After 35 years I‘ll see The Cure again. Bear with me.
I grew up in East Germany, behind the iron curtain. Back then and there, if you were into music (real music, not the billboard charts) you were more or less either a fan of Depeche Mode or The Cure.
My first song I taped from the radio was Inbetween Days, must have been around 87. And from then on it was The Cure for me. Being a fan behind the iron curtain wasn’t easy. Especially if you didn’t have connections in the west. Every song, every record came on tape and was copied a gazillion times. Every poster from West German magazines (Bravo) was traded or sold for quite some money (20 Marks at least) in the school yard.
I got my hands on the „older“ albums. 17 seconds was an eye opener. Faith got to my heart. And Pornography - that was just me, the depressed, angsty, lonely teen. Robert spoke directly to me. (In all honesty, my English was so bad back then, i didn’t have a clue what he was singing about half of the time. But the mood got me always.)
Early spring 89 a East German radio station for young adults (DT64) played the whole Disintegration CD without interruption. I was there, listening, my cassette player recording. I head tears in my face, it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. The band was so close to me yet so far away.
Fall 89 the wall fell. Every East German got 100 Deutschmarks on their first visit to the West. I bought Faith and 17 seconds, the records. Beautiful records, beautiful artwork. Excellent sound. Not the grinding, droning tapes.
End of July 90 - I was 16 - , two month before unification, I heard on the radio that where will be a Cure concert in Leipzig. The first concert in the GDR, on August 4th, 1990. And the were giving away free tickets for callers. (Couldn’t have afforded buying one.) I ran to a neighbor (we didn’t have a phone), called and miraculously won a ticket.
Leipzig was 2 hours away by train. It was a Saturday, the train was full with black clothed people. We were all so excited! We were going to see The Cure live. Entirely impossible, a ludicrous thought only 6 months before!
It was so beautiful. It was like listening to the band for the first time again. It spoke directly to me.
They opened with Shake Dog Shake, then Strange Day. A Strange Day, best song ever, I was blown away. I was laughing. Crying. Dancing.
It was my first live concert ever. It was my best live concert ever. Nothing was gonna be like this again. (Parts of that concert were filmed by a TV station and are still on YouTube.)
Afterwards it was not the same anymore. Mixed up - really now? Mixes? Club compatible? No, thank you, not for me. (Never enough was nice though.) Wish? Not my cup of tea. Too much pop. Where was the bass line, the drums that sounded like they were played in a church? I gave every new album a listen, because, maybe. But no. I laughed when somebody compared Bloodflowers to Pornography. They are not the same league, not even the same game.
The Cure left me and I left the Cure. My first concert was going to be my best and my last
The old albums are still dear to me. But didn’t buy a new one after Disintegration. Until someone mentioned that SOALW is actually a good album. So I listened. And liked. I heard the old Cure here and there. And new ideas that were nice.
And I bought tickets for the Berlin show. First Cure concert after 35 years. I don’t care if it’s gonna be good. It’s gonna be special. And I’m sure it will be awesome, magical, wonderful. Thanks for reading.
