OCTOBER

Strange Attraction was released as a single in America and Australia. No video was made for this.

The European tour started three weeks after ending the one in North America. But unfortunately, most of the times, the band played in half empty arenas. So they rehearsed lots of old songs never played by this line-up before to make the tour quite different from people's expectations. Six Different Ways was one track that Robert Smith wanted to add to the set lists but it never happened. The song would be part of the soundchecks. The other one that they didn't do despite Robert's will was All Cats Are Grey (usually rehearsed by Roger alone).

Repertoire (68 songs !) :
Killing An Arab, 10:15 Saturday Night, Grinding Halt, Subway Song, Fire in Cairo, Three Imaginary Boys, Boys Don't Cry, Play For Today, In Your House, A Forest, M, Primary, The Funeral Party, The Drowning Man, Faith, Forever, Charlotte Sometimes, One Hundred Years,The Hanging Garden, The Figurehead, A Strange Day, Cold, Let's Go To Bed, The Walk, The Lovecats (extract), Dressing Up, Piggy In The Mirror, In Between Days, The Blood, Push, Close To Me, A Night Like This, The Kiss, Catch, If Only Tonight We Could Sleep,Why Can't I Be You ?, Just Like Heaven, Hot Hot Hot, Like Cockatoos, Shiver and Shake, Plainsong, Pictures Of You, Lovesong, Lullaby, Fascination Street, Prayers For Rain, The Same Deep Water As You, Disintegration, Never Enough, High, From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea, Friday I'm In Love, Trust, End, Want, Club America, This Is a Lie, The 13th, Strange Attraction, Mint Car, Jupiter Crash, Round And Round And Round, Gone!, Return, Trap, Numb, Treasure, Bare.

About the poor attendance at some of the shows, Robert declared that it didn't affect him much because he enjoyed the concerts and that more people meant a louder but not a better audience.


NOVEMBER

The Swing Tour reached Spain, France Germany, Poland, Austria, Czech Republic, Sweden.

Originally, a concert was planned in Strasbourg on November 06th but it was cancelled. The band took the opportunity to play in a club in Paris instead on that day. They celebrated the "Cure history" by playing two songs from every album in a chronological order.

12th
Gone! off Wild Mood Swings was released a single. A special limited edition included an holographic card. The video was shot while touring in America, in Los Angeles. This Is A Lie was supposed to be the next single in France around that time, but it never was, despite promotional cds being sent.

At the end of the month, David Bowie invited Robert Smith to perform at his 50th birthday concert in New York planned for the upcoming January. Robert accepted and rehearsed (sometimes during the soundchecks) Quicksand or The Last Thing You Should Do.


DECEMBER

The end of the Swing tour took place where it started : in the UK. Some of the dates originally postponed from May were finally cancelled due to poor sales (Newcastle, Glasgow, Aberdeen). The final concert (almost) marked the 20th anniversary of Robert Smith on stage, back to the days of Malice. A fact that got him to comment : "For me it's like full circle..." giving uncertain thoughts to the Cure's future.

09th
Cardiff, International Arena
Quite a serious mood with the second encore and The Funeral Party : "I need to sing it today, cause someone I've known got buried today".

10th
London, Wembley Arena
Robert warned the audience he wouldn't talk much as it would turn "absolutely rubbish". No excuse for not speaking a foreign language this time. The first encore (pop singles + Dressing Up) was declared being a weird set of songs, before saying it was "Roger's choice".

13th
Sheffield, Arena
A little "Hello I Love You" guitar teasing before playing Let's Go To Bed. The soundcheck included tracks the band didn't play for a while on the tour. Numb was on tonight's setlist and The 13th would appear on the following night.

14th
Manchester, Nymex Arena
Quite a unique main set with rare tracks : 100 Years, The Same Deep Water As You (with some improvised lyrics), The 13th, The Figurehead.... On the last encore, Roger started to play A Forest but was stopped by Robert's guitar beginning Boys Don't Cry. The proper A Forest version included wah wah effects on the guitar solo and was shortened to eight minutes. Robert Smith explained why : "We ran out of time."

16th
Birmingham, NEC
This last concert of the Swing Tour was the opportunity to "remember" despite a quite classic setlist. Subway Song was introduced by saying "Twenty years ago, tonight, to the day that I've very first got on stage in front of an audience... And I think I've just written this song."


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