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The Cure are a successful English rock band, widely seen as one of the leading pioneers of the British alternative rock scene of the 1980s. The band has gone through several lineup changes over its history, with frontman, guitarist, and main songwriter Robert Smith—known for his iconic wild hair, pale complexion, smudged lipstick, and frequently gloomy and introspective lyrics—as the only constant member.
The Cure emerged in the wake of the punk rock revolution in the late 1970s. During the early 1980s the band's increasingly dark and tormented music helped form the gothic rock genre. After the release of 1982's Pornography, the mood was so bad the band almost broke up. With the 1983 single "Let's Go to Bed" Smith began inject more of a pop sensibilty into the band's music. The Cure's popularity increased as the decade wore on, especially in the United States, where the songs "Just Like Heaven" and "Lovesong" entered the Billboard Top 40 charts. By the start of 1990s, The Cure were one of the most popular alternative bands in the world. As of 2007 The Cure have released twelve studio albums and over thirty singles, with a thirteenth album in the works.

Členové skupiny
V současnosti se The Cure skládá z těchto čtyř hudebníků:

Robert Smith - hlavní zpěvák, kytarista, také hráč na klávesy, baskytaru, kontrabas a housle (od 1976 - do současnosti)
Porl Thompson - kytara, ale také hráč na klávesy a saxofon. Výtvarný design. (1976-1978, 1983-1993, 2005 do současnosti)
Simon Gallup - hráč na kontrabas, ale také na klávesy a 12-ti strunnou kytaru (1979-1982, 1985 do současnosti)
Jason Cooper - hráč na bubny a bicí (1995 do současnosti)

Dřívější členové:

Lol Tolhurst - bubny, klávesy, bicí, ostatní nástroje (1976-1989)
Michael Dempsey - kontrabas, doprovodné vokály (1976-1979)
Matthieu Hartley - klávesy (1979-1980)
Phil Thornalley - kontrabas, produkce (1983-1984)
Andy Anderson - bubny (1983-1984)
Boris Williams - bubny (1984-1994)
Roger O'Donnell - klávesy (1987-1990, 1995-2005)
Perry Bamonte - klávesy, kytara, 6ti strunná basa (1990-2005)

Obrazek

Historie skupiny The Cure

Formování skupiny a její počátky
První z toho, čehož stělesněním se stal The Cure byl The Obelisk, skupina ze střední školy Notre Dame z Crawley v Sussexu. Skupina byla založena v prosinci 1972 a figuroval v ní Robert Smith (klavír), Michael Dempsey (kytara), Laurence "Lol" Tolhurst (bicí), Marc Ceccagno (sólová kytara) a Alan Hill na basovou kytaru. Smith later played in another school band known only as "the group", and was a member of his older brother Richard Smith's "The Crawley Goat Band". In January 1976 former Obelisk guitarist Marc Ceccagno formed Malice with Robert Smith —now also on guitar— and Michael "Mick" Dempsey —switching to bass— along with two other classmates from St. Wilfrid's Catholic Comprehensive School. Ceccagno soon left, however, to form a Jazz-rock fusion band called Amulet. Increasingly influenced by the emergence of punk rock, Malice's remaining members became known as Easy Cure in January 1977.[1] Smith and Dempsey had by this time been joined by Lol Tolhurst from The Obelisk on drums, and new lead guitarist Porl Thompson. Both Malice and Easy Cure also trialed several unsuccessful vocalists before Smith finally assumed the role of Easy Cure's frontman in September/October of 1977.

That year, The Easy Cure won a talent competition with the German label Hansa Records, and received a recording contract. Although the band recoded tracks for the company, none were ever released.[2] Following disagreements March of 1978 over the direction the band should take, the contract with Hansa was dissolved. Smith later recalled "We were very young. They just thought they could turn us into a teen group. They actually wanted us to do cover versions and we always refused."[2] Thompson was dropped from the band that April, and the remaining trio (Smith/Tolhurst/Dempsey) re-emerged as The Cure for their first concert on May 18, 1978. Their first studio recordings as The Cure were recorded nine days later at Chestnut Studios in Sussex and were distributed as a demo tape to a dozen major record labels. On September 13 The Cure signed with former Polydor Records scout Chris Parry's newly formed Fiction label —distributed by Polydor. However, as a stop-gap while Fiction finalised distribution arrangements with Polydor, on December 22, 1978 The Cure released their debut single "Killing an Arab" on the Small Wonder label. "Killing an Arab" garnered 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.[3] The band placed a sticker label that denied the racist connotations on the single's 1979 reissue on Fiction. An early NME article on the band wrote that The Cure "are like a breath of fresh suburban air on the capital's smog-ridden pub and club circuit" and noted "With a John Peel session and more extensive London gigging on their immediate agenda, it remains to be seen whether or not The Cure can retain their refreshing joie de vivre."[4]

The Cure released the album Three Imaginary Boys on May 5, 1979. The band —particularly Smith— were unhappy with their debut, claiming they had had no creative control over the final artwork or running order. One particular bone of contention was the inclusion of the Jimi Hendrix cover "Foxy Lady", which Smith said was only recorded as a sound check, but which was released because some representatives of the record label felt that the inclusion of a cover song would help the album's sales. Smith said Chris Parry's production changed the band's sound radically, which alienated Parry from the band.

Between May and July '79 The Cure toured England and Wales to promote the album, followed by a short stint of festival dates in Belgium and the Netherlands before the end of July. Meanwhile, the next single "Boys Don't Cry" had been released in June and was a minor hit in the United States. The Cure then embarked as the support band for Siouxsie & The Banshees' Join Hands promotional tour of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, and the Netherlands between August and October. The tour saw Smith pull double duty each night by performing with The Cure and as the guitarist with The Banshees when John McKay suddenly quit the latter just one night into the tour.

Dempsey was sacked from The band immediately following the tour's completion in October, however he appeared as bassist on the next single "Jumping Someone Else's Train", released later that month. By November, Dempsey had joined the Associates, while Simon Gallup (bass) and Matthieu Hartley (keyboards) from Horley post-punk/new wave band the Mag Spys had joined The Cure. The Associates toured as support band for The Cure and The Passions on the Future Pastimes Tour of England between November and December —all three bands were on the Fiction Records roster— with the new Cure lineup already performing a number of new songs for the projected second album. Meanwhile, a spin-off band comprising Smith, Tolhurst, Dempsey, Gallup, Hartley and Thompson, with backing vocals from assorted family and friends, and lead vocals provided by their local postman Frankie Bell released a 7 inch single in November under the assumed name of Cult Hero. The release featured the songs "I'm a Cult Hero" and "I Dig You".

[edit] Gothic phase
Music samples:
"A Forest" (1980) (file info) — play in browser (beta)
Sample of "A Forest" from Seventeen Seconds.
Problems listening to the file? See media help.
"One Hundred Years" (1982) (file info) — play in browser (beta)
Sample of "One Hundred Years" from Pornography.
Problems listening to the file? See media help.
Wary due to the band's lack of creative control on the first album, Smith exerted a greater influence on the recording of second album Seventeen Seconds, which he co-produced with Mike Hedges.[5] Seventeen Seconds was released in 1980 and reached #20 on the UK charts. The album single "A Forest" became the band's first UK hit single, reaching #31 on the singles chart. The album was a departure from The Cure's sound up to that point, with Hedges describing it as "morose, atmospheric, very different to Three Imaginary Boys."[6] In its review of Seventeen Seconds the NME said "For a group as young as The Cure, it seems amazing that they have covered so much territory in such a brief time.[7]. At the same time Smith was pressed concerning the concept of an alleged "anti-image".[8] Smith told the press he was fed up with the anti-image association that some considered to be "elaborately disguising their plainness", stating "We had to get away from that anti-image thing, which we didn't even create in the first place. And it seemed like we were trying to be more obscure. We just didn't like the standard rock thing. The whole thing really got out of hand."[9] That same year Three Imaginary Boys was repackaged for the U.S market as Boys Don't Cry, with new artwork and a new tracklist. The Cure set out on their first world tour to promote both releases. At the end touring Matthieu Hartley left the band. Hartley said, "I realised that the group was heading towards suicidal, sombre music—the sort of thing that didn't interest me at all."[10]

The band reconvened with Hedges to produce 1981's Faith, which furthered the mood of misery present on Seventeen Seconds.[11] The album hit #14 on the UK charts. Included with cassette copies of Faith was an instrumental soundtrack for Carnage Visors, an animated film shown in place of an opening act for the band's 1981 Picture Tour.[12] In late 1981, The Cure released the non-album single "Charlotte Sometimes". By this point the somber mood of the music was having a profound affect on the attitude of the band. The Cure would refuse requests for older songs in concert, and sometimes Smith would be so absorbed by the persona he projected onstage he would leave at the end in tears.[13]

The Cure recorded and released in 1982 the dark and disturbing Pornography, a nihilistic offering that led to more rumours that Smith was suicidal, rumours likely spurred by the legacy of Ian Curtis' suicide following Joy Division's similarly fatalistic album Closer. Smith has said during the recording of Pornography he was " undergoing a lot of mental stress. But it had nothing to do with the group, it just had to do with what I was like, my age and things. I think I got to my worst round about Pornography. Looking back and getting other people's opinions of what went on, I was a pretty monstrous sort of person at that time."[14] Gallup described the album by saying "Nihilism took over [. . .] We sang 'It doesn't matter if we all die' and that is exactly what we thought at the time."[15] Parry was concerned that the album did not have a hit song for radio play and instructed Smith and producer Phil Thornalley to polish the track "The Hanging Garden" for release as a single.[16] Despite the concerns about the album's uncommercial sound, Pornography became the band's first UK Top 10 album, entering the charts at #8 (despite the fact that very few favorable reviews appeared in the British press). The release was followed by the Fourteen Explicit Moments tour, where the band finally dropped the anti-image angle and first adopted their signature look of big, towering hair and smeared lipstick on their faces.[17] The tour also saw a series of incidents that prompted Simon Gallup to leave The Cure at the tour's conclusion and start another band, called Fools Dance. Gallup and Smith did not talk to each other for eighteen months following his departure.[18]

Increasing commercial success
With the departure of Gallup and Smith's work with Siouxsie & the Banshees, rumors spread that The Cure had broken up. Smith told Melody Maker in December of 1982, "Do The Cure really exist any more? I've been pondering that question myself [. . .] it has got to a point where I don't fancy working in that format again." He added, "Whatever happens, it won't be me, Laurence, and Simon together any more. I know that."[19]

Parry was concerned at the state of his label's top band, and became convinced that the solution was for The Cure to reinvent its musical style. Parry managed to convince Smith and Tolhurst of the idea; Parry said, "It appealed to Robert because he wanted to destroy The Cure anyway."[20] With Tolhurst now playing keyboards instead of drums, the duo released the single "Let's Go to Bed" in late 1982. While Smith played the single off as a throwaway "stupid" pop song to the press,[21] it became a minor hit in the UK, reaching number 44 on the pop charts. It was followed in 1983 by two more successful songs: "The Walk" (UK #12), and the playful "The Lovecats," which became the band's first UK Top 10 reaching #7. They released these studio singles and their b-sides as the compilation album Japanese Whispers, designed by Smith for the Japanese market only, but released worldwide on the decision of the record company. The same year, Smith also recorded and toured with Siouxsie & the Banshees, contributing his writing and playing skills on their Hyaena and Nocturne albums, as well as recording the Blue Sunshine album with Steven Severin as The Glove. Robert Smith also co-produced the album From Under the Hill with Mike Hedges for the band And Also the Trees, who The Cure later toured with in 1984.

In 1984 The Cure released The Top, a tonally diverse yet generally psychedelic album on which Smith played all the instruments except the drums (which were played by Andy Anderson) and the saxophone (which was played by returnee Porl Thompson). This album was a Top 10 hit in the UK and was their first studio album to break the Billboard 200 in the U.S. reaching #180. The Cure then embarked on their worldwide "Top Tour" with Thompson, Anderson, and producer-turned-bassist Phil Thornalley on board. Released in late 1984, The Cure's first live album, Concert consisted of performances from this tour. At tour's end, Anderson was fired for destroying a hotel room and replaced by Boris Williams. Thornalley left and was replaced by returnee Simon Gallup, who was asked to rejoin by Smith. Smith was ecstatic about Gallup's return and declared "It's a group again."[22]

Cover art for the 1986 compilation Standing on a Beach.In 1985, the new lineup released The Head on the Door which reached #7 in the UK and made the Top 10 in several European charts, and for the first time entered the American Top 75 at #59, expanding considerably their audience; a success partly due to the international impact of the LP's two singles, "In Between Days" and "Close to Me". Following this album and another world tour, the band released Standing on a Beach in three formats (each with a different track listing and a specific name) in 1986. This was a compilation featuring all of The Cure's singles from 1978 to 1986. The album's title was taken from the first line of the band's first single, "Killing an Arab". This compilation made the US Top 50, and saw the re-issue of three previous singles: "Boys Don't Cry" (in a new form), "Let's Go To Bed" and later "Charlotte Sometimes". This release was accompanied by VHS and LaserDisc called Staring at the Sea, which featured videos for each track on the compilation. The Cure toured to support the compilation and released a live concert VHS of the show, filmed in the south of France called The Cure in Orange.

During this time, The Cure became a very popular band in Europe (particularly in France, Germany and the Benelux countries) and increasingly popular in the U.S. Throughout 1986 Lol Tolhurst's alcohol consumption was interfering with his ability to perform, and Psychedelic Furs keyboardist Roger O'Donnell was frequently called upon to stand in for him.

In 1987, The Cure released the double LP Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, which reached #6 in the UK, the Top 5 in several European countries and #35 in the US, due to the combination of the band's rising popularity and the success of lead single, "Why Can't I Be You?" (Top 30 hit in UK, France, Germany, Italy, etc.). Kiss Me's third single, "Just Like Heaven" went on to be their most successful and critically acclaimed single to date in the US, being their first to enter the Top 40. The song's video was later chosen as the best alternative video of all time by MTV's 120 Minutes. After the album's release, the band embarked on the successful Kiss Tour. In 1988 Lol Tolhurst, though he had not yet officially left the band, was replaced by O'Donnell.

Disintegration and worldwide success
In 1989 The Cure released the album Disintegration, which saw a return to the dark imagery of earlier releases.[23] It became their highest charting album in the UK to date, entering at #3 and featuring three Top 30 singles in the UK ("Lullaby", "Lovesong" and "Pictures of You"). Disintegration also reached an impressive #12 on the US charts, where it had a lengthy run, and greatly increased their popularity in America. The first single stateside, "Fascination Street," reached #1 on the American Modern Rock chart, but was quickly overshadowed when its third US single, "Lovesong," reached #2 on the American pop charts (the only Cure single to reach the US Top 10).

Shortly before the release, Tolhurst left permanently, leaving Smith as the only remaining founding member of the band. Smith attributed Tolhurst's dismissial to an inability to exert himself and issues with alcohol, concluding, "He was out of step with everything. It had just become detrimental to everything we'd do."[24] Because Tolhurst was still on the payroll during the recording of Disintegration, he was credited in the album's liner notes as playing "other instrument," however it has since been revealed that he contributed nothing to the album in either performance or songwriting. The Cure then embarked on the Prayer Tour, which featured some of the band's longest ever shows; their final gig at Wembley Arena on July 24 (announced by Smith as "probably our last show") lasted over three and a half hours.

After playing Glastonbury Festival in June 1990, The Cure resurrected the 'Garden Party' concert which had run throughout the 1970s in the concert bowl at Crystal Palace park, London, on 11 August supported by Lush, James and All About Eve.

In November 1990, The Cure released a collection of remixes called Mixed Up. It was panned by critics. Smith has said that he expected this, but decided to release the collection anyway. Since it was released just after a mass audience had discovered the Cure, "Mixed Up" still managed to sell well; it also spun off a modest hit with the one new song on the collection, "Never Enough". In 1991 The Cure were awarded the Brit Award for Best British Band.

In May of that year, O'Donnell left the band and Thompson suggested long time guitar tech Perry Bamonte as his replacement. Mixed Up was followed in 1992 by the album Wish, which became their highest-charting LP of all time, reaching #1 in the UK and #2 in the US and yielded the international hits "High" and "Friday I'm in Love". The Cure also embarked on the "Wish Tour" with Portsmouth's Cranes and released the live albums Show (September 1993) and Paris (October 1993). 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. Entitled Lost Wishes, the proceeds from the four track cassette tape went to charity. Porl Thompson (guitar) left the band once more during 1993 to play with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, and Bamonte took over as lead guitar. The band then recorded a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" for a Hendrix tribute album.

Lol Tolhurst sued Robert Smith and Fiction Records in 1994 over royalties payments, and claimed joint ownership of the name "The Cure" with Smith.[25] After a long legal battle Tolhurst eventually lost. Williams left the band, and was replaced by Jason Cooper (formerly of My Life Story), while Roger O'Donnell rejoined. The Smith-Gallup-Bamonte-Cooper-O'Donnell lineup was one of the longer lasting in the bands history. The first song they wrote was "Dredd Song" for the Judge Dredd movie soundtrack in 1995. There was also a cover of David Bowie's "Young Americans" for a radio compilation.

The Cure released Wild Mood Swings in 1996, however the album was their most poorly received since 1984s The Top, although it sold well throughout the World. The first two singles, "The 13th" and "Mint Car" both fared modestly on the UK singles chart and the US Modern Rock chart, however the next singles, "Gone!" and "Strange Attraction" were not successful. Early in 1996 the Cure played festivals in South America, followed by a World tour in support of the WMS album.

1997 saw the release of Galore, the follow-up to The Cure's multi-platinum singles collection, Standing on a Beach. Galore contained all of the Cure's singles released between 1987 and 1997, as well as the new single "Wrong Number," which featured longtime David Bowie guitarist Reeves Gabrels. Gabrels also accompanied the Cure on a brief American radio festival tour as an onstage guest guitarist for "Wrong Number." In 1998 The Cure contributed to the soundtrack album for The X-Files: Fight the Future as well as the Depeche Mode tribute album For the Masses, with their cover of "World in My Eyes."

Recent years
The Grammy-nominated album Bloodflowers was released in 2000. This album was, according to Smith, the third of a trilogy along with Pornography and Disintegration.[26] The band also embarked on the nine-month Dream Tour, attended by over one million people worldwide. In 2001 The Cure left Fiction and released their Greatest Hits album and DVD, which featured the music videos for a number of classic Cure songs. The band headlined twelve major music festivals that year, in addition to playing several three-hour concerts during which they performed the albums Pornography, Disintegration and Bloodflowers in their entireties on back-to-back nights at the Tempodrome in Berlin. These performances were released as the Trilogy DVD in 2003.

In the spring of 2003, The Cure signed to Geffen Records. 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 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. This album peaked at #106 on the Billboard 200 album charts. The Cure released a eponymous album on Geffen Records on June 28, 2004, which was produced by nu-metal guru Ross Robinson. It made a top ten debut on both sides of the Atlantic in July 2004 and debuted in the top 30 in Australia. To promote this album, the band headlined the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on May 2. They also appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Between July 24 to August 29, The Cure headlined the Curiosa concert tour of North America. The concert had two stages, with the headlining bands Interpol, The Rapture, and Mogwai on the main stage and the supporting bands Muse, Cursive, Head Automatica, Thursday, Scarling., The Cooper Temple Clause, and Melissa Auf Der Maur on the second stage. The ten openers which performed before The Cure were hand-picked by Smith himself.

The band was awarded MTV Icon for 2004.[27] The ceremony included performances of Cure songs by the bands AFI ("Just Like Heaven"), blink-182 ("A Letter to Elise"), Razorlight ("Boys Don't Cry") and the Deftones ("If Only Tonight We Could Sleep"), and was hosted by Marilyn Manson. Smith subsequently included songs by AFI, Blink 182 and the Deftones in his set-list whilst presenting a special John Peel evening session on BBC Radio 1, shortly before Peel's death.

Inspired by Rhino Records' series of Elvis Costello reissues, 2004-2006 has seen the reissue of several of The Cure's early albums, including Three Imaginary Boys (December 2, 2004), Seventeen Seconds, Faith, Pornography (April 26, 2005), The Top, The Head on the Door, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me and The Glove's Blue Sunshine (August 8, 2006). Each is presented as a Deluxe Edition, including a bonus second disc of mostly previously unreleased material, including demos, live performances and album out-takes. All the studio albums up to Bloodflowers were intended to be re-released in 2004, but the record label did not want to release them at the same time as The Cure, and the first batch (1979-1982) was delayed until late 2004/early 2005. The release of the second batch (1983-1987) was then scheduled for June/July 2006, but released in August.

In May 2005, Roger O' Donnell and Perry Bamonte left the band, along with Bamonte's brother Daryl, who had been The Cure's assistant for many years. The remaining members of the band (Robert Smith, Simon Gallup and Jason Cooper) made a few appearances as a trio before it was announced in June that Porl Thompson would be returning for the band's 2005 summer shows, including their set at Live 8 in Paris on July 2. Later that year, the band recorded a cover of John Lennon's "Love" for Amnesty International's charity album Make Some Noise. It is available for download on the Amnesty website, while the album has been scheduled to be released on CD in 2006.

In 2006 The Cure appeared at the Royal Albert Hall on April 1 2006, on behalf of the Teenage Cancer Trust. It was their only show through to the end the year. In December a live DVD, entitled The Cure: Festival 2005 including 30 songs of their 2005 Festival tour was released.

The Cure have been writing and recording material for a new - as yet untitled - album throughout 2006. Smith said that the band were "hoping for a Halloween release", but despite this date being confirmed in a press release concerning the first batch of releases from Suretone Records[28] It was later announced by Universal Spain that the album would be delayed until sometime in 2007. Robert Smith has since suggested that it would be a double-album stylistically similar to "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me",[29] that he hoped would be finished by the time of the Ultra Music Festival which the band are headlining March 23rd.[30]

Robert Smith has recorded a song titled "Please" with former Orbital mainman Paul Hartnoll. The single is available as a 7", a 12" and as a CD single through the Kids label.[31]

Diskografie

Rok Album

Obrazek