The originators of "
mope rock" and one of the foundations for
gothic music, the
Easy Cure was formed in 1977 in Crawley,
England.
Robert Smith,
Michael Dempsey and
Laurence "Lol" Tolhurst were the players and the 1979
Camus inspired "
Killing An Arab" was the single that meant they had a future:
Fiction picked them up and supported them--with a little help from
Elektra--for the next twenty-odd years. By the time the single hit the radio the band's name had changed to the simple yet catchy "
Cure".
I'm not going to even begin with all the hirings and firings that took place at the hands of Mr. Smith ... suffice to say The Cure has had at least 25 members in as many years, many who played on only one album and was immediately fired. Tolhurst himself, a founding member and the dude who came up with their name was fired after 1987's Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me for "being inept". (The poor bastard really couldn't play anyway...)
At the end of the day what you've got here is a resilient Robert Smith and some very loyal, brilliant musicians...namely Perry Bamonte, Boris Williams and Simon Gallup who, on and off, have been the backbone of the biggest selling "underground" band of the post-punk eighties. Since 1986's The Head on the Door Smith has annually
- Threatened to "never tour in the U.S. again"
- Threatened that "this is the last album The Cure will ever make"
Luckily, Smith is fickle. I'll go ahead and attempt a
discography...I guarantee you it's incomplete:
See also:
The Cure
Released on Geffen Records, 6/29/2004