The Cure: Classic or Dud?

The question is whether they can keep an avant-art guitarist from screwing up the Cure. Reeves seems a real loose rein sort of player, which perhaps explains why no one works with him.

how come Porl has given them up? i know he flogged off all his gear etc but not why.

Painting is his true passion or somesuch.

one imagines that the molasses-like pace of activity, and restricted creativity, may have worn on Porl/Pearl. also if he's transitioning, as the name change suggests, that would certainly have played into it, if not been the main factor. (or it's equally likely that Robert simply didn't call him before the Vivid shows, as extra guitar would have been surplus, and hasn't since.)

Isn't Porl married to Robert's sister?

But yeah, Reeves Gabrels. Past collaborations or not, I truly didn't see that one coming. The Cure has always operated in a bizarre way, with the band often having periods where the line-up fluctuates dramatically in between slightly more stable configurations. Since they worked with Ross Robinson on the self-titled album, though, the line-up has fluctuated wildly... and they've only put out one studio album since then! The self-titled album will be EIGHT YEARS OLD next month, and there's been about 4 or 5 line-up changes since!

Not much, but a little extra background:

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/archives/2012/05/30/reeves-gabrels-joins-the-cure

First Kevin Shields and I look strangely alike, now Robert's gone for the shorts:

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/394661_10151010587133818_275925431_n.jpg

Is he wearing ski boots?

New Rocks

About the above question about influences from years ago, if anyone is still interested in discussing this after probably reading enough interviews to find out...

I've heard him say his biggest influence was Jimi Hendrix, Bowie is a major hero, he said Siouxsie And The Banshees were a major influence that gave him direction, Nick Drake, Captain Beefheart, Slade, Status Quo. He seemed to be even influenced by the dreampop bands that were influenced by The Cure.

Although they covered The Doors, he said he wasnt fond of them.

new interview with RS in WORD mag is brilliant.

Clean radio recording of last night's Reading set available for download:

http://summercure2012.blogspot.fr/2012/08/reading-festival-24082012.html

Gabrels actually sounds pretty tame! Or rather, he's playing within the scope of the songs rather than going all 'whee a vibrator!' over them.

The opening hour of that set was live on BBC3 last night (available on iplayer), I turned over to it by accident and was whisked back to my teens (huge, huge fan from about 15 to 18 years old), they sounded *great*. Like you say Ned, no real madness from Reeves but he was pretty sweet, got a lovely tone on Just Like Heaven etc. The live footage also showed what looked like a crib sheet for keys/chords for different songs etc next to his fx board :)

Excellent set, way better than the "Bestival 2011" live album, FWIW.

Yeah, definitely agree there.

Oh man that Bestival album sounds like a nutsack

It's a competent souvenir of a particular lineup, but that's about it.

Great Reading set. Sounding streamlined in a way and they seem to be having fun again. Thanks, Ned!

The Bestival set was *too* streamlined, it was like half the music went missing, couldn't hear the keyboards at all, etc. They sound more complete here. Point being if they wanted to release a live album from a festival show, the Reading set would have been so much better.

Point being, if they wanted to be invited to release a live album for charity, they should have not played at a festival with an associated charity until ten months later because they would have known in advance how both the performance and recording would have turned out, and also would have arranged all by themselves in the 70s that the second festival would have always been involved in charity fundraising just so that it could have invited them to release the recording to that end.

Point being it's too bad that they released something that sounds kind of crap, instead of something that sounds great, choice of locations and charities aside.

Entreat Plus

all of the set is now on bbc iplayer iirc
amazing how much The Kids love them so much these days.

if you're not from the UK, the BBC uploaded "Friday I'm In Love" (Reading) to Youtube... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uf32bE4LBY&feature=plcp

Robert Smith's version of "Witchcraft" from the new 'Frankenweenie' sdtrk

http://museeffect.tumblr.com/post/32267129654/witchcraft-robert-smith

Seems that Chris Parry is selling of his Cure collection via a Record Store in Portsmouth.

http://www.musicstack.com/my/index.cgi?seller=5799&search_type=artist&find=cure

Incredible set list for Mexico City performance (over four hours!): http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2013/04/22/cure-mexico-city-50-song-setlist/

Lookit all the Wish numbers!

They may never release anything again but if they keep up this kind of activity I will not complain!

"Mint Car"!

I wonder if all the "Wish" stuff is because it's next on the reissue agenda and is therefore fresh in mind? Also, those songs are awesome live.

When did they make the drummer dye his hair? Also, LOL, Reeves is wearing eyeliner.

and they, er, opened with its first two numbers.

Wish remains my favorite. Looking forward to the reissue and its B-sides.

"This Twilight Garden" and "Play" and "The Big Hand" and "Halo" are so so so good

(you can totally see the massive cliff that is WMS coming in "A Foolish Arrangement" though)

Dad joke of the gods:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/969756_10201282758175931_2033499428_n.jpg

Would anyone be able to recommend me a good book about the Cure? I've been listening to "Join The Dots" all weekend and am in the mood.

I've done a cursory search the "Someone recommend me a book about music" thread appears to contain no Cure suggestions. This thread has a recommendation for "Faith" by Dave Bowler and Bryan Dray, but the Amazon review of that book (for what it's worth) dismisses it as "stunningly banal". My own searches of Amazon throw up a couple of unconvincing-looking works such asJeff Apter's "Never Enough".

Is it worth worth spending €20 on a second-hand copy of Ten Imaginary Years?

Cheers for suggestions

Yes it is worth spending that much on Ten Imaginary Years.

I can recommend against "Never Enough" by Jeff Apter. Really horrible read. In the first chapter, he makes a comparison between Cure fans and Britney Spears fans.

Cheers both. I might just give Ten Imaginary Years a shot. I get it for just over 20 EUR. New copies are going for a mere £257.52 on Amazon UK.

There are a couple of copies in "acceptable" condition on US Amazon for $10.

I can get a copy here in Europe for about 20 euros, which is fine. Just joking about how expensive the new copies are going for in the UK.

yeah Ten Imaginary Years is fantastic

I got it as an xmas present in '92 and I still recommend it as quick toilet reading; it's especially valuable for preserving clips of original album/single reviews.

Ten Imaginry Years is excellent and I wish I still had a copy

Ten Imaginary Years is fantastic, because it's one of those music books you can read cover to cover in a marathon session and put down feeling invigorated and having your love of the band confirmed. Or you can just pick it up, turn to some random page, read for five minutes and be completely happy.

Never Enough is bad enough that I reshelved halfway through (optimistically, with bookmark still in). I just could not handle another tedious chapter of tour-drugs-album-drugs-tour-drugs-album all blurring together. Which tbh is the story of a lot of bands but blergh did it suffer in the telling.

wow. alex in nyc sure got up to speed well enough (see post #9), such a diffident and even-handed start......

Not that insane four hour Mexico City set -- just two -- but the Lollapalooza performance was a treat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNhojfzV0bc

I just got to "From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea" and basically this is making my entire day

Whoah!

man they should kind of just call this "The Wish Show" (nb that is by no means a complaint)

Not at all. (Good GOD are they ever going to get around to finally doing proper digital video releases of the official 80s/90s concert films or what.)