A “serious personal situation” prevented The Cure’s bassist Simon Gallup from performing at Fuji Rock Festival in Japan today.
Gallup, who originally joined the band in 1979 for The Cure’s second studio album Seventeen Seconds, was unable to travel to Japan for the festival appearance. However, instead of the band canceling their performance altogether, Gallup’s son Eden was enlisted to stand in for his father on bass.
Eden is father’s bass tech and currently plays in the band Violet Vendetta.
Taking place this weekend (July 26-28), the Fuji Rock Festival is one of the largest outdoor music festivals in Japan. The Cure headlined the festival’s Green Stage on Sunday, July 28th.
Here is a link to the—as of this writing—Livestream of the concert festival:
Details are not currently forthcoming on why exactly Simon Gallup was prevented from performing, but Cure frontman Robert Smith acknowledged his absence and issued a statement through The Cure’s official social media channels:
“A serious personal situation affecting our bassist Simon arose after the Paleo Festival show on Thursday, and as a consequence, Simon was unable to travel with us to Japan,” the statement read. “Very reluctant to disappoint our wonderful Japanese fans, and after much discussion, we decided to go ahead without ‘Fuji Festival’ headline on Sunday.”
The statement continued stating that the band was:
“very reluctant to disappoint our wonderful Japanese fans, and after much discussion, we decided to go ahead with our ‘Fuji Festival’ headline on Sunday with a very brave and very excellent Eden Gallup filing on bass.”
The Cure’s statement goes on to say that Gallup will be back for the band’s remaining summer festival dates, which resume with a performance in Moscow on Saturday.
— The Cure (@thecure) July 28, 2019
Take a look at the set list from Fuji Rock Festival performance plus a few clips below:
Setlist: The Cure, Fuji Rock Festival, Japan, 7/28/19
- “Plainsong”
- “Pictures of You”
- “High”
- “A Night Like This”
- “Lovesong”
- “Last Dance”
- “Burn”
- “Fascination Street”
- “Never Enough”
- “Push”
- “In Between Days”
- “Just Like Heaven”
- “From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea”
- “Play For Today”
- “A Forest”
- “Shake Dog Shake”
- “Disintegration”
- “Lullaby”
- “The Caterpillar”
- “The Walk”
- “Friday I’m in Love”
- “Close to Me”
- “Why Can’t I Be You?”
- “Boys Don’t Cry”
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Ladies and gentlemen, The Cure. ???#fujirockfestival2019 #thecure #fridayiminlove #myfeetaredead
