I’ve been listening to a lot of The Cure lately, maybe I’m depressed, maybe I’m hankerin’ for that pale all-black drawn and pained look or maybe because they’re a brilliant fuckin’ band. My little American friend asked me what would be the best album of theirs to get as her first (she’s 32 and 4′ 9”- she’s dainty but she’s fine ! But what could I say ? Jeez … It’s a doozy of a question and I found myself unable to give any sort of clear answer Which album ? ….hmm Well, prolific, diverse interesting and still relevant today, despite first having been around for almost 35 years They’ve done about 5 billion albums with a similar number of different styles and line-ups.
So hell ! – who were members of this band ? Or better – Who wasn’t ?
Let’s have a look at the chronology
1973 – some of the people who eventually formed The Cure get together under the banner of The Obelisk and did the one single gig – this you can look up for yourself on Wikipedia. The members of The Oblelisk Robert Smith (piano), Mick Dempsey (guitar), Laurence Tolhurst (drums), Marc Ceggano (guitar, lead) and Alan Hill (bass) OK that was just the one show and no known recording of it, but remember the names of the members (that Smith kid will keep cropping up)
1976 – Easy Cure formed with Robert Smith (now vocals and guitar, I guess the piano playing didn’t work out for him, small pianists don’t get a lot of action), Michael Dempsey (bass), Laurance Tolhurst (drums) and Porl Thompson (guitar) – not a lot known about this incarnation except it was
1978 – They dropped the “Easy’ from their name, and Porl Thompson dropped out of the band. Now we have a band called “The Cure”
1979 – released ‘Three Imaginary Boys‘ having signed a record deal – this is the album with “Jumping Someone Else’s Train ‘ and the ever-cheerful ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ (which has been covered ad infinitum by ska bands – Area 7 springs to mind and good luck trying to find that on a CD). This is pretty raw stuff, quite punky which is to be expected considering what was happening on the fringes of English music at the time.
1980 – Yikes ! Dempsey leaves but new members Simon Gallup (bass) and Mattieu Hartley (keyboards) jump on for a ride they release the moody single ‘A Forest’ quite different to their first releases, one might say almost musical. Their second album 17 seconds (another cracker) released Play For today, great single as well as, of course, 17 Seconds – stayed tuned about this album (trivia: The Final Sound only went for 50 seconds because they ran out of tape when recording)
1981 – Crikey ! Hartley jumps off this band’s wagon and tThe Cure is now a three-piece pop combo. This might explain the “Charlotte Sometimes” single and the album ‘Primary‘. Maybe they were all a little bit sad – trios must be very claustrophobic.
1982 – Yeegads ! , now Gallup gallops – what is this is The Cure now a duo ?? The band released the single “Hanging Gardens” and it doesn’t sound like the work of just two dudes – the liner notes credit
* Simon Gallup – bass, keyboard
* Robert Smith – guitar, keyboard, vocals
* Lol Tolhurst – drums, keyboard
Pornography was released, in ’82 a fair bit of pornography was probably released this was the name of The Cure’s album for the year though
1983 They released “The Walk” and “Love Cats.”
1984 The Top and The Caterpillar were released. “The Top” was a hippy pop psychedelic album, Smith played all the instruments except for drums The The Cure were joined by Andy Anderson (drums), Phil Thornalley (bass) and Porl Thompson (guitar)
1985 Andy Anderson and Philip Thornally left the band , or were allowed the opportunity to work with other musicians on other projects.
Boris Williams (drums) and Simon Gallup (bass) joined – is Gallup a sucker for punishment or what ? The Head on the Door album was released. Singles included Inbetween Days and Close to Me two of my favourite singles. Inbetween days was covered by Ben Folds
1986 Singles album released – “Standing on a Beach”. The Cure headlined Glastonbury Festival.
1987 The Cure released a double album, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me. World Tour called “Kissing Tour”. Roger O’Donnell joined (keyboard)
1989 Disintegration was released, from which 4 hit singles were released. — Lol Tolhurst left for the 3rd time (?).
1990 Roger O’Donnell left and was replaced by Perry Bamonte. The Cure headlined Glastonbury, Mixed Up was released, re-mixed singles of Never Enough, Close to Me and A Forest were released.
1992 Recorded “Wish” and toured with Wish Tour, a world wide sell out show. Porl Thompson left.
1993 Live works included Paris and Show. The Cure headlined at the XFM “Great Xpectations” show in Finsbury Park, London.
1994 Boris Williams left.
1995 Jason Cooper joined on drums, Roger O’Donnell rejoined on keyboard. Work started on the Dredd Song, for the film Judge Dredd. Headlined a few European festivals, including the 25th Glastonbury.
1996 Wild Mood Swings was released, went top ten around the world. The Cure embarked on the Swing Tour, their largest to date. 4 singles were released.
1997 Galore, a compilation of sorts- the singles from ’87 to ’97, and a video compilation to Standing on a Beach was released.
1998 More Than This single, for the X files movie
2000 Bloodflowers was released. I don’t like this one all that much, but after collecting so many of their albums, you sort have gotta have it for continuity dontchya ?
2001 The Cure released their Greatest Hits album, which included 2 new songs, Cut Here and Just Say Yes. The Cure departed from Fiction Records, after 23 years. One can only surmise what sort of hell it was for the A&R person who had to deal with the band, imagine every time you had a meeting and seeing either a sea of strangers or the same old faces or a combination of old and new. The only continuity being the sullen dude (who is now getting a bit porky) bedaubed by eyeliner and hair slathered with Gothic Juice (the strongest hairspray known to man)
2002 The Cure head-lined a number of European Festivals, and rehearsed for a special two night performance at the Tempodrom, Berlin. Performances from both nights were shot in High Definition video on 12 cameras.
2003 The Trilogy DVD was released, and the band signed a 3 album global deal with the Geffen label.
2004 Join the Dots, a 4cd Box Set was released, including B sides and rare singles. “The Cure” album was released.
2005 Perry Bamonte and Roger O’Donnell left – I wonder if the band room ever had a revolving door, did the local newsagent have a permanent scrap of paper thumb-tacked to their notice board advertising for “band members to join working band – no time-wasters.”., Porl Thompson returned – surprise surprise !! . The band headlined at Live 8, Paris.
2006 The band closed the Teenage Cancer Trust Show at the Royal Albert Hall, and started work on their 13th studio album. Robert Smith worked on live DVD projects with re-releases of The Top, The Head on the Door, and Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me.
So what do I tell my American Friend ? The styles are so different, the members line-ups changed more frequently than some people change underwear, there’s all those studio albums, the live albums, the bootlegs, the DVDs – hell. I just told her to make up her own mind.
Anyway I may need to edit this from time to time, because I reckon it’s incomplete as it is now.