Isle of Wight Festival 2026: The Cure's blistering performance turns up the heat on summer's longest day
Iconic band plucks an incredible 27 songs from six decades of ever-changing music for red-hot headline set
IT felt a little odd at first when - on the longest day of the year and certainly one of the hottest and brightest - six aging men, dressed in black, sombrely trooped onto the main stage to close this year’s Isle of Wight Festival.
But there was no reason to fear as The Cure played out a blisteringly set to ensure the temperatures stayed high well after the sun went down at Seaclose Park. There is something daunting heading into a set which you know is going to be running for more than two hours - but I could have still been there today and not have tired of listening as the enigmatic Robert Smith plucked songs from a back catalogue stretching back almost 50 years.
In fact it was perfectly topped and tailed by those decades with the show opening with Alone from 2024’s Songs of a Lost World - the band’s first album in 16 years - and the closer Boys Don’t Cry from 1979. The fact I didn’t check my watch once during this momentous set showed how I was caught up in the moment. It was only when some of the more jaunty songs started coming back-to-back that I guessed we were heading to the end.
And as fireworks lit up the skies behind the festival’s iconic Star Flyer and Big Wheel, The Cure proved an equally exhilarating end to the annual festival which saw Lewis Capaldi headlining on Friday and Calvin Harris on Saturday.
Before The Cure, Sunday's main stage line up started with Suzanne Vega, with the New York singer-songwriter still sounding as fresh as when I first heard Marlene on the Wall in 1987. But even her most die-hard fans must have been feeling short-changed when her set finished with an apology that she had run out of time for Tom’ Diner.
Now, I’ve always found Level 42 irritating to my ears. But Mark King had his home crowd in the palm of his bass-slapping hand and they won me over with a run through of their biggest hits which, backed by a superb three-piece rhythm section, sounded a lot more infectious live. But that was nothing compared to The Last Dinner Party who also stormed through an incredible performance, the likes of which I had been deprived of when they walked out in protest at Victorious last year.
I picked out the hits from The Kooks but by then was more than ready for the headliners. My musical tastes change almost from week-to-week but one constant for me has been The Cure ever since I first saw them miming badly to The Walk on Top of the Pops in 1983. I saw them live when their Head on the Door tour came to the Brighton Centre in 1985 and, 41 years later, they didn’t let me down.
What a treat they served up, squeezing in 27 tracks with Smith struggling to say a proper good night as he wanted to make sure he could get to Boys Don’t Cry before they ran over time. There are too many to choose my particular highlights but a rare appearance of A Night Like This from that Head on the Door album was a treat along with the older Play for Today and A Forest and any numbers from 1989’s Disintegration, possibly my favourite album.
All the biggest hits were there, sprinkled throughout at regular intervals to keep the crowd on their toes, including Pictures of You, Just Like Heaven, In Between Day, The Lovecats, Friday I’m In Love and Close To Me.
Smith has never possessed the greatest of voices but it’s the fragility - along with trademark bird’s nest hair and smudged make-up - that makes him so captivating and these songs so special despite the passing years. Simon Gallup’s grinding basslines are as powerful as ever, backed by the keyboards of fairly long-time member Roger O’Donell. And I marvelled at how drummer Jason Cooper manages to pound the beats throughout the six-plus minutes of Burn.
But it is always Smith your eyes are drawn to. He seemed genuinely embarrassed that so many people had turned up to watch a show performed by men in their 60s and 70s. And he was honestly touched as he made his way along the stage from left to right to offer heartfelt thanks to all areas of the crowd before the band disappeared at the end of their marathon show.
Perhaps Boys Don’t Cry, but then can certainly be pushed through their emotions by a band who made me wish even the longest day on the Isle of Wight could have kept going a little longer.