trying to find it ;)

Clip JSY - is great !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very funny. TC along with Saffron having great fun here eg. putting cartoon character on their head (reminds me of "Friday,...?"), everyone's trying to play on different instrument he has not used to play and so on ...Robert so happy .... dancing from time to time with Saffron. This clip will definetely support song stronger than Cut Here video.

Acoustic Hits - should be more songs but ... All songs are black and white ..... Lullaby clip made as a "strobe playback".... Everyone seemed to be very concentrated and serious.....

Generally speaking, great thing for fans!!!! ROBERT AND ROGER - THANK YOU !!!!!"

(Thanks Tomasz)

"DVD greatest hits is now available in Belgium. Its a nice piece of work! But its hard to find the hidden stuff! Enjoy!!!!!!!!!"

(Thanks Patrick)

"Well what can I say ? An excellent job, the cure in surroundsound. It's bloody brilliant. If you dont like Saffron's vocals have a look at the Just say yes video. For some reason it really works with the video. You'll all die when you see the Cure looking happy for once. Larking about in about 50 differnt shirt changes each. Roger on Drums & bass. Simon gets hit in the knackers by robert with a guitar. Robert smiles a lot. Saffron cuddles Robert a lot trying to get into the picture. Saffron enters the biggest bum in the world competition. A brilliant video. Even Jason smiles occasionally (but you have to be quick to see it).

The interface is really easy to use. There are several accoustic videos, dont know whether these are realtime videos or dubbed to the music, but they smack very much of old-style cure videos (inbetween days etc) For the life of me I cannot find the hidden stuff. I'm sure somebody will post the clues soon enough. Did notice a small anomoly at the start of Lovecats original video the intro is played on a snare from maybe, the demo, before the original version kicks in.

The link to curehits.com doesnt work directly from the DVD though. Just in text. It's an extremely well put together & professional package with special treats for all Cure fans. Go out & buy buy buy buy your granny one, buy the bloody milkman one. If you have a plugin for your PC-dvd-Player called "Karaoke Power Play II" You can take off Robert's vocals. Then all you need is the head from your mothers kitchen mop dyed black some red lippy, a burnt cork for eyeshadow, your big brother's best tennis racket and CUSHTY you're in The Cure playing to 50,000 people in the privacy of your own bedroom. (Your Bed makes an extremely good stage )

Just a note to people who have tried the US HITS site. Roger is currently working really hard to sort out the scrolling problems. Bear in mind he has done the whole thing in 3 weeks. I dont know any professional webmaster that has ever come up with anything this big in 21 days that only has 2 or 3 bugs in it. Roll on Cure in Orange on DVD !!!!!!!

(Thanks Gary)

Robert Smith over 20 years in the business

"The Cure is a vehicle of my expression"

interview from Koen depuydt

Brussels; For some, Robert Smith is the writer of good pop songs for The Cure, for others he stays that weird little man with lipstick and a spider web haircut. The new compilation gives the supreme bat the opportunity to go over his happy career.

-It really began for you with Hansa Records. You won a competition that had been promoted with: "Wanna become a recording star?"

No! (laugh) We really wanted to win the first price. That was 500 pounds and recording time. At the time we were still at school, so that was a big amount of money for us. We weren't thinking of the rest. Hansa Records was actually the record company of artists that we hated, like Boney M. We spent the money on new instruments.

-So it wasn't such a bad experience?

At that moment we thought it was. Hansa was looking for a new image for the numbers of there songwriters, not a real band. The firm continued to send us tapes with rock classics that we had to cover. I was disgusted. I stayed strongly on my position in the end, Hansa didn't renew ourcontract. Afterwards, I realised that I had learned a lot about the music business. But at that moment, I was feeling very frustrated. Because if the music business was really like that, it wasn't going to be for me.

-Have you ever done anything without any creativity?

Only on our debut, Three imaginary boys. And at that moment I didn't find it easy. But Chris Parry from Fiction Records, where we had signed, paid for the studio so he paid for how it had to sound. Luckily there was Mike Hedges, the sound engineer. We got on from the word go and we formed a front against Parry. When I felt that something couldn't pass, I would give Hedges little letters. He then tried to advise Parry that what he was asking wasn't possible for technical reasons. (laugh)

-Still it was Parry that gave a new life to The Cure when he put you to the test to be able to write a hit in 1983. You then wrote "Let's go to bed".

That is the only quality to remember that the man has ever done. (laugh) At that moment, I was convinced that it was over for The Cure. After the Pornography tour the atmosphere in the band was sour and Simon Gallup had left the band. Without him, I didn't want to go on. Parry convinced me to go back to what was for him the essential of The Cure: to write pop songs. I despised the idea. But he was actually right.

-Why were you playing with Siouxsie and The Banshees during that period?

That way, I could make "important" music with The Banshees and make a commercial exercise with The Cure. It was quite fun to sell lots of records and to play on Top of the pops. But The Banshees didn't find that funny. They asked me a few times to stop The Cure. They believed that I was only acting stupid on television. For me the combination was ideal. From there when I left The Banshees I brought a few elements to The Cure.

-You fans also got difficulties with that. "The Walk" was much debated.

I had a lot of difficulties with that. Those fans thought to know better than me what The Cure should be. The Cure has always been a vehicle of my expression and when I want to do something, then I have to be able to do that without having to justify myself. But I understand it well. Cure fans really wanted us for themselves, as if we were too precious to deal with the rest of the world. Luckily that has now changed.

-In the "80's" you mixed with drugs and alcohol, very rock-&-roll. But in 1987 you married Mary Poole, with whom you are still with today. That's not rock-n-roll.

It's out of the ordinary. I'm very lucky to have found someone that has tolerated me for so long. (laugh) I have met lots of people over the pass 20 years, but are different background, upbringing, life and culture, makes it very difficult to communicate with each other. I don't see much point in meeting new people.

-The last 10 years, you've said at least once a year that it was the end of The Cure. Would you not have been better to keep it quiet?

Sometimes I say it 10 times a day. (laugh) I promise you solemnly that it won't happen anymore. But with the break in interest for Wild mood swings I thought that The Cure had sang their ending song. But I wanted to stop with an exploding record. It is also with this thought that I prepared the band for Bloodflowers. And it worked. And so did the tour. It was my best year ever with the band. So today I am faced with a dilemma. Do we still go on? Maybe so, maybe not. First I'm going to finish my solo project and then we will return to the studio to see how things go.

-In 1994, Laurence Tolhurst, one of the founding leaders, had a court case against you to do with money. He lost, but it must have caused you some pain. and yet I find him fully mentioned on your web site with the ex-Cures.

Lol sent me a very long letter two years ago in which he explained everything to me. He asked me for forgiveness. I called him just after that. I forgot very quickly about the court case. I actually found having to give evidence really funny, I was actually playing in the film. (sneering) What I really had against Lol, is that he had taken away more than a year of my time. But the reconciliation also helped me. Our argument puts a shadow over my life.

-Was this Greatest Hits album really necessary? You've already got two.

It was for the record company. I was against it. We did have the right to say no, but ourcontract said we still had to make one album, the record company really wanted a best of. They only have the rights to the back catalogue for a certain period and so the record would have come out anyway. So I preferred to work with it to make a nice parcel so the real Cure fans also got something. That's the reason for the second cd with an acoustic version of all the singles.

-To end a question about your hair. You say that you more energetic with shorter hair. Are you the opposite of the bible figure Samson?

I am enthusiastic with short hair and I look like I want to invade your shop. With long hair I have something more of a vagabond look.

-Is that better?

Yes, because people treat me differently. Mary had asked me if I would cut my hair when I came back from Roskilde. But I'm keeping it till the end of the year and then I'll have a traumatic session at the hairdresser. And then I'm sensible and vulnerable for the rest of the year.

Taken from "De Standaard" (Belgium daily newspaper, friday november 16, 2001), translated from dutch into english.

(Thanks David)

Cure's Robert Smith Working On First Solo Album

(11/16/01, 6 p.m. ET) -- Approximately two-and-a-half decades after beginning his career, Cure mastermind Robert Smith is working on his first solo album, a collection of collaborations with several of his friends.

Smith actually began working on the concept during the making of the last Cure album, last year's Bloodflowers, but has had to put the project aside three times due to various concerns surrounding his group as well as the availability of others.

He tells LAUNCH, "The basic songs have been recorded and I'm intending to collaborate with on each one with a different artist. That's why I have to have, like, a clear run of time, because I have to work around other people's schedules--it's not just like I can do it when I feel like it. So I'm in the process of doing that now and I hopefully will be able to finish this in January or February of next year."

However, Smith refrains from divulging the names of others participating in the project. "I'm loath to, because it won't leave me much to talk about when I've done it," he says. But Smith suggests that Cure fans might be able to figure out some of the guests on their own. "I only know a limited number of people in the music world, so it's kind of obvious," he says.

Among those that come to mind are various members of Siouxsie & the Banshees.

The Cure's Greatest Hits collection arrived in stores November 13.

-- Neal Weiss and Lyndsey Parker, Los Angeles

They really don't have a clue, do they? : )

(Thanks Richard)

"I just went to purchase the Greatest Hits in Melbourne today, the first day of its release and it wasn't even in the new releases section at my local HMV. I actually had to go to the bands A-Z section to find it. If this is the case all over Australia I don't think the album has much chance of hitting the top ten like Bloodflowers did here. Not that it really matters about charts. I was told CUt heRE will be out next Monday 24th November-- talk about making us wait."

(Thanks Michelle)

"Just a word about the FNAC STORE Maxi CD chart : #1 is I Feel Loved by Depeche Mode (good!!), #2 is Pagan Poetry by Björk (good!!), #3 is ..hum... a big shit and NUMBER 4 : CUT HERE !!! Who said that french people had f...ing bad taste ?

The tv ad is now being showed on M6, featuring pictures of some videos : Close to me, The lovecats, Lullaby. At the end one can hear Boys don't cry. The accoustic cd is mentioned and the last words are "The record of a whole generation" (arghh...I hate polydor).

Greatest hits is also available for a small price (about FF 129, £13, $18.5). The accoustic CD is mentionned by a sticker and one can listen to it in FNAC stores.

(Thanks David)

"I just checked www.wom.de, the website of all German "World Of Music"-stores, and guess what... they list The Cure Greatest Hits as # 1 of their longplay-charts! In its second week, Cut Here drops from # 11 to #36 in their single-charts. Just thought I share this. Please note that these store-charts have nothing to do with the official German charts and The Cure always sell a lot of records at these WOM stores."

(Thanks Simon)

"Here's an exerpt from an interview (from the Original Sin fanzine) with Diva Destruction--a goth band.

Interviewer: Hmmm, Robert Smith choose you as one of his fave mp3s. Can you tell something more about it and were you in touch with Robert Smith himself or was it just something you discovered by coincindence?

Debra: We saw a link one day on our mp3 site to "Robert Smith's Pick List", since mp3.com links any song lists that a band appears on the band site. Robert Smith chose ten favorite songs on mp3.com, and we were incredibely honored that he chose our song "In Dreaming" as one of the songs. We then started getting about five hundred more visits on our site per day."

(Thanks Fernando)

"A friend told me that today in the end of the afternoon, on French TV La Cinquième, during the program '100% Question' they asked: "In 1976, which band was formed around Robert Smith?" A- Depeche Mode; B- The Cure; C- (he couldn't remember the C proposition). The presenter said they had had hits like close to me and in between days in 1985."

(Thanks Fabien G)

"Just back from TOTP in Cologne. It was really great!! The show itself was quite ridiculous but Cure were as usual the best(fortunately they began the "show"). We stood like one meter in front of the stage and Robert was chatting with the audience during the breaks while the director gave new instructions to the crowd, Perry playing parts of A Forest, laughing around with Simon. They played CUt heRE (btw: it will be shown next saturday on german television RTL).

There were quite a lot of Cure-Fans among the audience which caused trouble to the show-makers 'cause the fans were so much fixed on The Cure and mostly left after their gig, so the studio must have been very empty. Afterwards we could see the whole band in their catering-room where they had some "Reissdorf-Kölsch" (beer from Cologne)and were watching TV.

When they left the building Robert took his time for the fans and signed many autographs (it was so nice when he asked me for a "Stift" in german !! which means pen in english). I had the chance to share some short words with him where he mentioned he would finish his solo-album next february and he told me that they were going to do some festivals next summer (he didn't know which ones)!!! To another guy he promised they would be doing another studio-album!! Then they rushed off in a van and a limousine towards Bruxelles!

Funny at side: when Robert saw an old picture taken by a girl next to me he said looking at that picture: "Oh fuck, it's the same suit" (the one he was wearing). All in all it were once again some great minutes and I somehow start really loving CUt heRE.... "

(Thanks Christian)

"I attended that show last nigth and it was brilliant !!! Cut Here was played Playback but the Band seemed to enjoy it a lot espicially Robert who took a long time after the song talking to us fans and giving lots of autographs ! The Cure crowd (about 30 people) went mad during "Cut Here" and afterwards ignored most of the other acts. Only Farin Urlaub could raise the attention once again performing the Song "Sumisu"

(Thanks Benny)

Robert didn't seem to enjoy it much and looked bored, you can see the broadcast on saturday 17 november on RTL 17:45 p.m cet. There where about 100 guests and nearly half were Cure fans!!! Robert gave some autographs after his perfomance.

(Thanks Dirk)

"An interview with Robert in The Standaard (Belgium). It's written in Dutch, so you don't have to publish it (no-one would understand it). At the end Robert is saying that he will have his hair cut (shave!) after New Year because Mary asked him to do so (again?). It will be a traumatic experience, he said."

(Thanks Wouter)

"Robert is interviewed by the Belgium daily newspaper "De Standaard" today, friday 16/11/01. I'll try and translate into in english and post it as soon as...

Plus, another Belgium daily newspaper "De Morgen" has a very small article on the Hits album but there's a nice big photo of the band, so that's ok! also today, friday 16/11/01."

(Thanks David)

"In today's Reuters 'Oddly Enough' section they had the following quote from Robert:

``I'm in my 40s now, and I found I was having to go to people who are in their 30s to ask their permission to do things, and that cannot be right.''

-- The Cure frontman ROBERT SMITH, on one of the reasons why the band has left its record label"

(Thanks Aaron)

"I saw a TV ad last night during The Daily Show on Comedy Central--normal 30 second commercial for the CD and DVD. It mentioned the acoustic disc, played bits of some songs and videos, and scrolled through the names. It did advertise the DVD as due Dec. 11th, so who knows when we'll actually get it. If, like the UK ad, I was supposed to recognize the narrator, I didn't. It was just some random American dude."

(Thanks Destin)

"I forgot who the commecial was by, but it was pretty exciting. they showed clips from the video cut here, and i believe some older videos, as well as a clip of them playing acoustically and talking about the bonus disc. the borders of the screen were blue with stars, and it scrolled down the tracklisting. the voice over was saying to buy it at local stores etc.. and talking about how long the cure has been around i think? i need to see it again, all and all it was a sigh of relief to see knowing that they barely get any promotion!"

(Thanks Xiomara)

(Thanks Benny)

(Thanks Accueil)

Cure: Greatest Hits

ID: WEA2-40229DVD

$18.94 Not Rated

UPC: 085364022929 2001

Preorder: NOW

Street: 12/4/2001

Full Frame - Color - English - Region 1

Without The Cure, modern rock, and modern videos as we know them, would not exist and the irrefutable proof is all right here in their new collection. Songs: Boys Don't Cry, A Forest, Let's Go to Bed, The Walk, The Lovecats, Inbetween Days, Close To Me, Why Can't I Be You?, Just Like Heaven, Lullaby, Lovesong, Never Enough, High, Friday I'm In Love, Mint Car, Wrong Number, Cut Here (new song), Just Say Yes (new song); plus 6 acoustic songs: A Forest, The Lovecats, Close to Me, Lullaby, Friday I'm in Love, Just Say Yes.

Pre-order links are being added on the Greatest Hits page.

"during the show "Kultkomplex" on German Radiostation "Eins Live" they had a short interview with Robert today. There weren´t any major news, he talked about Billy McKenzie (He had invited him for the "Mint Car"-Videoshooting, and he died the day they did the shooting) and about his solo album, of which he said, that it is pretty far advanced.

He also said that one guest on the album might be a big surprise because no one has ever mentioned him in rumours anywhere. He said that he admires the work of this person very much, but hasn´t asked him yet because he always says no and hasn´t worked with anyone until now and Robert´s just not sure if he could cope with a refusal."

Ok, any guesses as to who this could be? It's not Bowie, Reznor or Corgan.

(Thanks Martin)

"So on Monday 12th, there was a Special Cure Day on Swiss radio Couleur 3. In fact, every hour there was:

- a Greatest Hits CD (with the accoustic disc) to win.

- a single (in between days, why can't I be you?, close to me, just say yes, a forest) or an accoustic track (never enough, close to me, boys don't cry, the lovecats, just like heaven,) played.

- a short Cure story (with for example a few seconds of killing an to speak about Camus/the national front problem; faith - cold wave; the hanging garden + a strange day - Robert and Simon's fight in Strasbourg; in between days - return of Simon; high - big tours of America; just say yes - Greatest Hits) or bits of an interview done by Christelle André for C3.

All in all the whole interview that lasted maybe 10 minutes was played in the morning and, like the Cure story, was repeated in the afternoon. I couldn't record the interview but tried to write all down as they spoke. Sometimes the voice of the french translator covered Robert's voice, but here's roughly what was said.

Why a Greatest Hits album?

The record companies already wanted one at the time of Galore, but he thought Galore would be a more logical album, standing on a Beach covering the 10 first years, and Galore covering the 10 following years. There was a kind of symetry. After Bloodflowers, the idea of a Greatest Hits album came back once again. He had not renew the contracts with any of the different record companies, not even with Fiction. The rights of the songs being in possessions of the record companies, he knew they would do it sometimes, there was money to be made, so he figured out he'd rather be implied in the project and try to make it a bit more exciting.

Why not doing a tour to promote the album?

The Boodflowers tour had been such a good tour, the shows and the audiences had been so good, he remembered after that that the promotion tour for Galore had been terrible, not a very good souvenir. They have played only 2 or 3 singles during the Bloodflowers tour, and he couldn't imagine playing let's go to bed on tour again. He's realized he's at a cranky age, and to do a promo tour which could be like the Galore tour, he was sure it'd made him be terrible towards the others. So he waits for something new to go back on tour.

During over 20 years of career, did he ever feel nostalgic?

The only time he maybe really felt nostalgic was during that week in january when they grouped all the master tapes to prepare the albums. There were notes he had written on the boxes which he hadn't seen for something like 20-21 years and it was kind of strange. There was even sometimes bits of conversations between him and Lol for example at the end of the tapes. That's maybe when he felt nostalgic. He hadn't really been nostalgic since Galore, which was the same sort of occasion, or now that they're putting up the new web site and preparing to put on some old songs and videos, there can be a bit of nostalgy.

He stuck to the same look...

The make up he has always worn is nothing. He's not trying to pretend he's anybody else. He's never been sure of what he was doing. It's just a protection, for coherence. It helps him to play in front of an audience, it's just like stage make-up, for him to be confortable and feel more confident. There's no concept. As soon as he realized he was going to be in a band and recognized as the singer, and with his hair like this, he knew it was gonna be 'the look'. If he had had red hair and freckles, people would've asked 'why do you look like that?'. He has never dye his hair in blond or blue, he's got white face, black hair, and stuck to it.

Is accoustic something they want to keep?

He's always written his songs from accoustic, with a piano or a guitar, a bass in rare occasion. But there are always been moments when they have been attracted by technology. Never enough for example was one of these moments. It's only a tune played again in circle. They were like 'hey, look at what we can do with technology!', it's a fabulous thing. Recently he's been using Cubase and Logical, which allow him to do more on his own. He's never listened to accoustic music and is more turn towards electronica.

What's the best Cure single?

That should be just like heaven. That's a single they've been playing on every tour. It means something for him. It meant something very personnal when he wrote it, and it also became something important for the group as well. It was just the perfect pop song. It's maybe not the best Cure song but it's certainly the best single.

Any regret?

He has very few regrets. He thinks it is the trial against Lol which is his biggest regret. But they reconciliated, and they've seen each-other last year. Everything is forgiven. It is now more a deception than a regret. If there was another regret, it's maybe that he shouldn't have drink so many beers (laughs).

Does he think they'd succeed as well if they should start the band nowadays?

He really hates some stuff he's made on the 1st album. Some things he's written or the way he sang. The media were not as present when they started. Now you can't make a mistake. Everybody's paying attention, everybody can watch you, and if you do a mistake it'll be seen. You can't start with an error. It must be really more difficult to start nowadays."

(Thanks Fabien G)

"I saw a tv commercial during VH1's programming about the greatest hits... it was nice to see considering they have barely any promotion."

"99X of Atlanta is finally advertising for the Greatest Hits, playing bits of a few songs including Cut Here. Hope everyone will call in/email their request for Cut Here."

(Thanks Xiomara and Lisa)

From "The West Australian" 15 November:

"A new greatest hits release by The Cure has come with the news that lead singer Robert Smith is working on his debut solo album. Smith started on the LP earlier this year then postponed it when his record company suggested a hits release backed by several new tracks and acoustic cuts. 'That took The Cure back into the studio to do all the new songs and the acoustic stuff,' Smith told MTV.com. 'And that's followed by promotion, so I had to shelve my album again for another few months. I'm not that bothered really. I'll just pick it up again after Christmas.' The Cure's Greatest hits will be complemented by a home release video release. The album is in shops Monday. The first 10,000 copies come with a bonus acoustic disc."

Also, the 'Cut Here' video will debut friday in Australia:

"Just wanted to let you all know that Cut Here will debut on Rage on Friday night here in Australia Rage starts at 11.35pm and its one of the first few songs."

(Thanks Jo and Richard)

"Just would like you to know that cut here has been playing in Jakarta local radios such as Prambors, Hard Rock FM, and MTV On Sky.

Cut Here video also got aired last saturday on MTV Asia relayed by AN-Teve.

But the GH album not yet shows up in local stores here."

And from Hungary:

"Hungarian Music Television - Viva+ - has also started playing 'Cut Here' this week."

(Thanks Akbar, Judit)

" Just a word to say that curiosity (belgian cover band) 's guitarist and bass player have left the band. Curiosity needs a guitarist, as quick as possible, but not a bass player. Just follow your words if you are a guitar player at vincent.crepin@teledisnet.be"

(Thanks Fabian)

Ok, enough of the hard sell, here's where it stands at mid-week:

Tue 13 Nov 2001 15:39

WORLD OF THEIR OWN

Westlife are setting a phenomenal pace in their bid for another UK Number One album, after selling around 50,000 copies of 'World Of Our Own' in just one day, dotmusic can reveal.

The Irish boyband are believed to be around 30,000 sales ahead of Madonna, whose 'GHV2' is expected to go in at Number Two this weekend.

Elsewhere in the midweek album chart, Gabrielle's 'Dreams Come True' is set for a Top Five hit, while Britney Spears and Michael Jackson's new long-players drop out of the Top Ten.

The Radiohead live album 'I Might Be Wrong' is unlikely to make the Top Ten, while there will be considerably greater disappointments for a number of other acts: Paul McCartney's 'Driving Rain' is languishing at the bottom end of the Top 40, alongside The Cure's 'Greatest Hits'.

However, 'rock and roll saviour' Andrew WK looks to have categorically failed to inspire ignite the UK, with his debut album currently stiffing in the sixties.

In the singles chart, Blue are expected to displace Westlife at the top of the charts, with 'If You Come Back' becoming their second Number One.

Other new entries in the Top Ten are set to include Destiny's Child, Lighthouse Family and Bubba Sparxxx.

(Thanks Dudley)

"Every year, listeners to Dave Fanning's show vote for Fanning's Fab 50 Go to http://www.2fm.ie/musiczone/fab50.html and vote for the cure. as you have to name 3 songs I was thinking we all vote for "A Forest" "Just Like Heaven" and 1 other of your choice. Lets get the cure to number 1."

(Thanks Irishcure)

"News in the Danish Music Magazine Gaffa, regarding The Cure's GH album, and Robert Smiths solo album - translation below...

Robert Smith forbereder soloalbum

Cure-forsangeren regner med at begynde inspilningerne til sit første soloalbum i januar eller februar, så snart han er færdig med at promovere gruppens aktuelle "Greatest Hits"-opsamling, skriver vh1.com.

Smith gik i gang med forberedelserne efter indspilningen af The Cures seneste album, "Bloodflowers". Imidlertid blev han afbrudt, da The Cure tidligere på året gik i studiet for at indspille to nye numre til deres "Greatest Hits" samt akustiske versioner af hittene til en bonus-cd, der udgives sammen med første oplag af opsamlingen.

"Greatest Hits" udkommer i dag og indeholder hits som "Boys Don’t Cry", "The Love Cats", "Friday I’m In Love" og de to nye numre "Cut Here" og "Just Say Yes".

Der forlyder endnu ikke noget om, hvornår Robert Smiths soloalbum udkommer.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Robert Smith Prepares Soloalbum

The Cure's lead singer plans to begin recording of his firstsoloalbum in January or February, as soon as he is finished with promoting the band's current "Greatest Hits" album,says vh1.com.

Smith started preparing after the recording of The Cure's latest album, "Bloodflowers". In the meantime the project was interrupted when The Cure earlier this year went in to the studio to record two new songs for their "Greatest Hits" album including accoustic versions of all the songs for a bonus cd, which will be released with the first pressing of the Greatest Hits album.

The Greatest Hits album is released toay and includes such hits as "Boys Don't Cry", "The Love Cats", "Friday I'm In Love" and the two new songs "Cut Here" and "Just Say Yes".

There is no news as to when Robert Smith's solo album will be released."

(Thanks Christoffer)

(Thanks Steven)

"Cut Here was just played on MTV Brazil for the first time a few minutes ago... it was the first time ever that they show a new cure video so fast after its release."

(Thanks BACO)

"More info from Timeoff magazine Brisbane gig guide for 17th November:

10:15 SATURDAY NIGHT is a celebration of all things relating to The Cure, at the Jubilee Hotel. Prizes for Robert Smith look-alikes, giveaways of the new Cure best-of and a live set from Tycho Brahe."

(Thanks Ken)

"I bought my Greatest Hits CD from Mediaplay and the Acoustic CD does not contain Cure songs! Instead, it contains The Doors Greatest Hits. Is this a nationwide mistake?"

(Thanks Robert)

"Here are the songs/groups that Robert played tonight

1-Cure - Cut Here

2-Associates

3-Cocteau Twins

4-John Martin - I couldnt Love You more

5-Thin Lizzy - Still in Love with You

6-Cure - Lovesong

7-Ride - Vapour Trail

8-Chapterhouse - Mezmerise

9-Oasis - Live Forever

10-Free - Wishing Well

11-Elvis Costello - No Action

12-Cure - Just Like Heaven

13-Black Sabbath - Paranoid

14-Korn

15-Placebo - Commercial for Levis

16-Depeche Mode - World in My Eyes

17-Cranes - Jewel

18-Cure - Wrong Number

19-Tom Waits

20-Be Bop Deluxe - Crying to the Skies

21-Nick Drake - Pink Moon

22-David Bowie - Changes

23-Jimi Hendrix - Wind Cries Mary

24-Eat Static

25-Roxy Music - Virginia Plain

26-Cure - A Forest

There was also a competition - the question was - which Billy does he sing about in Cut Here? Answer - Billy Mackenzie from the Associates. "

Does anyone have the other song titles? Did anyone get a good recording?

(Thanks Benj, Gary, Andrew, Ange and Jill)

(Thanks Chris)

Update: The band sounded wonderful! They did full electric versions of Lullaby, Lovesong and Pictures of You. We are hoping to be able to offer this in mp3 very soon.

"Dear Craig.....have just got back and am totally buzzing....I went downt to London to do the set this afternoon and The Cure were absolutely fantastic........we will broadcast it Wed int Thursday next week......Cure competition this week....Wednesday into Thursday.....hope you can tune in....love Janice x"

(Thanks Janice)

(Thanks Bruno and Stephane)

Here is a short report about the cure day on couleur 3. They played one song from the GH and gave away one double CD every hour. They also played interview clips with Robert. I could get one of them, and here is the main things Robert said :

- Most of the cure songs by Robert were written using acoustic instruments, such as a guitar, a piano and more rarely a bass. But there have always been times in the cure career when they felt interested in technology. Never enough is an example of this, as it was originally loops created on a computer. Robert has recently worked a lot with programs such as cubase or logical because it allows him to do a lot more on his own.

- Just like heaven is probably the best cure single. It means a lot to Robert on a personal level, as well as for the band. When they wrote it, it represented the perfect popsong and Robert felt very satisfied with it : "I don't think it's the best song the cure have done, but it's probably the best single."

- Robert has very few regrets about the band.

- The first regret is what happened with Lol. But now it's over and everything is forgiven. He met Lol several times last year. All This story is more a big disapointment rather than a regret.

- The second regret is he wishes he had not drunk so many beers during the past 20 years !

- There are things Robert hates about the first cure album. He finds horrible the way he sang and the way he was writing songs at the time. But he can't change that, it is part of the cure development. He thinks the cure would have not survived if they had started with such an album now, because nowadays people expect you to be always good and if you make mistakes, people let you down.

And he following songs were played during this cure day on couleur 3 : Killing an arab / Boys don't cry / A Forest / Close to me / Inbetween days (acoustic) / Close to me (acoustic) / Just say yes

(Thanks Sylvain)

"I was watching "Jump Start" on VH1 yesterday morning and the news of Robert's solo album was running across the little news ticker thing they have. I guess the word is out!"

They also have the story on their website.

(Thanks Alison and DJzCUREFAN)

(Thanks Alex)

(Thanks Michele, Giorgia and Stefan)

"due to some misunderstanding my friends and i ordered too many tickets for the Tops Of The Pops recording in thursday.. the tickets are 18 DM (~about 8 US$) each.

there may be up to ten tickets left over so if anyone's still looking for a ticket please email me to mortimer_stenstock@yahoo.com

show begins 5:30 pm, doors open at 4:45 so please be there (MMC Studios, An der Hasenkaule in Huerth) early and meet me when i'll collect the tickets at the box-office at around 4:00."

(Thanks Sascha)

With reissues, what's old is always new again

By Steve Greenlee, Globe Staff, 11/11/2001

orrissey's words are coming back to haunt him. The former frontman of the influential '80s mope-rock band The Smiths once wrote the cynical lyrics ''Reissue! Repackage! Repackage! ... Best of! Most of! Satiate the need! Slip them into different sleeves! Buy both, and feel deceived!'' The words, in the song ''Paint a Vulgar Picture,'' describe a record company's exultation at a pop star's death. They could just as easily speak about Morrissey's work, or that of any number of past-their-peak artists.

Record companies have been repackaging, slipping them into different sleeves, for years. Elvis Costello has released seven compilation albums in the past 16 years. Tom Waits has had six released by three different labels . Universal last year released ''Aimee Mann: Ultimate Collection'' - against her wishes - after just two solo albums. Kiss has done four live albums and released four greatest-hits collections, and now a boxed set is on the way next week. Even the Backstreet Boys - the Backstreet Boys! - have a new retrospective after putting out only three albums.

It's amazing how artists and record companies can release so many new albums without having new material to put on them. It's the marketing of nostalgia: You get to pay again for what you've already heard, and for what you already have. And some of these performers are sticking the same songs on compilation after compilation.

''Unless you're a totally obsessive fan, there's no point in owning more than one version of those songs,'' says Jonathan Cohen, news/reviews editor at Billboard magazine.

Right now there are new best-of compilations from perhaps the two worst offenders of repackaging old material: Morrissey and The Cure. It's particularly shameful because both have long been regarded as denizens of brooding, against-the-grain pop-rock, and each has a huge cult following susceptible to the kind of packaging that encourages fans to acquire every piece of ephemera produced by the object of their adoration.

In other words, the fans are being taken advantage of, but they can't stop themselves.

What makes the Cure's and Morrissey's propensity for regurgitating old material so bizarre is that they've never had much mainstream success. You can understand ''Hound Dog'' sprouting up on Elvis Presley collections left and right. But ''Suedehead''?

Morrissey has put that minor hit from 1988 on no fewer than five albums. Let's face it; Morrissey may be one of our most gifted lyricists, but ''Suedehead'' is not a defining song of an era. He has always had this irritating habit of mixing new songs and old ones on new releases, perhaps fearing that people won't buy his records unless they include something they've already heard.

Look at his record(s): His second album, 1990's ''Bona Drag,'' was really just a collection of three-song EPs he had released in the previous several months; of course, there were a few new songs, too, which enticed fans to lay out their $15. ''World of Morrissey,'' from 1993, was a new release that included several songs that had appeared on earlier albums. ''My Early Burglary Years'' was a collection of rarities and B-sides, but it also featured a bunch of songs from previous albums.

In all, Morrissey has put out six albums of entirely new material since he went solo in 1998 - and six albums that included mostly old stuff. His new album, ''The Best of Morrissey,'' which came out last week, includes 20 old songs and, naturally, one previously hard-to-find B-side (''Lost''), to give die-hard fans a reason to buy.

What the Cure has done is equally galling. The band seems to alternate new studio material with ''best of'' retrospectives. The band started off like most, releasing seven albums in the '70s and '80s before putting out two collections ''Standing on a Beach'' (on vinyl and cassette) and ''Staring at the Sea'' (on CD). Then they got greedy, recycling old material instead of giving fans something new. They released ''Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me'' in 1987 and ''Disintegration'' in 1989, and then another collection (the tepid remix album ''Mixed Up'') in 1990. A new album, ''Wish,'' came in 1992, followed by two live albums of old material a year later. They released a new album, ''Wild Mood Swings,'' in 1996, followed in 1997 by another retrospective, ''Galore,'' consisting of material from the previous 10 years (plus one new song, of course).

''Bloodflowers,'' a new studio album, arrived in 2000, and now on Tuesday we will have ''Greatest Hits,'' comprising 16 songs that have appeared on previous compilations, plus - that's right - two new songs.

The new songs, ''Cut Here'' and ''Just Say Yes,'' are infinitely dull, infinitely skippable. ''Limited editions'' (that often means ''all'') of ''Greatest Hits'' include a second disc featuring acoustic versions of all the hits, but even with those the Cure fails to capitalize. Rather than try new, quieter interpretations of its ''hits,'' the band tries to replicate every aspect of the songs acoustically. This comes off as unimaginative and amateurish. Singer Robert Smith's every annoying ''doo-doo-doo-doo'' and ''owwwww!'' is magnified.

It's embarrassing. But then so is this whole business of record companies and bands recycling their old hits to make up for their failure to come up with new ones.

This story ran on page C6 of the Boston Globe on 11/11/2001.

(Thanks Brandon)

"I'm hoping you can do a favor for me and for all cure fans in toronto, canada. we've got this radio station here called the edge, and every thursday they have a countdown of all the top songs.. well, i've been trying for a few weeks now to get cut here on the coutdown but haven't had any luck yet. it would be great if you could post a link to the site and ask fellow cure fans to go vote for it. the address is http://edge102.com/index.jhtml, it's one of the first links along the sidebar, under "new rock 30", when you click on it there will be the list of songs, with a spot at the bottom where you can send in your votes. you get to vote for 3, so fans can add whatever else they want.. though it would be cool if some ppl could vote for dm's freelove, since that hasn't made the countdown yet either. :( "

(Thanks GC)

"Lol Tolhurst's band Levinhurst started its official website (http://www.levinhurst.com). The debut CD is about to come in the very near future."

(Thanks Marc)

"I want to let you know that yesterday 12th Nov. in a local music store here in Mexico city named MIX UP Zona Rosa there was a night special pre-sale of the GREATEST HITS & ACOUSTIC VERSIONS with a good attendance, the price is $18.00 us, the germany edition were sold, it began at 7.00 pm to 12.00 am. The pre-sale was support by radio station ORBITA 105.7 FM, the number of copies was limited to 500."

(Thanks Jorge)

"Thought u might like to know there is some sort of special being played this Saturday by a Bris band called Tycho Brahe: http://tycho.gil.com.au/

Show is described as:

Dark Entries (Cure special) November 17th,

Jubilee Hotel 470 St Pauls Terrace

* Alison's last gig with TB! *

Doorcharge $7 / $6 for 4zZz subscribers

Also playing: Imagine Nation"

(Thanks Ken)

Cure's Robert Smith Preps First Solo Album

Smith hopes to begin recording in January or February.

Throughout their two-decade career, the Cure have always made music for lonely hearts, so it's only fitting that frontman Robert Smith be alone for once.

Smith hopes to begin recording his first solo album in January or February, once he's through promoting the Cure's Greatest Hits, which includes two new songs and acoustic renditions of fan favorites. The pale-faced misanthrope said he started fostering ideas for the LP after finishing the Cure's last studio album, 2000's Bloodflowers, and it's been an on-and-off endeavor ever since.

"I was just at the point of coordinating it all earlier this year when the greatest-hits project was suggested, and I went along with it," Smith said. "And so that took the Cure back into the studio to do all the new songs and the acoustic stuff. And that's followed by promotion, so I had to shelve my album again for another few months."

The staccato pacing of production might seem debilitating, but the breaks in Smith's work schedule don't seem to be posing a problem.

"It's alright. I mean, I just wanted to do it. I wanted to enjoy the making of it — the process of making it — as much as the idea of getting it finished and getting it out there. So I'm not that bothered really. I'll just pick it up again after Christmas."

Greatest Hits, due November 13, features such Cure classics as "Boys Don't Cry," "Lovesong" and "Just Like Heaven," as well as two new songs. An accompanying home video, also titled Greatest Hits, will be released November 27 (see "Cure Remedy Breakup Rumors With New Cuts, Greatest Hits LP").

— Joe D'Angelo, with additional reporting by Courtney Reimer

Dotmusic is reporting the story as well.

(Thanks Daryl, Benny, Steven, Dayna, Lana)

"it was an interview displaying all the subjects robert's been talking about last month.

the interview lasted about 10 minutes and it was shot in london. it was good, not perfect because is was too edited to my taste. but here are some points robert talked about:

he is the first person to say that an album is the last one but he thinks the cure has gas for another 15 years and it will be another GH in year 2020...the year 2000 was an inflexion and he thought it would be the last cure year and he would do something else BUT he enjoyed so much the dream tour that he wouldn't mind repeating the experience. the compilation is his idea of the cure highlights and he has left some of his favourite songs because the cure has so many hits, a thing he finds particularly rare cos many bands don't last so long. in the middle they make a VERY short summing of the cure's beginings and show cure singles hints all the time. robert said he hated the easy cure name and at first they wanted a name that sounded positive, in contrast to all the band names of that era. he explained that many cure members would say the band wouldn't exist without him and he finds that it's not all like that and the cure has had a continuity through the years, for example he mentions that there have been only two line-ups in the last 12 years, which is a very long time for a band, creating music with friends is a must... fame came slowly and he has a normal life now. he started painting his face in the glam era and he returned to it going to stage. he also said there is a relation between wearing make-up and being more extrovertive. He mentions the last spain gigs as being favourite ones and he appreciates spanish crowds for being so emotional and he could live in spain because people live through the night. the last words are backgrounded by cut here: he said the cure have been 5 different groups doing different things and that they always made them the way they wanted."

(Thanks ALE of ORIENT AMBULANCE)

"Johnny X of Channel 104.9 in San Jose, CA interviewed Robert Smith Saturday morning (9-10am). The interview was played in between cuts from what I think was the bonus CD.

www.channel1049.com

They have an excerpt of the interview at:

http://www.channel1049.com/jacor-common/mji/pagecontent.php3

(Thanks Lan)

"Czech TV aired on 11th November 2001 an acoustic version of the Friday I'm In Love video at the programme Noc s Andelem (Velka nocni hudba / Novinka noci)!!! This black & white video, filmed at the Olympic Studios in London, was directed by Richard Anthony. Friday I'm In Love video will be feature on the DVD release of the Greatest Hits. I think, it was the world premiere!!!"

(Thanks Petr)

(Thanks Stephane and Fab G.)

(Thanks Dirk)

"Just to let everyone know what happened on the Cure special on radio 21 (Belgium) this morning. They announced the release of the GH and mentioned the acoustic cd. you could win a copy if you knew the answer to the question: 'in wich year did the cure release their first live album?' They played Boys don't Cry, a Forest, Let's go to bed, the Walk, Lovecats, In Between Days, Close to me and Lullaby. It only lasted half an hour, so if you didn't hear it, you didn't miss a thing!"

(Thanks ThORI13)

(Thanks Gary)

"Yesterday i met some ex-classmates and clemens played for me a great CURE COVER from a punk/hc sampler....... the band ROT covers BOYS DON`T CRY and it sounds really great , very hard in the end when the leader cries really expressive . supercool , funny and weird. ( i think ROT is a german band )"

(Thanks hoerlth)

"On this weeks TV-show Expedition: Robinson (the swedish "Survivor") the Cure had two tracks featured in the soundtrack, namely Inbetween days and Close to me.As if it wasn´t enough with that, Depeche Mode also was featured with Clean. Very good...."

(Thanks Henrik)

(Thanks Sterling)

"There is a competition to win The Cure's entire back catalogue, plus copies of the "Greatest Hits" at Virgin.net, but you might have to sign up (for free) before you can enter. The address is: http://www.virgin.net/music/"

(Thanks Fab G)

"Just wanted to annouce that for those in SLC or Ogden UT. HEEBEEGEEBEEZ will be holding a Midnight release party for the Greatest Hits on Monday/Tuesday. For more info e-mail us at Heebeegeebeez1@aol.com. Regular store hours are noon to 8:00 pm."

(Thanks Jon and Amy)

"Greatest Hits" went on sale here in Ireland this morning [Nov 9]. The shops only seem to be stocking the double CD edition at the moment. Prices are between £15.99 and £17.99."

(Thanks Paul)

"greatest hits have arrived!!! In Belgium they already sell it today!"

(Thanks Koenraad)

"Universal Music Hungary released today (09.11) the Greatest Hits package. But they sell the bonus disc set for double price. It's terrible. It costs cca. $30. Did you see in the booklet at Just say yes : FICCD56 - 2002. Maybe a new single next year?"

(Thanks Gyorgy)

"the 'greatest hits' is in the shop now here in Italy, but with my disbelief there's no mention of the acoustic disc neither in the front nor in the back cover of the limited edition!!!!! you can just see the usual '2CD' written on the left-top of the case but there's nothing more than that... I think this is a very bad thing 'cause if you're not a die-hard fan and give a careless look at the cd you can't even know about the bonus disc or you can guess that there's a second disc without knowing what it really contains!!!!!!!

I think there should be at least a STICKER on the case ABOUT THE ACOUSTIC DISC.. as said before even the track-list on the back sleeve just mention the 18 track as on the single cd release... and if you go further even the booklet is the same... anyway, I don't know if this is the case of the Italian release only but this must be passed to FICTION/POLYDOR/UNIVERSAL/ELEKTRA etc. THE ACOUSTIC DISC MUST BE ADVERTISED!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE JUST PUT A STICKER ON THE CD-CASE!!!!!otherwise a lot of people won't buy this release because they think it contains only (but 2) old songs and it's not worth buying...

THE ACOUSTIC DISC IS AMAZING!!!!GREAT!!!!!! I think that if published as a single disc (I mean only the acoustic session) it would sell more (and more people would know about it and not think of 'ONE MORE GREATEST HITS...I ALREADY HAVE ALL OF THE SONGS..BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!!!!!!!!) it's incredible that a record company don't think about this!!!!! and stickers shouldn't be so expensive!!!!!!!"

(Thanks Marcello)

"I've been calling Kroq in Los Angeles to request "cut hre". I spoke to Tammy Heidi disk jockey for the second time, stated that more peopple to call and request "cut Here" to get it on the air..I replied thats fine but how could un-cure fans request the song if they never heard it..

If you have a chance can chain of flowers put out a call for phone calls to Kroq in Los Angeles to request "cut Here" see if that works...I estimating if they just play it once, even a non cure fan will like it.."

Call them and let them know you want to hear it - KROQ request line # is 800-520-1067.

(Thanks Ignacio)

"In Pittsburgh, PA, the "alternative" station is featuring the Cure on their '80s/New Wave show "Prehistoric X." it's on this Sunday starting at 07.30 on station 105.9. see www.1059thex.com for more details & i think there's a webcast too."

(Thanks Snow)

(Thanks Uyea)

"I've read about robert being on studio brussel this weekend and next week but i didn't read that studio brussel can be heard via internet.

just go to http://www.stubru.be and click on the headphones on the left ('Luister Live' - listen live). People have to think about the time difference between the states and belgium though..."

In fact, many of the upcoming interviews and specials on French, Belgian and UK radio can be heard online. Just check the Events page and I have all of the websites linked now.

(Thanks Robbertc)

"I was just watching the show "MTV Spin" on MTV Germany and the presenter said that he is going to meet Robert soon. Unfortunately, he didn´t mention when."

(Thanks Martin)

(Thanks Blue Suzzanne)

(Thanks Jose)

"I just wanted to pass along some info to everyone & some cool stuff to check out! the tower stuff is mine, and i'm really proud of it 'cuz i built the pages myself for everyone to enjoy! and i noticed that someone posted about the cure being on our homepage on halloween!

look for the cure on the tower records homepage again this monday, november 12th! www.towerrecords.com

links to my cure pages...

http://www.towerrecords.com/promo.asp?page=The%20Cure!%201

page two

http://www.towerrecords.com/promo.asp?page=Celebrate%2020%20Years%20Of%20The%20Cure%201"

(Thanks Jamie and great job!)

"On german internet music magazine called 'Laut', cut here is 'video of the week', you also can win three singles of cut here there. here's the link: http://www.laut.de/vorlaut/videowoche/index.htm"

(Thanks Stefan)

"Listening to the CD-R of the Greatest Hits the other day, I noticed that the studio version of A Forest appears to have been edited slightly by about 10 seconds - I think there's a bit missing from the instrumental section just before the second verse. I wonder if the finished version is like this?

Also, it must be a whole new mix/edit as I couldn't hear the final synth note from the intro right at the very beginning (this appears on Standing On A Beach, as it's just the album version with the intro lopped off. The original single didn't have the note).

(Thanks Martin)

"I was watching fox channel 6 in san diego and they were doing this report on marriges and when they started to play the tape lovesong came on and it was the only song they used."

(Thanks Alex)

"XFM 104.9FM will have the Cure in for a chat and possibly an acoustic session (because most bands on this show do a live session) on Tuesday 13th Nov. from 18:00 to 20:00 hrs.

Click here for the XFM - Studio 68 weblink http://www.xfm.co.uk/webClient?guid=5528"

(Thanks Chris)

"Although, Universal International claims there's an extra track in the Japanese edition, it's just "Pictures Of You"... It has the same tracks as the UK release."

(Thanks Fusae)

(Thanks Dawn)

"Just to tell you that I saw an official advertissement in the french magazine "Les Inrockuptibles" that says Greatest Hits DVD will be released on the 20th of November (and not on the 27th as it was said before), one week after the CD release".

I have also learned that the Arte broadcast (11 tracks) will be played on Ouï FM radio the 27th november, as the same time (11pm-french time).

Then the paper says that the group have already record 4 new songs and finally that Robert is still working on his qolo project which will include several guests…"

(Thanks Julien)

(Thanks Stephane)

"some minutes ago (at 15h45 belgian time) there was a short radio interview at Radio21. With Robert saying "we've always avoid being rich, famous and succesfull" and "we want to show there is more than one way to be succesfull and let's hope that it inspires others... "

(Thanks Wout)

"On sunday 11/11, belgian radio "Radio 21" will air a show called "Classic Rock" special The Cure. Between 9.15 am and 12.00, we will hear the new album and have a chance to win the DVD."

(Thanks Alexandre)

(Thanks Fred)

"Happy to say that on various bldgs & walls here in downtown NYC there are advertisements announcing the greatest hits album release Nov 13 as well as the upcoming Videos/DVD."

(Thanks Stacy)

MMMBio "The Story of...The Cure" 60min.

Friday, November 9, 9pm & Midnight ET, 6pm & 9pm PT

Saturday, November 10, 2pm ET, 11am PT

British alternative band, The Cure, are featured. Includes a new exclusive interview with Bill Welychka, as well as rare and archival moments. (first aired Oct. 5/00)

(Thanks Steve)

"On Roger's birthday, Oct 29, 2001, I was doing the crossword puzzle at work. ;-) In the Sonoma County, California newspaper, The Press Democrat (owned by The New York Times), there is a daily crossword puzzle by Thomas Joseph. See if you can guess what #26 down was by the clue, 7 letters: "'Why Can't I Be You' band"."

(Thanks Chris)

(Thanks Bruno)

"Info from the San Francisco Bay Area station 104.9:

ATTENTION CURE FANS! Listen to JohnnyX in the afternoon all this week for excerpts from his EXCLUSIVE interview with Robert Smith from The Cure.

http://www.channel1049.com/main.html

Johnny X is on from 3-7pm. Supposedly he started running excerpts from the interview yesterday, but I missed it."

Can someone please tape these segments for us and either transcribe them or send it to us to transcribe? Thanks!

(Thanks Lori)

"This is not entirely wrong, but there are some minor mistakes however. As a producer with Studio Brussel (note: there's no "s" at the end) and in fact as the producer of this item for our radio station, I'd like to react. This is the correct version:

I (so not Christophe, but me, Jan Sprengers) will do a long interview by telephone next Sunday (11 Nov) in the rock show Rock Bottom, which airs from 7 til 10 pm Belgian time (=CET). Christophe Lambrecht (note again, there's no "s" at the end) will broadcast Robert Smith's Masters@Work in the week of Nov. 19. Masters@Work is a daily item (each weekday at approx. 10.30 am) in which a famous person talks about his favourite albums; there's a new guest every week, so each guest presents five favourite albums. Robert Smith has agreed to do this for our station. On top of that he was asked to talk about his six favourite Cure songs, which we plan to broadcast in the classics show "Was het nu 70, 80 of 90?", which airs every Saturday and Sunday morning from 7 till 10 am. It is not confirmed yet that Robert Smith will do this and hence the exact broadcast moment has not yet been planned. Anyway, if it works out alright, it will be broadcast either on Nov. 10 and 11 or on Now. 17 and 18. That's the whole story. Thanks."

(Thanks Jan)

"Tomorrow, November 8th, it will be a Cure special day on Radio 21, in Belgium. They will ar one song of the acoustic cd every hour, with extra gifts to win for the fans. They already offered one DVD, one double album ( limited edition ) and a T Shirt this afternoon. Fans had to phone the radio station and answer to the question " What's the current line up of the cure ". I think it took ten minuts until three persons had answered correctly. Quite funny, though ...."

(Thanks Olivier)

"The Cure - Greatest Hits" was released today, November 7th in Japan. And the label, Universal announced that the DVD will be out December 21st here.

The CD has a link to a special Cure site which hasn't yet opened... It'll maybe start when European copies are out.

Anyway, I love the acoustic hits so much!!!

PS: I'm going to scan more pictures of the Japanese edition and put them onto my site in the near future."

(Thanks Fusae)

(Thanks Peter)

"Microsoft's windowsmedia.com has added a link to the 'Cut Here' video at Launch.com with the tag line: "New Cure: The Original Gloomy Gus" and a pouty pic of Bob."

(Thanks Brad)

"i've found a great cover of At Night by a french band called Insight. Here is the link http://stream.multimania.com/ramgen/insight2/at night.rm.

you can have more information about this band on www.multimania.com/insight2 "

(Thanks Florent)

Hello these are the next concerts of EASY CURE..... we'll try to make you feel the same emotions of a real live of The Cure ..!! Visit our web site..new pages, pictures and MP3..!!!

- Thusday 8 November - CLASSICO VILLAGE - VIA LIBETTA 3 - ROMA ( Zona Ostiense )

- Saturday 10 November - INDIAN SALOON - VIALE CLERICI 342 - BRESSO (MILANO)

- Saturday 17 November - JUNGLE - VIA DI MONTE TESTACCIO 95 - ROMA CANCELLED !!!!

- Saturday 24 November - FUEL Rock Club c/o Area Club - VIA ATENE 12 - SASSUOLO (MODENA)

- Friday 30 November - FISHMARKET - VIA P. SARPI 27 - PADOVA (Zona Stazione)

- Saturday 08 December - CALAMITA - VIA GUARDANAVONA 11 - CAVRIAGO (REGGIO EMILIA)

- Saturday 15 December - SIDDHARTA - PRATO

EASY CURE - Official Tribute Band

www.listen.to/easycure

lulica@freemail.it

"I just want to tell that i saw german music television Viva today. In their show "Interaktiv" they had Afroman as a guest, who has a big hit at this time with "because I got high" in the UK. There were some email questions by viewers, one of them were "what do you listen to at home" Afroman answered to my surprise: Robert Smith of The Cure. Strange enough, what a combination."

(Thanks Stefan)

"This review of radiohead's new live album, 'i might be wrong,' compares radiohead to the cure, specifically the faith/pornography era.

www.nme.com/NME/External/Reviews/Reviews_Story/0,1069,8955,00.html "

 (Thanks Christopher and Petr)

(Thanks Jim)

Robert Smith talks about new Cure best-of

By PAUL CANTIN Senior Reporter, JAM! Showbiz

Up until very recently, The Cure's Robert Smith believed that best-ofs and greatest hits albums were suitable only as tombstones for dearly departed bands.

And for a while, he believed The Cure -- whose "Greatest Hits" set arrives in stores Nov. 13 -- was due to shuffle off this mortal coil.

"I am old enough to think (best-ofs) should come out when the band is dead and buried, and I have changed my mind ... about knocking the group on the head," Smith told JAM! Music recently via telephone from England.

"I imagined last year would be it. I fully expected (the label, Warner Music) to say (they wanted a) greatest hits. But by the time they said that, I was halfway thinking about what the next Cure record is going to be.

"It doesn't seem right, to have a Cure greatest hits. So now I have to think this is 'Greatest Hits Part One,' and the 'Greatest Hits Part Two' will be out in 2015 or something.

"It's not the most likely thing, but anything is possible, I suppose."

At least part of Smith's optimism about the future comes from his realization that he can imagine the group continuing to make music without the participation of a major label, but rather with a heavy reliance on releasing music through the Internet.

As he previously told JAM! Music, he has grown weary of the sluggish pace and unwieldy hierarchy at major record companies, and he now looks forward to moving quickly to make his music available directly to Cure fans.

Smith said when he was first approached about the possibility of the "Greatest Hits" set, he opposed the idea, because he wanted the group's two previous singles collections (1986's "Staring At The Sea" and 1997's "Galore") to stand as authoritative.

"I could have vetoed it, but there were other considerations," Smith said.

Chief among those considerations was the fact that the band's last studio album, "Bloodflowers," was their final release under their pact with Warner. Yet because the label will continue to control the band's catalogue, there was always the chance that, at some time in the future, the label could cobble together a compilation without their participation.

"I figured at some point, someone is going to try it. I thought, at least this way, I can pick the running order, we can put a few new songs on it, and we can ... make it a little more interesting and kind of enthuse fans a little more," he said.

First off, Smith insisted the set include two new songs. One of the new tracks, "Just Say Yes" was initially demoed for last year's album "Bloodflowers."

"I thought we might need it, as ('Bloodflowers') got too dismal, but that took away from the atmosphere we were building. I shelved it and then I went back to it, but I could not get it right," he said.

"Once you have demoed things and then discarded them, it is almost unheard of us to reuse them. That's why we did it as a duet, to attack it in a different way. We reworked it in a weekend. I called (Republica singer) Saffron. She was the most lively person I knew who could sing, and she made the song work."

The other new song, "Cut Here," was written about the late Billy Mackenzie, best known as singer of '80s U.K. act The Associates. Mackenzie, a friend of Smith's for more than 20 years, killed himself in 1997.

"I kept passing on the opportunity to sit down and have a drink with him, have a chat," Smith said. "I was very regretful. I had never used the words. I wrote them down to get it out of my system.

"I thought it might be a good opportunity to actually sing something with a bit more emotional weight. The singles are a bit glib, because I think they have a better chance of getting airplay.

"It is nice to sing a song that meant something, and to think it is going to be a single is a good thing. Strangely enough, it turned out to be the record company's favourite one (of the new songs)."

But simply adding two new songs wasn't enough. Smith wanted to sweeten the "Greatest Hits" deal by adding a limited-edition bonus disc. Initially, The Cure had hoped to make a new album filled with radical remakes of the singles.

"We were toying with the idea of doing something polished, doing reinterpretations of the hits; doing something modern or doing something in a different way," he said.

Instead, the idea evolved into a disc of acoustic versions of the hits, recorded quick and loose in a single day.

"We rehearsed for about a week before, to make sure everyone knew what they were doing and we were a little bit more relaxed," Smith said.

"We allowed ourselves two shots at each song ... It is a performance thing, so we end up with the two new songs, and it definitely peaks. The last three or four songs, it gets a little loose. It almost falls apart. For us, it was really fun to do. It reminded me of why I wanted to be in a group."

The process of going back through The Cure's singles has given Smith both a fresh perspective on the band's work and a new appreciation for their accomplishments.

"I thought it was going to sound like the worst kind of compilation, going through styles ... Quite a lot of it hasn't dated. It actually has stood up pretty well. 'Let's Go to Bed' sounds of its time, and 'The Walk.' The rest of them sound individual enough not to really sound of their time. That pleases me."

And did anything else jump out at him when he listened back to the collection?

"I realized we have been playing 'Let's Go To Bed' wrong since it has been released," he said. "The bassline has been played wrong for almost 20 years. I still haven't got round to telling them."

(Thanks Evan)

"The German website www.intro.de will play the accoustic hits CD. This preview listening is now confirmed for the following dates: Friday, 3 pm and Saturday 7 pm cet. "

(Thanks Lars)

(Thanks Erik)

"We raise money for homeless children in Chicago through an annual autograph auction. This year we are proud to feature an unique item signed by The Cure. With the economy this year being more “lean” than it has in the past, we are trying to reach The Cure’s most devoted fans in the hopes of making the biggest impact with this item.

Here is a direct link to the page where the item is: www.rockforkids.org/auction_items/cure.htm

The Auction will be held on Thursday, November 29th in Chicago. Funds raised are distributed among thirty local homeless shelters and programs. Bids can be faxed in if someone is unable to attend.

Sincerely,

Michael Nameche

Rock For Kids

Rock For Kids is a non-profit organization which provides assistance, support and inspiration to young people that are homeless or in need. Committed to the dignity of children, Rock For Kids works directly with families and organization to positively impact and celebrate young lives."

(Thanks Michael)

"Well, I think we've finally gotten something together... Looks like we have a date with Pogo from WHFS on Friday, Nov. 9 at the Metro in DC. He does the "PANIC" gig there every Friday. (the 11.9.01) PANIC will be a pre-release listening party dedicated to the Cure's new release... (he's also a big Cure fan!)

We'll be giving away some cool Cure prizes too! I'm VERY much looking forward to meeting everyone!"

www.panicpeepshow.com

http://metrocafe.home.att.net/index.html

www.whfs.com

(Thanks David)

"This is pretty cool, thought you would be interested. http://www.damagedgoods.co.uk/latest.html is selling a reissue of Lockjaw "Journalist Live," 7" for two and a half pounds."

(Thanks Kerry)

"TEAM SLEEP (Deftones' Chino Moreno's side project) have tracked a cover of a cure song. They have not revealed which song or if it will appear on their debut CD, due in early 2002."

(Thanks Jeff)

"PROFESSIONAL MURDER MUSIC played a cover of the Cure's "A Night Like This" when opening for My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult at the Metro, in Chicago, on November 3rd. "

(Thanks Betty)

"This week-end I heard on the Welsh radio station Galaxy 101 the intro of the Mixed Up version of Lullaby. I was pretty much surprised. But then, the whole song turned out to be kind of a remix of another band. Something with Outcast...??? Anyways, the group sings totally different lyrics to the Lullaby remix. The song is called 'Sorry Ms Smith'. Very weird... "

(Thanks Lars)

"Natalie Merchant, former lead singer of soft poppers 10,000 Maniacs and now well into a successful solo career, was the next-to-last act. Merchant, always self-conscious, related stories of playing at Canada's Wonderland back in the '80s with The Cure and how singer Robert Smith was pelted with tomatoes, then promptly apologized for any negative vibes from her anecdote.

Apology accepted, Natalie, especially since Saturday was her 47th Lilith show of the summer. When Merchant got singing, things were just swell, her liquid voice filling the cavernous Amphitheatre with old Maniacs tunes and some from Ophelia, her latest solo effort."

(Thanks Caro)

"In the french website of "Les pages jaunes" (the yellow pages), you can have a look on 2 pictures of the house that was used in 1987 for the "Catch" video. this house is located in Nice, south of France.

Here is the direct link.

click on the "2" button to have the second picture (wich is better).

you can have 5 other pictures of the house here."

(Thanks Jerome)

(Thanks Chris, Ange, Rob, Dan, Nige, Jeanypee)

(Thanks Dudley, Andy, Fab G., Steven)

(Thanks Fuji)

"Seems like The Cure are going to give a small gig again in Paris for a radio "EUROPE 2"

To win invitations you have to phone during a special show between 19h and 22h tonight Here is the message I received from Europe 2 : "Nous faisons gagner des places pour l'enregistrement des lundi VIP des cure. Mais pour ca il faut passer a l'antenne. A bientot Marina"

Hope I will win some invitations, and will let you know if so. No date or place for the moment. More information can be found on the french forum : http://www.multiform.net/iform.asp?iform=ID5692"

(Thanks William)

(Thanks Andreas)

"I have some news from Studio Brussels. Wim Oosterlinck was so kind to e-mail me the date Robert Smith wil be doing an interview. This will take place the week of november 12th in Masters at Work and in Rock Bottom with Christophe Lambrechts.

I also have some news on the Belgian sales of Cut Here. I searched all the shops in Antwerp for the single and I haven't found it???!!! Allthough they reassured me it would be available!"

(Thanks Stephan)

"There's a review of the Greatest Hits album in Uncut magazine in the UK this month. The magazine ran a huge article and interview last year and had Out of this World on its cover CD.

It gives it 4 stars out of 5 and generally a good review with a photo of Robert under the heading "Smithology" (i would assume a play on the word anthology). The reviewer is a big fan and was surprised at the absence of "Catch" and "Hot!Hot!Hot!" in favour of certain other tracks.

He likens Cut Here to a New Order Hooky type song to raise the whole New Orde/Cure bassline debate again."

(Thanks Steve)

And 'Cut Here' in NME:

"There has been a small review in The NME for Cut Here as follows:

"If Paul Weller is the Modfather, then Smith is the Godfather. Despite the fact that he's now receiving respect from many nu-metal players who appreciate his hardcore angst, 'Cut Here' is pop exactly as the band made it in 1985. It's also the sole (huh!) new track on a luxurious greatest hits LP out in time for Christmas. A gift idea for the sad 'phat metaller' in your life perhaps."

They can't seem to decide if they like it or not! As for advertising, yes it is true here in dear old blighty it is sadly lacking. At least in my local Virgin Megastore it was on the new release rack.

Fantastic single. Pity the promotion has been so slack.

Roll on 12th November! Single package is brilliant great presentation with samples of the accoustic tracks. Finally some real piano to flesh them out. Thankyou Mr O'Donnell. Best CD single presentation I have seen.

(Thanks Richard)

(Thanks Fuji)

"I have heard on Swiss radio 'Couleur 3' that on monday Nov 12th they are going to do a special 'Cure day', with songs of the Greatest Hits (with accoustic tracks?) and bits of an inteview scattered during the whole day (I suppose the interview will be excerpts from the press conference that took place in Paris on Oct 25th)"

(Thanks Fabien G.)

"A few minutes ago I was listening to the german radio station SWR3. The DJ announced a 2 hour CURE-SPECIAL for tonight November 05th 10pm CET on SWR3. Afterwards he played "Lovesong"."

(Thanks Markus)

"www.mtv.de (the german mtv-homepage) celebrates the release of the greatest hits compilation: on friday, november the 9th will be a special on their website with prelistening stuff and more..."

(Thanks Chris)

"Hey it looks like after all the e-mails other cure fans and myself have sent to KROQ that now they might actually play the single because tonight right before 10:00 PM they said that at 12:00 AM they were going to play some songs off the new Radiohead live album (or something like that) and some new Cure stuff, so I guess the new song is going to be played, not at a great time but nonetheless better than nothing. "

(Thanks Artour)

"it is still possible to view the old 'cure house' online... (as well as many other things). go to

http://web.archive.org

and search for the domain www.thecure.com - and there you go! "

(Thanks Andrew)

"The show last Thursday night was amazing! For those of you who have never seen them play, you should go if they play your town. Gary does a great job being Robert. He is funny on stage, messed up a few lyrics, and added verses from Grease and Jesus Christ Superstar as well as Chicago being a great town to "why cant i be you". The crowd was involved during "lets go to bed" as we sang the do-du-do-du parts and a sing along to Boys dont cry (he made us repeat boys dont cry a few times).

Musically they were amazing. All of the songs seemed faster and more upbeat. Nick, Rachael, Jeremy, and Sean could fill in for the Cure if Perry or Roger or Simon, or Jason ever felt sick and had the flu. They are that amazing.

The best song of the show (this is hard to choose and i might change my mind in a second) was a Forest. They played a 20 minute version with lyrics from Faith thrown into the mix torwards the end of the song. Carnage Visors was used as the intro-music. Wollcott opened. they put on a strong performance.

Next time the Cureheads come to Chicago, hopefully more people will come out. These guys are super nice and very cool to hang out with. They do not pretend to be the Cure or try to act like them when not performing. They are Cure fans like the rest of us complimenting the Best band of all time.

lastly, Ginger, the sound production manager at the Vic told me after the show, that he had the Cure play in his house (the vic) in 2000 and he just had them again. thank you, cureheads for playing Chicago. and hopefully you can come back soon."

(Thanks Kamar)

"so they probably thought i was some strange psycho chic writing down the setlist..... but i wanted to be sure i had it right. but anyway.. so parking took forever.. ech.. i hate parking by shefield and belmonte... ech.. i mean you have no place to park.. its so bad.. so betty and i were late.. but it didnt really matter since there was an opening band so we didnt miss any of the cureheads. we still hadent bought any tickets, we were planing on doing that at the box office to the vic.. but someone had handed betty a free ticket and so we just walked in.. and then i could have kept going and told the guy there he had taken my ticket.. but i didnt. i went back out and bought one.. i mean it was only $15.. not like my life was depending on it.. (oh if only i knew what today was going to bring.. heheh)

so we walked in and wolcotte was playing.. some strange, twisted band from cinnicnati (or however you spell it. i never paid any sort of attention to that song... if you know what im talking about) well it was odd... a little less than two years ago i saw the cure at the vic for the promo show, and the place was j ammed.. my goodness.. and then last night.. it was soooo empty.. well for wolcotte it was... im sorry.. i felt bad.. but hey.. what can you say? and there was this guy there... total eighties robert smith.. i mean, i have this cure book titled, a visual documentary, by dave thompson and jo-ann green. and in there, there is this picture.. (well duh) of robert smith. if you turn to page 60 and 61 that is who this guy was... robert with the short hair, and then funny shoes hee hee.. it was so great.. he had the lipstick down and everything.. my goodness... anyway.. so betty and i were talking about how cool it would be if we had backstage passes and could talk to them and be like... so youre robert smith right? and i dont know.. it was just stupid things we made up... but anyway.. why i mentioned it was, we were talking about roger and what not.. and when they came out, betty and i gasped.. "roger is a girl!!" ya see, i really do not know anything about the cureheads, but since i am madly in love with the cure i thought it was be great to go.. but it was soo great..anyway... i think her name was rachel, and the people betty and i were standing next to, well they kept asking her if she would marry one of them (we were right next to the stage) but, the set list...

now if i could read my handwriting.. (it gets hard writing in the dark with strobe lights lighting my path.) a strange day was the first song. and then they played fascination street, and i couldnt take my eyes off of "porls" guitar playing tricks.. that and i was trying to memorise the chords the played.. didnt work.. i competly forgot.. but if i really wanted them i bet i could get them from like, joes tab page or something.. and then they played torture, and "robert" was like, 'this is called torture, its from kiss me kiss me kiss me' and then you hear, "no shit" i chuckled.. and then they started playing maybe someday... or was it maybe oneday? i could swear he was saying maybe oneday.. and at the end he said something about not "fucking up" the next song. and then they played the last day of summer, and this lady would not stop yelling "there is no if" i mean, i dont mind it when people do that.. but constantly???? i was ready to scream.. and then the strobe lights appeard with 100 years... which was very pleasing to the eye (ohsure) and then "robert" said something about the top... and i was like, the top??? and so he played (i think) bananafishbones.. oh oh.. and youll like this.. he was talking about a catch b-side and said something like, "and the best cure website out there is a chainofflowers.com" and like everyone cheered... including me.. "yea craig" so i think he played a chain of flowers.. but im not really good with b-sides... im still waiting for some sort of b-sides release (hint hint) and then he said something about being alright... but i really dont remember.. (i! took fast notes). and then he told us about having a "real american breakfast" he told us he had pancakes and 5 eggs.. but he had to stop after that cause "I'm not a fat bastard like robert" (or did he say person, i swore i heard bastard.. but accents always throw me"

oh yes.. the alright thing.. some thing had happend with the speaker or amp or something and "robert" said to "simon" 'are we alight darling?' yes yes, that was it.. then they played how beautiful you are and return.. he even did the alarm clock thing but he said "10:15pm" not "3.01am" so i was thrown a bit.. and he was saying about he hated wild mood swings..but now he loves it.. i dont understand it though.. i love that album.. i just dont like the song numb.. but hey.. and then "robert got down on his knees and asked "roger" (but i think her name is rachel) to marry him.. whether he does that at every show to kick off lovesong.. i dont know.. but it was really really really cute. and then all the guys next to betty and i were like, i thought you were going to marry me.. and she smiled. oh, hee hee, and then he called the people sitting in the back "fuckers"... he went into just like heaven, and we smiled, he danced.. it was all good.. and then a night like this.. and push.. and he said something about not expecting something.. (again.. fast notes) and then he said that a forest was "especially for everyone." and then he let the audience sing a few renditions of "boys dont cry" and lullaby, including "said the spider to the fly" as robert sometimes says also. he went on saying that was the last song, unless we could scream really loudly.. i dont know.. but they did come back...

and there was a raffle for a guitar they signed... "it is really a nice guitar" and number 337 won it.. not i.. "robert" asked if he played and he said no, so "robert" said he did now, and said something about playing spice girls songs.. and then he played sinking and i love that song.. and again i was watching "porls" guitar movements.. ::grins:: and i missed something, or something, because he said, "fucking cheer" so we all did.. i think he was talking about something.. eh.. and the people who were sitting down didnt really know much cure stuff.. and i laughed at that too.. and then he played lets go to bed... but i think he said wait until 5.. which was odd.. but hey.. cover bands cant be exactly alike now, can they? and then he said the ever popular phrase, your mom.. but he said, your mummy.. in relevence to what? i think he was the people sitting down, cause i think thats when he told us to all turn around and look at them.. and then he played inbetween days and said something about joey ramone being his hero and why cant i be you was for him.. and then he mumbled quite a bit and i think he said something about loving chicago.. but hey.. who doesnt? its the best place in the world... ::grins:: and then he played primary and then 10:15 on a saturday night.. "drip drip drip" and then finally the last song was killing an arab.. which was kind of disenchanting.. figuring everything that has happened.. but considering what robert said in, "oh god, not again" i guess it was alright.. although i would have stay away, out of respect.. if nothing else.. but that was basically it.. and i was talking to betty durring the show about how cool it would be if they played cut here.. and then "porl" gave me a funny look.. i mean why not? it would have been a great promo thing.. ummm yeah... and then i was talking about how i wanted to be in the cureheads cover band.. and was told it wasnt possible... oh goodness.. what fun it would be to be a rock star.. but that was basically it.. there was a party afterwards for those who had that wrist band.. but betty and i did not.. so we had to leave.. oh well.. now i just have to write a review of them for the chronicle and i am set..

so all in all.. it was a great show.. cure cover bands rock.. "

(Thanks Lane)

"For those interested, Saffron's site is www.swarmswarm.com ("Swarm" is apparently a group she has formed since the tragic(?) demise of Republica). It's not that interesting due to a virtual absence of content, but the site does acknowledge her recent work with The Cure, albeit in an inexplicably understated way given the gravity of working with the world's greatest band."

(Thanks Jeff)

"Every saturday evening at 19H, on the french tv chanel France 2, there is a program called 'Union Libre' which presents the different countries of the European Union in a funny way (with crazy 'inventions', 'star' news, funny reports, and so on). There is one main host, six different co-presenters from six different countries, and a guest star every week. Quite often, among these co-presenters is Ray Cokes to 'represent' (hum) England. I have to tell you that tonight they were celebrating their #100 show, and Ray was there, so I knew tonight's show could be funny. And indeed, in less than 45 minutes he managed to sing the 'God Save The Queen' anthem, ride an air-cushion sort of big round skateboard while dressed as Darth Vador, and took his shirt off to really jump in a beer-bath to join the female german co-presenter who was only wearing a swim-suit and splashed everyone with starting a beer-battle in the studio. It was really funny. Finally, to celebrate this #100 show, as a joke, they re-played 30 seconds of the tapes made at the occasion of the casting of each the different co-presenters. Ray was not there 3 years ago, he only joined this program maybe a year ago. And Ray did not pass a casting either. Before a joined the team, he had sent 'Union Libre' host and staff a video tape containing moments of his show on MTV. And during the 30 seconds replay, between all his grins and grimaces, were THE CURE and Ray playing 'friday I'm in love'! It lasted only 5 seconds but it was just great!"

(Thanks Fabien G.)

"Saturday evening, french station Europe played Love Will tear Us Apart by the Cure. A quite unusual programation. After the song, the DJ spoke about the greates hits."

(Thanks Pilal)

"I went to see They Might Be Giants at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC on wednesday, Oct. 31. Since it was halloween, a lot of people were in costume. At one point between songs, John Linnell said something to the effect of "when the lights are blaring at us we can't see the audience, and we forget it's halloween. So when the lights come on out there and we see you, we feel like we're playing to a Cure audience." then somebody yelled out "Yeah Cure!" I just thought that was really funny, and i'm sure there were some other Cure fans in the audience, knowing how eclectic They Might Be Giants fans are."

(Thanks Joe)

"On Sunday mornings there's this show called "nothing sacred" (in Reno, NV) and yesterday they had played two live songs of the Cure from the Glastonbury Festival. They played "inbetween days" and "the walk". The dj also encouraged people to buy the new cure cd and even played snippets of the acoustic versions of "why can't I be you", "lullaby" and "boys don't cry".

Also, In the latest Mojo magazine (I'm pretty sure it's the latest), they have a list of punk bands and list them according to controversial things they did with their songs and they have the Cure listed for "killing an Arab".

Another cure-spotting was this saturday. Tori Amos performed her cover of "lovesong" at her concert in Dallas. I hope when I see her next Sunday she'll play it. It would be really wonderful to hear one of my favorite artists covering my favorite band!"

Just as a side note, Nadine and I caught Tori's performance here in N.O. last week and she was amazing! So if you are thinking about going, do it!

(Thanks TiB1015)

"Talking about advertisement strategies ... Today I went out to buy the Cd single here in Manchester (UK) and I was astonished by how small advertisement has been done about this new release of The Cure here. I don't know what's going on elsewhere, but in all the megastores in the centre of the city I have not noticed posters or anything else with The Cure written on, advertising that a new single is out and that a new album is on the way. If I wasn't a diehard fan and I was not sure that Cut Here should've been somewhere in the shop, I would have given uo thinking that it was not released yet!

Most of the new singles are placed in a shelf at the entrance of the shops but apart from a bunch of old usual charttoppers (which I won't mention as they don't deserve more advertisement!) there was no trace of The Cure: stupid me ... at first I thought "cool it must be sold out"! No, it was just lying forgotten at the very end of the store in a shelf placed near to an emergency exit (!!!) with four or five copies of Cut Here altogether with some other "unlucky" artists ... and it came out only two days ago! I wonder what will happen in one month time when it won't be fresh release anymore ... I would be interested in understanding if this is going on elsewhere or not. "

(Thanks Davide)

"Last night the Cureheads played an amazing show here in Chicago. The crowd was less than stellar, but the band was fantastic, performing a wonderful set of some of the best Cure songs you never get to hear live. For anyone whose never seen the Cureheads before - they are the perfect tribute band. Most tributes have at least one little flaw that makes the entire thing just a little off. Not the Cureheads. Every detail, every nuance, and every note is perfect. Gary is shockingly authentic in his interpretation of Robert. I honestly didn't think anyone could sing like Robert, but I was so wrong. Gary and Robert could switch places and it would be difficult to notice. The songs are not just played verbatim, however. Each one had it's own twist that made it different. Most significantly, several songs were performed way up tempo. In others, Gary switched up lines and lyrics - making sing alongs almost impossible. The set was superbly diverse, with songs ranging from the standard hits, all the way to Bananafishbones and A Chain of Flowers (with a comment from Gary that "it's also the best website..."). The crowd was ridiculously small, but enthusiastic. I really thought Chicago would have produced a bigger audience, but oh well. It just made it more intimate for those who were there. The setlist:

Encore:

All Cats are Grey and Cut Here (!) were on the setlist, but sadly not played. Guess we'll just have to wait for the Cure to come back to hear Cut Here live. The Cureheads are easily the best tribute band I've ever seen. I wish to thank them all for putting on a wonderful show, and hope they can come back to the States again soon.

-Kevin Krayer Chicago, IL"

(Thanks Kevin)

"I was flipping through my many cable channels when I ran across KSCI - IND from Afganistan. I though i might see what their point of view was when IRTV news came on and to my surprise they were playing the beginning of carnage visors for their music!!! Hey, at least thay have great taste in music I thought :)

For Halloween I went to a bar called The Brit in Long Beach. They had a jukebox with Bloodflowers, Galore, Standing on the Beach and The Head on The Door. As well as Vestpertine by Bjork and Bauhaus. Needless to say I spent over 20 dollars on selections and had a wonderous Halloween!"

(Thanks Lance)

"There's a new Blue Monday Comic out @ Valentine. The press release is as follows. I think it's titled pretty well.(Chynna is well documented Cure fan, she has a Buffy the Vampire Slayer story called Punish me with Kisses).

-Oni Press is publishing a new one-shot from Chynna Clugston-Major, Blue Monday: Lovecats, in February.

The one-shot starring the teenage roustabouts of Fresburger, Calif. The new story takes a closer look at the relationships of the gang, focusing specifically on the burgeoning feelings between Clover and Victor.

"In the main Blue Monday comics, we sometimes get caught up in the wacky hijinx and don't get to pause as much as we'd like to see the emotional lives of our characters," said Oni editor-in-chief Jamie S Rich. "Since this is a book about teenagers, hormones are running at illegal speeds, and it's natural that the kids are going to get all dippy for one another. While Absolute Beginniers was more about feelings that weren't there, Lovecats is about feelings that are."

"There is a lot that I have yet to reveal about Bleu and her friends," Clugston-Major said. "I have their lives mapped out for many years to come, and the path is going to involve a lot of ups and downs, successes and failures. Some friendships will become stronger, while others will be exposed as rotten. Bleu has been getting most of the spotlight so far. Now it's Clover's turn."

Lovecats is the first of three specials for 2002 and 2003, all revolving around a special time of year. Part two is scheduled for October, and will look at how the gang celebrates Halloween. Nocturnals creator Dan Brereton has agreed to paint the cover.

"The plan was to keep Blue Monday going even while Chynna worked on her new series, Scooter Girl," Rich said. "We didn't want to go a year without new material, but we couldn't really schedule a new series while Chynna had six other comics to create. But don't worry. Scooter Girl is a one-off project, while Blue Monday is Chynna's life's work. Oni and Chynna are committed to Blue Monday for the duration."

(Thanks Joe)

And thank you for the mention again, we greatly appreciate it.

(Thanks Max)

"When I asked about the single they said "it could be the 12th or the 19th it still hasnt been decided" however they did assure me that the single would be released."

(Thanks Fuji)

"Oh God, not again": Robert Smith on Killing An Arab

Monday October 29, 2001 @ 05:30 PM

By: ChartAttack.com Staff

Every 10 years or so it seems, The Cure singer-songwriter Robert Smith is haunted by the specter of a song he wrote as a student over 20 years ago. Inspired by the classic existentialist novel The Stranger, by Albert Camus, "Killing An Arab" is a short three-minute burst of metaphysical angst that is meant to question the meaning of existence. Unfortunately, due to its title and similarly inflammable chorus ("I’m alive/I’m dead/I’m a stranger/Killing an Arab") the song has often been mistaken by non-English Lit. types as a call to arms against, well, Arabs.

It’s still possible to find old copies of The Cure’s first collection of singles Standing On The Beach, emblazoned with a sticker which denounces racist uses of the song (an attempt to foil British Skinheads who were co-opting the song in the early '80s and, it should go without saying, MISSING THE POINT COMPLETELY.) It wasn’t until the Gulf War in the first years of the last decade that the issue came up again. And now, with Smith on the phone from England to promote the band’s new Greatest Hits release, he’s got to deal with it all over again when I bring it up as bombs fly over Afghanistan.

"If there’s one thing I would change, it’s the title," says Smith, sounding a little weary. "I wrote it when I was still in school and I had no idea that anyone would ever listen to it other than my immediate school friends.

"One of the themes of the song is that everyone’s existence is pretty much the same. Everyone lives, everyone dies, our existences are the same. It’s as far from a racist song as you can write. It seems though that no one can get past the title and that’s incredibly frustrating.

"The fact is it’s based on a book that’s set in France and deals with the problems of the Algerians, so it was only geographical reasons why it was an Arab and not anyone else."

When the issue of the song reared its head during the Gulf War, what angered Smith most was that while many talked about the song, few bothered to ever play it. This time around he almost decided to refuse to comment at all. "But ultimately I thought that was a bit of a cop-out," Smith reasoned. "I wrote the song, so I’ve got to deal with it."

"Killing An Arab" is not featured on The Cure’s new Greatest Hits release, a two disc set which features 18 classic Cure songs, side-by-side with new, acoustic recordings of the same songs.

— Sean K. Robb

(Thanks Antonio)

"here is my quick synopsis of the new greatest hits album...i have been a fan since i was 12 (15 years) and although i would love a new album of songs, i am very happy with this one...i think the really cool part (as with galore and standing) is that you can sit down to listen from start to finish and it tells a sonic story which makes sense the whole way through...i think it is cool to hear the musical and lyrical growth and change as the songs bridge the decades...i think "cut here" is super cool and a good lead off single...i honestly prefer "just say yes" acoustic but that is just me being a musician...

i think the real gem here is the acoustic disc...it is well recorded in a way that makes you feel like you are in the center of the room and the band is peforming around you...very initimate and nice especially for this fall time of year...to me personally to hear a forest, lovecats, close to me, lovesong, high and the new songs acoustic is wild!!...i sat on my living room floor and played along last night on my guitar and felt like i was there...and very cool to hear boris doing percussion cause i still think he is one of the most underrated drummers of his time...not many current drummers can play and or generate the sounds he could...the band as a whole sounds great as well...

i think the only thing i expected but didnt see was more info, pics, etc in the cd booklet...very basic and short...doesnt even list current band member names...lol...but quite frankly if i were fulfilling my last contractual album to a label that tanked galore, mood swings and bloodflowers promotional marketing and backing (remember i may or may not have interned for elektra at some point during these albums :) ), i would just make sure the minimum was covered and go to town creatively and sonically from 13 november forward...all in all i cant take it out of my cd player...a very cool cap to a certain era of the cure...now i wait patiently for the next chapter to begin...."

(Thanks Jeff)

"THE CURE MAKE FRONT PAGE NEWS ON TOWER RECORDS WEBPAGE.THE NEWS SAYS * HAPPY HALLOWEEN! TREAT YOURSELF TO THE CURE! AVAILABLE NOVEMBER 13,2001 RESERVE IT TODAY!" GO TO www.towerrecords.com "

(Thanks Sterling)

"you may get a couple of emails about this, but if you follow the link you mention in "Sound of Halloween - Music & Videos to scare you" at www.msn.at, it links you back to http://www.getmusic.com/calendar/getspooked/.

there, you can follow the links to various Robert/The Cure references :

Visit the Scary Musicians Gallery (photo of Robert along with The Misfits, Marylin Manson, and Insane Clown Posse)

Halloween Hits and Scary Artists (Bloodflowers shows up with LD50, Alice Cooper, and various halloween special-fx)

and the previously mentioned Scary Music Videos (where Lovesong is up next to Eminem "Stan", Rob Zombie "Dragula", and Snoop Dogg "Murder Was the Case")"

(Thanks Alex)