The Cure | Main

Out of all the bands that emerged in the immediate aftermath of punk rock in the late '70s, the Cure was one of the most enduring and popular. Led through numerous incarnations by guitarist/vocalist Robert Smith, the band became notorious for their slow, gloomy dirges and Smith's ghoulish appearance. But the public image often hid the diversity of the Cure's music. At the outset, they played jagged, edgy pop songs and they slowly evolved into a more textured outfit. As one of the bands that laid the seeds for goth rock, the group created towering layers of guitars and synthesizers, but by the time goth caught on in the mid-'80s, the Cure had moved away from it. By the end of the '80s, the Cure had crossed over into the mainstream not only in their native England, but also in the United States and in various parts of Europe. Originally called the Easy Cure, the band was formed in 1976 by schoolmates Robert Smith (vocals, guitar), Michael Dempsey (bass), and Laurence "Lol" Tolhurst (drums). Although Easy Cure had started out very much as a punk band, by the time they simplified the name to The Cure, Smith's increasing fascination with dark and weighty subject matter was matched by his ability to channel those ideas into passionately evocative songs that set them apart from the typical punk bands of the era, as evidenced by the Albert Camus-inspired "Killing an Arab." A demo tape, featuring "Killing an Arab," arrived in the hands of Chris Parry, an A&R; representative at Polydor Records; by the time he received the tape, the band's name had been condensed to the Cure. Parry was impressed with the song and arranged for its release on the independent label Small Wonder in December 1978. Early in 1979, Parry left Polydor to form his own record label, Fiction, and the Cure was one of the first bands he signed to the label. "Killing an Arab" was re-released in February of 1979, and the Cure set out on their first tour of England. The Cure's debut album, Three Imaginary Boys, was released in May 1979 to good reviews in the British music press. Later that year, the group released the non-LP singles "Boys Don't Cry" and "Jumping Someone Else's Train." That same year, the Cure embarked on a major tour with Siouxsie & the Banshees. During the tour, the Banshees' guitarist John McKay left the group and Robert Smith stepped in for the missing musician; for the next decade or so, Smith would frequently collaborate with members of the Banshees. At the end of 1979, the Cure released a single, "I'm a Cult Hero," under the name the Cult Heroes. Following the release of the single, Dempsey left the band to join the Associates. Dempsey was replaced by Simon Gallup at the beginning of 1980. At the same time, the Cure added a keyboardist, Matthieu Hartley, to their lineup. The band's second album, Seventeen Seconds, was released in the spring of 1980. The addition of a keyboardist expanded the group's sound; it was now more experimental, and frequently they would immerse themselves in slow, melancholy laments. However, songs like "10:15 Saturday Night," "Grinding Halt" and "Fire In Cairo" were so far removed from punk's studied simplicity that it was obvious The Cure were much more than part of a passing wave. The Cure had their first UK hit single with "A Forest." Almost Blairwitch-like in its stark documentary intensity, "A Forest" nudged the bottom end of the UK Top 30 in April 1980 - a decidedly strange bedfellow alongside contemporary ear-candy hits like Paul McCartney's "Coming Up" and "Let's Go Round Again" by the Average White Band. After the release of their second album Seventeen Seconds, the Cure began their first world tour. Following the Australian leg of the tour, Matthieu Hartley left the band and the group chose to continue without him. In 1981, they released their third album, Faith, which peaked at number 14 in the charts and spawned the minor hit single "Primary." The Cure's fourth album, the doom-laden, introspective Pornography, was released in 1982. Pornography expanded their cult audience even further and it cracked the U.K. Top Ten. After the Pornography Tour was completed, Simon Gallup quit the band and Lol Tolhurst moved from drums to keyboards. At the end of 1982, the Cure released a new single, the dance-tinged "Let's Go to Bed." Robert Smith devoted most of the beginning of 1983 to Siouxsie & the Banshees, recording the Hyaena album with the group and appearing as the band's guitarist on the album's accompanying tour. Smith also formed a band with Banshees bassist Steve Severin called the Glove that same year. The Glove released their only album, Blue Sunshine, later in 1983. By the late summer of 1983, a new version of the Cure -- featuring Smith, Tolhurst, drummer Andy Anderson, and bassist Phil Thornalley -- was assembled and they recorded a new single, the jaunty "The Lovecats." The song was released in the fall of 1983 and became the group's biggest hit at the time, peaking at number seven on the U.K. charts. The new lineup of the Cure released The Top, in 1984. Despite the pop leanings the number 14 hit "The Caterpillar," The Top was a return to the bleak soundscapes of Pornography. During the world tour supporting The Top, Anderson was fired from the band. In early 1985, following the completion of the tour, Thornalley left the band. The Cure revamped its lineup after his departure, adding drummer Boris Williams, guitarist Porl Thompson, and bassist Simon Gallup. Later in 1985, the Cure released their sixth album, The Head on the Door. The album was the most concise and pop-oriented record the group had ever released, which helped send it into the U.K. Top Ten and to number 59 in the U.S.; the first time the band had broken the American Hot 100. "In Between Days" and "Close to Me" -- both pulled from The Head on the Door -- became sizable U.K. hits, as well as popular underground and college-radio hits in the U.S. The Cure followed the breakthrough success of The Head on the Door in 1986 with the compilation Standing on a Beach: The Singles. Standing on a Beach reached number four in the U.K., but more importantly it established the band as a major cult act in the U.S.; the album peaked at number 48 and went gold within a year. In short, Standing on a Beach set the stage for 1987's double album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. The album was eclectic but it was a hit, spawning four hit singles in the U.K. ("Why Can't I Be You," "Catch," "Just like Heaven," "Hot Hot Hot!!!") and the group's first American Top 40 hit, "Just like Heaven." Following the supporting tour for Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, the Cure's activity slowed to a halt. Before the Cure began working on their new album in early 1988, the band fired Lol Tolhurst, claiming that relations between him and the rest of the band had been irrevocably damaged. Tolhurst would soon file a lawsuit, claiming that his role in the band was greater than stated in his contract and, consequently, he deserved more money. In the meantime, the Cure replaced Tolhurst with former Psychedelic Furs keyboardist Roger O'Donnell and recorded their eighth album, Disintegration. Released in the spring of 1989, the album was more melancholy than its predecessor but it was an immediate hit, reaching number three in the U.K. and number 14 in the U.S., and spawning a series of hit singles. "Lullaby" became a British hit in the spring of 1989, peaking at number five. In the late summer, the band had their biggest American hit with "Lovesong," which climbed to number two. On the Disintegration Tour, the Cure began playing stadiums across the U.S. and the U.K. In the fall of 1990, the Cure released Mixed Up, a collection of remixes featuring a new single, "Never Enough." Following the Disintegration Tour, Roger O'Donnell left the band and the Cure replaced him with their roadie, Perry Bamonte. In the spring of 1992, the band released Wish. Like Disintegration, Wish was an immediate hit, entering the British charts at number one and the American charts at number two, as well as launching the hit singles "High" and "Friday I'm in Love." The Cure embarked on another international tour after the release of Wish. One concert, performed in Detroit, was documented on a film called Show and on two albums, Show and Paris. The movie and the albums were released in 1993. Porl Thompson left the band in 1993 to join Jimmy Page and Robert Plant's band. After his departure, Roger O'Donnell re-joined the band as a keyboardist and Perry Bamonte switched from synthesizers to guitars. During most of 1993 and early 1994, the Cure was sidelined by the then-ongoing lawsuit from Lol Tolhurst. Following the settlement in the band's favor in the fall of 1994, the group were set to record a follow-up album to Wish, but drummer Boris Williams quit just as they were about to begin the record. The Cure recruited a new drummer through advertisements in the British music papers; by the spring of 1995, Jason Cooper had replaced Williams. Throughout 1995, the Cure recorded their tenth proper studio album, pausing to perform a handful of European musical festivals in the summer. The album, titled Wild Mood Swings, was finally released in the spring of 1996. A second singles collection, 1997's Galore, yielded the new "Wrong Number"; Bloodflowers followed in early 2000. In the fall of 2001, an all-encompassing Cure retrospective entitled Greatest Hits, which included two brand new songs. That year also brought the end of the band's career-spanning relationship with Fiction Records, and it was November of that year before a new single, "Cut Here," was released. In January of 2002, The Cure formed an alliance with Ross Robinson's iam Records, heralding the start of another chapter in the history of one of the few bands able to continually combine innovation, integrity and intelligence with mass global success. In November of that year, The Cure mounted the most ambitious concert of their career at Berlin's Tempodrom, performing the entire contents of the much-cherished "Dark Trilogy," live and back-to-back over three intense hours. In the spring of 2003 the DVD/vhs film Trilogy was released to universal acclaim. These first years of the new millennium had also seen Robert Smith exploring the potential of several re-invigorating genre-spanning side-projects. He collaborated with Blink 182, vocalist Saffron from Republica, not one but two of David Bowie's guitarists (Earl Slick and Reeves Gabrels), Blank & Jones, Tweaker, Junior Jack and Junkie XL, to name but a few, while The Lovecats re-surfaced as a hip DJ bootleg, spliced with Missy Elliott, and as a cover version on the latest Tricky album. The Cure's continuing influence was equally evident in a whole new generation of acclaimed young bands as diverse as The Deftones, Sparta, AFI, Interpol, The Rapture and many others. Tying up virtually all of the loose ends from the Fiction/Polydor years, The Cure released the fascinating 4-CD box set, Join the Dots in early 2004. A lovingly compiled compendium of hard to find B-sides, rarities and re-mixes, it effectively cleared the way for the great leap forward represented by their forthcoming album. After a small hiatus, The Cure are re-emerging with not only a new outlook, but also a new album. "When I hear myself talking about how we made the new album, it sounds almost unreal," says Robert Smith, letting his gaze roam around the now silent room in London's legendary Olympic Studios where The Cure's greatest recorded performances to date were captured for an album that is already being hailed as their most powerful ever. "It sounds like I'm talking about some kind of weird group therapy, but making this album has really changed my attitude to what we do. I expect so much more of us now." One reason for this change is that for the first time ever, The Cure have worked with a producer. The man in question is Ross Robinson, whose involvement with such genre-smashing acts as Korn and Slipknot has made him arguably the most influential sound man of the past decade. Smitten with The Cure since his early teens, Robinson had publicly stated that working with the band would be his ultimate achievement, and his determination to make this their best album ever has pushed them to new limits, which is why they're happy to call this one simply - The Cure. On working with Robinson, Smith says, "I assumed, the same as everyone else, that his interest in the band lay in the darker, bigger songs, but as work started I was surprised to discover that he was equally enthused by the pop side of the band – and what he really loves is the stuff that has the combination of intense emotion and melody." "The performances on The Cure are so emotionally driven," explains Smith, "largely because we recorded the songs live in the studio, which is something we haven't done since our very first album." The result is that, although the album includes songs covering a range of musical styles, the emotional intensity of every performance never flags, so that a tuneful pop gem is delivered with the same conviction as a grinding single-riff onslaught. The Cure have been on a rollercoaster ride of a 25 year career which has seen the band, despite personnel changes and rock'n'roll dramas that would have wiped out lesser bands, surge from strength to strength, selling over 27 million albums worldwide without ever making concessions to the mainstream thus far. "When we did the Trilogy thing," points out Smith, "I thought, ‘This is it.' It was the end of the 25 years, and I was really adamant that the next thing I would do would be my own solo album, and the others were expecting that too." However, in May 2004, The Cure signed a three album deal with Geffen Records. The immediately went to work on the first of these three, The Cure. On this record, the band, propelled by producer Robinson, tried new recording tactics. He had Robert do something he had never done before – discuss his words in detail with the band. Smith says, "...it was brilliant because what Ross was doing was getting us all in the same headspace." Also, each song was recorded live, with the band in a circle facing each other. "Ross put us in a very confined space, right on top of each other, with eye to eye contact. He made a very firm stipulation that I must sing live as the band played, because the response I get from the band playing live is different from what happens if we record the parts separately. The moment I start singing for real, everyone steps up. I'd never really noticed it like that before, but it's the main reason why the performances on this album are different from anything we've recorded in the past." "This is how I always imagined making records could be," says Smith. "Nothing comes close to what I felt while we were making this album." And with the album's release in June of 2004, anxious fans can hear for themselves the raw, emotionally powerful songs of a legendary band in a newly found harmony with each other.