The Cure played two sets for the BBC to mark the upcoming release of their long-awaited new album ‘Songs Of A Lost World’.
Due for release tomorrow (Friday November 1), ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ is the band’s 14th album and marks their first in 16 years. To celebrate, yesterday saw Robert Smith and co. play shows at the iconic BBC Radio Theatre – one a live session for Huw Stephens on 6 Music, and another for the ‘Radio 2 In Concert’ series in front of an intimate audience.
The first for 6 Music saw the band air ‘And Nothing Is Forever’, ‘I Can Never Say Goodbye’ and ‘All I Ever Am’ from the new album (the latter making its live debut), alongside ‘Last Dance’, ‘Plainsong’ and ‘Prayers For Rain’ and the title track all from the classic album ‘Disintegration’, as well as ‘A Forest’ and ‘At Night’ plus ‘Burn’ from The Crow soundtrack.
Then, to an intimate audience of guests and competition winners (with the number of entrants reaching into six figures). Flanked by bassist Simon Gallup, Roger O’Donnell on keys, guitarist and keys player Perry Bamonte, drummer Jason Cooper and guitarist Reeves Gabrels, Smith kept the dialogue largely to a minimum – aside from regularly thanking the crowd and joking that he’d have prepared something to say if he were a “better frontman”.
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Beyond new ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ tracks ‘A Fragile Thing’, ‘Alone’ and ‘Endsong’ – and epic ‘Wish’ deep cut ‘From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea’ – the second set could only be described as a relentless hit parade. Smith joked about the band becoming more upbeat for BBC Radio 2, as the band rolled through the likes of ‘Pictures Of You’, ‘Lovesong’, ‘The Walk’, ‘Lullaby’, ‘In Between Days’ and ‘Just Like Heaven’.
The encore – recorded for the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast show, which Smith said he listened to every day – featured ‘Lullaby’, ‘Close To Me’ and ‘Why Can’t I Be You?’ as well as
‘Friday I’m in Love’, with Smith joking that “something bad always happens” when they play it on a day that isn’t Friday.
The 6 Music performance will be broadcast along with an interview with Smith during Huw Stephens’ show today from 4pm-7pm, while the Radio 2 In Concert show will be broadcast on Jo Whiley’s show on Radio 2 and BBC Sounds from 7pm -9pm tonight, along with another conversation with the frontman.
The Friday November 1 edition of the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show will also feature more from the show, while The Cure’s Radio 2 In Concert and 6 Music performances will also be available to watch on BBC iPlayer from tonight.
Saturday (November 2) will see BBC Two air The Cure’s Radio 2 In Concert show alongside the new The Cure At The BBC compilation, alongside That Was Then…This Is Now: The Cure, The Cure at Glastonbury 2019 and Rock Around The Clock: The Cure.
The Cure’s BBC 6 Music setlist was:
‘Plainsong’
‘Last Dance’
‘I Can Never Say Goodbye’
‘Burn’
‘And Nothing Is Forever’
‘At Night’
‘A Forest’
‘All I Ever Am’
‘Prayers for Rain’
‘Disintegration’
The Cure’s BBC Radio 2 setlist was:
‘Alone’
‘Pictures of You’
‘A Fragile Thing’
‘High’
‘A Night Like This’
‘Lovesong’
‘The Walk’
‘In Between Days’
‘Just Like Heaven’
‘From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea’
‘Endsong’
Encore:
‘Lullaby’
‘Friday I’m in Love’
‘Close to Me’
‘Why Can’t I Be You?’
The BBC gigs come ahead of a one-off show at The Troxy in London tomorrow, which looks likely to be The Cure’s final show before they tour in autumn 2025. This comes after Smith revealed that the band have another new album that’s “virtually finished” – with a third new record also on the way, and that he’s aiming to complete one of the LPs before hitting the road again in 2025.
“We’ll start up again next year,” said Smith. “Seriously, I have to finish the second album. We were going to play festivals next year, but then I decided that we weren’t going to play anything next summer. The next time we go out on stage will be autumn next year.
“But then we’ll probably be playing quite regularly through until the next anniversary – the 2028 anniversary! It’s looming on the horizon. The 2018 one, I started to think about in late 2016, thinking, ‘I’ve got a year and a half, it’s easy!’ And yet I still didn’t manage to get there in time. Now, I’m starting to think, ‘2028, I must get things in order’; so [that’s] the documentary film and things like that.”
In a five-star review of ‘Songs Of A Lost World’, NME concluded: “Merciless? Yes, but there’s always enough heart in the darkness and opulence in the sound to hold you and place these songs alongside The Cure’s finest. The frontman suggested that another two records may be arriving at some point, but ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ feels sufficient enough for the wait we’ve endured, just for being arguably the most personal album of Smith’s career. Mortality may loom, but there’s colour in the black and flowers on the grave.”
The Cure release ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ on November 1.
