Glastonbury Festival headlining set 2001

Lore & Background

By 2001, The Cure had already accumulated a catalogue stretching back to their 1978 debut, and they had built a reputation for emotionally devastating live shows that blended theatrical darkness with melodic hooks. Headlining Glastonbury placed them in a different register from their usual arena or club circuit: the audience was younger, more heterogeneous, and the setting was a working farm under an open sky. Smith, with his signature black hair, eyeliner, and fingerless gloves, became a kind of dark priest presiding over a congregation of tens of thousands, and the band's interplay—Porl Thompson's angular guitar, Jason Cooper's driving bass, Perry Bamonte's layered keyboards, and Jason Clulow's precise drumming—translated powerfully to the vast field.

The set itself wove together songs from across their discography, moving from the jangly pop of their mid-1980s peak through the heavier, more atmospheric material of the 1990s. This arc mirrored the band's own evolution and allowed the crowd to experience the full emotional range Smith was known for: euphoric, melancholic, aggressive, and tender, often within the span of a single song. The open-air acoustics of Worthy Farm, combined with the natural light shifting as evening fell, gave the performance a cinematic quality that a fixed stage simply could not replicate.

In the broader context of British festival culture, The Cure's 2001 headline slot underscored the band's enduring relevance. They were not a nostalgia act; they were still writing, still touring, still commanding the same level of emotional intensity that had defined them two decades earlier. For a generation that had discovered them through bootleg cassettes and late-night radio, seeing them close out Glastonbury was a rite of passage.

In Their Own Story

The rain had stopped around half-past eight, leaving the field glistening and the air thick with the smell of wet earth and diesel from the generators. You pressed forward through the crowd, boots squelching, and caught the first chord of the opening number rippling out from the main stage like a stone dropped into still water. Robert Smith stood at the mic, head bowed, fingers splayed across his guitar, and when he finally looked up the roar hit you in the chest. Somewhere to your left a stranger was singing every word of "Lovesong" with their eyes closed; to your right, a kid no older than sixteen was filming on a phone with a cracked screen. The sky above the stage was a bruised purple, and the floodlights cut through the mist in hard white beams. You did not move for the next hour and a half. You simply let the sound pour over you, through you, and when the final chord faded into the Somerset dark, the silence that followed lasted a full three seconds before the field erupted. You were crying. You did not even notice until the person next to you handed you a squashed biscuit and said, "Right, that was something."

Reader's Guide

The Cure's 2001 Glastonbury set took place on the Sunday night, the traditional headline slot at Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset. The festival draws hundreds of thousands of attendees over the week, with the Sunday-night crowd typically the largest gathering of the event.

The band's lineup at the time featured Robert Smith on vocals and guitar, Porl Thompson on guitar, Jason Cooper on bass, Perry Bamonte on keyboards, and Jason Clulow on drums. The setlist drew from across their career, weaving together songs from their 1980s pop-punk era, the heavier post-punk material of the early 1990s, and the more atmospheric work of their mid-to-late 1990s output. The progression generally moved from more accessible, hook-driven tracks into the deeper, slower, more emotionally charged material, building to a climactic close.

Stage design at Glastonbury is functional rather than theatrical: a large main stage with standard lighting rigs, a backdrop, and minimal set dressing. The Cure's visual identity—dark clothing, Smith's distinctive look, the band's deliberate, almost ritualistic stage presence—provided the visual drama rather than elaborate production. The natural setting of the farm, the shifting weather, and the scale of the crowd did the rest.

The 2001 headline slot was notable as a confirmation of The Cure's status as a major live act capable of filling the most prestigious festival position in the UK. It was not their first major festival appearance, but it cemented their place in the modern British festival canon alongside acts of all genres and eras.

Did You Know?

• The Cure had been active as a band since 1978, meaning the 2001 Glastonbury set represented over two decades of continuous musical evolution performed in a single night.
• Glastonbury's Sunday-night headline slot is widely regarded as the most coveted live performance position in the UK, and The Cure's 2001 booking placed them in the same lineage as the festival's most iconic past headline
• Robert Smith's visual signature—black hair, heavy eyeliner, fingerless gloves—had remained remarkably consistent from the band's post-punk origins through the 2001 performance, making him one of the most recognizable fro
• The open-air, rain-prone conditions at Worthy Farm are a well-known feature of Glastonbury, and the 2001 set was performed in the characteristic muddy, atmospheric setting that fans associate with the festival.