.TheCure.

1970s The first incarnation of what became The Cure was The Obelisk; a Notre Dame Middle School band from Crawley, Sussex featuring Robert Smith (piano), Michael Dempsey (guitar), Laurence "Lol" Tolhurst (percussion), Marc Ceccagno (lead guitar) and Alan Hill on bass guitar. This group was formed in December of 1972. Smith later played in another school band known only as "the group", and was also a member of his older brother Richard Smith's The Crawley Goat Band (see also Robert Smith). 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. 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.
During the same year, The Easy Cure auditioned for Hansa Records and received a recording contract and prize money of £1000 that was spent on musical instruments. In March of 1978, however, following disagreements about the direction the group should take, the band's contract with Hansa was dissolved. In late April Porl Thompson was dropped from the group and the new trio (Smith/Tolhurst/Dempsey) re-emerged as The Cure for their first gig on May 18 1978. Their first studio recordings as The Cure were recorded nine days later (May 27) at Chestnut Studios in Sussex, and distributed as a demo tape to various major record labels. The Chestnut recordings have more recently been officially reissued on the 2004 Deluxe Edition of the band's debut album. On September 13 The Cure signed with former Polydor Records scout Chris Parry's new 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. The band placed a sticker label that denied the racist connotations on the single's 1979 reissue on Fiction. The sticker was also featured on the 1986 compilation, Standing on a Beach, but the song was conspicuously absent from the 2004 Rhino "deluxe edition" of Three Imaginary Boys.
The Cure released the album Three Imaginary Boys on May 5 1979. The band (particularly Smith) were reportedly unhappy with their debut album, claiming they 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 group's sound radically, which alienated Parry from the group.
From May to 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 U.S. 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.
Michael Dempsey was sacked from The Cure immediately after the tour's completion in October (see Michael Dempsey), but appeared as bassist on the next Cure single Jumping Someone Else's Train released later that month. By November Dempsey had become the bassist for the Associates, and 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 Robert Smith, Lol Tolhurst, Michael Dempsey, Simon Gallup, Matthieu Hartley and Porl Thompson, with backing vocals from assorted family and friends, and lead vocals provided by their local postman Frankie Bell also released a 7 inch single in November under the assumed name of Cult Hero, featuring the songs I'm a Cult Hero and I Dig You.
In 1980 Three Imaginary Boys was repackaged for the U.S market as Boys Don't Cry, with new artwork and a new tracklist incorporating the non-album singles.
1980s In 1980 the foursome released the minimalist Seventeen Seconds, produced by Mike Hedges, which reached #20 on the UK charts. "A Forest" became the band's first UK hit single, reaching #31 on the singles chart. The music press generally admired the band, although Smith was pressed concerning the concept of an alleged "anti-image". The Cure set out on their first world tour, at the end of which Matthieu Hartley left the band.
1981 saw the release of the melancholic Faith, their third album, which hit #14 on the UK charts. All concerns about the band's lack of image consciousness, first raised by Chris Parry, evaporated as Smith adopted a theatrical hairstyle and make-up, reminiscent of Siouxsie, that he continues to employ today. The band also released an instrumental soundtrack for the film Carnage Visors. Carnage Visors was used as a "tour support" film, in place of an opening act, for their 1981 Picture Tour. The music from Carnage Visors had a very limited print run and has subsequently become very rare in its original form, but along with much of The Cure's catalogue, has recently been re-mastered and re-issued on CD. In late 1981, The Cure released the non-album track "Charlotte Sometimes".
Beginning at twenty-one, Smith "didn't see that there was much point in continuing with life"; (however, he has also said his ambition at age 14 was to sit on a mountain and die, so the sentiment was not new). The band members' lives began to be marked by increasing drug use, particularly alcohol, but also LSD. As a consequence, 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. In spite of (or perhaps because of) all these rumours, Pornography became the band's first UK Top 10 album, entering the charts at #8 (despite the fact that only one favorable review appeared in the British press). The release was followed by the Fourteen Explicit Moments tour, which saw a series of incidents that prompted Simon Gallup to abruptly leave The Cure and start another band, called Fools Dance. He and Smith didn't see each other for almost two years following his departure. Smith has said that he "doesn't even remember making a lot of Pornography".
To escape, as an act of survival, the morbid and oppressing atmosphere constituted by their previous albums ("The Dark Trilogy"), The Cure released a series of three pop singles; beginning in late 1982 with "Let's Go to Bed," which was a minor hit in the UK, 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 LP 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 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, after being asked to rejoin by Smith.
During this time, The Cure became a very popular band in Europe (particularly in France, Germany and in the Benelux) and increasingly popular in the USA. 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 group'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 the band history Ten Imaginary Years was released, and Lol Tolhurst, though he had not yet officially left the band, was replaced by O'Donnell.
In 1989 The Cure released the album Disintegration, which saw a return to the dark imagery of former days; 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).
From Wikipedia.