Happy Curechella-versary!

One year ago today, it was Curechella. The Cure were at Coachella and the Cure fans that hadn't already gone home after the Pearl Theater show were making their way to Indio, CA.

Something I didn't mention in my last blog post, which some may not know, was that one of the reasons for the high anticipation regarding these shows was that they were immediately before Robert Smith's 50th birthday on April 21st, 2009 and just weeks before the 30th Anniversary of the official release of  The Cure's first album, Three Imaginary Boys on May 8, 1979. There was a semi-coordinated effort to sing "Happy Birthday" to Robert at the Pearl, but with the sudden end of the show, the celebratory mood had been severely dampened. So when the sun rose on the day of the Coachella show, we literally didn't know what would happen!

Some of the most die-hard among us had already staked their claim front and center and were sweltering through the hot April day in extreme Southern California in order to be close to The Cure during their set. We had a leisurely breakfast in Las Vegas and then drove through the very scenic and deserted Mojave National Preserve and the Joshua Tree National Park on our way down to Indio.




We arrived at Coachella and found parking, bought teeshirts, found a few of our Cure friends and got ready for the show! We did not have much trouble getting up close to the stage as people were leaving throughout the set and we ended up about 4 rows back from the front on Porl's side of the stage as we had been at the Pearl.

Hearing the waves break and roll into "Underneath the Stars" while actually out under the stars again was a huge treat, and for the most part the set was a repeat of the show at the Pearl. Did anyone else notice the inclusion of Wrong Number where the songs had been messed up at the Pearl? We thought it was a nice little insider joke from the band.

Of course, no mention of The Cure's set at Coachella would be complete without telling the story of the end. While we were all enjoying the show, the topic of the encores was pretty fraught  with anticipation, since they had been interrupted mid-encore two nights before at the Pearl. Some sharp-eyed fans noted how swollen Robert Smith's right hand was, but nobody knew what had happened at the Pearl, or what was going to happen at Coachella. All bets were off. So as the main set finished and the guys launched into the same set of encores as at the Pearl, we were all holding our breath. Would we finally get to see the show finished with "Faith"?

The anticipation levels were sky-high. The band seemed to be in a very good mood, so we thought it seemed like a good omen. However, we were all aware that the curfew for Sunday night was midnight, and it was rapidly approaching. So when the first encore started, we were happy and relieved, it was happening! We swayed and sighed and closed our eyes to listen to "If Only Tonight We Could Sleep" and watched in  awe as Robert made his guitar scream through "The Kiss", despite a visible injury. 

Then, a pause, holding our breaths again. It was now several minutes past curfew. A collective sigh of relief came when "At Night" began, and The Cure worked their way through the "Seventeen Seconds" encore. We cheered and laughed and bounced our way through "M" and "Play For Today" and clapped at all the right moments during "A Forest". 

Once more came the tension, even greater now. The clock was ticking, and every minute past midnight would cost the organizers money. Would they come back? Uncertainty reigned and we stood there craning our necks toward the stage as some discussions took place between small knots of people to the right of the stage. This was the moment that we missed at the Pearl. No third encore, no Faith. Suddenly, the band launched into "Three Imaginary Boys" and the crowd exploded in cheers. Without pausing, they ripped through "Fire in Cairo" and we cheered louder and longer. Then the familiar melody of "Boys Don't Cry" came, and we danced harder. Suddenly the large video monitors and speakers on the sides of the stage went black. The crowed booed loudly,  but the Cure still played on! Thousands of people sang along to the end of the song and they jumped right into "Jumping Someone Else's Train". Unfortunately, fewer people knew the words to this, so they listened to what they could hear coming from the stage monitors. The song ended, and there was hesitation on stage, but Robert was not to be stopped! He got Jason started on the drums and walked to the front of the stage, encouraging the crowd to sing along. Finally, he gave up and dropped his guitar into the lap of someone sitting at the front of the pit. 

Personally, I've never heard of any show where the Cure was cut off like that as a headliner, ever. Even during the infamous "F*(& Robert Palmer" video they did not get the plug pulled like this. Does anyone out there know if this was the first time? I'd love to hear about it if they were. 

The fact that they tried so hard to give us the encores was incredible, and for weeks afterward I could only describe it with one word. EPIC. When I got back to Utah early on Tuesday morning the 21st of April 2009, it was Robert Smith's 50th birthday that day, and a Belgian radio station was doing a special show about it. Having a connection to a Cure fan that had submitted a page for the 30th Anniversary book, I was interviewed for the radio show on that day just as I had awoken from a very short sleep after a very long weekend, and all I could say about it was EPIC. And it was. I'm glad I got to see it, and I know a lot of people who wish they had. 

Here's my video of the end, and there are a  lot more videos of this moment out there that you can see in the related videos. Watch for yourself and see just how EPIC it was! 

Here's a set of about nine hundred pics of that night from various peeps on Flickr:



Finally happy birthday to Ms. Plainsong who got this show for her birthday present last year!!

Anuus Mirabilis - My year of miracles

The 12 months spanning May 2008 - May 2009 were undeniably the most pleasurably memorable stretch of 12 months in my entire life up to now. And although I will undoubtedly see the Cure many more times, the past year has been such an amazing collection of incredible experiences that it will be hard to top. It was, as the title of the post implies, an Anuus Mirabilis, a year of wonders, a year of miracles, a year where anything was possible.

I was just thinking about how this weekend will be a year since I saw the Cure on the Summer Solstice at Madison Square Garden, and how even at that moment I had NO idea what was to come in the months ahead. I realized that I haven't really written about it all, although there are bits and pieces here and there and so the idea for this blog post was born. After that show, I thought that was the end of my seeing the Cure for the year! But let's back up just a little and start over, and I apologize in advance that this will be a little long!

I've been a Cure fan since about 1984. It took me nearly 5 years to get to see them for the first time at Dodger Stadium on the Prayer Tour in 1989. For the 18 years between 1989 and 2007, I saw them a total of 9 times and considered that I was a lucky person to see them twice in both 2004 and 2007! Prior to 2008, I knew only a couple of the more "hardcore" fans very well and had traveled with them in 2003 and 2004 but had not really met that many other "diehards".

Then along came 2008.

I will start by saying that I've been a fan of the Chain of Flowers website since the late 90's, discovering it some time in 97 or 98, and checked it on an irregular basis. In the fall of 2001, after the first birthday of our daughter and after watching a terrible year's worth of bad news (I used to be a news junkie and actually had television in my house! Strange to think of, I know!) I basically thought to myself that the only news I cared to keep up with was news about the Cure.

So I switched my homepage on my browser from CNN to CoF, and there it stayed. A daily ritual of checking in with my favorite band and their comings and goings made for a peaceful and happy start to my day, as it still does. I was finally brave enough to send in a "Curespotting" in 2003 and started volunteering server space mirrors for the various audio and video files, but any involvement with the site was minimal. I watched though, always ready to hear about news of the Cure. I was REALLY happy when Craig decided to switch the format of the news to Blogger, but I don't think anyone really knew what that would mean for those of us that were fans of the site.

It began so slowly and grew so organically that would almost be hard to pinpoint when the comments on the blog began to take on a much greater meaning. The European shows were very time-offset compared to the US, so the catalyst was really when the Cure entered the US in May for the start of the US part of the tour. Each show setlist thread started to grow with commentary, and by the time that the 4-Tour reached Chicago, people from all around the world had started to tune in to the blog for the chance to chat with each other during the "live show" and comment on the set list as it arrived, and as the 4-Tour progressed, individual personalities began to emerge from the woodwork and interact with each other. Many of the people that would become important to my life later on in the year were those that I first met in the comments on the Chain of Flowers blog during the "show chats".

For our part, we started out with our original planned 2 dates to see them at Red Rocks and in Salt Lake City. We met the Cure just before their Salt Lake City show and I got my permanent autograph. We went to see them for the third time in 2008 in Sunrise, FL, and for the first time met some of the people that we had interacted with on the CoF blog.

Following the FL show, interacting with other people on CoF convinced and conspired to bring me to Madison Square Garden, where I recorded much of the soundcheck from an undisclosed location, then met a metric ton of Cure and CoF peeps and then got to the third row for an incredible show... and then thought that my Cure days for 2008 were done! The 4 Tour was officially over, and many of us that had met and interacted at shows and during the show chats were feeling a little, well, lost. So, the birth of the Meebo chat room was a direct result of the ending of the 4 Tour and the live show chats.

The rest of the summer and fall passed, mostly uneventfully, with the release of the rest of the singles and then the album release. I had passed the time by writing several Cure-related articles, and by designing another new teeshirt.

Then, on one otherwise uneventful evening in in November, it was less than two days before my 40th birthday when I got the news, the Cure were going to be taping shows in LA in December! I got the show tickets for the Carson Daly taping on Friday the 12th, and then when it was confirmed, we bought plane tix. However, we wouldn't be able to take enough time away to do the earlier show (Leno on Thursday the 11th) or the later taping (Jimmy Kimmel, on Monday the 15th) so I took a little bit of heat from my significant other over the idea that we were heading down to California for just one three-song concert. However, I asserted that since I was using the occasion as my 40th birthday present, it was my choice to go. Of course, this later turned out to be the best decision, like, ever, given that we just HAPPENED to be in LA for the now-legendary Secret Show at the Troubadour. And of course I got to give the Cure a batch of my Nightmare shirts and got a signed one back, (thank you so much forever, Keith!) but you can read about ALL of these adventures here, here and finally the actual 12:13 Dream show HERE.

The dust had barely begun to settle from the LA shows when the NME Awards were announced in London, and at first, I didn't even consider going. The economy was tanking, the holidays were just past, and everything was up in the air. The Coachella date wouldn't be announced until the end of January, and so it looked like the NME shows were the only game in town. Then more and more people were going, and the cost to go got smaller and smaller. Shared accommodation, shared transportation, meals at home, a week's pass for the Tube, reduced airfare due to the tanking economy and inexpensive show tickets sealed the deal, and before I knew it, I was spending a week in London. I got to see Tim Burton give Robert and the Cure the Godlike Geniuses award, and then stood at the front of the O2 Arena with 20,000 other people and a whole crowd of Cure peeps from all over the globe. Getting to see Stonehenge, Glastonbury, Bath, Avebury, Hyde Park, the Royal Albert Hall, Big Ben and scores of other sights with some of my favorite people on the planet just put the icing on the cake. These two shows marked the first time that I had ever traveled overseas for the Cure, and it was only due to the intense level of cooperation and coordination between a worldwide network of other fans that it even happened.

Speaking of Coachella, the Pearl show in Las Vegas just prior to the Coachella show had been announced while we were all in London for the O2 show, and you should have seen the panic when the US peeps realized that the announced ticket sale time was in the middle of the night in the UK! But of course we all took care of one another as we always do and eventually everyone had a ticket to what was hotly anticipated as the nearest thing to the Troubadour show that those who had missed it could imagine.

Somewhere in between the Troubadour show and deciding to actually go to London, I came up with the idea for the BOOK. Although the original plan was to give it to them at the NME awards, I think that the decision to wait and give it to them in April was the right one, as it really did allow a much greater level of participation and the end result was much more meaningful than it would have been, and I met so many amazing and wonderful fans through the project that it really took on a life of it's own.

So plans were made again and the fans converged on Las Vegas on one very warm weekend in April, and this time the reunion of the peeps was even more massive and heartwarming than the one before in London. Many CoF fans that had kept in touch via the Meebo chat were able to come together and for many, meet for the first time. We even managed to coordinate a group photo next to the Las Vegas sign! Although it was a disappointing ending that we now know was a bizarre fluke, the Pearl show rocked! And most of you know that story, as well as the incredible story of Coachella and some may have even read about the Belgian radio interview on Robert's 50th Birthday. The Other Voices book was successfully given to the Cure, and the hardcopy versions were created. Finally, on May 8th, 2009, the 30th anniversary of the release date of Three Imaginary Boys arrived.

And now sitting here in June of 2009, and looking back at those last 12 months, my heart is blown wide open with the amazingness of it all and how much everything has changed. I met the people that I've admired and loved for over a quarter of a century, in person, and have a permanent reminder of that day.

In the past 12 months I met more "diehard" Cure fans than I ever expected to meet. I've made some amazing friendships that I hope will be lifelong. Some of those are only now just beginning and others are deepening and becoming even more important, and there are even more people to meet and get to know better in the future.

I saw 10 shows in 12 months, and many of those have been with some of the most amazing people that I am now honored to call my friends. I've shared so many beautiful experiences with my wonderful husband, and had his solid support for those things that we could not share together.

And although these are not necessarily Cure-related, these events definitely added to the miraculous feel to the year. In August of 2008, I changed jobs to be in a much more supportive and appreciative environment. President Obama was elected in November of 2008, and later that month, I turned 40 years old. Over the week of Thanksgiving, we took our children on a family vacation and spent a week in the Florida Keys, where we were married in February of 2000 - it was the first time we had taken our children there. In April of 2009, I bought a VW Beetle, which has been my dream car for many years, and we took it on our big road trip to Vegas and Coachella.

Moving forward from now, I definitely consider the 12 months from May 2008 to May 2009 to be my Anuus Mirabilis, my most miraculous year to date. Thank you to the Cure for bringing us all together, and to everyone I've met and interacted with in the past year, thank you ALL for being the best Cure peeps on the planet!

Here are the blog posts that I've finished, there are several more to come, but it's going to be a little while until they are done, so I wanted to get this out sooner rather than later.

The Year of Miracles - 12 months - 10 shows

1. 4Tour - Red Rocks, Morrison, CO - Blog | Photos | Video

2. 4Tour - Salt Lake City, UT - Blog | Photos | Video

3. 4Tour - Sunrise, FL - Blog | Photos | Video

4. 4Tour - Madison Square Garden, NYC, NY Blog | Photos | Video

5. LA Shows - Carson Daly Show Taping, Burbank, CA - Blog | Photos | Video

6. LA Shows - Secret Show @ the Troubadour, W. Hollywood, CA - Blog 1, Blog 2 | Photos | Video

7. NME Awards - O2 Academy, Brixton, UK - Blog | Photos

8. NME Big Gig - O2 Arena, Greenwich, UK - Blog | Photos | Video

9. The Pearl Theater - Las Vegas, NV - Blog | Photos | Video

10. Coachella Festival- Indio, CA - Blog | Photos | Video

Happy 30th Anniversary to the Cure!

May 8th, 1979 - May 8th, 2009

Thirty years ago today, the album "Three Imaginary Boys" made it's official debut in the UK. These 13 tracks worth of burning philosophical angst, nervously jangly pop, and spare, shivering ballads marked the birth of the commercial and artistic entity that is The Cure. Certainly, there will be much written about this milestone in the coming months, so I won't attempt to distill all of the wonder that it encompasses here in this posting.

I just want to say that to me, the thing that makes The Cure so consistently amazing is that even after performing hundreds of concerts in the past thirty-odd years, witnessing how they can still close down a major festival with the same joyous punk ferocity first embodied in this album makes me proud to be a fan. Thank you again to Robert and the band for providing millions of people around the world a sense of coming home, a light through the darkness, and the best music we've ever heard. May you have many beautifully happy returns of this anniversary!

Other Voices - Print Version

Greetings Cure peeps! You will be happy to know that the printed version of the Other Voices book is now available to order from Blurb books!

The book is available in a large format, similar to the actual book dimensions, and also in a smaller and less expensive version in order to make it available and affordable to everyone.

I want to assure you again that I am not making any sort of profit from this book at all. The prices shown on the book pages are the base prices that Blurb charges for the actual production of the book, and have not been "marked up" in any way. The final book is missing 10 of the original pages due to the wishes of the individual authors. I have added a couple of pages at the end that contain some of the detail of the book and there is also a page with photos of the band playing onstage at the Pearl theater on the night they were given the original.

Again, I do not do any of the printing, shipping or order fulfillment for these books, they are from the Blurb print-on-demand service and Blurb will handle all of the transactions and customer service for the print books, so if you have any problems at all, please contact Blurb directly. We also plan to buy a few copies of the large format version to send to the band so that all of the members have a version of the book for themselves.

So, without further ado, please click one of the books below to be taken to the different size versions. Remember to click through to the Preview so you can get a sense of how it will look in person!

Large Format 11" x 13"












Medium Format 8" x 10"

Other Voices - Signed, sealed & delivered!

Those of you that have been watching the updates on Chain of Flowers know that the book was delivered to the band in Vegas. Here is the "official" story of the how and why and when, as well as the extenuating circumstances surrounding it.

When Friday, April 17th, 2009 dawned in Las Vegas, Nevada, those of us who were there for the concert were full of optimism that it would be a very special night, indeed. The Cure were in town for an intimate show at the Pearl Theater, and many CoF peeps had gathered from all corners of the globe. We spent the afternoon at the casino in front of the box office, socializing and pretending to gamble. I received two last-minute pages at the casino and took over the concierge desk at the Palms so that I could put them in the album and make sure that the book was in top form before giving it to the Cure.

Returning to the "line" near the box office, several people had asked to see the book, and so we pulled up some chairs and went through the book several times so that people could see their pages and the cover and other decorations. Many people commented on how much better the artwork pages looked in person, and I agree, it was hard to capture the real beauty of the pages of the book in photos, and I hope that can assure all of the contributors that the band will be very impressed at all of your dedication, all of the love you have for the Cure and their music was very evident in the pages that you sent in.

Many fans who were waiting at the box office got to meet Simon at one of the nearby bars, and if I had only known how the night was to end, I would have given the book to Simon, as I was one of the first fans to approach him that afternoon. Hindsight, as they say...

When the concert began, I had at least three separate avenues lined up to be able to connect with the band prior to or following the show, but as we all know, the concert did not end as expected. When the lights went up after "A Forest", I had a strong feeling that I should try to give it to them that night, in case something went wrong and they canceled their Coachella appearance. We weren't sure quite why the concert had ended early, and when the setlist with the encores on it was given out to those in the crowd, it confirmed to us that there was something going on. There was a lot of speculation that night about just what had happened, but in the heat of the moment, all that mattered to me was that it was my one chance that I was certain of to make sure that people that I trusted were able to take the book from me and deliver it to the band. So I handed it to Darren (Simon's guitar tech) as he was onstage breaking down the equipment, and he promised me at that time that he would give it to them. I confirmed through my contacts that the Cure were not receiving visitors backstage following the show at the Pearl.

When we were at Coachella on Sunday, I approached Darren after the show to confirm that they received it, and he assured me that he would give it to them at the soonest possible time. One of my contacts had also emailed a person connected to the band who confirmed on Monday morning that it had been given to Robert and the band. My original plan was to try to get a photo of the band with the book, but as we know now, Robert had injured himself at the Pearl, and it was not possible to do so.

So, will Robert or the band acknowledge the project somehow? Of course we would love him to do so, but most likely, he will not. Their own 30th anniversary celebrations must be getting underway, and of course with an injured hand he cannot type very well, so I think that we can be happy knowing that they have gotten it safely and that our messages have been signed, sealed and delivered. However, if I DO hear anything, I will be sure to let you all know!

Thank you again to all of the contributors and supporters for being a part of this amazing project. I am still doing the hard copy of the book and I will be announcing that here when they are ready to order, they will be available very soon.

P. S. - If you haven't yet heard the interviews with myself and Vicky, one of the contributors to the book on Studio Brussel, you can read about that here and also listen to the archived interviews. We were interviewed about the book and I was also asked about the Cure's set at Coachella.

Photo 1 courtesy of Caterpillargirl2
Photo 2 courtesy of Barb / Thistle
Photo 3 courtesy of Faithdesired

Studio Brussel Interviews

Thanks to Vicky from Belgium, I got a fantastic opportunity on the day of Robert Smith's 50th Birthday to be interviewed on Studio Brussel (part of the Belgium national radio station) regarding my experiences at Coachella and about the 30th Anniversary book. I will be posting more about that here soon, but for now you can read Vicky's translation of her interview (first posted at Curefans.com) and you can listen to both of our interviews on the archive pages from the radio station. Thank you again to Vicky for this great opportunity, I can't believe I got to say Happy Birthday to Robert on Belgium radio! What an exciting and fun way to celebrate!

More about my interview (added 4/28):

I woke up early on Tuesday, April 21st (which is to say, early for me, as I am an extreme night owl) after arriving home at nearly 3 am from the long trek driving home from Indio, CA. We had also had to make two stops on the way home to pick up our dog and our children, so it was a very long night from the night before, and we had not had very much sleep! When I awoke, I reached for my phone as I always do, and updated my email. There were two messages about the interview, and so I responded to them quickly from my laptop and then jumped into the shower to get ready to go to work. Almost before I could get dried off completely, I had a phone call from one of the people at Studio Brussel, who spoke to me for a moment about doing the interview, mainly just long enough to get my permission, and told me that I would recieve a call back. I was finishing up getting ready for work when I got the call back just a few minutes later. Bram was the interviewer, and he spoke to me for a few moments and then started to interview me. I admit that I did stumble on my words much more than usual, sorry Bram! But that's what happens when I have to do interview within 20 minutes of waking up, haha...

He started the interview by asking about Coachella and our experiences with attending the concert, and about seeing the plug be pulled on the Cure at the end of the night.

I also thought that the part with the "fuck" was funny too, even if I misquoted Robert. I didn't think they would play the full bit on air though! I remembered the "HA!" and the "fuck" clearly but it was only later that I got to hear it again and heard his actual comment.

After the Coachella part, Bram asked me to describe the book a little bit, and then thanked me for the interview and asked me what song I would like to request them to play at the end of the interview. Initially, I wanted to choose a song from 4:13 Dream in order to help promote their new album. He wanted me to pick a "deep cut", something that was more unusual and not very well known. So at first I said "The Hungry Ghost" or "Underneath the Stars" or "This. Here and Now. With You." would do fine. Then someone looked for the album and they came back and said that it was not in the studio, so I started trying to think of something else. I kind of doubted that they would have Bloodflowers too, and so I went a bit farther back in the catalog and chose "From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea". I warned him that it was a bit of a longer song, but he said it was fine, no worries. Aren't you glad I didn't say Never Enough? I also overused the word EPIC a bit too much, but it was less than 48 hours after the show itself so I was still a bit excited to have seen such a legendary concert. I was glad that I remembered to say Happy Birthday to Robert before they hung up with me, and that they also aired that part of the interview.

Once I was done with the interview, I went to work and started listening to the Studio Brussel internet stream. I wasn't sure when it would go on but Vicky helped me out a lot by letting me know when it would be coming up. I had also let Craig from Chain of Flowers know about the interview and a lot of our CoF peeps were able to listen in too. Even though I don't speak Dutch, I was very amused to hear my name and "superfan" in the same sentence.

Many thanks again to Vicky for letting me have this great chance, and also thanks to the kind people at Studio Brussel.

My Interview (click on cure-fan in bold type) Andy's MP3 download (thanks Andy!)

Vicky's Interview (click on ZIJ VERTELT in bold type)



The Translation (because almost nobody can understand Dutch) by Vicky

Sam: Vicky, sended a page for the anniversary book, I don't understand it very well so I goanne call her.
Sam: Vicky, Vicky ...Are you there?
Me: Good afternoon Sam.
Sam: Can you tell me more about that anniversary book?
Me: Yes, sure, it's not alone Robert's Birthday today, it's almost 30 years ago that there debutalbum came out. It was May 1979. Because of that fact, they descided in the US to make a fanbook and they asked all the fans arround the world to make a page for this book.

Sam: Oh so beautiful!
Me: Yes, they received arround 50 pages for that book, from everywhere in the world. From Australia, Russia, USA, and many more country's also Belgium.
Sam: And you are in that book?
Me: Yes, I have also a page, I've sended it also!
Sam: So YOU have a page in that great fanbook, THE Anniversary book for The Cure, THE Anniversary Book for Robert Smith!
Me: Yes, indeed, that's correct ! I've maded a page with Calligraphics. I put my thanks on it.
Sam: FANTASTIC!
Me: The book was given last Friday 17/04 in Las Vegas. The Cure was given there a show.
Sam: Send HE (RS) you an email to thank you?
Me: No we haven't received anything yet; who knows maby on the off. site from The Cure a word of thank ...Huh
The nice thing of the book is that it's goanne be published in a printed version. In two sizes, one like the original and one in an smaller format to make it possible for every person!
Sam: Really??
Sam: That's amazing good news !!!!!
I've hearded you are a HUGE fan from The Cure
Me: Ok if they say that, it's goanne be right. Ha. Others say it all the time so I guess it's correct.
Sam: You are celebrating this birthday of course but I've hearded you are also celebrating another Birthday?
Me: That's correct; It's also my husband's Birthday today. His 40th Birthday.
Sam: No, it's not truth, you choose him just for that!
Me: No it's pure coincidence!!
Sam: Yes, Yes, ... pure coincidence ??
Me: So by this, also my Birthday wishes to my husband of course!
Sam: Of course. Also a hip hip hoi for your husband! 40 years can also count ... difficult age ?? But 50 years is much heavier to wear! Still 10 Years to go!
Sam: Please your husband and turn a lot of Cure-Music
Me: Sure; I will do that! Can I say just one thing more ??
Sam: Go on you can tell it.
Me: To all the curefans out there. If you wanna now more about The Cure! Go and visit www.curefans.com. The meeting point for curefans worldwide. a great forum where you can find several things.
Sam: Congratulation about your page in the fanbook for Robert Smith. Have fun today! Bye
Me: Bye

So, I hope everyone can understand me now grin

Later at the evening the called Heron from the US about the Coachella show. She's also the creator of the book.

It was an special experience and I hope you all enjoying this.

Greetings,

Trust...

Other Voices - A Cure Fan Tribute

One week to go! As of today, Wednesday, April 8th, there is officially 1 week left before the pages have to be in. Remember that they have to reach me before the end of the day on April 15th, as we are leaving for Vegas early on the 16th and will not be here for the mail to arrive. Please note that from now forward, all of the pages will be put into the book based strictly on when they arrive in my mailbox. This change is due to the limited time remaining to finish the project and solidify the page numbering. The pages and promises of pages have both been arriving fast and furious, and I am thinking that it looks highly likely that we may have to do a second album for the overflow pages, but we shall see what the next 7 days bring!

There have been some interesting developments in the book project, and I'm really excited to share them with everyone! First, the book officially now has a name. As you may have guessed, I've titled it - Other Voices - A Cure Fan Tribute, which is a much more evocative name than
"30th Anniversary Book". The name was suggested by Sara / Shapes in a brainstorming session, and evokes all of the "voices" represented by all of the different pages and letters in the book.

Second, over the course of the project I have gotten some of the most amazing artwork and heartfelt, beautiful letters from everyone. I thought that there should be some way of preserving these gifts to the Cure, beyond a simple online slideshow. So I decided to create a real, hardcopy version of the book so that any of the contributors or other fans could have one for themselves. The book will be available in a large format, similar to the actual book, and also in a smaller and less expensive version in order to make it available and affordable to everyone.

You can preview the hardcopy book versions here:

Large format 11" x 13" http://www.blurb.com/books/631815 (Don't order these, preview only)
Med. format 8" x 10" http://www.blurb.com/books/631834

I want to assure you right now that I am not making any sort of profit from this book at all. The prices shown on the book pages are the base prices that Blurb charges for the actual production of the book, and have not been "marked up" in any way. The contributors to the book have been asked to sign a publication release, and so the final book may or may not contain all of the pages seen in the online album, based on the individual contributors' wishes.

Once the book has been completed with all of the pages and has been given to the Cure, I will send out an announcement stating that the book is ready to order. Again, I do not do any of the printing, shipping or order fulfillment for these books, they are from the Blurb print-on-demand service and the company there will handle all of the transactions.

Thanks again to all of the awesome Cure fans that have sent in their pages. You have all made this project a joy to work on, and Iam sure that the band will appreciate all of your letters.

My page for the 30th Anniversary Book

Here's the story behind this design:

I wanted to do a painting of the night sky as it was over Crawley on the date that the first album was released (Three Imaginary Boys) on May 8th, 1979. This date is the one listed on the Cure's website as the release date for their album, so in essence it is the official "start" of the band, as the first album released from a major label. I was trying to come up with something that would represent The Cure in all of their incarnations, as there were so many people involved with the band over the years that contributed to their sound and success.

So I went back to the beginning, not just the beginning as the date but the beginning as in the geographic location. I imagined the Cure coming out of some pub or house in Crawley after the celebration of their first album release and looking up at the night sky, what would they have seen? Could they even have imagined at that moment in time what their future would hold, and that their career would span over three decades and take them all around the world, gathering millions of fans in the process? I wonder if they even had a glimpse of what was to come, all those years ago.

The subject of the painting also ties in with Robert's deep interest in astronomy and science, as well as my own interest in astronomy and in the implications of a specific time, date and location.

The first time I did this painting, it was just a depiction of the night sky over a much more generic looking rolling hills countryside. I decided it wasn't distinctive enough to be immediately recognizable, and so I went and did some research.

First I had to find a good photo of Crawley's High Street and a building that was recognizably from that street. Once I decided which building I wanted in the painting, (which turned out to be the Gainsborough House) I then had to figure out which direction you were looking at in the photo. Google Earth was a huge help in this process.

Finally, I had to see what constellations would have been showing if you stood in that location and looked up at the sky at that precise date and time. I chose 11 pm because it would have been reasonably dark at that time, being that the sunset would have been near 8 pm.

The border contains the names of the constellations (although Cameleopardalis is spelled wrong), and the moons along the sides show two phases of the moon, crescent and gibbous in both waxing and waning phases. The constellation lines and the stars on the border are both rendered in gold foil, everything else is either watercolor or ink. Very geeky, yes, but how could it be otherwise? :D

I started by measuring out and sketching in the main elements of the picture.





Then I painted the buildings and the main wash over the sky and started on the detail elements. Finally, I did the gold leafing on the constellations and the border stars. The painting was finished with a clear coat over the gold constellations and then placed in the book after a little while under some heavy books to flatten it out.

Countdown to Coachella!

Greetings Cure fans and Cure friends! I just wanted to give you a gentle reminder that today, March 25th is exactly three weeks before the pages are due on Weds. April 15th for the 30th Anniversary Book!

So, you officially have 21 days from today to finish your pages and quit procrastinating sending them in to me! Get off the sofa, find an envelope and a bit of stiff cardboard and send that puppy onward! Yes, it is best if you actually mail them to me ahead of time so that the final pages don't end up in a last minute hack job down in Vegas or Indio. *You* want your pages to look good for Robert and the guys, and *I* want your pages to look good for Robert and the guys, so please get them in well before the deadline so that they will be put in with all the loving care that they deserve. Not that they won't be put in with loving care anyway, but it is much harder to do things at the last moment, and should your page present a unique mounting problem, it would be best to be able to resolve it at leisure.

I also wanted to give everyone an update on the status of the book as of right now. I have received 31 beautiful, amazing pages filled with heartfelt emotion and love! Thanks again to all of the contributors to the book for sending a little piece of you to go in the book.

Given that the actual album only holds 50 pages total, it is well over halfway full, with several more pages promised as of this writing, I've been asked several times "What happens if you get more than 50 pages?" and that's a good question! The answer is that if we get closer to the date and it looks like the album will be full up, I will buy a secondary album to mount the pages in, and decorate it in a similar way to the first one. All the pages sent in will be treated with the loving care and respect that they deserve. Obviously I won't be able to spend as much time on it as I did the first one, but all the pages will go in a book. And honestly, I think that would be a great "problem" to have!

The book now has a case! My sweet husband is very skilled at the art of the sewing machine (he used to make those big funky hats in the 1990's) and his contribution to the book project was to help out with making the case. The case is made with a very nice high quality black velvet fabric and has two black velvet ribbons that are the ties. I hope to be able to decorate the case with some gold metallic embroidered ornamentation soon.

I created a set on my flickr for the "detail" photos of the book and it's creation. In this set you can see how pages are actually mounted in the book and also more details about the cover and case. I made a second set in order to avoid cluttering the "virtual book" with detail photos.

As always, see the original announcement about the project here if you still need my mailing address, page specifications or dimensions or any other information.

Finally, here's the slideshow from the "details" flickr set:

30th Anniversary Book - ANNOUNCEMENT!

I sincerely hope that this announcement won't upset anyone, and I very much apologize in advance to anyone who spent extra $ or stress to get their page here before the original deadline. After a bit of thought about it (and after receiving *numerous* emails about the upcoming deadline for pages over the past few days) it has occurred to me that it would make vastly more sense to give the Cure their book at the Coachella event at the end of April. This would accomplish several good things at one time, so please bear with me as I enumerate the most important of them.

1. The Coachella date of April 19th, 2009 is actually much, much closer to the actual 30th Anniversary date of May 8, 1979 (which is the date when Three Imaginary Boys was released) and I believe is what the band are using as their actual official anniversary date. In fact, the Coachella show is just under 3 weeks before this date. Not to mention that it is also extremely close to Robert's 50th birthday.

2. Moving the "delivery" date to the middle of April will not only relieve the pressure of those who wanted to participate but just did not have the time, it will allow for those who haven't yet heard of the book to participate as well.

3. Anyone who felt that their page was "rushed" out has a chance to re-do it if need be, and anyone who was freaking out trying to figure out how to get me their page by the end of next week can relax! :D

At the time that the book project was conceived, the London dates were the only ones that were announced, so that's why the plan to give them the book at the O2 shows started there. However, now that we have a show date which is much closer to the actual anniversary, I think that it makes the most sense to give it to them there. I hope that you will understand my reasoning and most importantly, help me to spread the word about the rescheduling. I appreciate all of your interest and passion about this project, and I think you'll agree that we will end up with a much richer and more comprehensive book by putting it off, even by a mere 60 days.

So that being said, the official new due date for pages is (are you ready for this?) April 15th! Yes, just like the tax due date. 60 days from now is April 15th, so do your taxes, and THEN do your page! And mail it to me so it will get there before the 15th! Anyone who was planning on delivering their page to me in London may still do so! Everyone else, take a deep breath and relax. :D

See the original project post about the 30th Anniversary Book HERE for all of the details about how to participate.

Happy 30th Anniversary Book

Other Voices - A Cure Fan Tribute

This project began in January of 2009 as a way to thank the Cure for 30 years' worth of music, magic and memories. Fans were asked to contribute artwork, thoughts or congratulations to the band, and to make a page to be put in the book. People from all around the globe responded to the call, and began to create beautiful, heartfelt and amazing works of art. The original book was given to the Cure at the Las Vegas, NV show on April 17th, 2009 at the Pearl Theater in the Palms Casino. (Update 12/11 - All currently active Cure members and Lol now have copies of the book!)

This digital copy of the book is meant as a way for the participants in the project to have a digital memory of their hard work and dedication, and for other fans to be able to celebrate this milestone as well. Many thanks go to all of the contributors for your endless support and kind generosity during the creation of Other Voices.

Congratulations to the Cure for their amazing accomplishment of 30 years of transcendent music!

I received 53 pages for the book! You can see almost all of them in the slideshow below . Some of the page authors have opted not to share their pages in the online copy. To those that have given me their thoughts, wishes, awesome artwork and genuine heartfelt communication, THANK YOU for participating in this project and making it a worthwhile endeavor! It's been so amazing to see what everyone has come up with for the book and it is such an honor to be able to give them to The Cure.



Here is a list of posts relating to the Other Voices - 30th Anniversary Book.
Original announcement and instructions (originally here, now archived in a separate post)
Change of date announcement
Countdown to Coachella
My page in the book
Other Voices - A Cure Fan Tribute (the project gets a name!)
Interviews on Studio Brussel (a celebration of Robert's 50th Birthday)
Other Voices - Signed, Sealed & Delivered!
Other Voices, now in print! 
Other Voices - Cure Members' Copies - Delivered!

The Cure for Love

In honor of the 20th wedding anniversary of Robert Smith and Mary Poole Smith, this post is all about the love songs of the Cure.

Robert and Mary were married on August 13th, 1988 at Worth Abbey near Crawley. It was a very private affair, and journalists were banned from covering the ceremony. In the book "Never Enough, the story of the Cure" by Jeff Apter, Robert is quoted as saying that the wedding was an excuse to have "a nice day so that Mary could walk down the aisle in a white dress and we could have all the aunties and uncles there". Now, 20 years later, that nice day has turned into a legendary moment in time.

Robert famously penned his most successful hit "Lovesong" as a wedding present for Mary, and it was subsequently released on the album Disintegration, to widespread acclaim. "Lovesong" went on to become the Cure's highest-charting US single to date, although many of their other love songs have reached great popularity as well, such as 1987's chart-topper "Just Like Heaven" and the cheery mood swing captured in "Friday I'm In Love" from 1992.

Although the Cure's music has often been labeled as depressing, morose or aloof, there are a multitude of songs which can be easily classed as outright love songs. We do not have access to Robert in order to confirm the inspiration for all of these songs, but it is easy to imagine that many of them are inspired by his love for his lifelong soul mate and partner, Mary. From the light and optimistic lyrics of "Mint Car" to the complex emotions contained in "Same Deep Water as You", the thirteen visions of love presented here are a celebration of their inspiring, life-long love affair.

Starting out with the as-yet-unreleased track "Underneath the Stars", this song, with lyrics about floating with your lover and looking up at the stars as the waves of the ocean break nearby is considered by many fans to be one of the finest of the tracks from the forthcoming album, and by some, to be one of the best Cure songs ever written. In a poll taken during the 4Tour of the summer of 2008 on the website "A Chain of Flowers" blog, this song garnered so many votes (ending at over 48% of the votes) that a new poll was released, saying: "BESIDES Underneath the Stars, which new song is your favorite?". A reading of many of the lyrics to these love songs shows that for Robert, romantic love is very intertwined with his love of the ocean and stars, as well as water in general, and these themes are grandly displayed in the soaring, emotive poetry and music of "Underneath the Stars".

download this track here >

As a B-side to one of the most popular Cure love songs, the 1987 single "Just Like Heaven", which has been called by Robert "the most perfect pop song" he ever wrote, the song "Snow in Summer" has garnered little attention in the intervening years. However, the playful sensuality of the song has long been a personal favorite of mine. It's companion B-side, the well-known track "Sugar Girl", is a sparkling little gem of a love song as well, but to me, the "Snow in Summer" track is a lusty vignette of a summer afternoon spent in the mountains with a lover, as expressed in the lyric "Sleek and deep, And salty sweet, You come, And close in me, Just like the snow in summer".

download this track here >

The same era that brought us "Just Like Heaven" also produced popular single "Why Can't I Be You", which shows us a person so in love with their partner that they wish to merge with them, a theme often explored elsewhere in love songs the world over. A giddy, over-the-top song notable for its video filled with amusing double-entendres and the Cure dancing in choreographed, costumed unison, it embodies the optimistic side of love where you feel that your partner can do no wrong. In live shows, the song was often used to incorporate lyrics from sources as diverse as the Disney film the Aristocats and the Frank Sinatra song "Young at Heart", thus serving as a very early version of the current mash-up fad.

download this track here >

Moving to present a more mature version of love, the Bloodflowers track "There is no if" shows us a couple who has been together since they were young, and the evolution of their love as it has gone through a transition from the first heady flush of young love to the steady, quiet and bittersweet reminiscences of adults. The simple lyric "If you die" you said, "So do I" you said is repeated in both instances of the story, but takes on different meanings, on one hand inducing tears of joy, and on the other, tears of the pain of the understanding of mortality.

download this track here >

Our next track, "Mint Car" is a happy romp through a day full of joy and abundant sunshine, a day where anything is possible. Starting out with the lyric "The sun is up, I'm so happy I could scream", this song is a cheery picture of exuberant, youthful optimism and love. This often-overlooked track from 1996's Wild Mood Swings initially charted as high as #14 on the US Modern Rock Tracks listing, showing that the fans appreciate a happy pop love song as much as they do a more solemn one.

download this track here >

The collaboration of Junkie XL and Robert Smith on the song "Perfect Blue Sky" is included as an example of how the songwriting talent of Robert is not limited to Cure songs, and as a demonstration again of the "vignette" style of song writing that he utilizes to perfection when writing a love song. In this song, we are invited to imagine ourselves standing "hand in hand under a perfect blue sky" with our loved one. The most successful love songs are those that allow the listener to feel the emotions of the singer, and put themselves "in the picture" of the songs, and the lyrics here are a wonderful example of this skill.

download this track here >

As the arguably best-known and most popular love song from the Cure, "Lovesong" as has been noted before, was written by Robert as a wedding present for Mary in the summer of 1988. A simple, accessible and straightforward song professing his love for her, "Lovesong" has become a romantic staple among Cure fans and non-fans alike. I have heard of several couples who became engaged while this song was being played during a Cure concert, and I am certain that countless dates, weddings and engagement parties have been enhanced by the song as well.

download this track here >

A Wish-era love song, "From The Edge of the Deep Green Sea" is a complex, layered ballad exploring the themes of love, loss and yearning, and effectively displays the extreme emotional depths so common in Cure lyrics. Like "Underneath the Stars", it builds on the story of lovers alone at the edge of the ocean that is woven through so many Cure love songs, but here the feeling is poignant and intense, without the confident maturity of the latter. The driving guitar chords intensify the meaning behind the lyrics and increases the sense of "distance within closeness" that characterizes the song. An intimate look at the multifaceted relationship between lovers, this song is a perennial live concert favorite of the fans and the band alike.

download this track here >

From the same time frame, and yet vastly different in feel and intensity, "Friday I'm In Love" hit #1 on the US Modern Rock Chart and was a Top 40 mainstream single as well. Although at a passing glance, it would seem to be a simple, fluffy love song, the lyrics actually display an interesting sense of ambivalence that tends to get lost on more casual listeners. Lyrics such as "Thursday I don't care about you, It's Friday I'm in love" seem to be an almost callous dismissal of the lover's feelings for his object of affection, however in the later part of the song, the callousness is cast aside in favor of the affectionate lyrics remarking on the gorgeousness of seeing "you eat in the middle of the night". Again, more complex emotions are displayed, and "Friday I'm In Love" could almost be seen as the classic example of a "love-hate" relationship.

download this track here >

In the box set booklet for Join the Dots, Robert describes the song "This Twilight Garden" as "one of the best love songs we've ever done", and as an attempt to distill the feeling of being in a beautiful garden at twilight in the summertime with the one you love. He masterfully captures the visual poetry of such a night in lines like these:

"I lift my lips from kissing you
And kiss the sky wide deepest blue
And slow the moon swims up
Into your golden words for me"

making it a staple on the playlists of amorously-inclined fans everywhere.

download this track here >

Another mood shift, and a return to the dramatic, majestic album Disintegration, "Same Deep Water as You" is a heart-wrenching exploration of love and despair, and became an instant classic "dark" love song when it was released. In this song, the lover is desperately trying to connect with his soul mate, and despairing that he cannot swim to the same depths as she. The nearly-abstract quality of the lyrics present moments that slip away as soon as they are grasped, and beautifully illustrate how difficult it can be to distill powerful emotional moments into words.

download this track here >

Returning to 1992, and the B-side to "Friday I'm In Love", "Halo" is a perfect Cure love song, suffused with delight and wonder and celebrating the brief and yet ecstatic moments when everything is perfect, where love is buoyant and there is only happiness. "Halo" replaces the ambiguity and callousness of the A-side track with bubbly, effervescent affection. It's a champagne glass full of sweet sips of devotion and tenderness, captured in song format.

download this track here >

Rounding out our album's worth of Cure love, the final track and first single from the Cure's forthcoming album, "The Only One" is a somewhat explicit ode to the physical side of love as he enumerates the many ways in which his lover pleases him. Never terribly shy about recounting his love relationship, as we saw in the lyrics to "Snow in Summer", here Robert lays all of his cards on the table, so to speak, and lets us know in no uncertain terms what he really likes!
A song that is certain to have male and female fans alike singing along, albeit for slightly different reasons, "The Only One" is a melodic and straightforward accounting, literally from the top down, of what goes on behind closed doors.

don't download this! Buy the single! >

I hope you enjoyed this little trek through some of the love songs of the Cure, and that you'll join me in wishing Robert and Mary a VERY happy 20th anniversary! May they love each other eternally, and may Robert keep writing songs inspired by their amazing relationship.