JANUARY

Robert spent the beginning of the year recording stuff for a solo album, using the lastest technology with samplers and effects. According to him, that sounded quite different from the Cure (electronic and atmospheric). More promotion for the Greatest Hits compilation was also done, mainly international press interviews. So the Cure as a band came back to the spotlight and rumors of live concerts in the summer started to spread. Some of them would turn out to be true. The solo album was put aside because it was taking quite a long time to be finished (still not mixed by then).


MAY

16th
This Is Dom Joly, TV Taping
The band, together again, appeared on this spoof chat show playing In Between Days and A Night Like This live. The audience consisted in people wearing animal suits (bears) and dancing. A bit of a surreal and funny moment.

25th
Riverside Studios, London (Re:covered TV taping)
The group played Lovesong and a short version of A Forest (ending on "Suddenly I stop" !) and also covered Thin Lizzy's Don't Believe A Word. Asked how the band would play the song (slow or fast version ?), Robert answered : "We're doing the fast one 'cause we're rockers..."

Rehearsals for the summer festivals started with the group working on another cover to play live : The Faith Healer (by the Sensational Alex Harvey Band).


JUNE

Most of the month was spent drinking while watching the football World Cup on TV at home.

30th
Robert Smith attended David Bowie's Meltdown Festival finale in London where the David sang and played the complete "Low" and "Heathen" albums, finishing off with a few fan favorites. That gave Robert an idea for later plans with the Cure.


JULY / AUGUST

Summer Festivals. Just for fun and to be a band again (they had no record to promote). So instead of playing the hits, the group prefered to satisfy their fans by playing the rare and old material. The kind of tracks that would fit with the new songs (dubbed as "heavy rock") they were working on actually. The other novelty was trying The Baby Screams (not played since 1986) and a couple of 70's covers.

The repertoire included 43 songs : Boys Don't Cry, Three Imaginary Boys, Play For Today, A Forest, M, Seventeen Seconds (extract), The Drowning Man, Faith, Charlotte Sometimes, One Hundred Years, Siamese Twins, The Figurehead, A Strange Day, Pornography, Shake Dog Shake, In Between Days, Push, The Baby Screams, A Night Like This, The Kiss, Torture, If Only Tonight We Could Sleep, Just Like Heaven, Plainsong, Pictures Of You, ,Lovesong, Lullaby, Fascination Street, Prayers For Rain, Disintegration, Open, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Trust, End, Want, Out Of This World, Watching Me Fall, The Last Day Of Summer, 39, Bloodflowers, Cut Here, Don't Believe A World (by Thin Lizzy), The Faith Healer (by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band).

While being in Switzerland for the Nyon Paleo Festival, Robert Smith also met Ross Robinson (Limp Bizkit, Korn, At the Drive-In, etc.) at Geneva's Hotel d'Angleterre. Ross convinced Robert to make another Cure album (that he would produce).


NOVEMBER

The recording of a new record was pushed back due to a handful of special shows the Cure would play. The original idea came from seeing David Bowie and Robert decided to play Pornography, Disintegration and Bloodflowers in their entirety in front of an audience and to film the whole thing for a dvd release... Berlin was chosen for the event (other possibilities were Barcelona or Moscow).

07th
Brussels, Forest National
This show was added after the special Trilogy concerts in Berlin were sold out. The group used this performance to see how things would turn out on stage. And despite many technical problems (lights/guitar amps), the atmosphere was great (enthousiastic crowd) and everybody agreed that the Trilogy project was finally worth it.

09th
Hamburg, Color Line Arena
Not a "Trilogy" show but another one-off. The band was asked to be the first artists to play in this new arena. The concert was recorded for a radio broadcast (and mixed by Robert). Excellent version of Forever.

11th/12th
Berlin, Tempodrom
Trilogy concerts. The band was pretty nervous on stage and would only release the pressure with the encores (once the cameras stopped filming). Robert explained later that The Hanging Garden was a difficult song to play and that this line up never tried Homesick and Last Dance. Filming for a DVD release was also an obvious way to commemorate what the Cure had done up until that point.


GO TO 2003