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!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
