from Cure News 20
On Sunday 11th of October The Cure played a very secret gig in London at the Forum, Kentish Town. Not even the Venue staff, band's families or friends knew anything about it! I was very very lucky to be invited the evening before the concert and I had no idea until the curtain dropped to the opening chords of 'Shake Dog Shake' what was really happening. The whole concert was organised by the American beer company Miller, who had asked The Cure to play their "blind date" gig in London with Hole as opening act. There were about 500 Miller competition winners (flown in from America), a small number from the U.K. along with Journalists and Miller representatives. I managed to get right down the front and watch from close quarters, I thought the band put on a brilliant show. It was nice to be reminded that they can play some perfect pop songs!
The Secret Set List was:- Shake Dog Shake, Fascination Street, A Night Like This, A Hundred Years, Trust, Just Like heaven, Lullaby, Close To Me, Wrong Number, Never Enough, In Between Days, From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea, Shiver And Shake, Disintegration, Love Song, Let's Go To Bed, Why Can't I Be You ?, Boys Don't Cry, Friday I'm In Love, 10.15 saturday night, Killing An Arab.
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ahh... the miller gig...
not the sort of thing the band normally do but after hearing about who else had done it - david bowie, chemical brothers, garbage, the chilli peppers - we all gave it a bit more thought... although we were in the studio and hard at work on the album, the band thought it would be good to get into playing a live show to help some of the album performances... so they said yes! the main thing about this gig was the secrecy - the performance was conditional on nobody knowing about it, and we managed to keep all the leaks plugged for a change! no easy task... as we were in the studio, getting everybody together wasn't a problem, and after a few phone calls to 'the summer festivals crew', we had all the essential people in place... the gig was only confirmed two weeks before we did it, so it was all a bit frantic... as time is precious in the studio, the band allowed themselves only the saturday before the gig for a quick 'run through', and luckily they hadn't forgotten too many of the songs! as they were going to be playing to an audience who might not have a clue who the cure were, the band decided to stick to a pretty 'straightforward' set list... as it turned out the crowd did know who the cure were, apart from an old couple in the front row who i lip read saying " who the f**k are these guys?"!!! so up to london to do the gig... it was held at the forum in kentish town which normally holds about 2000 people, but had been 'dressed' for 1000... we had an hour soundcheck to make sure everything worked alright (it did!), and then went back to the hotel to eat and drink... by this time some of the band were getting a bit nervous; it's one thing playing in front of an audience who have payed to see you, but when they are competition winners, completely drunk on free miller beer and have no clue who they are going to see, it's pretty scary... the band finally went on stage behind a curtain and when they hit the first chord of 'shake dog shake' the curtain thankfully went up! everybody wasx more than happy it was the cure, apart from the few english journalists... and it was one of the best shows the band have ever played, very emotional and powerful... after the show we were committed to talking to journalists from all over the world, and it turned out to be fun - meeting up with old friends like richard blade from kroq in la, and the people from sonicnet who used to host our web site...
all in all it was an excellent experience and it helped in the making of the album... so thanks miller!
