November 1, 2022 - My live music dreams have finally all been fulfilled after last week's visit of The Cure to Zagreb. Reflections of a 53-year-old fan.

It is a strange feeling finally going to see one of your favourite bands for over 30 years at the tender age of 53, with your two teenage kids in tow, one of them impressively dressed as a Goth and knowing more of their songs these days than I do. 

Zagreb has been very good to me musically. Back in the Eighties, I was fortunate to see many of my musical heroes in their prime: the original Sisters of Mercy on their farewell tour of 1985; a quite unforgettable 15-minute set at 1am by The Jesus and Mary Chain at the legendary Manchester Hacienda in 1984; and sneaking out of boarding school to catch Siouxsie and the Banshees in Preston the following year. 

But there were four bands and artists I still really wanted to see live decades later.  And Zagreb has delivered all four over the years. Never has the saying 'Better late than never' been more true. 

I missed out on the Smiths in Manchester in 1986, but was compensated by Morrissey in Zagreb.  Leonard Cohen, at the age of 75, lit up the Zagreb Arena for over three hours. And when I was invited to a private audience with one other journalist to interview the man himself, Johnny Rotten, my life was almost complete. There was just one more band that I had to see to make my musical journey complete. 

If The Smiths assuaged my teenage suicidal feelings back in the mid-1980s, it was The Cure which helped me through a broken relationship 25 years ago. Disintegration, Close to You, and Pictures of You would drown out the misery I was feeling. Although he will never know who I am, Robert Smith has been a part of my life since I came across him first as the Banshees guitarist in about 1984. My Cure fest a quarter of a century ago was enhanced by my Cure-loving neighbour Darren, whose appreciation of the band pre-dated mine, and he was even a penpal of Smith in those early years, showing me some of the letters over yet one more bottle of wine. 

So long ago, and how would it be to see The Cure today, and what kind of performer was Smith today, now a sprightly 63? As I took the kids into the arena, I looked around and was struck by just how young the crowd was. A whole new generation of fans inspired by this musical genius. 

Was I perhaps too old for this concert? And when did seemingly every fan in the audience film every song rather than actually enjoy the experience? It would be great for embedding YouTube videos for this article for sure. 

I got my answer in the second song on an impressively long set (27 songs and 2 hours 35 on stage). 

Pictures of You. 

Eyes closed. Back to the pain of 1999, my darkened living room, Darren's letters. Cathartic. It had been worth the cost of the ticket in one song. Smith may have aged but he is still a great performer, and so many memories flooded back, of a former life with which I have long ago been at peace. 

One Croatian portal described the concert as something for everyone, and there was certainly a lot of variety, with the first half of the concert a lot heavier and focusing on some new songs from the long-awaited new album.

But there were plenty of older classics, augmented by superb lighting and sound effects. Spiderman is having me for dinner tonight. Lullaby was the first of the second encore, and very welcome for this old fart. Many of the songs before that were unknown to me, and I was hoping for my reminiscing with Disintegration, Just Like Heaven, Close to Me, and a host of Cure hits from when I was young. 

I need not have worried. The second encore was heaven indeed. Among the highlights. 

There was no doubt which was the most popular song of the night - The Cure anthem, Friday I'm in Love, a song known and loved by fans of all generations.

Followed by one on my bucket list - Close to Me

In Between Days - I was rolling back the years to 1985. 

And then another of my must haves, and only one of two songs I will dance to - Just Like Heaven.

And a fitting end to my career attending live concerts, to a song from a band who have helped me shed so many tears over the years - Boys Don't Cry. 

I got what I came for, and more, and looking around the arena at different generations of joy, I could see I was not alone. Magical band, well worth the 30-year wait. 

Full playlist:

1. Alone 2. Pictures of You 3. Closedown 4. A Night LIke This 5. Lovesong 6. And Nothing Is Forever 7. Cold 8. Burn 9. The Hungry Ghost 10. Push 11. Play for Today 12. A Forest 13 The Last Day of Summer 14. Shake Dog Shake 15. From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea 16. Endsong

First encore: 17. I Can Never Say Goodbye 18. Want 19. Prayers for Rain 20. One Hundred Years

Second encore : 21. Lullaby 22. The Walk 23. Friday I'm in Love 24. Close to Me 25. In Between Days 26. Just Like Heaven 27. Boys Don't Cry.

****

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January 16, 2022 - TCN spoke to Nick Hobbs of Charm Music Croatia, a concert division of the Charmenko group in Eastern Europe organizing the biggest shows in the country this year - from Sting to Arctic Monkeys and The Cure. 

If there is one thing Croatians can be excited about this year, it is a stacked concert calendar, which is more than welcome after two years of cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the return of music festivals on the coast, Croatians are particularly looking forward to three massive shows this year announced at the end of 2021 - Sting at Arena Zagreb, Arctic Monkeys at Pula Arena, and The Cure at  Arena Zagreb. 

TCN spoke to the man responsible for making these gigs happen - Nick Hobbs of Charm Music, a concert division operating under the Charmenko group of companies specialized in international music organization.

How did you get into promoting concerts?

It's a long story. When I was 23, I organized an Italian tour for Henry Cow, and I promoted one of the shows myself. They asked me to be their manager.

I moved to London, and a year later, the band split. I carried on working with them on offshoot projects, then I moved to Stockholm for a year and worked for a promoter as their international buyer. Then I moved back to London and joined Rough Trade in about 1985 as an artist agent for their roster outside the UK. I then started managing David Thomas and Pere Ubu and some other acts and gradually, over the years, developed an interest and contacts in Eastern Europe. By about 1995, EE was my main work, so it has been since. In 2003 I moved to Istanbul.

Tell us about Charmenko and Charm in general. What are some of the biggest acts on your roster? 

I can’t remember when I came up with the name, but it was maybe around 1990. It was just me plus a small crew of London-based staff for a long time, and we worked from my home in Brixton. Now we have our own offices in Turkey, Serbia, Croatia, Czechia, and Poland and clients all over EE. We also have our own roster of artists that we represent more or less worldwide.

I’ve worked with many big acts over the years, but off the top of my head...

Radiohead
Muse
George Michael
U2
Ed Sheeran
Rihanna
Beyoncé
Elton John
David Bowie
Lou Reed
Nick Cave
Oasis
Blur
Rammstein

and many others.

Really exciting concerts were announced in Croatia this year, from Sting to Arctic Monkeys and The Cure. How are the interest and ticket sales so far? Do you expect sellouts?

We expect Sting to sell out, Arctic Monkeys are already sold out, and we hope The Cure will sell out; they’re a great live band!

Croatia is not always viewed as a desirable destination for touring musicians, as many acts choose other cities in the region. Why do you think that is? 

It's a small country…and the further south you go into the Balkans, the more straggly concert possibilities become. Anyway, the Balkans are much more developed than they were 20 years ago. So the trend is positive - as long as Bosnia doesn’t fall apart - we hope not!

What difficulties have you encountered when promoting and organizing shows in Croatia? 

Mostly no special difficulties and generally we’ve not had disasters in Croatia and, with one minor exception, the clients we’ve worked with have always paid us - that’s nice. One particular difficulty is that Serbia and Bosnia aren’t part of the EU. Once they become part of the EU, all kinds of opportunities will open for Croatia too. Borders are stupid, just like nationalism is. 

Charm has announced concerts in Zagreb and Pula - anything planned for Split or the Dalmatia region? If not, why?

Zagreb is the capital. Pula has the arena. I’ve done shows in Split; not easy to make them work financially. Usually, provincial shows with international artists rather depend on municipal support for them to be viable. Split is also further from Slovenia, which is an overlapping market with Zagreb and Pula.

What would make promoting and organizing concerts in Croatia easier for Charm Music?

I hope we will develop our own office further. In the end, the concert business depends on ticket buyers. My own wish is for us to be able to work with more left-field artists, but we worked with Terra Neo, for example; it wasn’t a commercial success. Better connections with venues and municipalities would be good, too.

What else can we expect from Charm in 2022?

There's a lot of great music around that we'd love to promote but selling enough tickets to cover the costs is very, very tricky and very, very risky. So we have lots of discussions internally, and we have lots of ideas. 

Learn more about Charmenko and Charm Music Croatia.

For more, check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

December 6, 2021 - A promising 2022 on the music scene gets even stronger with the announcement of The Cure in Croatia! The legendary English band will perform at Arena Zagreb next fall for their first-ever solo concert. Tickets will go on sale on December 9.

Giants of the alternative rock scene - The Cure will hold their first solo concert in Croatia on October 27, 2022 in Arena Zagreb! The huge base of domestic fans of this cult band, which does not give up on performances, still active 42 years after its founding, will finally come to its senses and see the first and long-awaited solo performance of The Cure in Croatia. The Zagreb concert is part of the just-announced European tour The Cure Tour 22, where The Cure will hold 44 concerts in 22 countries, all as part of an announcement of a new album that will bring another 67 minutes of The Cure sound.

The indie-rock pioneers have released 13 studio albums so far, more than 40 singles, their albums have sold 30 million copies worldwide, and there are a number of live albums, soundtracks, books… The Cure marked the lives of a generation of fans with their music, and although they are difficult to classify into a single musical genre, they influenced the formation of several of them such as goth rock, new wave, and post-rock. In 2019, five members of The Cure were officially inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

The Cure was formed in 1978 in Crawley, England, and since its first concert that same year, The Cure has played over 1,500 concerts, and live music and direct contact with the audience is what The Cure does best. So two years ago, they were named the best festival headliners by NME, which only proves their love for the stage. The Cure Euro 2022 tour will be the first since concerts in 2019, the year in which they celebrated 40 years of existence, and 30 years since the release of the cult album "Disintegration" in 1989, which secured the title of one of the best British bands in the last 50 year. That same year, after a three-month festival tour, they held an epic three-hour concert in Mexico City. In Arena Zagreb, a full 135 minutes of pure The Cure concert energy and enthusiasm await us, which will be preceded by the performance of the pre-band The Twilight Sad.

Tickets for The Cure in Croatia are on sale from Thursday, December 9 at 10 am, through the Eventim.hr website and at Eventim sales points. Ticket prices range from 175 to 650 kuna.

For more information, details, and the full list of dates for The Cure tour that will include Zagreb, visit their official Instagram page and their official website, or in Charm Music Croatia's official Facebook and Instagram pages.

For more concerts news, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.