Summer Festival Experiences
FESTIVAL DES FOURIERES, LYON, FRANCE, 25th JULY 1998
Had I expected to be so humbled by fellow Cure fans, I would have armed myself with a few more frivolous details about Robert's boxer shorts and Simon's favourite Wham song. As it happens, I arrived in Lyon on my own, melting with excitement as I had never been able to see my favourite band before. My youth hostel swarmed with Robert's (which made me think - thank God he doesn't have a beard, or something - ) causing me to have a near heart-attack every five minutes: "It's him oh no! it's Dirk from Germany" sorry sorry!!! My room-mates were wonderful, a trio of glamorous goths who took me under their wing and flew me to the back entrance of the theatre to wait for them, along with thirty-odd other fans. To everyone else there were a lot of familiar faces, private Cure jokes, and coveted band t-shirts which made me burn quietly with irrational jealousy. The Cure fans that I met intimidated and impressed me hugely with their general approach and attitude, although I could rarely participate in their conversations. After a while, the band drove up and into the backstage area, we all shouted and waved as they drove past us. Still reeling from this I entered the beautiful Roman Theatre and stood determinedly at the front, whilst all my new friends went and sat down on the seats. I pretended not to notice and stared at my shoes for an hour wishing for a beer until a huge roar announced The Cure's arrival on stage, to which Robert snarled "Bonswaaaar", and launched into a very powerful 'Shake Dog Shake'. The show was unbelievably wrenching for me as my only live Cure experiences were from watching 'Show' and 'Orange', and here was my very own version, complete with Robert speaking French to the audience and tripping over his microphone wire, Roger laughing to himself and Simon's Olympic stamina. After the climax of 'A Forest' and the end of the show, I turned to find my room mates who were eagerly asking me to translate what Robert had said in English. Somehow between four and midnight I had forgotten how to speak and could not answer coherently but I think they forgave me as it was my first Cure gig. My excitement startled even myself and I stumbled back to my youth hostel, shooting a murderous glance at someone blaring Oasis in the courtyard, (yet catching myself quickly as I realised that he probably thought along with the inhabitants of the old town of Lyon that we had just attended the worshipping of a group of electrocuted existentialists) and we all sat down devouring cake and listening to what had been played, discussing what had been said and done. To me those who were at Lyon and The Cure, thank you for a ridiculous night, being a fan has never been so rewarding!
Alex Pap, Switzerland.
JUNGE GARDE, DRESDEN, GERMANY 14th AUGUST 1998
On Friday 14th August I travelled by train (it took six hours), where I met up with Katherine (A Cure Friend) and Stephen. We picked up Katherine's sister and drove to Dresden, an hour to the east. We found the park in which the 'Junge Gare' is placed, it turned out to be a beautiful amphitheatre. A great place for an event like this! It was still an hour till the doors would be open, so after having a good look around we walked in the park. We returned from the opposite side of the venue and realised that there was another entrance, easier for us to use and get into the concert without a large crowd. We sat down and watched the two support acts, a group called 'The Child' (a local band from Dresden) and a goth metal band called 'Atrocity', they played mainly covers of 80's pop songs like 'Tainted Love', etc., which was nice because their own material is appalling or should I say Atrocious...! After listening to the 'Ambient' intro tape, which raised our expectations making us nervous, we had to stand on our seats to see The Cure take the stage. Starting with 'Shake Dog Shake', Fascination Street' and many other brilliant songs including a shorter version of 'A Forest'. At one point Robert apologised to the crowd for not being able to speak to them in German "I should speak every language, by now!" he said. Returning for the first encore, he explained to us that the next two songs don't get played very often, so "they may go wrong or right!". These were 'If Only Tonight We Could Sleep' and 'The Figurehead'. They were performed brilliantly and the crowd went wild. After those songs we got entertained with '10:15 Saturday Night' and a very loud 'Killing An Arab'. Thinking this would be the final song I watched Simon talk to Robert who continued to play guitar, I begin to realise that they were performing the legendary and rare 'Forever'. It lasted about ten minutes and was absolutely amazing with long instrumental parts and quiet moody at the beginning building to a noise at the end...In all it was a brilliant performance and worth travelling to see it. After all it wasn't a Festival, so you didn't have to sit through hours of awful bands beforehand! I think The Cure enjoyed this concert very much, Simon was jumping up and down throughout the whole gig, Roger was always smiling and looked like he was having great fun! Thanks to Katherine, Stephen and Claudia for taking me along and a special thanks to The Cure for playing some 'unusual' songs!
Ulrich Schmidt
BIZARRE FESTIVAL, COLOGNE, GERMANY 21-23rd AUGUST 1998
As The Cure's festival trek 'round Europe drew to a close we gathered our vitals and headed from all parts of the UK towards London, aiming to meet up with our eager little gang of Cure followers, whilst preparing ourselves mentally for the long haul over to the Bizarre Festival in Cologne, Germany to see our adored beat combo... After speaking to the younger and elder O'Donnell (who had wimped out of coming on the trip due to the unavailability of slippers and cocoa in Deustchland!!!!!) I managed to create a safety net for us, so should everything go pear- shaped, we should still have passes and drinkies at the band's hotel after the cure gig to look forward to.....
THURSDAY 20TH AUGUST
We left our car at O'Donnell seniors house, not realising that the warmth, choccie biccies and cups of tea offered were to be the last comforts we would have until returning back to Blighty the following Monday.....little did we know of the catalogue of disasters that were about to unfold in front of us....
A small gathering met at a pub late Thursday night in Victoria, amongst which were, myself and Sean, Dizzie (in her non effervescent form (knackered), Colin (her bubbly spouse), Hugh (flat haired and not even coming with us) and Sue (totally unrecognisable without her trademark Goth make up).
All was going swimmingly as we sat drinking and chatting excitedly about the forthcoming events when suddenly an alarm went off, we were quickly ushered out of the bar, and still with drinks in our hands we were bumbled down a staircase, suitcases and bags slung round our bodies in makeshift fashion, as the station was being rapidly evacuated due to a bomb scare....this created a huge problem for us all as Victoria was the place where our coach was picking us up for the first leg of our journey.....ohhh f**k!! We then began a wild goose chase around London in the dark, raining, on foot, bags in tow, in search of our coach's new pick up point, we were being herded away like sheep by the police and anxiety was rife as we had only 20 minutes left to find our coach before it departed without us....
Having walked about 2 miles around in a circle, we arrived at the coach just before midnight, damp, stressed and tired.....we took over the back of the coach, opened the cans of winter warmers and began the wet and windy trip down to Dover to catch the 3am ferry crossing over to Calais...
We unloaded ourselves onto the ferry in the middle of the night, weary and bleary eyed, the Captain announced there would be adverse weather conditions and not to go out on deck during the crossing, this was NOT good news as i have never made a ferry crossing and arrived at the other side with with contents of my stomach intact....we staggered around the ship like we were paralytic due to the awful conditions and endured the horrendous rocking, swirling motions for the next 90 minutes....
As we began the extremely uncomfortable drive through the gales and downpours in France at about 5am something blatantly obvious occurred to me.... the wardrobe I had packed for this trip wasn't, should I say, exactly suitable.....for August weather had suddenly turned into late November.....
We arrived in Cologne at about lunchtime Friday, checked into our somewhat surprisingly dapper hotel rooms and collapsed ready for a deep sleep.......10 minutes later the tour operator came round saying we were departing for the festival now, so after 2 1/2hrs sleep on the coach we trekked to the festival somewhat lightheaded and unprepared for the days events....After absorbing the somewhat unfriendly, atmosphere of mingling amongst the German festival goers, the day could only start to improve with the main stage being littered with English spoken bands .....'Fun loving Criminals' were surprisingly excellent, 'Pj Harvey' blasted us with her alternative wailings......however just as the day was starting to pick up the heavens opened and torrential rain accompanied the dreadful 'Tindersticks'....however, trying to make the best out of an awful set of
conditions we figured the lead singer was in fact 'Vic Reeves' in disguise doing his club singing for 90 minutes....
We were all drenched and freezing, none of us had coats and our three layers of t-shirts and shirts had now finally let water through to the skin.......to top that we were crushed against the farting, chain-smoking-doped festival goers, barging their way through leaving us choking on their huge spliffs....As the cold night drew in only 'Portishead' could save the day, and that they did.....words can't describe how fantastic beths voice was as it sent shivers to accompany the ones I already had running down my spine.....
The crowd was very rigid and very quiet compared to any UK gigs I have been to, and as one rude 'eric' barged his way through knocking drinks everywhere and smacking Sue violently across her head with his bag, there was a deathly silence as Sue yelled, 'you stupid fookin' bastard!!!!!' at the top of her broad Sheffield voice, not sure whether anyone else understood, but this sort of summarises the type of day Friday turned out to be.......we drugged back to the awaiting coach to go back to the hotel, soaked and pissed off, only to find we had to wait almost two hours before we could go due to some arseholes, also booked on our coach, being late back!!!
SATURDAY 22nd AUGUST
We awoke on the day of the Cure gig prepared to put behind us the awful Friday that we had endured....
We decided not to take the pre-arranged coach to the festival that day as we only really wanted to see 'Placebo' and 'The Cure' , so we decided to order taxis to take us there in time for 'placebo' in the middle of the afternoon.... However I had a BIG gamble to take, Roger said he would get me a photo pass so I could take photos for 'curenews', however if he had forgotten and hadn't left it for me at the entrance to the festival I would get refused entry (no professional cameras allowed without pass) and I wouldn't be able to get back to the hotel to drop off the camera equipment, so i would have travelled 600 miles only to stand outside the Cure gig....the risk was great, but I had faith in him and grabbed all my gear...After breakfast we decided it was time to transform into Cure fans so out came the spell books, we ordered frogs legs and several newts through room service and brushed down the broomsticks, it took Suzie Stringfellow almost 2 hours before her disguise was complete, we had taken hours getting ready and all looked rather smart in our new velvety silky frocks ready for drinkies with the band later that day.....
We set off to the festival leaving in plenty of time so we would catch 'Placebo' ......however we hadn't realised we had jumped into the 2 taxis in the whole of the city who didn't know where the festival was.....we arrived outside the festival just as 'placebo' left the stage with 7 hours to kill before The Cure came on (hhhhmmmmph!!!) I anxiously went to check to see if the guest list and passes had arrived and they hadn't, my heart sank, 'bollocks!!!', what was I gonna do now?
We queued up to get in and I hoped that the 'security -frisking- ticket-blokes' would show some compassion and let me in until my pass turned up.....I also detached my zoom lens and hid it in a rather riskee area, hoping I could persuade the guards that I was picking up all my lenses from the band once they had arrived....hmmm worth a try . So I approached the 'frisking' people walking in a bizarre manner (due to the place I had hidden the zoom!!!!) and crossed all my fingers hoping they would let me in.....as the guards discovered my camera equipment they wouldn't listen to me as I tried to explain what had happened ''NEIN....NEIN...get out!! ...nein pass, nein entry...'' or something similar this blond haired, aggressive man shouted at me.....pissed off, I grabbed my equipment and headed back out of the festival unbelievably upset and angry at the way I had been treated...
Just as I approached the exit I noticed all the guards attention was being distracted by Sean trying to explain again what had happened, so I seized the opportunity and with the zoom lens dangling inside my shorts I turned round and legged it into the crowds with all my equipment....having dived into the disgusting portaloos hoping I had made it I peeped my head out gasping for air, quite shocked at the dishonest thing I had just done....my dash into the crowd was soooo fantastic even Sean hadn't seen it and he went back outside to find me and had to queue up again!!!.....
So I'd got my equipment in, but wouldn't be allowed to use it unless the pass turned up, but at the very least I would now get to see the Cure.... My heart continued to pound and it took a few beers to steady me, so we sat around in the sun drinking for the rest of the afternoon....
Things could only get better from now, surely?....
Desperate for some, any good news I decided i would go and check to see if the passes had arrived, leaving my camera equipment with the others I went back out of the festival..................GREAT STUFF!!!..the guest and passes list had arrived AND.... my name wasn't on it!!!!!.........I almost burst into tears and had to rejoin the entry queue which took an hour to get back in......... We had a couple of hours in the sun accepting all the shite that had happened over a few beers.....so of course, yes, it was time to piss it down again, we had bought some raincoats, but of course they weren't water proof and our 'gig wear and makeup' got thoroughly trashed as the rain belted down on us the wind picked up....the torrential rain lasted for about 2 hours and by this time I had given up, our dresses were soaked and muddy, hair ruined, we were very cold and I had run out of energy.... This is how bad things were ......to keep warm I was wrapped in a bright blue dustbin bag! I was soooo pissed off and there was no way of keeping dry so I decided to go off in a huff and try and calm down, I gave it one last shot at about 8pm to see if the passes, by any miracle had turned up.....I nearly passed out as she told me my name had just been added to the list........hurraaaaaaaah!....relief of mammoth proportions...
My spirits had been raised even though my temperature hadn't and I began the task of defrosting my hands so I could make the camera work.....we took up our places in the front of the crowd waiting for the other horrendous acts to get off, 'Goldie' - Jesus, what a pile of cack!
As he left the stage the crew came on to set the Cure's gear up and suddenly I felt excited....I went to the security guards ready to stick my pass up their arses if they didn't let me through to the huge photographers' pit which separated the crowd from the stage...and for the first time during this trip I bumped into a friendly face, Cindy a 'Cure pal' from London, I wished her a happy 21st birthday and agreed to meet for drinks at the hotel later....as I walked through into the photo pit I got this amazing feeling as I walked right to the front of the stage, plonked down my gear and walked freely looking at the enormous crowd crushed against the barriers facing me as i turned my back on the stage....
I was the only photographer stood there for about 20 minutes and I wandered up to the crowd standing on the barriers looking over the crowd and trying to pick out faces and chatting to the fans who were asking how I had managed to get there......as I stood up looking over the crowd a girl shouted ' I was in the back of your car in Shepherds Bush at the last UK Cure gig'....small world, a friend of Cindy's!!!!
The stage was set and I climbed up the small scaffolding, dangling, holding my camera set up straight in front of Robert's mic, then all of a sudden about 30 photographers came piling into the photo pit and tried to knock me off the only bit of raised railings that could get you as high and near towards the stage....."gettoof out of ze vay, ve need to see Robert Smitz''. they said....'not on your nelly' I replied....as the lights went down the crowd then began chanting ''wrobert smitz, wrobert smitz''....I found this most amusing.......as the other photographers stood below me with their expensive equipment poised all serious, taking photos, I put my camera down on the stage as the band came on, bugger taking photos for the minute!!!... I stood tall above the crowd and cheered with my arms waving high, balancing.....this moment made the whole trip worth while....then Roger saw me and waved, mouthing 'hiya Ange'. I daren't let go to wave back as I would have fallen and been pulverised by the other photographers bustling away...
As I was about 2ft higher than any of the other photographers they all tried to get me to move so they could take some photos from this vantage point, "bollocks, I'm here for the duration!" ......after I had finished taking photos I still had about 2 songs left before the photographers had to depart, so clinging onto the railings I bobbed around, arms waving and singing along, when I turned my head around to see the crowd behind me words can't describe the view of around 30, 000 (?) cure fans jumping around.... I was on the railing at the front for 'Shake Dog Shake', 'Fascination St' and 'Strange Day,' I then jumped off the railings and jumped around to 'One Hundred Years' as I made my way across the front of the photo pit, back into the crowd.....'If Only Tonight We Could Sleep' and 'Sinking' ,and 'A Forest' were easily the outstanding songs of the night...again 'Wrong Number' and 'Cut' didn't fail to impress, and of course in tradition Robert decided to mess up the lyrics to 'Pictures Of You' ,and 'Untitled' ...others played were 'Lullaby', 'Just Like Heaven', 'Never Enough' (arrh Porl come back!) 'In Between Days', 'Green Sea', 'Disintegration'.... I then got revenge for all the crowds previous aggressive behaviour when I sent at least two dozen dazed Germans flying as I made my way through for the untouchable finale of '10:15 Sat Night' and 'Killing An Arab' ....
The Cure gig finished with an explosive firework display....and for the last 100 minutes I had forgotten how cold and awful this trip had been so far, I'd say any band that can make you forget what we went through must be something pretty special..... As the crowd departed a girl from America who we had arranged to meet, 'Marianne' came towards us grinning, introducing herself, it turned out she was going to the band's hotel.
We arrived in Dusseldorf about an hour after the festival had finished, 1am-ish, we arrived at the band's hotel in Dusseldorf at 3-am-ish!!!...we had driven round every 'strasse' in Dusseldorf, we even ended up driving up the wrong side of one of them, which only came to light when headlights started to come towards us at a rapid pace, we visited every petrol station within a three mile radius, trying to mime and gain directions to the hotel....aarrrggghhhhh!!!!....worra nightmare....we ended up getting a police escort to the hotel after stopping in the middle of a junction saying 'sorry we're English, we're lost'....
We walked into the Hilton to discover Robert and Simon had gone to bed, but Roger, Jason and Perry were still around with a few people that I knew from London, Chris, Cindy, Daren, Daryl and I also bumped into another fellow devotee from Switzerland, 'Thierry'.... As we walked towards Roger all four of us soaked, exhausted after the extreme lengths we had gone to to make it here Roger greeted us in his usual friendly cheery drunken tone and said 'would you like a drink?' to which Sue Stringfellow replied ' yes we bloody do!!!".....we mingled around with the remaining rebels until about 4am in the morning where we collapsed into another taxi who got us lost on our way home...we got to bed about 5.30am....and were woken up at 8.30am to get ready to check out of the hotel......ohhh gawd my eyes were bright red and I could barely see, as we were conscripted into the final day at the festival.....
SUNDAY 23rd
The sun was shinning at least so we decided to take a look round Cologne, we headed into the old town and bumped into Chris, Daren and Marianne we had seen at the band's hotel only a few hours ago, we were all extremely tired but in good spirits and spent the afternoon drinking in a beer garden in a rather picturesque part of town at the side of the Rhine...
After dodging a tram fare across town we arrived back at the festival where we were due to be picked up to return home later that night.....having only been on the festival ground for less than an hour, what a shocker, it started to piss it down again....except this time it was worse, due to the hot weather during the day we had left our shirts and raincoats on the coach, so we had to spend the last five hours dressed it bin bags with eye holes.....my sense of humour was now on the minus scale and we literally collapsed when we got back on the coach.....we ended up leaving two of the people who were late again in Germany....! As the torrential downpour and stormy weather continued we left Germany and faced the once again awful ferry crossing, it was now Monday morning and since Thursday morning I had had about 11 hours sleep.... I can only conclude that the Cure must mean an awful lot to us who endured this disastrous and expensive weekend for 90 minutes of their music....bring on next year!!!!
Ange
Summer festival experiences.
I've been to eight of this year's summer festivals and enjoyed every single second of them. All the stress with travelling by train, trying to get tickets, sleeping in railway stations, etc. was worth it. At every concert I stood in the first row, right in front of the stage. This meant I had to be at the venues hours before The Cure took the stage. I had to bear loads of really bad bands who played before The Cure. But as soon as The Cure took the stage, playing the opening chords of 'Shake Dog Shake', Robert looking into my eyes and Roger giving me his gorgeous smile, everything else was forgotten.
The first concert I attended was 'The Forest Glade Festival in Austria. It was so special to hear all the rare songs they were to play over the summer. I really didn't expect to ever hear 'A Hundred Years', 'Kyoto Song' or 'Sinking' (my first Cure concert being 1990 and after that these songs were very rare to hear live!). When they played 'Untitled' I thought I had died and gone to heaven - It's one of my favourite songs, although the sound was really bad at this concert with a few technical problems. All in all 'Forest Glade' was a very emotional experience for me, especially when after the show I had the chance to meet Robert and Roger to get my treasured set list signed.
The next week we made a little holiday in Italy to see them play at the 'Laghi Lombardi Festival'. The band were in a very good mood, the playing was excellent. However I was disappointed by the audience, as they were very quiet and didn't even shout for an encore. The highlight of this show was 'If Only Tonight We Could Sleep'.
Two days later: One of the the best Cure concerts I've ever been to: Taubertal Festival, Germany. I was standing directly in front of Robert this time. The sound was brilliant and the band very energetic. The audience were also great. Ten minutes after the band had left the stage they were still shouting for more. A truly memorable experience after worrying all day whether I would get a ticket after seeing posters around the town announcing that the show was 'sold out'. Luckily a very kind old lady allowed me in after I had told her that I'd travelled 12 hours to see the show!
Then - Three long weeks without a Cure concert, I was getting 'Cold Turkey'. Dresden was (for me) the best concert of this tour. The venue was beautiful and the sound was great. The Cure played for 130 minutes with songs that included 'A Strange Day', 'Figurehead' and 'If Only Tonight...' But the best thing was when after a very powerful 'Killing An Arab' just when we though it was time to leave, Robert started over again with 'Forever'. A fantastic way to end a perfect concert!
After such a great concert in Dresden the ZilloFfestival in Hildersheim was a bit of a disappointment. The stage was so high, I think 2.5 meters, you couldn't even see them up close, let alone take photographs. The Cure played a very short set of 90 minutes, a pretty standard concert without emotions and the sound was very distorted. However when they played 'Cold' I almost started to cry. This song alone made everything worthwhile.
The following weekend it was off to Switzerland to attend the Gampel Festival. The rain fell all day and all night long. It was so cold, even Roger rubbed his hands together during 'In Between Days'. Robert really was with the audience at this concert, maybe he knew the wet hardship we were suffering! When they played 'Disintegration' he again kneeled to the floor in front of us and looked in everybody's eyes. Some French fans shouted to him "to come down the front" - Indicating with his hands he tried to explain to us that it was too high for him to jump down. After 'Killing An Arab', Robert left the stage really slowly, looking around at the audience as they shouted for more. I'm convinced that The Cure would have come back for more if it wasn't for the fact that another band 'The Leningrad Cowboys' where due to play after The Cure. Robert really seemed unwilling to leave us behind!
The very next day I attended the biggest festival I've been to this year and one of the biggest in Europe.-The Bizzare Festival, Cologne. I though there would be no way of getting close to the stage to see the band this time around. But after arriving later than normal, at 4pm, it was really no problem to squeeze though the audience and take up camp behind the German fans despite there being approx 50,000 people in attendance. Robert was in a very strange mood during the evening. Starting 'Pictures Of You' and 'Untitled' with different lyrics, it was so special, really keeping Cure concerts interesting. During 'Fascination Street' Robert almost fell over his microphone wire and during 'Untitled' he just lay on the floor before singing until Simon went over to check that he was still breathing! Despite the large crowd, The Cure made this a very intimate concert.
Finally it was off to The Sun Festival, Brno. The final concert of the summer. The Cure played a perfect set, longer that the other shows. They played 'Push' and 'Like Cockatoos' which I hadn't previously heard. Everyone was in a good mood, playing their instruments in such a perfect sharp way! They didn't make any mistakes and it was a perfect ending to a brilliant tour. Before leaving the stage Robert told us that he "would see us again next year" - I am so looking forward to then and the tour in 1999....
Bianca, Austria - (greetings to all the nice people I met on the tour, thank you xxx)
Cure Drinks and get togethers in London
Getting the fans together is the idea of this event. From all over the country (and even Europe and America), The Cure fans have the opportunity to meet up and get to know each other. The meetings take place in various London pubs, three or four of times a year, where everyone is welcome to join other "Cureheads" and make new friends.
I attended the last two events, which I found very enjoyable because it is a special occasion to share your passion with people who have the same interest. Everyone is free to express their views, have a laugh and relax! Usually, there are about 40 fans attending this convention. The atmosphere is always great, photos, memorabilia, anecdotes circulate, we all share the memories of concerts, talking about the band, etc...
The good thing is that everyone is keeping in touch afterwards, exchanging e-mails and addresses, so that at the next meeting, we can meet again. The circle is getting larger all the time, and everyone is hoping to meet new fans, create "bonds" with people, because this is what the convention is all about.
Hopefully, these sessions will happen more often, attracting more people. It is always a pleasure to meet other people, who, we all hope, are going to join the circle of "Curefriends". Everyone is welcome. If you are interested in attending the next event in London, subscribe to 'Stop Press' or why not set up a Cure Drink in your town or city, you may meet some friend you didn't know you had!
Anne Forest
