The Cure perform hit song for first time in 10 years in Berlin with bandmate still sick

The Cure performed a Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me track for the first time in a decade as part of a 28-song set. Bassist Simon Gallup is still missing from the line-up, and has been since the band’s first of three shows in Berlin, Germany. The Cure performed their third show of a three-night stop in the German capital last night (July 12). The Robert Smith-fronted group has performed some of their all-time great songs and dedicated one track of the encore for their first night to Gallup, who has been replaced temporarily by Eden Gallup.

That replacement was made once more on July 12 for the band’s third and final Berlin show. Simon Gallup has been with the band since 1979 and there is no word on when he is expected to return to the line-up. The band’s next show will take place in Athens, Greece, at the Ejekt Festival on July 15.

A full setlist of The Cure’s show from their third night in Berlin can be found below.

• Plainsong
• Pictures of You
• High
• A Night Like This
• Lovesong
• Catch
• Burn
• Fascination Street
• alt.end
• Charlotte Sometimes
• Push
• In Between Days
• Just Like Heaven
• The Last Day of Summer
• M
• Play for Today
• A Forest
• From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
• Prayers for Rain
• Disintegration
• Lullaby
• Hot Hot Hot!!!
• The Walk
• The Lovecats
• Friday I’m in Love
• Close to Me
• Why Can’t I Be You?
• Boys Don’t Cry

Smith has constantly rotated the setlist, playing a few songs for the first time in years. The Cure performed Catch, from Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me for the first time since 2016. Though Friday I’m in Love may feature at every show, Smith once suggested the song was simply not for fans of the band and that it was much harder to write than most of his work.

He said: “The people who like Friday I’m in Love aren’t actually fans of The Cure. They’re not the ones who buy my records.” Smith would later suggest he had struggled to write the song, mentioning as much in an interview given to SPIN magazine. The “out of character” song seemed difficult for Smith to create, especially when it came to avoiding the feeling of being “desperate”.

Smith explained: “Friday I’m in Love is a dumb pop song, but it’s quite excellent actually because it’s so absurd. It’s so out of character – very optimistic and really out there in happy land. It’s nice to get that counterbalance.

“People think we’re supposed to be leaders of some sort of ‘gloom movement.’ I could sit and write gloomy songs all day long, but I just don’t see the point. Genuinely dumb pop lyrics are much more difficult to write than my usual outpourings through the heart.

“I went through hundreds of sheets of paper trying to get words for this record. You have to hit something that’s not cringing – a simplicity and naiveté that communicates. There’s a dumbness that sort of cracks. We’ve always done pop songs. It’s just sometimes they’re way too down—sort of desperate.”