2018.07.07 London, Hyde Park (England) "British Summer Time"

Started by Ulrich, December 12, 2017, 09:44:08

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Ulrich

Thank you all for your reviews! I'm really glad to read them all. It's good to see the Curefans sharing their impressions here!  :cool
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

Trust...

Quote from: Lizzlib on July 18, 2018, 00:18:05
Quote from: SusannaRS on July 17, 2018, 17:25:57
I started queuing really early in the morning to be in the first row, I was at Hyde Park South Entrance at 5 am and I was already number 15. O

What do you do people when you must pee??

I never do that because I have a 80 year old lady's bladder!
It's strange but like David wrote we all do things for The Cure that we won't do for any other band. Extreme cold or hot hot hot can't stop us. I never need to pee, never felt hungry or other where I should complain about it in other situations 😏
Vanilla smile and a gorgeous strawberry kiss x

MeltingMan

I wonder if some Australian members managed it there and back. Awesome feedback so far!  :smth023
En cette nation [Russie] qui n'a pas eu de théoriciens et de démagogues,
les pires ferments de destruction ont apparu. (J. Péladan)

Trust...

Quote from: MeltingMan on July 18, 2018, 18:39:28
I wonder if some Australien members managed it there and back. Awesome feedbacks so far!  :smth023
Yeah who knows, it was for sure the biggest concentration of Curefans from all over the world @ one place I guess.
But Australian? Americans for sure. I know I was thinking to travel to Sydney in march 2011, but the time away and the time differents did me stay home. Glad there was a Reflection @ London 🙂
Vanilla smile and a gorgeous strawberry kiss x

MeltingMan

Oooops. I made an error. Australian (not Australien). :1f633:
En cette nation [Russie] qui n'a pas eu de théoriciens et de démagogues,
les pires ferments de destruction ont apparu. (J. Péladan)

SusannaRS

Quote from: Trust... on July 18, 2018, 18:49:28
Quote from: MeltingMan on July 18, 2018, 18:39:28
I wonder if some Australien members managed it there and back. Awesome feedbacks so far!  :smth023
Yeah who knows, it was for sure the biggest concentration of Curefans from all over the world @ one place I guess.
But Australien? Americans for sure. I know I was thinking to travel to Sydney in march 2011, but the time away and the time differents did me stay home. Glad there was a Reflection @ London 🙂

I confirm you that there were Australians also. Know some of them
Lets my memory be perverted to the uses    
Of lying and oppression.    
My lovers and their children must not be dispossessed of me;
I would be the untarnished possession forever
Of those for whom I lived.
(Spoon River Anthology, E.L.M.)

Trust...

Vanilla smile and a gorgeous strawberry kiss x

dsanchez

Quote from: SusannaRS on July 17, 2018, 17:25:57
I started queuing really early in the morning to be in the first row, I was at Hyde Park South Entrance at 5 am and I was already number 15.

Someone shared this on Facebook ;)

2023.11.22 Lima
2023.11.27 Montevideo

SusannaRS

Yep, few days after the show I received an earlier version from a new Curefriend
Lets my memory be perverted to the uses    
Of lying and oppression.    
My lovers and their children must not be dispossessed of me;
I would be the untarnished possession forever
Of those for whom I lived.
(Spoon River Anthology, E.L.M.)

cheyler

Quote from: dsanchez on July 14, 2018, 11:48:14
The Cure 40th Anniversary Concert: A fan's review
by dsanchez

When The Cure announced a unique European show last December to celebrate their 40 years (1978-2018) I didn't think it twice and bought right away the tickets for the gig which later I found out was part of an enormous festival called "British Summer Time" sponsored by a known bank. No-one knew what to expect of this 40th Anniversary celebration, and there were speculations of former members joining the event. Sadly, this never happened, and both Andy (whose Tweet I can't find now) and Lol wrote on Twitter:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I won&#38;#39;t be at Hyde Park on Saturday physically. However, I shall be there in spirit. I send my love and thanks to all of you for this beautiful journey these last forty years. Lolx</p>— Lol Tolhurst (@LolTolhurst) <a href="https://twitter.com/LolTolhurst/status/1015108243746533376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 6, 2018</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Those posts seemed to me a bit melancholic. I have the impression they wanted to be part of this celebration.

I arrived to London on Thursday 5th of July and headed to Reading (1h from London) the hometown of my other favorite band: Slowdive. On Friday, I went to the Cure fan meeting at the Hawley Arms in Camden town. We had the place booked for us from 6pm to 9pm and had an excellent time with people from all over the world, this forum included! The place didn't have air conditioned and that weekend proved to be one of London's hottest days in year. Still, we had a blast. During the gathering, the match Brazil - Belgium was screened, and one of the most bizarre moments came when, as the match ended (and so did Brazil in the World Cup), "End" was played in the background. The gathering was followed by a show of The Cureheads, also in Camden, to which some of us attended.

Around 13:00 on Saturday I headed to Hyde Park, a huge park in the center of London, wearing a Peru football t-shirt (is World Cup time and I love that t-shirt anyway!) . There was an airport-like security in the gate and we all were carefully examined before getting in. Just after my entrance, there was a kiosk where I could get the festival program, but to my surprise I had to pay £5 if I wanted to get one (in every other festival I went to this was free). Of course, I was not willing to pay £5 for a festival program!

I rushed to the enormous main stage (the "Great Oak Stage") which was already full of (Cure) fans. It was REALLY hot and we could feel the sun's force, burning our heads. The stage had two big trees which, from far, gave the appearance of holding it but once you got closer, you realized they were just fake plastic trees. I wanted to get right in front of the stage but to my dismay I found out that people who arrived early (i.e. around noon) got wristbands that gave them access to that area, which was surrounded by a fence (by the way, it is the first festival where I see this separation). I paid an extra £10 to have a "primary access" (means you could enter before everyone else) but there was nowhere written that wristbands would be distributed to access the sector right in front of the stage and that without them you could not get in later. This unclear information turned into chaos, and a 100-people queue (who paid the extra £10 to have a "primary access") was formed near the main stage with the hope of getting a wristband to see the bands closer. A friend from Switzerland didn't want to wait and got a ticket upgrade for an appalling £100, just to find out it didn't give her access to the area right in front the stage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSHOA2btv7k

As I was walking, I could hear Slowdive playing the beautiful notes of "Slomo", the opening track of their latest album. It was a bitter start for me at the festival because I could not see them from a close position: instead, I had to see them from behind the fence which was very, very far. In the image below, you can see the "General Admission and Garden View" sector. I was right behind it, and it meant I could only watch Slowdive on the screens.



I got better news as I met Jojo after the excellent Slowdive gig, and he was kind enough to hand me a wristband of a friend of his who didn't need it, so I was lucky enough to get access to the "General Admission and Garden View" at last. Luckily, all the people doing the queue to get wristband got them as well, although they had to wait at least one hour under the sun.

The festival area was huge and I really didn't realize until I was there the gigantic festival I was in. The OFF Festival in Katowice, Poland, with 20 000 or the Pohoda Festival in Slovakia, with 30 000 people capacity, seemed tiny by comparison to this 65 000 people festival.

Around 16:00 we decided (I was with a couple of friends) to get some food and look for a place to take a rest (let me repeat this: this was probably the hottest day of the year in London!). We were surprised that there were not big tents for people to eat (a big tent means you can eat your food in the shadow and not under the direct sun) and instead there were only a few scattered tables in the festival area.

The day went by and it was already 19:00 (yes, I did not see any other band besides Slowdive until then)  ut the sun was still there hitting all of us very strong. I wanted to charge my phone and there was a place to do it, but, oh surprise! I had to pay £5 for it. I remembered that a bank sponsored the whole thing and realized they only care about taking advantage of our passion for their profit.

In another, smaller stage, the Ride show commenced around 19:20. This is a band that I wanted to see for a while and they didn't disappoint. They played tracks from their latest album "Weather Diaries" and classics such as "Vapour Trail" or "Leave Them All Behind". The connection between the band and audience was clear from the start. The people sung almost every song. In front of me was a blond guy in their forties with an old Ride t-shirt and I could imagine him following the band in the 90's. The sound was crystal clear and for a moment I wished The Cure played in this stage and not in the gigantic Oak Stage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siNp_1T48nE

The festival program didn't allow much time to switch between Ride and The Cure. As we rushed to the Oak Stage, we could hear the notes of "Plainsong" opening the show. Robert said previous times he hates sunny places and he was clearly uncomfortable by the sun hitting the stage (and thus his face) directly, despite it was already 20:20. On the stage we could see Reeves in the right side followed by Robert in the center and Simon and Roger more to the left. A little behind was Jason. Simon, the man who does not age, had a pink bass guitar and his 1993 look and I immediately though in the Great X-pectations Festival 1993, the last concert with Boris, with him wearing his black-red shirt and similar look. "Plainsong" was followed by "Pictures Of You" and then "High". Having followed The Cure heavily in the last years I predicted the main set would be like the one the band has been using since 2012. And it was.

As the show continued I was wondering if there would be any surprise at all, and not necessarily in the setlist. Then I remembered Lol's tweet and I realized we wouldn't see any ex-member doing a triumphant entrance (something like Alan Wilder appearing in a Depeche Mode concert). One of my favorites, "Push", was played and I had a flashback, remembering Robert with his short hair in Orange and me watching that video in a VHS player when I was sixteen. Fourty years of The Cure and nearly the half of that time me listening to them. I got a little melancholic for a moment but then somewhat happier as I my attention refocus to The Cure and I hear  Robert singing "like strawberries and cream is the only way to be...". I realize I am a lucky man to have the chance to celebrate this anniversary of the band I love, with the band I love.

I look around in the audience and I see the devotion of the people, people from everywhere. There was someone with an Argentinian flag on my left and someone with a Mexican flag on my right. I hear people speaking different languages: a French girl next to me, a German in front drinking wine, Portuguese, Greeks, Scottish... and not only a mix of nationalities: also, ages. It shows how The Cure's music trascends anything: borders, ages, religions, you name it. You can see only happy faces around. Yes, again, I know this is not the best concert setlist by The Cure, but like I said, it does not matter. When someone invites you to his party you go and enjoy, you're not complaining why they don't serve cocktail instead of beer. Yes, I though it would be more special, setlist-speaking, but it turns out CURAETION-25 was better in that aspect. In retrospective, I think Robert just wanted to throw a party and get there as many people as possible. And I think he got it: sixty-five thousand people prove that.

As with any Cure show in the last years, a mainset that starts with "Plainsong" finishes with "Disintegration" and this is not the exception. Although I miss the dynamics of the "Entreat" version, Robert's voice was great and this classic proved to be, as usual, a must in every show. I still miss more "punch" (I don't know what English word to use. Passion?) in the drumming. Compared to the Slowdive and Ride shows earlier in the day, both with top-notch drummers, there was something missing in this component in The Cure's set.

After a short break, the band returned for a final encore. It's a pop one and starts with "Lullaby" followed by "The Caterpillar". Jojo, in front of me, makes a grin as the notes of "Friday I'm In Love" start. I think hardcore fans must be tired of this one but this is a still a great pop-song and, in a such an event, "Friday" would be probably more missed than "Siamese Twins".

Before the most popular Cure song ever is played, Robert does a short speech (see video below): "Forty years ago on this weekend is the first we played as The Cure in Crawley... and if you asked then what I would be doing in forty years I would have been wrong with my answer (...) Thank you very much" and I realized again how lucky I am to be part of such a special moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXivYrLNxsM

"Boys Don't Cry" was followed by unexpected additions such as "Jumping Someone Else's Train" and "Grinding Halt". The hardcore fans, those who saw The Cure 25, 50, 100 or who knows how many times, are finally (more) satisfied as this improves the usual 'festival setlist'. We already know what is next. Is nearly 10:15 pm Saturday Night in London and the choice is obvious. The two songs of the first single of The Cure, released in September 1978 are played, and "Killing An Arab" proves to be again the best closer song for any The Cure concert - always. The concert finishes and all the members leave the stage, except Robert who walks from right to left, kind of jumping at times and thanking the audience. He says "see you again very soon". His participation in Meltdown as a curator seem that motivated him to release/create new material, as he stated in recent interviews, but time will tell.

I met with several members of curefans.com after the concert (x-phile, Trust.., helloimageifonly, Susanna...). Some of them arrived to Hyde Park around 10:00am so that they could be in the first row. This means that they endured twelve hours under the sun in London's hottest day of the year. I probably would have fainted if I did the same (yes, even if I come from Peru). There's something in The Cure that makes you do things that you would not normally do for any other band no matter how good it is. From the very first moment you listen to The Cure, some people (like me, or like you) have an instant connection, a connection that becomes stronger during the years. There's just no way to explain why or how that happens. I guess is like being in love, only that "being in love" goes away after 2-4 years, and with The Cure, you can be in love a lifetime.

You're right about Lol and Andy.  I think Perry would have gone if asked.  I asked Lol and Andy about six different ways and always got the "not sure yet" to "listen to Robert's podcast over on... (whatever it was).  Anyone who refused would have said "no way" during interviews, they wouldn't have tried to string us along...I mean, who would that help, right?  Not every guy on that stage was integral to the establishment and growth of the band over the last forty years.  They helped maintain the name 'The Cure' for the last six years or so, yes, but...  Porl?  This band is never the same without him.  Perry?  First as a tech and then a full-fledged member...over the course of 20 years!  Robert wants to get pissed because Jason gets snubbed by an irrelevant magazine?  I'll get pissed at Robert's exclusion of most of the major players that made this band what it is today...or what it was two years ago, anyway.  They are treading water again. 

tanyasmith

Hey, I was sad that Lol didn't play, too, (he and Andy are my fellow Aquarians) but looking at things from Robert's perspective, why would he want to have Lol play at a show where he'd have to pay him when Lol sued him years ago? Also, maybe Robert's trying to keep the current Cure line-up tight and doesn't want to invite conflict by bringing back old members? He did do that Reflections tour with Lol...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cure:_%27Reflections%27

I don't understand why certain Cure fans are hard on Jason. Robert obviously appreciates his presence in the band. Nobody was hard on Reeves...Why? Because he played with David Bowie? But what can anybody expect but for Cure fans to reminisce about the past and complain?...Just like Robert. Personally I want to see a transformation happen in Robert. Something to show that he's learned something valuable in all his years as leader of a band, traveling the world, dealing with musicians and artists, the music industry. He's got wisdom in him. I hope the wisdom spills out in their next album.

cheyler

Some or most of us are wondering the same thing(s) as you.  I think the whole Jason-bashing thing has calmed down, finally.  He's been subjected to withering and unjustified scrutiny since he first parked his butt on that drum stool. He's there, and he'll continue to be there, for however long that might be.

If you believe Lol, and I do, things are square between Robert and him.  I'm guessing there were going to be too many songs that wouldn't require Lol's assistance.  Last thing you want is someone playing a song or two then going off-stage only to come back a few songs later and play another one or two.  With Andy, it's either set up two drumkits or have Andy replace Jason on a few songs.  Neither option is satisfactory.

You mention Robert and his wisdom.  Not sure I'd want to listen to an album of songs about "what I've learned during my time on this Earth" or anything like that.  That's kinda what he's been doing all along anyway.

I couldn't stand Reeves at first, his style and tone were entirely out of place.  Skip to 2016 and suddenly he fits in perfectly.  He adds to the mix as opposed to hijacking the sound every time he plays a solo.  I don't know what they did during the intervening months (years?), but it's obvious the band were getting a bit of 'feedback' concerning Reeves.  I told Reeves (in 2016) that my attitude about him had changed completely and I told him why.  He was very gracious about the whole thing.  I like Reeves very much.  No idea what happens next.  I guess we'll see.

tanyasmith

Cheyler:  :smth023

I forgot to bring up Porl/Pearl. Is there any reason why The Cure would be refraining from having him participate because of being estranged from Robert's sister Janet? Or is that all square at this point? I read that Porl/Pearl wanted more space to be creative than Robert's democratic vision for The Cure allowed.

cheyler

I thought for sure (almost) that Pearl would at least do an encore at one of the shows.  He's said in interviews that he'd never rule out working with The Cure again in some capacity;  I don't think we'll ever see Pearl hit the road with The Cure again but maybe an encore or two or even some small contribution to an album?  No idea as to the status of Porl & Janet's marriage.  I can't imagine Robert asking Porl to leave the band over a failed (or at least sputtering) relationship.

Why is Porl no longer in the band?  It's a bit of a mystery, but there are enough clues lying around that you can pretty much figure it out if you recognize them for what they are.

After Porl re-joined in 2005, they really didn't do many gigs until 2008.  They postponed some in 2007 to finish up the album.  Then the record company refused to issue the album as a double.  That's when the trouble started, if I understand correctly.  There was a lawsuit against the record company too, and it took a couple of years to sort out.  I think Porl left because he felt he could be more creative outside the band rather than inside.  The record company was stifling the band's creativity, or their ability to be creative, whichever you prefer.  To me, Porl/Pearl will always be the missing piece of the puzzle until such time that he rejoins or the band no longer exists.

Ulrich

Quote from: tanyasmith on August 07, 2018, 18:57:46
Also, maybe Robert's trying to keep the current Cure line-up tight and doesn't want to invite conflict by bringing back old members? He did do that Reflections tour with Lol...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cure:_%27Reflections%27

As cheyler pointed out, they certainly have "made up" and according to Lol they are "friends" again.
For more on this, view the topic about Lol's book:
http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=8337.45

I agree that Robert probably wanted to play the shows with the current line-up of The Cure (seeing he's planning to go into the studio with them, according to recent interviews).
It might lead to confusion who's in The Cure if they had ex-members coming up to play with them.
The holy city breathed like a dying man...