MTV Icon - 2004: The Cure

2004: The Cure

The 2004 MTV Icon special was held at the Old Billingsgate Market in London to a crowd of over 1,000 and named post-punk/gothic rock band The Cure as the icon of the year. Marilyn Manson hosted the event, which featured Blink-182, AFI, Razorlight, and the Deftones performing cover versions of Cure songs. Cure frontman Robert Smith joined Blink-182 onstage to perform "All of This", a song he had co-written and sung on for their eponymously titled 2003 album. During set changes the audience were shown many of the band's music videos from throughout their career. The Cure themselves closed the show by performing a number of songs including "Friday I'm in Love". Their performances of "Taking Off", and "10:15 Saturday Night" were selected to be shown in the final broadcast, representing bookends of their career ("Taking Off" being their most recent single while "10:15 Saturday Night" was the first track on their 1979 debut album). Tim Weber of BBC News remarked of the performance that "from the first riff it was obvious that they have managed to haul their music firmly into the 21st century. The Cure may still be the masters of mourning, but their performance had an edge and drive that would do any Nu Metal band proud. Even old favourites like 'Friday I'm in Love' were—almost—purged of the popcorn sound of the New Wave 1980s." MTV Icon: The Cure premiered October 31, 2004, on MTV2.

Performances