The Cure Wow Fans at Reading + Leeds Festival 2012

Electric Picnic headliners The Cure blasted out a generally crowd-pleasing set at the Reading + Leeds Festival 2012 on Friday last, 24th August, with a massive 150 minute selection of Cure classics (and a few surprises) which dipped it's toe into pretty much each of their 13 studio album back catalogue.

The Cure, formed in 1976, first played the Reading Festival in 1979. Fronted by enigmatic Robert Smith, The Cure have passed through many line-up changes over the years, with the current band featuring Simon Gallup on bass (who has been almost ever present throughout the 36 year history), Roger O'Donnell on keys (a few stints with the group late 80s-90s / mid 90s), drummer Jason Cooper (joining The Cure in 1995 after the departure of Boris Williams) and "newbie" Reeves Gabrels on guitar - famous for playing with numerous acts over the years including David Bowie & Tin Machine. The debate still rages on as to which is the classic line-up, nonetheless the current line-up did a pretty decent job, with Smith's vocals still sounding very strong.

Kicking off with "Open", "High" and "The End of the World" - the 90,000 odd crowd lit up with the Disintegration classic "Lovesong" making a much welcomed appearance. The set heavily featured the last 5 Cure albums (Wish (1992) / Wild Mood Swings (1996) / Bloodflowers (2000) / The Cure (2004) / 4:13 Dream (2008)) alongside a selection of older works - some expected ("In Between Days" / "Just Like Heaven") alongside some unusual pieces ("Bananafishbones" / "Just One Kiss" - the first ever UK performance of the flip side to the 1982 "Let's Go To Bed" single).

The setlist for the Reading gig was almost identical to the setlist used when The Cure performed the Roskilde Festival at the beginning of July; Reading featuring an encore that included "Why Can't I Be You?", "Close to Me", "The Lovecats" and finishing on "Boys Don't Cry" with Roskilde featuring a massive 3 encores, again finishing on "Boy's Don't Cry". It wouldn't be a massive stretch to look forward to a very similar setlist this coming Saturday at EP!

Full Reading & Leeds Festival 2012 Setlist

Open
High
The End of the World
Lovesong
Sleep When I'm Dead
Push
In Between Days
Just Like Heaven
Pictures of You
Lullaby
The Caterpillar
The Walk
Friday I'm in Love
Doing the Unstuck
Trust
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
Bananafishbones
Play for Today
A Forest
Primary
Want
The Hungry Ghost
Wrong Number
One Hundred Years
End