The Cure Biography

The Cure are a successful English rock band, widely seen as one of the leading pioneers of the British alternative rock scene of the 1980s. A combination of lead singer Robert Smith's iconic wild hair, pale complexion, smudged lipstick, and the frequently gloomy and introspective lyrics have led to the band being primarily classified as gothic rock. Smith rejects this and other attempts to confine the band to a single genre. The Cure have sold close to 50 million albums worldwide.

In 1976 seventeen-year-old Robert Smith formed Easy Cure with classmates Michael Dempsey (bass), Laurence "Lol" Tolhurst (drums) and Porl Thompson (guitar) from St. Wilfrid's Catholic Comprehensive School in Crawley, Sussex. They began writing their own songs almost immediately, and quickly amassed a repertoire of original material and a growing following.

In 1977, The Easy Cure auditioned for Hansa Records and received a recording contract worth Ł1000. A year later, following disagreements about the direction the group should take, the band (newly renamed The Cure) were signed as a trio (minus Porl Thompson) on former Polydor Records scout Chris Parry's new Fiction label (distributed by Polydor). However, The Cure released their first single "Killing an Arab" on the Small Wonder label. "Killing an Arab" garnered both acclaim and controversy: while the single's provocative title led to accusations of racism, the song is actually based on French existentialist Albert Camus' story The Stranger. The single was packaged with a sticker label that denied the racist connotations.

The Cure released their first album Three Imaginary Boys in 1979. The band (particularly Smith) were unhappy with their debut album, as they had no creative control over the final artwork or running order. One particular bone of contention was the inclusion of the Jimi Hendrix cover "Foxy Lady", which was only recorded as a sound check, because some representatives of the record label felt that the inclusion of a cover song would help the album's sales. The same year The Cure also released a 7" single under the assumed name of "Cult Hero", featuring the songs "I'm a Cult Hero" and "I Dig You" with vocals provided by Frankie Bell.

The band embarked on an extensive period of touring, during which they performed with fellow post-punk bands such as Joy Division and Siouxsie & the Banshees, leading eventually to a side-project collaboration between Smith and Banshees member Steven Severin, released under the name The Glove. One particular tour The Cure and The Banshees embarked upon together saw Smith pull double duty each night by performing with The Cure and as the guitarist with The Banshees.

The next single "Boys Don't Cry" was a minor hit in the U.S., and Three Imaginary Boys was repackaged with new artwork and a new tracklist incorporating the non-album singles as Boys Don't Cry in 1980. Dempsey left the band, and Simon Gallup (bass) and Matthieu Hartley (keyboards) joined.

In 1980 the foursome released the minimalist Seventeen Seconds, produced by Mike Hedges, which reached #20 on the UK charts. "A Forest" became the band's first UK hit single, reaching #31 on the singles chart. The Cure set out on their first world tour, at the end of which Matthieu Hartley left the band.

1981 saw the release of Faith, their third album, which hit #14 on the UK charts. They also released an instrumental soundtrack for the film Carnage Visors. Carnage Visors was used as a "tour support" film, in place of an opening act, for their 1981 Picture Tour. The music from Carnage Visors had a very limited print run and has subsequently become very rare in its original form, but along with much of The Cure's catalogue, has recently been remastered and re-released on CD.

Beginning at twenty-one, Smith "didn't see that there was much point in continuing with life." The band members' lives began to be marked by increasing drug use. In 1982 The Cure recorded and released Pornography, a bleak, nihilistic offering that led to more rumours that Smith was suicidal. In spite of (or perhaps because of) the rumours, Pornography became the band's first UK Top 10 album, entering the charts at #8. The release was followed by the Fourteen Explicit Moments tour, which saw a series of incidents that prompted Simon Gallup to abruptly leave The Cure and start another band, called Fools Dance. He and Smith didn't see each other for almost two years following his departure. Smith has said that he "doesn't even remember making a lot of Pornography."

In late 1982 The Cure released the pop single "Let's Go to Bed," which was a minor hit in the UK, followed in 1983 by two more successful singles: "The Walk" (UK #12), and the playful "The Lovecats," which became the band's first UK Top 10 reaching #7. They released these three studio singles and their B-sides as the album Japanese Whispers, designed by Smith for the Japanese market only, but eventually becoming easy to acquire worldwide as an import. The same year, Smith also recorded and toured with Siouxsie & the Banshees, contributing his writing and playing skills on their Hyaena and Nocturne albums, as well as recording the Blue Sunshine album with Steven Severin as The Glove. Robert Smith also co-produced the album From Under the Hill with Mike Hedges for the band And Also the Trees, who The Cure later toured with in 1984.

In 1984 The Cure released The Top, a tonally diverse yet generally psychedelic album on which Smith played all the instruments except the drums (which were played by Andy Anderson) and the saxophone (which was played by returnee Porl Thompson). This LP was a Top 10 hit in the UK, reaching #10, was their first to pierce the Billboard 200 in the U.S., reaching #180. The Cure then embarked on their worldwide "Top Tour" with Thompson, Anderson, and bassist Phil Thornalley on board. Released in late 1984, The Cure's first live album, Concert consisted of performances from this tour. At tour's end, Anderson was fired for destroying a hotel room and replaced by Boris Williams. Thornalley left and was replaced by returnee Simon Gallup, after being asked to rejoin by Smith.

During this time, The Cure became a very popular band in Europe (particularly in France, Germany and in the Benelux) and increasingly popular in the USA. Throughout 1986 Lol Tolhurst's alcohol consumption was interfering with his ability to perform, and Psychedelic Furs keyboardist Roger O'Donnell was frequently called upon to stand in for him.

In 1987, The Cure released the double LP Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, which reached #6 in the UK and #35 in the US, due to the combination of the group's rising popularity and the success of lead single, "Why Can't I Be You?" Kiss Me's third single, Just Like Heaven went on to be their most successful and critically acclaimed single to date in the US, being their first to enter the Top 40. The song's video was later chosen as the best alternative video of all time by MTV's 120 Minutes. After the album's release, the band embarked on the successful Kissing Tour. In 1988 the band history Ten Imaginary Years was released, and Lol Tolhurst, though he had not yet officially left the band, was replaced by O'Donnell.

In 1989 The Cure released the album Disintegration, which became their highest charting album in the UK to date, entering at #3 and featuring three Top 30 singles in the UK ("Lullaby", "Lovesong" and "Pictures of You"). Disintegration also reached an impressive #12 on the US charts, where it had a lengthy run and greatly increased their popularity in the United States. The first single stateside, "Fascination Street," reached #1 on the American Modern Rock chart, but was quickly overshadowed when its third US single, "Lovesong," reached #2 on the American pop charts (the only Cure single to reach the American Top 10).

Shortly before the release, Tolhurst left permanently, leaving Smith as the only remaining founding member of the group. Because Tolhurst was still on the payroll during the recording of Disintegration, he was credited in the album's liner notes as playing "other instruments," however it has since been revealed that he contributed nothing to the album. The Cure then embarked on the Prayer Tour, which featured some of the band's longest ever shows; their final gig at Wembley Arena (announced by Smith as "probably our last show") lasted over three and a half hours.

In 1990 The Cure released a collection of remixes called Mixed Up. It was panned by critics. Smith has said that he expected this, but decided to release the collection anyway. Since it was released just after a mass audience had discovered the Cure, "Mixed Up" still managed to sell well; it also spun off a modest hit with the one new song on the collection, "Never Enough".

In May of that year, O'Donnell left the band and Thompson suggested long time guitar tech Perry Bamonte as his replacement. "Mixed Up" was followed in 1992 by the album Wish, which became their highest-charting LP of all time, reaching #1 in the UK and #2 in the US. The Cure also embarked on the "Wish Tour" with Portsmouth's Cranes and released the live albums Show (September 1993) and Paris (October 1993). As a promotional exercise with the Our Price music chain in the UK, a limited edition EP was released consisting of instrumental outtakes from the Wish sessions. Entitled Lost Wishes, the proceeds from the four track cassette tape went to charity. Porl Thompson (guitar) left the band once more during 1993 to play with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, and Bamonte took over as lead guitar. The band then contributed a new song, "Burn", to the soundtrack of "The Crow", the only original song with the Smith-Gallup-Williams-Bamonte lineup, as well as a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" for a Hendrix tribute album.

During 1994, Lol Tolhurst sued Robert Smith and Fiction Records over royalties payments, also claiming joint ownership of the name "The Cure" with Smith; after a long legal battle Tolhurst eventually lost. Boris Williams (drums) left the band, and was replaced by Jason Cooper (formerly with My Life Story), and Roger O'Donnell rejoined. The Smith-Gallup-Bamonte-Cooper-O'Donnell lineup was one of the longest for The Cure. The first song they wrote was "Dredd Song" for the Judge Dredd movie soundtrack in 1995. There was also a cover of David Bowie's "Young Americans" for a radio compilation.

In 1996 The Cure released Wild Mood Swings. The album was their worst received since 1984's The Top. The first two singles, "The 13th" and "Mint Car" both fared modestly on the UK singles chart and the US Modern Rock chart, however the next singles, "Gone!" and "Strange Attraction" were commercial failures.

1997 saw the release of Galore, the follow-up to The Cure's multi-platinum singles collection, Standing on a Beach. Galore contained all of the Cure's singles released between 1987 and 1996, as well as the new single "Wrong Number," which featured longtime David Bowie guitarist Reeves Gabrels. Gabrels also accompanied the Cure on a brief American radio festival tour as an onstage guest guitarist for "Wrong Number."

In 1998 Smith appeared as himself on the animated TV show South Park (Episode 112, Mecha-Streisand). The Cure also contributed to the soundtrack album for The X-Files: Fight the Future as well as the Depeche Mode tribute album For the Masses, with their cover of "World in My Eyes."

The Grammy-nominated album Bloodflowers was released in 2000. This album was, according to Smith, the third of a trilogy along with Pornography and Disintegration. The band also embarked on the nine-month Dream Tour, attended by over one million people worldwide. In 2001 The Cure left Fiction and released their Greatest Hits album and DVD, which featured the music videos for a number of classic Cure songs.

In 2002 they continued recording, and also headlined twelve major music festivals, in addition to playing several three-hour concerts during which they performed the albums Pornography, Disintegration and Bloodflowers in their entireties on back-to-back nights at the Tempodrome in Berlin. These performances were released as the Trilogy DVD in 2003.

In the spring of 2003, The Cure signed to Geffen Records. In 2004 The Cure released a new four-disc boxed set on Fiction Records titled Join the Dots: B-Sides and Rarities, 1978-2001 (The Fiction Years). The set includes seventy Cure songs, some previously unreleased, and a 76-page full-colour book of photographs, history and quotes, packaged in a hard cover. This album peaked at #106 on the Billboard 200 album charts.

The Cure released their first eponymous album on Geffen Records on June 28, 2004, which was produced by the label's owner, nu-metal guru Ross Robinson. It made a top ten debut on both sides of the Atlantic in July 2004 and debuted in the top 30 in Australia. To promote this album, the band headlined the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on May 2. They also appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Robert Smith live in concert at the Southside Festival, 2004From July 24 to August 29, The Cure headlined the Curiosa concert tour of North America. Smith hand-selected all eleven openers to perform before The Cure. The concert had two stages, with the headlining bands Interpol, The Rapture, and Mogwai on the main stage and the supporting bands Muse, Cursive, Head Automatica, Thursday, Scarling., The Cooper Temple Clause, and Melissa Auf Der Maur on the second stage.

The group were awarded MTV Icon for 2004. The ceremony included performances of Cure songs by the groups AFI ("Just Like Heaven"), blink-182 ("A Letter to Elise"), Razorlight ("Boys Don't Cry") and the Deftones ("If Only Tonight We Could Sleep"), and was hosted by Marilyn Manson. Smith subsequently included songs by AFI, Blink 182 and the Deftones in his setlist whilst presenting a special John Peel evening session on BBC Radio 1, shortly before Peel's death.

Inspired by Rhino Records' series of Elvis Costello reissues, 2004-2006 has seen the reissue of several of The Cure's early albums, including Three Imaginary Boys (December 2, 2004), Seventeen Seconds, Faith, Pornography (April 26, 2005), The Top, The Head on the Door, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me and The Glove's Blue Sunshine (August 8, 2006). Each is presented as a Deluxe Edition, including a bonus second disc of mostly previously unreleased material, including demos, live performances and album out-takes. All the studio albums up to Bloodflowers were intended to be re-released in 2004, but the record label did not want to release them at the same time as The Cure, and the first batch (1979-1982) was delayed until late 2004/early 2005. The release of the second batch (1983-1987) was then scheduled for June/July 2006, but released in August.

In May 2005, Smith fired Roger O'Donnell and Perry Bamonte from the band, along with Bamonte's brother Daryl, who had been The Cure's tour manager for many years. They reportedly were not informed of such until they saw it featured on a Cure fansite. The remaining members of the band (Robert Smith, Simon Gallup and Jason Cooper) made a few appearances as a trio before it was announced in June that Porl Thompson would be returning for the band's 2005 summer shows, including their set at Live 8 in Paris on July 2.

Also in 2005, the band (as a trio) recorded a cover of John Lennon's "Love" for Amnesty International's charity album Make Some Noise. It is available for download on the Amnesty website and the album has been scheduled to be released on CD in 2006.

The Cure quartet have been writing and recording new material throughout 2006 and plan to release their thirteenth studio album within the year, which was originally reported to have been scheduled for release on Smith's birthday, April 21st. As of May, Smith has said that the band are "hoping for a Halloween release". Geffen Records have confirmed this date in a press release concerning the first batch of releases from their new Suretone Records label.

Although, Robert smith has said that the album might end up being a double album and released in 2007.

The group appeared at the Royal Albert Hall on April 1st, on behalf of the Teenage Cancer Trust. It is their only show through to the end of summer 2006.

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THE CURE BIOGRAPHY