The Cure played their new album ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ at a special launch gig at The Troxy in London last night (Friday November 1), where they also celebrated 45 years of their seminal second album ‘Seventeen Seconds’ alongside a run of hits and favourites. See footage, photos and the setlist below.
With a guest list of famous fans including Green Day‘s Billie Joe Armstrong, Radiohead‘s Ed O’Brien, Boy George, Mogwai‘s Stuart Braithwaite, members of Duran Duran, actor Mathew Horne and comedian Stewart Lee, Pale Waves, Just Mustard, Dr Brian Cox, Chris Packham, My Bloody Valentine icon Kevin Shields and a soon-to-be-viral Pedro Pascal, the band continued the celebrations of the release of their first album in 16 years with a sold-out, intimate show in East London.
Following Robert Smith and co’s two gigs at the BBC Radio Theatre recorded and broadcast for Radio 2 and 6 Music earlier this week, last night’s Troxy gig was livestreamed on Youtube, and captured Pascal in full flow.
Pedro Pascal spotted at The Cure Live at Troxy show in London pic.twitter.com/sj0fl0qPBd
— Pedro Pascal Daily (@pascalarchive) November 1, 2024
With no support band, the band were beckoned on to their early stage time by the ominous sound of thunder, rain and lightning before Smith, bassist Simon Gallup, drummer Jason Cooper, Roger O’Donnell on keys, guitarist Reeves Gabrels and guitarist and keyboardist
Perry Bamonte walked out to rapturous applause. With Smith in silhouette and arms outstretched, The Cure led into the launch single and opener of ‘Alone’ before a tender rendition of ‘And Nothing Is Forever’ marked the start of the band playing their 14th album in full.
Recent single ‘A Fragile Thing’ landed like an old favourite, with the decaying rose backdrop fitting to Smith’s mournful note that “There’s nothing you can do to change the end”. Despite the album being released on the band, the band held the audience close throughout – especially for the live debut of the aching ‘Warsong’ and the ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ high ‘Drone:NoDrone’ also being played live for the first time with a real pile-driver delivery.
Another highlight of the first set included the touching ‘I Can Never Say Goodbye’ – written in the wake of the loss of Smith’s brother. As he sang the gut-wrenching line, “something wicked this way comes to steal away my brother’s life”, the crowd swelled in support. The feel of ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ with its long introductions and heavy tapestry of sound felt so complete and natural for the band – landing live like an addition to the ‘dark trilogy’ of ‘Disintegration’, ‘Pornography’ and ‘Bloodflowers’. As Cooper’s shuddering and monolithic drums brought in ‘Endsong’ before Gabrels’ howling and epic guitar solo, the first set closed as one that will go down in history for fans of The Cure.
The band then left the stage for a brief intermission backed again by the rainy soundscape, before returning for the opulent second set opener of ‘Disintegration’ highlight ‘Plainsong’ and a euphoric run-through of ‘Pictures Of You’.
Interrupted only by Smith’s failed banter (“I’ll try again later!” he joked), the band then tore through the spoils of their hits – with the band in the finest of fettle and Gallup covering the whole stage as they animatedly ran through the likes of ‘Just Like Heaven’, ‘High’, ‘Lovesong’, fan favourite ‘Burn’, ‘Fascination Street’, ‘In Between Days’ and ‘Just Like Heaven’.
Smith joked about “playing some sunshine”, and delivered, then told the crowd they’d be celebrating 45 years of their second album ‘Seventeen Seconds’ with the suite of choice cuts ‘At Night’, ‘M’, ‘Secrets’, ‘Play for Today’ and ‘A Forest’ – the latter seeing in the most celebratory reaction of the evening that led into fevered response for the relentless hits of the encore.
Smith was in high spirits as he danced giddily to ‘Lullaby’, and the crowd responded in kind to the crescendo closing of ‘Friday I’m In Love’, ‘Close To Me’, ‘Why Can’t I Be You?’ and their most iconic classic ‘Boys Don’t Cry’. “We’ve run out of time,” said Smith with the band testing the curfew, “I mean just for tonight”.
Fans and critics soon took to social media to hail the gig as “wonderful”, “magical” and “one for the ages”.
The Cure’s London Troxy setlist was:
Set one – ‘Songs Of A Lost World’:
‘Alone’
‘And Nothing Is Forever’
‘A Fragile Thing’
‘Warsong’
‘Drone:Nodrone’
‘I Can Never Say Goodbye’
‘All I Ever Am’
‘Endsong’
Set two – Hits and vintage songs:
‘Plainsong’
‘Pictures of You’
‘High’
‘Lovesong’
‘Burn’
‘Fascination Street’
‘A Night Like This’
‘Push’
‘In Between Days’
‘Just Like Heaven’
‘From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea’
‘Disintegration’
Set three – ‘Seventeen Seconds’ 45th anniversary selection:
‘At Night’
‘M’
‘Secrets’
‘Play for Today’
‘A Forest’
Encore:
‘Lullaby’
‘The Walk’
‘Friday I’m in Love’
‘Close to Me’
‘Why Can’t I Be You?’
‘Boys Don’t Cry’
Last night’s Troxy show 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’s ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ is out now.
