The Cure | Seventeen Seconds

On April 22nd, the day after Robert Smith’s birthday, The Cure released their second studio album  Seventeen Seconds. To celebrate the album that introduced long time Bassist Simon Gallup to the band, we have included above The Cure’s gig at Hurrah in New York,  on April 17th, 1980.

A good example of the outspoken demeanor Simon Gallup brought to the band is highlighted during the July 5th, 1981 Werchter Festival, in Belgium.

The concert had been running late and the organizers were trying to rush The Cure off the stage to make way Robert Palmer—who was on next. However, as famously demonstrated in recent years at the BottleRock Festival, some things never change, and Robert Smith was not having it.  He instead opted to do a nearly 9-minute long version of “A Forest” with Simon Gallup shouting “**** Robert Palmer! **** Rock & Roll” as the band left the stage.

Below is the official promotional video for “A Forest” (read our write up on the song).

In addition to “A Forest”, there is also a music video for the track “Play For Today” which seems to have got its title from the BBC Anthology series (quite literally A Play for Today).

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