The Cure

Gothic rock, Siouxsie and the Banshees. DNA on DNA 2004 - No More Records, NoCD12. The Cure, Join the Dots: B-Sides and Rarities 1978-2001 (15). American Clavé Sampler: various artists (one DNA track) 1993 - American Clave (USA), AMCL 1020/1026 (2xCD). 2. Last Live at CBGB 1993 - Avant (Japan), Avant 006 (CD). The Cure, Join the Dots: B-Sides and Rarities 1978-2001 (13). The Fruit of Original Sin: various artists (Three DNA tracks) 1981 - Les Disques Du Crepuscule, twi 035 (2xLP).

1. A Taste of DNA 1981 - American Clavé, AMCL 1003EP (12"). Given that the group had just recently released a four-disc set of b-sides, the amount of non-album material the band possesses appears to be rather high. No New York: various artists (Four DNA tracks) 1978 - Antilles, AN 7067 (LP). Inspired by Elvis Costello's reissues, other albums ("Faith", "Seventeen Seconds" and "Pornography") are planned in the series. "You & You" b/w "Little Ants" 1978 - Lust/Unlust Music, 11-CAN-234. In 2004, a reissue of Three Imaginary Boys was released, with a second bonus disc of unreleased material, demos, live tracks etc. They have since taken the name The DNA Disciples to avoid confusion with the no wave band described above, and also produced a second Suzanne Vega remix, "Rusted Pipe".

The show was hosted by Marilyn Manson. DNA was also the pseudonym taken by two British dance producers for a remix of Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner". In the event, many artists ranging from AFI to Blink 182 covered various Cure songs as a tribute to the band. The contemporary indie rock band Blonde Redhead takes its name from a DNA song. The Cure have been made 2004's MTV Icon. Lindsay and Mori and to a lesser extent Crutchfield have remained active in music. The album also received a generally positive reaction with some critics rating it as the group's best since Disintegration. DNA on DNA, a comprehensive CD chronicle of the band, was released by No More Records in 2004.

The album The Cure made a top ten debut on both sides of the Atlantic in July 2004 and debuted in the top 30 in Australia. DNA's final encore was a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love." Sadly, this is not included on the CD Last Live at CBGB, released more than a decade later on John Zorn's Avant label. They also appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It's a measure of the cult following the band had developed that its final concerts were three consecutive sold-out nights at CBGB. To promote this album, the band headlined the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on May 2. Lindsay, Mori, and Wright decided to dissolve the band in 1982. The Cure released their first eponymous album on iam records on June 28, 2004. Some live DNA tracks appeared on compilation albums while the band was still in existence.

This album peaked at #106 on the Billboard 200 album charts. DNA recorded but one (brief, approximately 10 minutes) album - A Taste of DNA - for Kip Hanrahan's American Clavé label (later on Rough Trade) in 1980. 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. Live shows were frequent in this period, but rarely outside of the CBGB - Mudd Club - TR3 circuit in lower Manhattan. 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 Lindsay-Mori-Wright lineup of DNA developed something of a cult following between 1979 and 1982, but more with art than with rock audiences. In the spring of 2003, The Cure signed to iam Records. Song structures became tighter, briefer, more abstract, and have been compared to haiku.

These performances were relased as the Trilogy DVD in 2003. The music became even more spare and angular, with Wright's bass lines creating a sometimes menacing sound. 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 entirety in Berlin. As Wright played bass and not keyboards, and was the only member of the band really to have any conventional instrumental technique, the change in DNA's sound was dramatic. In 2001 The Cure left Fiction and released their Greatest Hits album. He was replaced by Tim Wright, previously of the Cleveland band Pere Ubu. The band also embarked on the nine-month Dream Tour, attended by over one million people worldwide. Shortly after the recording of No New York, Crutchfield left DNA to form a new band, Dark Day.

This album was widely seen as the third in a trilogy including Pornography and Disintegration. The other three bands appearing on this album were The Contortions, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, and Mars. The Grammy-nominated album Bloodflowers was released in 2000. Within their first year, they had cemented their reputation as a paradigmatic no wave band when Brian Eno selected them as one of the four groups documented on the No New York LP, the first recording to expose no wave groups to an audience outside of lower Manhattan. The Cure also contributed to the soundtrack album for The X-Files: Fight the Future as well as For the Masses, a Depeche Mode tribute album. This lineup of DNA played occasionally at CBGB and Max's Kansas City and recorded one 7" single. In 1996 The Cure released the album Wild Mood Swings, and in 1998 Smith appeared as himself on the animated TV show South Park. After the rapid departure of Stevenson and Cervenka, Lindsay and Crutchfield hastily recruited Ikue Mori - a Japanese woman with little command of English and no drum set - to be DNA's drummer.

Boris Williams (drums) left the band, and was replaced by Jason Cooper (formerly with My Life Story), and Roger O'Donnell rejoined. This incarnation of the band was very brief, not playing even one concert. 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. Stevenson went on to play bass for Teenage Jesus and the Jerks; Cervenka was the younger sister of Exene Cervenka of X. Porl Thompson (guitar) left the band once more during 1993 to play with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. DNA originally consisted of Lindsay, Crutchfield, Gordon Stevenson, and Mirielle Cervenka, and took its name from a song by another no wave band, Mars. The EP has since become an extremely sought after item, copies exchanging hands for approaching £100. Their music was described as spare, noisy, and angular and was compared to some of Captain Beefheart's output and even to Anton Webern.

Entitled Lost Wishes, the proceeds from the four track cassette tape went to charity. Rather than playing their instruments in a traditional manner, they instead focused on making unique and unusual sounds. 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. Formed in 1978 by guitarist Arto Lindsay and keyboardist Robin Crutchfield, DNA were inspired by a promoter who wanted a band composed of first-time musicians. The Cure also embarked on the "Wish Tour" and released the live albums Show and Paris. DNA was a short-lived but influential New York rock band, associated with the no wave movement. "Mixed Up" was followed in 1992 by the album Wish, which went straight to #1 in the UK and to #2 in the US.

In 1990 The Cure released a collection of remixes called Mixed Up, a collection which was roundly panned by both critics and fans (Smith says that he expected this, but decided to release the collection anyway). This tour featured some of the band's longest ever shows; their final gig at Wembley Arena (announced By Robert as "probably our last show") lasted over three and a half hours. The Cure embarked on the "Prayer" tour. In 1989 they released the album Disintegration, which became their highest-charting album to date at #3 and featured four Top 20 singles ("Lullaby", "Fascination Street", "Pictures of You", and "Lovesong"). Shortly before the release, Tolhurst left permanently, leaving Smith as the only remaining founding member of The Cure.

In 1988 the band history Ten Imaginary Years was released, and Lol Tolhurst, though he had not yet left the band, was replaced by Roger O'Donnell. In 1987 The Cure released the double album Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, and embarked on the "Kissing Tour.". Throughout 1986 Lol Tolhurst's alcohol consumption was interfering with his ability to perform, and Roger O'Donnell was frequently called upon to stand in for him. The album's title was taken from a line in the song "Killing an Arab." This release was accompanied by a video version called Staring at the Sea and by another tour, as well as a live concert film called The Cure In Orange.

Following this release and another world tour, the band released Standing on a Beach, a collection featuring all The Cure's singles and B-sides. In 1985 the new lineup released The Head on the Door which reached #7 in the UK and #59 on the American charts. Robert Smith later expressed his satisfaction with the reunited Cure, saying "we're a band again.". At the end of the tour, however, Anderson was fired and replaced by Boris Williams, and Thornalley was replaced by returnee Simon Gallup.

The Cure then embarked on their "Top Tour" with Thompson, Anderson, and bassist Phil Thornalley on board. In 1984 The Cure released The Top, an album on which Smith played all the instruments except the drums (played by Andy Anderson) and the saxophone (played by returnee Porl Thompson). Reduced to the duo of Smith and Tolhurst, the Cure released four studio singles and their B-sides as the album Japanese Whispers. The singles from this period were uncharacteristically upbeat and accessible, though Smith would soon return to writing more melancholy (if not as somber) material. The same year, Smith also recorded and toured with Siouxsie and the Banshees, contributing his writing and playing skills on their Hyaena and Nocturne albums, as well as recording the Blue Sunshine album as The Glove (see above).

In 1983 The Cure released two more singles, "The Walk" (UK #12) and "The Lovecats," which became the band's first UK top 10 single at #7. Smith says that he "doesn't even remember making a lot of Pornography" (2). After an altercation in a club between Smith and Simon Gallup, Gallup left the group and started another one called Fools Dance. The release was followed by the "Fourteen Explicit Moments" tour, and by increasing problems among the members.

Perhaps because of the rumours, Pornography became the band's first UK Top 10 album, hitting the charts at #9. In 1982 The Cure recorded Pornography, a bleak, nihilist offering that led to more rumours that Smith was suicidal. The band members' lives began to be marked by increasing drug use. Smith's increasing depression was embodied in the album, Faith, released in 1981.

In the next two years, I genuinely felt that I wasn't going to be alive for much longer, and I tried pretty hard to make this feeling come true" (1). Now 21, Smith "didn't see that there was much point in continuing with life. Carnage Visors was used as a "tour support" film for their "Picture Tour". In 1981 came the album Faith, which hit #14 on the UK charts, as well as an instrumental soundtrack for the film Carnage Visors (these were packaged together as a long-play cassette called Faith/Carnage Visors).

The Cure set out on their first world tour, at the end of which Matthieu Hartley left the band. "A Forest" became the band's first UK hit single. In 1980 the 4-piece Cure released "Seventeen Seconds" which reached #20 on the UK charts. Member Michael Dempsey left the band, and Simon Gallup (bass) and Matthieu Hartley (keyboards) joined.

The next single "Boys Don't Cry" was a minor hit in the US, and Three Imaginary Boys was repackaged for sale there as Boys Don't Cry. In 1979, The Cure released the album Three Imaginary Boys and embarked on an extensive period of touring, during which they performed with various other iconic bands such as Joy Division and Siouxsie & the Banshees, leading eventually to a collaboration between Smith and Banshees member Steven Severin, released under the name The Glove. The Cure released their first single "Killing an Arab" to 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 B-Side to the single "Boys Don't Cry", "Do the Hansa" was The Cure's way of getting back at Hansa Records for not signing them.

A year later, following disagreements about the direction the group should take, the newly named The Cure were signed as a trio (minus Porl Thompson) by former Polydor records scout Chris Parry's new Fiction label (distributed by Polydor). In 1977, The Easy Cure auditioned for Hansa Records and received a recording contract worth £1000. They began writing their own songs almost immediately, and quickly amassed both an impressive repertoire of original material and a growing following. Wilfrid's Catholic Comprehensive School in Crawley, Sussex.

In 1976 Robert Smith, a 17-year-old student, formed The Easy Cure with classmates Michael Dempsey (bass), Lol Tolhurst (drums) and Porl Thompson (guitar) from St. The band is often considered as being part of the Gothic genre, possibly because of lead singer Robert Smith's image, but Smith rejects this, saying that he considers the band to be mainstream. The Cure is a British rock band widely seen as one of the leading pioneers of the British alternative rock and post-punk scenes of the 1980s. Jason Cooper (percussion; member 1995-present).

Perry Bamonte (keyboards, guitars; member 1990-present). Roger O'Donnell (keyboards; member 1987-1990 & 1995-present). Boris Williams (percussion; member 1984-1994). Andy Anderson (percussion; member 1983-1984).

Phil Thornalley (bass guitar; member 1983-1984). Matthieu Hartley (keyboards; member 1979-1980). Simon Gallup (bass guitar; member 1979-1982 & 1985-present). Michael Dempsey (bass guitar; member 1976-1979).

Lol Tolhurst (percussion, keyboards; member 1976-1989). Porl Thompson (guitars; member 1977-1978 & 1984-1992). Robert Smith (vocals, guitar, keyboards; member 1976-present). Trilogy.

Greatest Hits. Galore. The Cure Play Out. Picture Show.

The Cure in Orange. Standing on a Beach. "I want to be old" - demo from '77/'78. "Need Myself" - demo from '77/'78.

"Listen" - demo from '77/'78. "Meathook" - demo from '77/'78. "See the children" - demo from '77/'78. Join the Dots: B-Sides and Rarities, 1978-2001 (The Fiction Years) (2004) #106 US.

Greatest Hits (2001, compilation of singles 1978-2001/two new tracks) #33 UK, #58 US. Galore (1997, compilation of singles 1987-1997) #37 UK, #32 US. Show (1993, live) #29 UK, #42 US. Paris (1993, live) #118 US.

Mixed Up (1990, remixes) #8 UK, #14 US. Integration (boxed set). Entreat (1991) (songs from Distintegration live) #10 UK. Standing on a Beach (1986, singles compilation) #4 UK, #48 US.

Available only on cassette. Concert and Curiosity (1984), The Concert album with unreleased tracks on the b-side. Concert (1984, live) #26 UK. Happily Ever After (Seventeen Seconds and Faith together U.S.-only release).

Faith/Carnage Visors (1981), a special long-play cassette. Three Imaginary Boys (2CD Deluxe edition)(2004). The Cure (2004) #8 UK, #7 US