Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Live cover of 'The Hanging Garden' by The Cure recorded on 1 September 2025 at Rock Supplies Amsterdam.
Released November 19, 2025.
Written by Smith/Gallup/Tolhurst.
Mixed by by Samy Benayad at Yellow Room Mixing.
Art direction by Blev Lavoux.
Photo credit: Lavoux.
Copyright Universal Music Mgb Songs o/b/o "Fiction Songs, Ltd."
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"The Hanging Garden" is a song by English rock band the Cure, released as the sole single from their fourth studio album, Pornography.
The release is sometimes referred to as A Single.
The single reached No. 34 on the UK Singles Chart.
Release
In addition to being issued as a 7-inch single with a live version of the Cure's earlier single "Killing an Arab" on the B-side, "The Hanging Garden" was also released in a deluxe edition known as A Single, formatted both as a gatefold double pack of 7-inch singles with a total of four tracks, and also as a 10-inch EP including a live recording of "Killing an Arab" and the studio version of "A Forest" from the group’s second album.
Music video
The video shows the band playing in the York House Gardens in London, England.
The band also wears masks, which is similar to the concept of the Pornography album.
Robert Smith recalled: "For the 'Hanging Garden' video we got two people who did Madness videos but it was a really awful video. They wanted to make us look serious and we wanted them to make us look like Madness".
The video was directed by Chris Gabrin.
Reception
At the time of its release, NME writer Adrian Thrills was not impressed with the single, writing, "The Cure have drifted disappointingly and indulgently from the idyllic pop invention of their younger days".
BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel went on to include the song at No. 25 in his Festive Fifty list for 1982.
In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stewart Mason wrote that the song was heavily influenced by Siouxsie and the Banshees. "The urgent, thundering drums that underpin 'The Hanging Garden' are clearly some sort of homage to Budgie, who provided very similar drum patterns to years' worth of Siouxsie & the Banshees songs. Similarly, Simon Gallup's bass borrows something from Steven Severin's insistent throb, and Smith's own guitar is primarily used for drones and ornamentation, much as it was in the Banshees".
Popular culture
The live music and art precinct in central Hobart, 'In the Hanging Garden', was named after the song.
Personnel
Robert Smith – Guitar, Keyboard, Vocals
Simon Gallup – Bass
Lol Tolhurst – Drums
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@HiddenSincetheFoundation
soundcloud.com/hiddensincethefoundation
facebook.com/HiddenSinceTheFoundationOfTheWorld
instagram.com/hiddensincethefoundation
https://linktr.ee/hiddensincethefoundation
Original video here:
youtube.com/watch?v=i38ViJBvZ5I
Available on bandcamp:
Live cover of 'The Hanging Garden' by The Cure recorded on 1 September 2025 at Rock Supplies Amsterdam.
Released November 19, 2025.
Written by Smith/Gallup/Tolhurst.
Mixed by by Samy Benayad at Yellow Room Mixing.
Art direction by Blev Lavoux.
Photo credit: Lavoux.
Copyright Universal Music Mgb Songs o/b/o "Fiction Songs, Ltd."
------------------------
"The Hanging Garden" is a song by English rock band the Cure, released as the sole single from their fourth studio album, Pornography.
The release is sometimes referred to as A Single.
The single reached No. 34 on the UK Singles Chart.
Release
In addition to being issued as a 7-inch single with a live version of the Cure's earlier single "Killing an Arab" on the B-side, "The Hanging Garden" was also released in a deluxe edition known as A Single, formatted both as a gatefold double pack of 7-inch singles with a total of four tracks, and also as a 10-inch EP including a live recording of "Killing an Arab" and the studio version of "A Forest" from the group’s second album.
Music video
The video shows the band playing in the York House Gardens in London, England.
The band also wears masks, which is similar to the concept of the Pornography album.
Robert Smith recalled: "For the 'Hanging Garden' video we got two people who did Madness videos but it was a really awful video. They wanted to make us look serious and we wanted them to make us look like Madness".
The video was directed by Chris Gabrin.
Reception
At the time of its release, NME writer Adrian Thrills was not impressed with the single, writing, "The Cure have drifted disappointingly and indulgently from the idyllic pop invention of their younger days".
BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel went on to include the song at No. 25 in his Festive Fifty list for 1982.
In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stewart Mason wrote that the song was heavily influenced by Siouxsie and the Banshees. "The urgent, thundering drums that underpin 'The Hanging Garden' are clearly some sort of homage to Budgie, who provided very similar drum patterns to years' worth of Siouxsie & the Banshees songs. Similarly, Simon Gallup's bass borrows something from Steven Severin's insistent throb, and Smith's own guitar is primarily used for drones and ornamentation, much as it was in the Banshees".
Popular culture
The live music and art precinct in central Hobart, 'In the Hanging Garden', was named after the song.
Personnel
Robert Smith – Guitar, Keyboard, Vocals
Simon Gallup – Bass
Lol Tolhurst – Drums
------------------------
@HiddenSincetheFoundation
soundcloud.com/hiddensincethefoundation
facebook.com/HiddenSinceTheFoundationOfTheWorld
instagram.com/hiddensincethefoundation
https://linktr.ee/hiddensincethefoundation
Original video here:
youtube.com/watch?v=i38ViJBvZ5I
Available on bandcamp:
