Some of you reading this may have already had the good fortune to have seen this vintage footage of The Cure performing at the breathtaking Roman-esque theatre in Orange, Vaucluse, France known as Theatre Antique d’Orange back in 1986. I also have no doubt that some of you might even possess copies of the show (known as The Cure in Orange) on VHS. If you fall into neither of these categories, then you are in for a treat as the show recently popped up on Vimeo. Shot over the course of two nights by longtime Cure collaborator director Tim Pope, the out-of-print footage contains a staggering 23 songs from The Cure’s mid-80s catalog (like The Head on the Door) as well as 1980’s Boys Don’t Cry and 1993’s Show and other assorted gems. It was also the apparently the first time Smith debuted his new short haircut much to the dismay of his gothy followers.
Though Smith himself has promised that The Cure in Orange would be released to DVD sometime in 2010, that never happened—though you can find bootlegged copies of the show for sale out there on various music-loving Internet sites as well as copies of the original VHS tape. As in the past when this extraordinary footage has made its way online it will likely once again quickly disappear so stop what you’re doing now and watch it before it vanishes.
Tracks: “Introduction”, Recording of “Relax”, from the album Blue Sunshine by “The Glove”
“Shake Dog Shake”
“Piggy in the Mirror”
“Play for Today”
“A Strange Day”
“Primary”
“Kyoto Song”
“Charlotte Sometimes”
“Inbetween Days”
“The Walk”
“A Night Like This”
“Push”
“One Hundred Years”
“A Forest”
“Sinking”
“Close to Me”
“Let’s Go to Bed”
“Six Different Ways”
“Three Imaginary Boys”
“Boys Don’t Cry”
“Faith”
“Give Me It”
“10:15 Saturday Night”
“Killing an Arab”
The Fat Angel Sings 