JANUARY 1999

RAK Studios, London
The missing guitars and vocal bits were recorded. Robert Smith went back to being obsessed with the making of a record (noone but technicians was allowed to get in). One of the new tracks, Fall (early Watching Me Fall), was a narrative song about Robert's life in the Cure. The central themes of the new record were clearly the end of the group and aging.

The following two months were spent recording more vocals at Fisher Lane Farm, Surrey (Phil Collins' studio !). And by late spring the recording of 15 songs was completed. Bloodflowers was mastered in June and was supposed to get released in September but plans got changed. It was decided that a "post millennium frenzy date was probably the best option".


OCTOBER

19th
New York, Sony Music Studios (VH1 Hard Rock Live TV)
The group was invited to perform live on the TV program (to be broadcast in February 2000). So they played for about an hour and did three new songs in front of an audience of 200 people (invite only). Around the same time, the new album leaked online (probably taken from an acetate cdr sent to America). Nevermind, the group simply took a break for the rest of the year.


JANUARY 2000

Stanbridge Farm Studios, Handcross, Sussex
Rehearsals for the live concerts planned the next month. Robert Smith also gave several interviews to the press and revealed the title of the next record : Bloodflowers. The word came from a letter written by Edvard Munch (one of his favorite painters). He also revealed that part of the lyrics from There Is No If dated back from 1983.That song was the only one not talking about recent times.


FEBRUARY

A very busy month started : the group gave ten promotional shows in Europe and in America to promote the album and the upcoming tour. The album was released on the 14th (a new version of the cure.com was also launched that day). Robert Smith had endless interviews with the press, TV... Bloodflowers was introduced as the last part of a trilogy that started with Pornography and Disintegration and was designed to be the last Cure album ever. No single would be released from it since there was no obvious track to play on the radio, but the record companies sent a few promo singles. In Poland, The Last Day Of Summer went #1 in the radio charts without the single for the song being issued.


MARCH / APRIL

Watching Me Fall was radically remixed by Massive Attack's Trevor Jackson/Underdog for the upcoming film American Psycho.

The Dream Tour started in Europe (26 dates) at the end of the month. Robert declared that every concert would be different from any other tour they've done before since he wanted the shows to be more dramatic : "I'm approaching this tour, as the whole band approches it, as the last time that we have to do it. I think that's why I want it to be very emotional every night."

The live repertoire included 44 songs : Killing An Arab, 10:15 Saturday Night, Boys Don't Cry, Play For Today, A Forest, M, All Cats Are Grey, The Drowning Man, Faith, One Hundred Years, Siamese Twins, The Figurehead, A Strange Day, Cold, Pornography, Shake Dog Shake, In Between Days, Sinking, The Kiss, If Only Tonight We Could Sleep, Snakepit, Just Like Heaven, Like Cockatoos, Shiver And Shake, Plainsong, Pictures Of You, Fascination Street, Prayers For Rain, The Same Deep Water As You, Disintegration, Open, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Trust, End, Want, Out Of This World, Watching Me Fall,Where The Birds Always Sing, Maybe Someday,The Last Day of Summer, The Loudest Sound, There Is No If, 39, Bloodflowers.

Some of the tracks hadn't been played for a while : All Cats Are Grey (1989), Siamese Twins (1989), Snakepit (1987). And more tracks were rehearsed but were labeled "last priority" so the band wouldn't play them : Charlotte Sometimes, Homesick, Lament, At Night, Dressing Up, A Letter To Elise, High, Push, Club America...


MAY / JUNE

The American leg of the Dream Tour started after two weeks of rest. Same repertoire as in Europe (to the disappointment of part of the audience expecting the hits !) except that a few "last priority" tracks were added to the setlists : A Night Like This, Lovesong, Jupiter Crash.

Back to Europe at the end of June, the band was supposed to play at Roskilde festival on the 30th. They were actually there but couldn't go on stage after people in the audience were crushed and died during Pearl Jam's set, being shocked like everybody else. Truly a tragic night.


JULY
2nd

Werchter, Festival
Meant as the last concert of the year. A typical set list with a short encore : Just Like Heaven, Boys Don't Cry, "10:15 on a Sunday Night", Killing An Arab.


AUGUST

Robert Smith spent the summer writing new songs, using a methodology not used since the Head On The Door : his old four-track recorder and old guitar pedals (stored for years in his garage). He would explain to an Australian magazine : "It’s really nice getting back to that incredibly simple way of just putting four things down that have to work with each other to make a song."


OCTOBER

After a bit of hesitation, the Cure played live again. This time in Australia (7 concerts) with the same repertoire as in America (Jupiter Crash, Lovesong). And this would definitely mark the end of the Dream Tour. Triple J radio had a competition allowing to meet the band in Brisbane and the winner would also decide on a track the band would cover. All this led to the Cure covering Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart backstage in a caravan that day (with Sarah -competition winner- guesting on tambourine).



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