The Cure: Classic or Dud?

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Ah man, I was hoping you'd get to go, DJP!

Saw them in Montréal tuesday. We got the Bloodflowers setlist, which I was fine with since I like that album, but I think the crowd would have prefered a bit less from it. I think the one they got in Chicago the first night was perfect.
Nevertheless, they are amazing live and so generous and Robert's voice is incredibly great.

I assume this was awesome

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-cure/2016/agganis-arena-boston-ma-3fe7943.html

p dece

oh fucking hell, the encores ;_;

Man, the first night of that Chicago setlist. Wish I went, but couldn't go.

seeing these dudes tmrrow at the garden excited

Encore #3. A lil much imo.

"Sinking"! Lots of Wish!

I'm going to the Sunday show in Miami.

Cured: The Tale of Two Imaginary Boys
By Lol Tolhurst, out October 11th
Former Cure drummer Lol Tolhurst chronicles his 13-year stint with the band – and the struggles with alcohol that ended it.

http://pitchfork-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/content/CURED%20book%20cover.jpg

(Sorry, old news, although I hadn't heard about it before.)

can't wait for this - and glad to read promo interviews with Lol, where he seems to be in a really good place

Haha, his name is Lol

in preparation for the concernt, I decided to use my trial Tidal membership to listen to the Cure discography from beginning to end...

damn...following up Three Imaginary Boys with Seventeen Seconds is one of the great "step yo game up" moves in rock history jesus...

Had a chance to read Lol's book via an advance and his story of what went into this change is great.

And indeed, to expand out: Lol's book is VERY good. In fact I'd rate it alongside Bob Mehr's Trouble Boys as my unexpected pleasure of the year, and there's a certain parallel focus -- a suburban upbringing where some sort of 'care' for addiction is understood but not fully carried out or addressed, with horrible consequences. Obviously not as tragic as what happened with Bob Stinson but Tolhurst doesn't spare himself in terms of the track he was on, and what it took to fully get him out of it. And suburban/'new town' England isn't Minneapolis but there's a similar sense of aimlessness into punk as focus point as a driver, and what resulted.

I won't go completely on about the book so as not to spoil everything, but there's definitely a heartfelt vibe throughout, Tolhurst taking a lot of retrospective stock -- you can argue at a couple of points he goes past the point of natural reserve, but it's not constant. He definitely doesn't spare himself at numerous points along the way, and there's absolutely no sense of blame in terms of what went wrong with him and Robert and the band other than on his own head. He's now spent over two decades getting it back together and I think it shows; it's definitely a book of a long view, and a long rekindled friendship as well (I hadn't realized how far back now he and Robert buried the hatchet). And again without going into it too much there's some moments of distinct personal tragedy I was simply unaware of that are gut-wrenching -- he doesn't offer them as excuse, simply acknowledgment of what else he had to deal with. One moment in the closing chapters drew me up sharp quite terribly.

All the early band detail is really remarkable in particular, from when he and Robert met as kids through to around 1986 or so; stories galore, and Tolhurst makes mention of (and at the end lists) a wide variety of people he interviewed, probably to compare memories since everything is very much told through his eyes. The result is extremely rich; as much as Ten Imaginary Years was a good enough piece of work at the time, I think this will have to stand as the definitive accounting of that time now, until/unless Robert decides to go for it himself, since he was the only other one appearing in all the incarnations through that stretch. Lots of fascinating little details -- it's not fully song-by-song comprehensive, but it gives a distinct flavor all along the way.

As things get bad the Kiss Me/Disintegration years understandably more focus on him shutting down/shutting out everyone, so less information there and of course after that it's his own very good story. One extremely interesting point in retrospect -- he's always pretty careful about mentioning who appeared when in the band during his stint, or who returned and so forth, giving everyone their due. But it's very telling to realize that Roger O'Donnell wasn't mentioned *once* during the Kiss Me/Disintegration stretch, and only is mentioned a bit casually near the end. Given he was drafted during the KM release/tour phase to back up Tolhurst and was part of the Disintegration sessions and all that, I can't tell if it's an intentional downplaying by silence on Tolhurst's part or, as I kinda feel is more the case, a kind of admission he was so incredibly out of it that he almost didn't even notice. (O'Donnell for his part kinda confirmed this a few years back via his own memories of the sessions; look for the paragraph that starts: "I think it's pretty much common knowledge how Lol was treated in those days...")

Anyway, there's an extensive book tour coming up in the States -- think it's already started in the UK -- and Pearl Thompson's supposed to be at a few of the ones over here, so it might be worth going to if you're near one. But yeah, anyone who's even a little bit more than a casual fan really needs the book.

whoa stoked for this book now thanks, ned!

You're welcome! It's a book that really makes you happy that the story didn't end any number of truly unfortunate ways, and that he's in a good place.

i wonder what robert smith will think of the book or if he'll even read it

i remember reading 10 imaginary years when it was released and it seemed that him and tolhurst were constantly at odds with each other

robert bullied the hell outta lol for many years.

As I mentioned, they've long since reestablished their friendship, and near the end of the book Lol talks about calling Robert up a couple of years back and telling him he was working on the book. It's not said but it's implied Robert might have contributed to it just in terms of reconfirming some memories, and Robert's thanked near the start of the acknowledgements along with Michael Dempsey.

So basically, yes, I suspect he will read it. It's an extremely sympathetic portrayal of Robert throughout. If anything it's very notable that Lol draws contrasts throughout between Robert's very happy upbringing and his own emotionally fraught family situation; Lol's dad comes in for a LOT of criticism, though he tries to understand him from a distance as well.

Pearl Thompson

When your fandom of RPDR and The Cure collide :-)

Haha!

You know, the two Pearls should meet up and rock out, I'd pay money.

I can see it, given he's wearing even more make-up than she is these days!

was thinking i've never seen porl's name written that way so i googled it and i guess that's his real name

Yeah, he's changed his name again. Paul -> Porl -> Pearl.

It's honestly unclear to me whether Pearl's transitioned or just renamed. I had thought the former.

I thought it was only a stage-name change. Wikipedia still uses "he" and "him", but that doesn't mean it's accurate.

Now I want them all to change their names to Roxxxy Smith, Sharon Gallup, Raja O'Donnell, Latrice Williams, Jaidynn Cooper, Laila Tolhurst and Phi-Phi Bamonte.

"Good luck...and if you must fuck it up, do so with a weird arrangement circa The Top."

Yes gawd!!

Isn't he married to Robert Smith's sister?

IIRC Simon is married to Robert's sister.

i actually think Turrican is right. i remember reading that Porl is the one married to Robert's sister. that is why he always came back because he was around the family.

thanks for this Ned, some great stuff.

Would read. Thanks Ned.

Paul/Porl/Pearl was married to Robert's sister, making them brothers-in-law for many years. That changed a few years back when Porl became Pearl, got divorced and sold all of his music gear to pursue painting.

Yeah thats it. Not sure if divorce was ever announched but it seemed kind of implied that was the reason why Porl/Pearl left the band in 2008.

Hmm. Maybe he is transitioning, then!

https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2015/03/2015-02-03-pearl-thompson-the-cure.jpg

Boris's old house (the one in the pictures on Roger O'Donnell's page) is up for sale if anyone's got £1.5m to spare.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQNTwS9aaWA

Robert must've paid him really well.

Well the split songwriting credits he shared during the band's biggest commercial moments that have also resulted in regular royalties didn't hurt. Tolhurst mentions a couple of times in the book that Smith's very practical with band finances -- he specifically credits him with setting it up so band advances were banked and turned into weekly wage money that would give them something to live on in the early days. Meanwhile, when the whole nineties court case was discussed -- Tolhurst pretty much confesses it was all down to his bad judgment to stretch it out into what it became, and that the resetting of the band contract in 1986 that removed him from full partnership was something he 1) did fully agree to and 2) was done because he was rapidly turning into a liability -- he tells a story, presumably one he got from Robert himself, that Robert's dad asked him, "Well have you been paying Laurence all this time?" and Smith went "Of course I have!" (Which is exactly what the court agreed.)

I wonder what Boris has been up to all this time - apart from that small band with his wife in the 90's it seems he's quit music altogether.

Man I don't blame the guy for relaxing. Nice work if you can get it.

Looks like he played with Shelleyan Orphan again a few years back:

http://curefans.com/curenews/boris-williams-update/

got to read about 3/4 of lol's book at work today. it's really good, a lot more put together, coherent and thoughtful than i was expecting for some reason. he really does seem to hold robert in v high regard artistically and personally and professionally. the 17 secs/pornography stuff is really good.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/sep/18/lol-thomson-cure-small-towns-interview-cured-book

I'm curious how much he goes into their musical influences, something which has always seemed a bit obscured or hard to pin down

He definitely brings up a few points of early inspiration -- Bowie on TOTP, etc. He also specifically credits them seeing Wire around 1978 or so as a big influence on how to do one's own thing.