JANUARY

The Cure signed a new three album deal on Suretone. The following months of the year were spent working on Trilogy (the live concerts in Berlin filmed and recorded the previous year) : editing, 5.1 mixing, mastering, artwork...


MAY

A busy era for Robert Smith who had various "secret" projects : collaborations with Blank and Jones (for their cover of A Forest), Junkie XL (Perfect Blue Sky), Earl Slick (Believe), Blink 182 (All Of This), Junior Jack (Da Hype), Tweaker (Truth Is). Robert wrote the lyrics to all these songs and sang on them. A new version of Pictures Of You (resung and remixed) was also done for the One Perfect Day film soundtrack.

19th/21st
Brussels, Hotel Conrad
Robert and Simon spent three days in Brussels, meeting the international press to promote the forthcoming Trilogy release. Both often talked about the days of Pornography and Robert admitted : ""It doesn't matter if we all die." -I feel exactly that way still."


JUNE

02nd
Trilogy was released on double dvd and included a spectacular picture quality (shot with twelve high definition cameras). At the time of the filming, the project was actually meant as an epitaph for the Cure.


JULY

Schecter, guitar manufacturers and confessed Cure fans, helped Robert Smith to design a Cure signature model : a modified Ultra guitar known as the "Ultra Cure". The group would exclusively play on Schecter guitars soon after.

Robert also listened to hundreds of old tapes (demos/outtakes/live recordings) in order to fill bonus discs for the first batch of the remastered Cure albums planned the following year. He confessed : "I’m relying on scribbled bits of paper that I find in boxes with cassette tapes and trusting my judgement wasn’t severely impaired by stimulants when I wrote : 'this is the best version'."


SEPTEMBER

18th
Los Angeles, Late late show with Craig Kilborn, US TV
The band appeared on American TV playing 10:15 Saturday Night and Just Like Heaven live in the studio. Quite a change in the Cure's sound as they had different guitars by now. Robert played an "Ultra", Simon used a C-4 Elite bass, and Perry used his Hellcat (all Schecter guitars), reflecting the new musical direction they wanted to take.

20th
Devore, Hyundai Pavilion
A "flashback to the future" festival set up by Californian radio KROQ including many acts such as Psychedelic Furs, Echo and the Bunnymen, Duran Duran... The Cure headlined and played a chronological set.


OCTOBER

02nd
Q Awards, London
Robert, Jason and Roger, along with Tim Pope and Dom Joly, attended the Q awards where Robert Smith (on behalf of the Cure) accepted the "Inspiration" award from Tricky. After the ceremony, the Cure's singer got to the piano bar and treated hotel guests with a mini recital.

Robert allowed Pictures Of You to be used on a HP commercial around that time. Actually that was a compromise with the record company so they would finally release the long awaited complete B sides collection.

The music to new and almost ready songs was also demoed live at the Olympic Studios in London. The "heavy rock" idea had : "more to do with the tempos and dynamics and the space we're leaving. The more space you leave, the heavier you get. It's actually the antithesis of the new-metal assault, which is all about piling things on."

Then, the group met Ross Robinson in London and chose 20 out of the 37 new demos for the next record : Back On (early version of Lost), Labyrinth, Before Three, Jason #3 (aka Never)... Half of the new tracks had the guitars tuned down to D to be able to play lower notes.


DECEMBER

11th
Islington Carling Academy
The Cure played a Nordoff-Robbins charity show (mainly an audience consisting in people from the music "industry" at premium rates). Only a few tickets went on sale to the general public. A greatest hits kind of setlist with the addition of In Your House (opening the concert !) and the very rarely played Hey You!!!.



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