The True Story of “A Forest”

If you’re a fan of The Cure, you might have had the pleasure of seeing their over the top live version of “A Forest”. The original version – from the band’s second album, Seventeen Seconds – clocks in at 5:55. Live versions can run as long as 15 minutes. And why not? It’s one of the band’s most popular tunes, and the song’s moody, spartan atmosphere makes it ripe to extend by several minutes.

But unless you’re a hardcore Cure fan, you might not know that the extended live version of the song was neither accident nor artistic decision. It was improvised to flip a finger at Robert Palmer.

The Cure played a festival called Rock Werchter in Werchter, Belgium on July 5, 1981. A couple of local acts opened, followed by The Undertones, Toots and the Maytals, and then Elvis Costello. The Cure played, to be followed by Robert Palmer and Dire Straits.

It’s come to my attention that not everyone remembers Robert Palmer. Born in England, he was a moderately successful funk rock singer who went huge after a few giant hits in the 80s, like “Addicted to Love”… which was known as much for the video as the song itself:

Anyway, as it often happens at festivals, the bands started running behind. Before The Cure even went on, Palmer’s road crew started hassling them about keeping their set short. During the set, various members of Palmer’s crew kept motioning to the band to speed it up or, later on, end it already. After The Cure finished the penultimate song of their set – “A Play for Today” – a member of Palmer’s crew rushed on stage and threatened to cut the power if The Cure didn’t leave.

The Cure, of course, didn’t take too kindly to this. Robert Smith introduced their final song thusly:

“This is the final song because we’re not allowed to carry on anymore, ‘cos everybody wants to see Robert Palmer… I think. It’s called ‘A Forest’.”

Just to be dicks, The Cure improvised an almost 10 minute version of the song:

At the end of the song, you can hear Cure member Simon Gallup scream “Fuck Robert Palmer! Fuck rock n’ roll!” Palmer’s people had the last laugh, though, tossing all The Cure’s equipment off the back of the stage.

Over the years, the band has refined the live version of the song. Where the Werchter version is raw and improvised, later versions were much more cohesive, like this version from 1992:

4 Replies to “The True Story of “A Forest””

    1. I don’t… I had to Google for Robert Palmer to know who he was…
      And do such thing to band, don’t deserve any respect! Nobody has the right to cut or shorten a set from other band!

  1. Not to defend Robert Palmer, but in fests like this bands are set to a maximum time on stage and going over that is just being a dick. I’m a huge fan of The Cure and am glad that an incident like this steered turning A Forest into what it became as a live track.

    1. It’s clear that Robert Palmer’s crew was harassing the crew before they even took stage. So there is no valid defense here…Team RP were the ones being d1cks

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