THE CURE

Formed: 1976, Crawley, England

Members: Perry Bamonte, guitar, keyboard (born London, England, 3 September 1960); Jason Cooper, drums (born London, England, 31 January 1967); Roger O'Donnell keyboard (born 29 October 1955); Robert Smith, vocals, guitar (born Blackpool, England, 21 April 1959); Porl Thompson, guitar (born Wimbledon, England, 8 November 1957). Former members: Michael Dempsey, bass (born Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, 29 November 1958); Simon Gallup, bass (born Duxhurst, England, 1 June 1960); Mathieu Hartley, keyboard (born Smallfield, England, 4 February 1960); Laurence Tolhurst, drums, keyboards (born Horley, England, 3 February 1959); Boris Williams, drums (born Versailles, France, 24 April 1957).

Genre: Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: Wish (1992)

Hit songs since 1990: "Love Song," "Friday, I'm in Love," "High"

The British alternative rock band the Cure slowly built up a cult following throughout the 1980s in their native United Kingdom and in the United States. The Cure achieved the biggest success of their career in the early 1990s with the albums Disintegration (1989) and Wish (1992). During their rise to popularity, the guitar-based band struck a chord with alienated teenagers and music fans who were tired of the same old thing.

The driving force behind the band is the songwriter Robert Smith. Because of the many who have found solace in his eccentric punk style and in the band's dark lyrics, the Cure have enjoyed a rabid fan base.

The Early Years

Robert Smith has been one of the few constant members in the lineup of the Cure, a band known for its rapid membership turnover, especially among keyboardists and drummers. Smith grew up in the suburban town of Crawley and started learning the guitar when he was six. A decade later he formed Easy Cure with his school friends Laurence "Lol" Tolhurst on drums and Michael Dempsey on bass. Although they came together with a hardscrabble, scruffy aura that prevailed during the punk explosion in Britain, the band distinguished itself from others with atmospheric touches of keyboards and an unusual vocalist with an unwavering ability to turn private pain into pop songs. The band caught the attention of an A&R man, Chris Parry, with their song "Killing an Arab," inspired by Albert Camus's classic novel The Stranger. With this remarkable single, which helped break them through to radio, the Cure found themselves in a similar category of ironic, literate guitar bands such as fellow Brits the Smiths.

Parry signed them to his new record label, Fiction Records, and the band released their follow-up single, "Boys Don't Cry," a midtempo tune with Smith crooning, "I would do most anything to get you back by my side / But I just keep on laughing hiding the tears in my eyes because / Boys don't cry." The tune, from their album Three Imaginary Boys (1979), was well received and helped land them a spot as an opening act for goth punk-rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees.

By the mid-1980s the Cure had released the commercially successful album The Head on the Door (1985); at this point the Cure consisted of Smith and Tolhurst. A couple of eccentric hits followed: the jazzy, piano pop song "The Love Cats" and the unusual "The Caterpillar," which featured Smith on violin. The Cure, firmly established as pop oddballs, toured South America and recorded their double album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1988), which reached the U.S. Top 40 and achieved platinum status. The album catapulted them from cult status in America to arena-filling popularity. The imminently danceable "Why Can't I Be You?" and "Catch" were popular, and the album's "Just Like Heaven" reached the Top 40 in the U.S. All of these tunes exemplified the quality that carried the Cure through the 1990s: offbeat, catchy, slightly eccentric alternative rock with intimations of the macabre.

Disintegration: A Foreshadowing

Before recording their next album, the band took off for a two-year hiatus and reconvened for Disintegration (1989), their most downbeat, depressing album to date. However, the album yielded several singles, including the creepy "Lullaby"; the yearning, sad "Pictures of You"; and the hopeless romanticism of "Lovesong." The personnel instability continued, with Tolhurst leaving to form his own band; the Cure then became a band of one, consisting only of Smith, the sole founding member.

Shortly after Tolhurst's departure, Smith announced there would be no more touring of America and went on to release Mixed Up (1990), a double album of remixes, reissues, and re-recordings of their singles. By 1992 the band consisted of Smith, Gallup, Perry Bamonte on keyboards and guitar, Porl Thompson, and Boris Williams. They released Wish (1992), their most vibrant and uncharacteristically sunny album. The upbeat nature of the singles helped Wish become the band's best seller. Reinvigorated, the Cure toured America and scored a series of hits with the giddy, celebratory "Friday I'm in Love" and "High." On Wish, the guitars are lighter, sunnier, and chiming rather than heavy, squalling, and laden with effects. There are still elements of bittersweet heartbreak, but overall Wish marked a psychological turning point for the band.

Infighting, drinking, and court battles plagued the band in June 1993, when Tolhurst unsuccessfully sued Smith for alleged unpaid royalties. The band staggered on, with Jason Cooper replacing Williams as drummer. The Cure recorded the unremarkable Wild Mood Swings (1996) and then Bloodflowers (2000), thus refuting Smith's proclamation that he would disband the Cure by his fortieth birthday. He did, however, declare it to be the band's final album, a statement he later retracted. The Cure played in Europe to much success in 2002 and in 2003 recorded another album, determined to perpetuate a legacy of gloomy beauty unrivaled by any other band of the 1990s.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Boys Don't Cry (1980); Standing on the Beach, Staring at the Sea: The Singles, 1978–1985 (Elektra, 1986); Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (Elektra, 1988); Disintegration (Elektra, 1989); Wish (Elektra, 1992); Wild Mood Swing (Elektra, 1996); Galore: The Singles 1987–1997 (Elektra,1997); Bloodflowers (Elektra, 2000).

carrie havranek