"...the music has a prominent place in my personal spiritual practice"

I was 17 years old and had just begun my first semester away at college. previously I knew of the Cure, had seen pictures of Robert Smith in music magazines and read some interviews, but had never heard any of the music- I lived in a rural area outside a small town in the bible belt of the American South East, and there were no Cure records to be found and no radio stations that would play them if you could find them. For a brief time in High School, I'd had a boyfriend who was heavily into The Cure, but he never played any of the music for me- he seemed unwilling to share it with me (or perhaps that was my imagination). At college there was a cute girl in one of my English lit classes named Tabitha, all i really remember about her now is how long her eyelashes were, and that it was she who lent me the first Cure album I would hear: a bootleg cassette of Japanese Whispers.

I was captivated immediately, especially by Lament and The Lovecats. it was the fall of 1989, and the second Cure album i heard (and first one i bought) was "disintegration". and there was no looking back then. from that point on, there were two types of music in my mind: The Cure... and everything else. as to the question of how my attitude to the band has changed over the years- they are more than a band to me now. I am learning everything I know about playing guitar from watching and listening to Robert Smith. I consider the Cure an important part of my life, and the music has a prominent place in my personal spiritual practice. thanks for your interest in my story.

(From: L. Kathleen Hickman, USA)