The Cure launched their long-awaited new album with two intimate concerts on Wednesday (30.10.24).
The band will release ‘Song of a Lost World’ on Friday (01.11.24) and played songs from the record, together with fan favourites, at the iconic BBC Radio Theatre.
The first set, recorded for Huw Stephens’ 6 Music show on Thursday (31.10.24) featured new tracks ‘And Nothing Is Forever’, ‘I Can Never Say Goodbye’ and ‘All I Ever Am’, alongside ‘Last Dance’, ‘Plainsong’, ‘Prayers for Rain’, ‘Disintegration’, ‘A Forest’, ‘At Night’ and ‘Burn’.
For the second set, around 200 competition winners who had entered a ballot along with tens of thousands of other fans, filed into the intimate venue alongside a small number of invited guests including Elbow’s Guy Garvey, Louis Theroux, Nick Grimshaw, Jeremy Vine and Shaun Keaveny for the ‘Radio 2 In Concert’ series, hosted by Jo Whiley.
Frontman Robert Smith joked they were playing something “more upbeat” for BBC Radio 2, and new tracks ‘A Fragile Thing’, ‘Alone’ and ‘Endsong’ were mixed in with a set of crowd pleasers that included ‘Pictures Of You’, ‘Lovesong’, ‘The Walk’, ‘Lullaby’, ‘In Between Days’ and ‘Just Like Heaven’.
If that wasn’t enough, the group then returned to the stage for an encore recorded for the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show, treating fans to ‘Lullaby’, ‘Close To Me’ and ‘Why Can’t I Be You?’.
Introducing ‘Friday I’m in Love’, the 65-year-old frontman quipped that “something bad always happens” if the band play the track on a day that isn’t a Friday.
On 6 Music and BBC Sounds,’ 6 Music Session: The Cure Live’, will be broadcast during Huw Stephens’ show between 4-7pm on Thursday, alongside an interview with the singer from 5.30pm.
Later in the evening, ‘The Cure’s Radio 2 In Concert’ will be broadcast during Jo Whiley’s show on Radio 2 and BBC Sounds (7-9pm), along with her interview with Robert at around 8pm.
That’s not all, as on Friday (01.11.24), Zoe Ball’s breakfast show will feature some exclusive tracks from the recording.
In addition, The Cure’s Radio 2 In Concert and 6 Music performances will also be available in vision on BBC iPlayer from 8pm and 6pm respectively on Thursday and on demand for 30 days.
BBC Two are going all out for The Cure fans on Saturday (02.11.24) as they will air a new ‘The Cure at the BBC’ compilation (8.10pm), The Cure’s ‘Radio 2 In Concert’ (9.10pm), plus another chance to see ‘That Was Then…This Is Now: The Cure’ (11.10pm), ‘The Cure at Glastonbury 2019’ (11.45pm) and ‘Rock Around the Clock: The Cure’ (1.45am).