The Formative Years - The Cure
There are many bands and / or musical styles that people consider their “guilty pleasure”, a notion I do not subscribe to as you either like something or you do not. Why feel guilty about it?
The Cure is one of the bands that has been a steady companion ever since a friend made me a tape comprised of the “Pornography” and “Disintegration” albums, which I played until the tape broke as The Cure conveyed something I had never heard in other bands before.
It was definitely not punk, not quite new wave and “gothic” was not really a thing back then and yet to emerge, at least I was not aware of it as a movement.
The Cure’s sonic emissions were dark, gloomy, elegiac and tormented in the most beautiful and poetic way possible, yet had a lightness and driving pop sensibility to it.
The fact that I had a massive crush on the lady who compiled the tape only added to the allure, as did the fact that she was three years older and out of my league. Perfect situation to have The Cure serenade your teenage Weltschmerz.
Delving deeper into the back catalogue of Robert Smith and his worthy constituents, I learned that the band had been around since 1978 and that Robert Smith had been involved in Siouxsie and the Banshees, which in my stoic and purist punk days added another layer of credibility – especially when “Friday I’m in love” finally catapulted the band into commercially successful mainstream territory.
I first got to see them incarnate in a live environment in the mid-90ies and it proved to be an otherworldly experience based not only on how the band presented itself with their appearance, i.e. big towering hair and smeared lipstick, but also the audience, its willingness to contribute and the overall atmosphere the evening conjured.
Over the next three decades I should see the band with various lineups on four continents and even more countries, with not a single one of the shows resulting in a forgettable experience and most spanning over three hours in length, with highlights including their performance as part of Sydney’s Vivid Festival, where they performed their first three albums in their entireties within the confines of the Opera House as well as their fortieth anniversary concert in London in 2018.
Once I dug myself through The Cure’s back catalogue, with each new release constituting an event I was looking forward to, not unlike the two albums the release of which seem to be looming on the horizon.
A timeless band that most people might see inextricably linked to gothic rock, yet in my eyes remains beautifully unique, cinematic and uncategorisable.
