It seems apt, given the release of their first new material in sixteen years (not to mention that it was Halloween the other day, not that they would thank me for that reference), to do one of our in-depth looks at.... The Cure.
Creepy Crawley
April 1973 - Notre Dame Middle School, Crawley, West Sussex, England - the auspicious first show for the band Obelisk. Alright, it wasn't that auspicious as it was their only show! But this band did include Marc Ceccagno on drums, Alan Hill on bass, Michael Dempsey on guitar, Lol Tolhurst on percussion and Robert Smith on keyboards.
Fast forward to January 1976, this time we are at St Wilfred's Comprehensive School, also in Crawley - now Smith, Ceccagno, Dempsey and two others are in Malice, playing Bowie and Hendrix covers.
By April, Ceccagno and the two unnamed others were gone, Tolhurst was back in, along with Martin Creary on vocals and Porl Thompson on guitar. This line up played at least three shows before Creary departed because of the influence of punk on their musical choices. The band now became, matching one of Thompson's songs, Easy Cure.
This new line up and name won a talent show in May 1977, giving them the incredible opportunity to sign with German label Ariola-Hansa.
Gigs, demos and changes
With recording sessions imminent for their new label, the interestingly named vocalist, Peter O'Toole leaves, meaning the band were on the lookout for a new singer. They held auditions, but in the end Robert Smith got the gig.
And so, in October and November 1977, in between continued gigging in the Sussex area, Easy Cure found themselves in SAV Studios, London doing their first demo. Hansa however, didn't like the demos, and certainly weren't interested in releasing the prospective first single, Killing An Arab (from the Albert Camus novel, The Stranger, rather than some weird promotion of anti-Arabic violence), and so the contract was dissolved.
Killing An Arab (Official music video)
Not liking his style, Thompson was dismissed from the band, and they also shortened their name to The Cure. They found themselves back in the studio, Chestnut Studios this time, with a demo that they sent around to a dozen labels. Polydor scout Chris Parry took a punt on them, signing them to his Fiction label. Killing An Arab was now finally released as a single (December 1978).
1977: the punk influence and all that
It might be hard to discern it now from their music, but it was the punk movement that made The Cure. Smith explained, "I grew up listening to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd 'cause that was what got played in the house, but 1977 changed me - it was the best summer of my life. I remember listening to Anarchy [in the UK] for the very first time at a party and thinking this is it! You knew straight away, you either loved or hated it, and it polarised an entire nation for that summer. I saw Buzzcocks at The Electric Circus, I loved them and I felt I found my generations music."
He was also keen on the work of The Stranglers, and especially their ability to fuse various genres and melodies, as he told Guitar World; "I mean, I really liked the Pistols. They were brilliant at parties. And The Clash were awesome live. But the Stranglers were just incredible."
Depressing debut?
In May 1979, debut album Three Imaginary Boys came out to a little bit of disappointment, even from the band, who seemed unhappy with it. The consensus was that it was a little lightweight and 'superficial', although Sounds was a bit more positive, saying, "The Cure are going somewhere different on each track, the ideas are startling and disarming."
From August to October that year, The Cure went out supporting Siouxsie & The Banshees on their UK tour. By Aberdeen, Banshee John McKay had quit, leading to Smith also filling in for them on guitar for the remaining dates.
Following that, Michael Dempsey was dumped (he would join The Associates), and the group were replaced by Simon Gallup on bass and Matthieu Hartley on keyboards. Smith would say of Dempsey's departure - "he wanted us to be XTC part 2 - and if anything - I wanted us to be the Banshees part 2."
Seventeen Seconds came out the following year, with Smith co-producing with Mike Hedges (who has also worked with the Banshees and Manic Street Preachers). A Forest became the bands first UK hit, breaking the Top40 at number 31. The reception was also better than for the first, with Ian Cranna writing in Smash Hits that it had "powerful melodic intensity." The sound wasn't for everyone though, with Hartley leaving owing to the sombre nature of the music.
1981s Faith kept up the sombre tone, with Heidi Ortiz later writing in the Tacoma Ledger that "the seriousness of their craft was so profound that the band admitted to being 'stuck in a ghoulish rut." Charlotte Sometimes provided a non-album hit (and a first inside the Top20) - but it didn't lighten the mood much. "It's gloomy but frequently majestic, never using brute force where auto-suggestion will do. You may not love it, but you'll become addicted to it." (Adam Sweeting - Melody Maker)
A Forest (Official music video - one of their most atmospheric songs)
Pornographic breakthrough and breakup?
It was Pornography (1982) that was to cement the band's reputation as the so-called leaders of goth rock (again, I probably wouldn't be thanked for saying that). There was influence from the first self-titled Psychedelic Furs record, which has a 'density of sound', and also from their friends the Banshees. Simon Gallup described the tone as being quite nihilistic - Ortiz notes that "it's nihilistic, dispirited and downright miserable subject matter seemed to resonate with many listeners who found themselves as outcasts of society."
There were lots of drugs and alcohol involved at the time. Smith recounts the bleakness of where he was at during the recording; "At the time, I lost every friend I had, everyone, without exception, because I was incredibly obnoxious, appalling, self-centred... [I] channelled all the self-destructive elements of my personality into doing something."
Dave Hill in NME noted its "murderous unity of surging, textured mood", while Adam Sweeting in Melody Maker somewhat more dramatically said, "It's downhill all the way, into ever-decreasing shadows passing through chilly marbled archways to the final rendezvous with the cold comfort of the slab."
The Hanging Garden (Official music video)
Things were hitting the rocks though. Gallup quit the band following a bust up with Smith, and the band went on an eighteen month hiatus while Smith played with the Banshees - including on their album Nocturne & Hyaena. He seems to have been seriously playing with the idea of finishing the band off, since he was not liking being stuck in a format. It was Chris Parry who stepped in, convincing them that what was needed was to reinvent themselves.
The Cure go Pop
The first result was Let's Go To Bed, a 'throwaway' tune that just missed the UK Top40 - but that was followed by The Walk, which made number 12, and then The Lovecats, which gave them a Top10 hit. The Cure appeared to have gone a bit... well, pop.
The Lovecats (Official music video - joyous, well for The Cure)
1984s The Top provided the listener with a more psychedelic sound, with Smith actually playing everything on it except for drums (done by Andy Anderson) and the saxophone, which was provided by old friend Porl Thompson, who also ended up joining the band.
Andy Strike in Record Mirror thought it to be "a record of wicked originality and wit", and it was also their first LP to crack the US Top200. Anderson begun the subsequent tour, but did not make it to the end, getting fired and being briefly replaced by Vince Ely of the Psychedelic Furs, and then Boris Williams who had recently been in the Thompson Twins. Smith and Gallup managed to reconcile their differences, with Smith acknowledging that, "it's a group again".
The line-up in 1985 was Smith, Gallup, Tolhurst, Williams and Thompson, and they recorded The Head On The Door, which bridged their negative and positive sounds, in a poppier, more eclectic mix. It was another Top10 album for the UK, and they were edging ever closer to the US Top40 (number 59) - and it included two of their most loved and enduring singles, In Between Days and Close To Me.
In Between Days (Live in 1992)
Like Heaven
A major change occurred for 1987s Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, as there was more involvement from the band as a whole, with each member providing demos and democratic decisions being made on which songs to proceed with. It seems like Smith might not have been talking much during recording, and yet despite the return of a more sombre tone to the music, the other band members remember it being fun in the studio.
Singles included Why Can't I Be You? and Just Like Heaven, which is notable because it was the first to breach the US Top40 (albeit at number 40). Smith recalls the latter as being one of the bands strongest songs, although at first he realised he had written something very similar in structure to The Only Ones 1979 hit, Another Girl, Another Planet - so it was left to Williams to add the intro fill and speed the tempo up a bit.
Just Like Heaven (Live in 2018)
By the time of Disintegration (1989), Smith was back into dabbling with hallucinogens, and there were issues with Tolhurst and his drink problem. In the end, Smith was given an ultimatum by the rest of the band - either Tolhurst goes, or the rest of them would quit.
While the album saw a notable return to the dark material of before, there was no let up in commercial success. It seems that their US label, Elektra Records, thought Smith was being "wilfully obscure" with the songs. But Pitchfork would later call the album "darkly seductive" and perhaps their magnum opus. The singles were all hits - there was Lullaby, Fascination Street, Pictures Of You and the love song Smith wrote for his wife, Mary Poole, called Lovesong, which incredibly made it to number 2 in the US.
Lovesong (Official music video - beautiful song)
Wish (1992) would be the last record with Boris Williams on drums, and the first with ex-roadie Perry Bomante on guitar and keyboards. This album includes the memorable Friday I'm In Love, a song that was accidentally sped up by a quarter tone. Smith was not bothered, saying, "the fact that it's the only song on Wish that's not in concert pitch really lifts it out and makes it sound different".
Friday I'm In Love (And here is that fantastic video!)
The end... again?
Porl Thompson was gone by the next album, 1996s Wild Mood Swings, and the record was comparatively poorly received, after the success of the previous records. It included live brass and strings, but was seen to be too long and disjointed.
With only one album left to deliver on their Fiction contract and these poor reviews for the last record - could there be talk of the end again?
Bloodflowers was that final LP, delivered in 2000, a serious record with nothing obviously commercial on it (and no singles released). It was seen as the end of a trilogy with Pornography and Disintegration. Smith summed up where he was at this point; "I achieved my goals, which were to make an album, enjoy making it and end up with something that has real intense, emotional content."
Out Of This World (From Bloodflowers - live in Berlin, 2002)
They left Fiction in 2001 following the expiration of their contract, but it wasn't the end of the band. In 2003 they signed with Geffen, with the first album for them being 2004s self titled The Cure, another Top10 in both the UK and US.
The End Of The World (Official music video)
Songs Of A Lost World
After a long wait due to plotting and planning, there was new material recorded in 2019, the first since 2008s 4:13 Dream, but never released. In 2021, Smith announced that two albums had been laid down, one a doom and gloom record, the other not so much. Things went quiet again until the following year, when Songs Of A Lost World was teased, with a release date suggested before the band's October tour of Europe - but it never materialised.
Then, as summer 2024 slipped into autumn, it was clear it was going to be for real this time. And on 1 November 2024, Songs Of A Lost World was finally released.
Alone (Official lyric video)
I haven't heard it yet, but the initial single and the early reviews suggest a return to the form of the 1980s.
Smith on The Cure - and their legacy
Smith reflected on The Cure and its place in the music world; "We're not categorisable. I suppose we were post-punk when we came out, but in total it's impossible.... I just play Cure music, whatever that is."
He went on to discuss the 'goth' bit; "It's always paradoxical that it's pushed down people's throats that we're a goth band. Because, to the general public, we're not. To taxi drivers, I'm the bloke that sings Friday I'm In Love. I'm not the bloke who sings Shake Dog Shake or One Hundred Years."
Their legacy runs deep, with a wide range of bands owing at least some debt to The Cure - Smashing Pumpkins, Lush, My Bloody Valentine, Interpol, Manic Steet Preachers, Placebo and Mogwai are among those influenced.
Sam Walker-Scott in Cone magazine says, "From the post-punk leanings of their debut to the dreamy grandeur of their magnum opus, Disintegration, Smith and co have changed musical worlds with little care for fan or label expectations."
Owen Adams, writing in The Guardian in 2008, said, "The Cure's greatness far exceeds the combined parts of the largely laughable goth pantheon. Whatever the wild mood swings, Smith's lyrics and their inventive, epic settings are some of the most evocative, swooning and erotic love songs ever made."
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