In May 2019 – aka a million years ago – The Cure played a series of shows to mark the 30th anniversary of their landmark album Disintegration at the Sydney Opera House in Australia. It was hinted that there’d be more recitals of the record, but the remainder of their 2019 dates were more conventional festival sets, and after that, well you know.

Thankfully the last of the Sydney Opera House shows was live-streamed and that stream remains available to watch to this day, all two-plus hours of it. The first portion of the set is outtakes and unreleased material from the Disintegration sessions, followed by the album itself, and then a short encore of additional material. That’s embedded down below but first, some supporting material.

Classic Pop magazine ran a feature last month about the making of the record, compiling interviews, reviews, and whatnot for an enjoyable longread, even if a lot of their video embeds don’t work:

Making The Cure: Disintegration

Ranker has a more point-form, quick-hit look at some of the background circumstances that informed the making of the record:

Behind The Scenes Of Disintegration‘ The Cure’s Dark And Brooding Masterpiece @ Ranker

In 2019, when the record actually turned 30, The Quietus re-posted a feature interview with Robert Smith from the May issue of Q:

Disintegration: A Classic Interview With Robert Smith Of The Cure In 1989 @ Q via The Quietus

And Spin did the same with their feature piece from their July 1989 issue:

The Cure Melts Down: Spin’s 1989 Feature

Back in the almost-present, Smith sat down with Rolling Stone in September 2019 to reflect on those Sydney shows and the 30th anniversary of their most successful album:

The Cure’s Robert Smith Talks 30 Years of Disintegration: ‘The Whole Atmosphere Was Somber’ @ Rolling Stone

Yahoo! Music marked the anniversary with a feature piece on the relationship between Smith and wife Mary Poole, who inspired “Lovesong”:

‘Love’ story: The Cure’s Disintegration and Robert Smith’s romance, 30 years later @ Yahoo!