What follows is part social commentary, part mental health awareness and part gig review…
Life’s Rich Tapestry
Friday the 16th of August was a stitching together of several threads of the complex tapestry that makes up life.
I’m sure I’m not alone in having a job that, for the most part you enjoy and get an element of satisfaction from what you do, however, it can be also infuriatingly frustrating and stressful. One that involves weeks where you put in hours of extra effort that involves massive inroads into your personal life. But you do it because it is who you are, you are the type of person who want to do a good job and have a dedication to doing the best you can. At some point though, you wonder why you bother. You reach the end of your tether…
Add to this the fact that I recently had to admit to my wife that mentally I am struggling again. A fact that hadn’t gone un-noticed as it had started impacting those I love around me. A couple of months ago I was pleased with myself as came off all anti-depressant medication having reduced this over time. The first time I had been “drug-free” for as long as I can remember. The combination of this and the stress at work meant by the time I got to Thursday this week I was ready to jack it all in and tell the whole world to fuck off.
Why am I telling you this? The difference between now and the past is that I can! I’m not ashamed, or embarrassed, I’m not afraid. Simple as that. I can appreciate now, It isn’t a sign of weakness, it is a matter of facing up to reality. Talking about it brings it out in the open and makes it less scary. No-one should be embarrassed about their struggles with mental health, if one person reading this has mental health issues and talks to someone about it, great. A friend made a valid point after messaging me recently, if someone who suffers with asthma uses medication to control this, no-one would bat an eyelid. It is the norm. So, it should be with your mental health.
I Got the Poison, you got the Remedy?
Punnily enough for me this week, The Cure came at just the right time.
I had made the decision nothing was going to bother me after I eventually left work on Friday. I promised myself I was going to enjoy every single moment. And I kept to that promise.
Tackling the elephant in the room. Despite what loads of people might say, the weather and the site weren’t an issue. Well they might have been if you wanted them to be, if you made them an issue…It had rained all week, it was an outdoor gig in the Glasgow “Summer” time – if people weren’t expecting mud then they were severely blinkered. No-one forced anyone to go. If you were dressed appropriately, it was fine. I did see several, what might once have been, lovely white trainers that I imagine may be deposited in the bin this morning…
Yes, there were queues at the bars, there always are, and yes, while there were many of them, they could probably have done with more taps and have the beers poured and ready to go, but all I saw was camaraderie & good humour from people in the queues, I witnessed no trouble or disgruntled punters.
I was still in a queue at the start of the Cure, but I had a perfect view and the sound was amazing so no issues for me there either. The bar staff were all smiling despite them having to wait for pints being poured to hand over to the punters. I’ve never seen a reaction like I did last night from a young bar man when I told him to keep the change. My smile was getting wider by the minute.
Mogwai were just taking to the stage when we arrived, and they didn’t disappoint. If I was to make one observation it would be that to get the real Mogwai effect they really need to be playing when it is dark, their brooding menacing sound, a perfect match to the dark.
A short burst of rain pleased my brother who had come dressed for a trek to the arctic, meaning his jacket was warranted – for 5 minutes. It also meant I wasn’t the ginger quiff for the remainder of the night, I became the grey bunnet…
The Cure…
From then on, it was a clear run for the rest of the night. Having watched the Cure set from Glastonbury, I knew we were in for a treat, but as ever, the TV doesn’t fully do it justice. What we experienced was something I don’t think I will see repeated at an outdoor gig of this scale.
First up, the sound was phenomenal. Smith’s vocal was crisp and clear as it filled the night sky and the band sounded immense. Kudos to the sound engineers, they should be giving themselves a collective pat on the back. I have never been to an outdoor gig before where the sound was as good as that.
The band were on top form, a perfect set. I’m not sure if anything could have improved it. The musicianship was impeccable, the choice of songs inspired. A special shout out to the thunderous bass from Simon Gallup. The back catalogue they have built up and can choose from is burgeoning, full of epic soaring anthems, along with their fair share of addictively catchy pop songs. Something to please everyone.
The music speaks for itself; they don’t need gimmicks to make their show compulsively alluring, but a word must be said about the set up. The light show was magnificent, the large screens side-stage so clear that you didn’t feel you were missing out if you weren’t close to the stage, and the images projected to the rear of the stage added to the atmosphere of songs like A Forest.
So, what of the set? Just writing about it doesn’t do it justice. A solid 135 minutes, 27 songs. Any other band would have been happy to play the set they achieved in the first hour and the crowd would have gone away satisfied. But this is The Cure, they don’t do things by halves. I’ve been to some gigs where after an hour I’ve looked at my watch several times wondering when it would end. Last night I looked at my watch and couldn’t believe an hour had passed already!
What about highlights? I could just write a list of the 27 songs and that would be that. There were no low points. If you were to bend my arm up my back and force me to pick a few…
The opening duo of Plainsong & Pictures of Me, despite me still being in the queue for the bar, had me grinning ear to ear. I hadn’t seen the band live since 1992 and here they were again, finally. I don’t know if it was the culmination of everything that had gone on in the previous weeks, but I felt close to tears.
Damn, I do just want to list all the songs, the set was highlight after highlight, but I won’t. Fascination Street was, well, fascinating. The intro to Push was out of this world, gobsmackingly good. Two of my favourite Cure albums represented right there.
Talking of favourites, my all-time favourite Cure song is Play for Today so when I heard the opening strains of that, you can imagine my joy. And to follow that with an intensely atmospheric A Forest. Bliss.
Ending the main set with Disintegration, I was totally lost in the moment, while surrounded by a cast of thousands, I was in a world of my own. Interestingly, the man of few words, Smith said something similar when he came back on to play their encore. Tonight was one of these moments.
Encore
And what an encore. From one crawling creature to another, they kicked off with Lullaby and The Caterpillar, before the familiar keyboard sound of The Walk filled the air.
Follow that. They did with possibly the poppiest moment of their career the delightful Friday I’m in Love.
It was like it was written for my week…”I don’t care if Monday’s blue, Tuesday’s grey and Wednesday too…” This Friday, I’m most definitely in love – with life and I’ve fallen in love all over again with The Cure. I did try bouncing several times, but my boots were stuck in the mud.
A triumvirate of hits to finish the set, an exquisite Close to Me, with the significant lyrics “I’ve waited hours for this, I’ve made myself so sick, I wish I’d stayed asleep today, I never thought this day would end, I never thought tonight could ever be, this close to me“ Then the wonderful Why Can’t I be You? And of course, what else but the effervescent Boy’s Don’t Cry to finish.
This boy nearly did.
Robert Smith seemed quite touched at the end, apologising and questioning why they hadn’t played for 27 years and thanking the bands and the audience for making it a memorable evening. Even walking back on after he’d left the stage to thanks us all over again. Maybe next time we won’t have to wait so long.
The Cure – if not the actual solution, they were certainly a welcome remedy, a tonic that cannot be prescribed. Smith may have waited hours for this, but I waited 27 years. Was it worth it? Was it ever.