Celebrating the 40th anniversary of The Cure's fifth album The Top, we decided making a "live version" of it. By gathering some tracks from their live gigs in 1984, this live album presents The Cure at the experimental era between their goth and pop periods.

Track listing:
Shake Dog Shake (0:00)
Bird Mad Girl (4:40)
Wailing Wall (8:34)
Give Me It (14:01)
Dressing Up (17:10)
The Caterpillar (20:33)
Piggy in the Mirror (24:17)
The Empty World (27:28)
Bananafishbones (30:09)
The Top (33:12)

Tracks 1, 3, 4, 6 and 7: Live at The Ontario Theater (Washington DC, USA 14.11.1984)
Tracks 2, 5 and 10: Live at De Maaspoort (Hertogenbosch, Netherlands 30.05.1984)
Tracks 8 and 9: Live at The Hammersmith Odeon (London, UK 09.05.1984)

About:
Formed in 1978 in Crawley, The Cure became one of the most succesful bands in late 1980s early 1990s and is often considered a "symbol" in the goth culture (even though they don't consider theirselves a goth band). Originally formed by Robert Smith, Michael Dempsey and Lol Tolhurst, the group released in 1979 their first album called "Three Imaginary Boys", which has a nice postpunk oriented sound. In 1980, they released an alternative version of that album in US called "Boys Don't Cry". That same year, with Simon Gallup replacing Dempsey on the bass and Matthieu Hartley joining the group to play the keyboards, they released their second album "Seventeen Seconds" with a bit darker sound. This album, which was the first of a dark trilogy, features their iconic cong "A Forest". After Hartley left the band, which had become a trio again, The Cure released "Faith" in 1981 an album with much colder lines of bass and synths, gloomier drums and deeper lyrics. "Other Voices" and "The Drowning Man" might be the highlight songs from the record not to mention the single "Primary", that was the band's first song in which Robert uses the Fender VI bass, an instrument that would become remarkable on their future compositions (especially "Disintegration"). Then, in 1982, The Cure releases what we can consider one of their greatest albums: Pornography. With furious and depressing lyrics regarding about nihilism, hedonism and a crisis of existence, "Pornography" is probably one of the most iconic records in the history of goth/alternative music. Following the departure of Simon Gallup, the Cure started recording some experimental music, with a more poporiented style. Between 1982 and 1983, they released a couple of singles that were compilated with their Bsides in the album "Japanese Whispers". The Cure, which had been reduced to a duo consisting of Smith and Tolhurst (who went to the keyboards), recruited the members Phil Thornalley (who had produced the album Pornography) to play the bass, Porl Thompson to play the keyboards, guitar and sax, and Andy Anderson to play the drums. In 1984, they released their fifth album "The Top", with a more experimental and psychedelic style and working as a bridge between their previous goth/postpunk era and their upcoming pop period. "The Caterpillar", the sole single from the album, has remained as one of their most iconic songs, not to mention the psychedelic "Shake Dog Shake".

Personnel:
Robert Smith (vocals, guitar)
Porl Thompson (guitar, keyboards, saxophone)
Phil Thornalley (bass guitar)
Lol Tolhurst (keyboards)
Andy Anderson (drums) (tracks 2, 5, 810)
Vince Ely (drums) (tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 7)