"The magical world of The Cure"

I properly got into the Cure around the 1990-1991 period when Mixed Up was released. I would've been about 13 years old and still at school. I was already aware of them from their famous hits like The Love Cats and more recently Lullaby (I knew that Lullaby was a striking song when it was released but the video scared me a little when it came out!). I also had a vague recollection of seeing The Cure's legendary Close To Me video on Top of the Pops when I was a kid and it had stuck in my mind. So even though I had not yet taken the plunge and bought any of their records, it was clear, looking back, that they had made an impression on me.

I think it was inevitable that I was going to get into them eventually and it happened to be when Mixed Up came out as they were getting a lot of exposure at the time on the music programmes I was watching. I had MTV then and two of The Cure's videos from that album, Close To Me (Closer Mix) and Never Enough were being shown regularly. I loved both songs and the accompanying videos, so my sister bought me the album for Christmas. I played it pretty much every day for a long period and it was from this that I became aware of some other classic Cure songs (albeit it radically different to the original versions, as I was later to discover). It was after hearing this album that I started to love Lullaby and also tracks like Pictures of You and The Caterpillar. Around this time my dad also bought me The Cure Picture Show video as a present which exposed me to other wondrous songs like Catch and Just Like Heaven. Hearing these songs and watching all the clips on this video really enthralled me and opened me up even further into the magical world of the Cure.

I found Robert Smith very endearing and funny and I started to copy his mannerisms and turns of phrase. When I got the Cure Play Out video a bit later it re-affirmed what a hilarious and likeable bunch of blokes the Cure of that period were. There was no turning back, I was a bona fide Curehead from here on in. But Mixed Up and the compilation videos were simply a taster (and at times a misleading one). I had no idea then what a vast, exciting and varied catalogue I was about to dive into. My record collection around 1990-1991 was relatively small and football was my main passion. The Cure though were the first band that I wanted to get look into and they had released so much, so profically that I was almost drooling at the mouth thinking about all the songs that I was yet to hear. I wanted more. They were the first band that made me realise that I loved/love music above anything else.

The first "proper" album I bought was Kiss Me... (because it had the most songs on it and also included two of my favourites in Catch and Just Like Heaven). At first, I found it quite hard going because many of the songs were not as accessible as the more mainstream Mixed Up. But I persevered and soon loved all the miriad styles it contained. It was so rich and exciting and created a exotic world that I could get lost in that was so far removed from the mundane and everyday. Robert's lyrics were also very dreamy and distinctive and struck a cord my imagination and what it was possible to write about.

Next I purchased Disintegration and was immediately gripped by its epic melancholy and beauty. Plainsong became my new favourite.After that I bought each of the albums in The Cure's back catalogue one by one. Listening to each one for the first time engendered a quite specific feeling or memory in me that was unique for each album. Each one was special in its own way and I still get the same feelings and memories when I listen to any of these records now.

Wish was the first LP that came out after I became a fan and so holds particular affection for me. I rushed out to the shop to buy it on the day it was released and I wasn't disappointed.The Cure has remained a big part of my life. I've seen them live several times, have bought everything they've released, and read everything about band and their history (ex band members etc). While I love many, many other diverse bands (my record collection contains 600+ albums), The Cure has always been there and is my undoubted favourite. In all honesty, the magic that I felt the day Wish came out or when I heard Catch or Plainsong for the first time has never really been fully recaptured in recent years. I've like large elements of all of The Cure's subsequent albums (from Wild Mood Swings onwards) but none of them have quite lived up to my hopes or experience listening to the earlier stuff. They have contained a few too many duff tracks, songs that sound like parodies of themselves and and also the occasional terrible lyrics. But while I have often questioned whether my love affair with The Cure has reached an end, the excitement re-ignites with the anticipation of each new album. And it's still there now as I wait for the new record to come out (hopefully) this year. I'm optimistic that with Porl Thompson back in the frame, I will at last have another Cure album up there with their very best.

(From: Matthew Beavis, Nottingham, England)

"Losing my virginity to Mixed Up"

I got into The Cure really because of the movie 'The Crow'. I just loved the music in the transformation sequence (Burn). I think I was 16 when the movie came out and I saw it at the cinema with a friend of mine who was 21. He told me it was The Cure that I'd got all fired up about (who I'd had very little exposure to at all before - they just weren't on my radar) and he lent me a copy of Mixed Up on CD.

I had only just got my first CD player so the only other music I had in that format was a dance compilation that came free with it! So I listened to Mixed Up on repeat for ages (because I loved it, not just because it was all I had!) until I saved enough money to buy the soundtrack from 'The Crow', Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me and my own copy of Mixed Up.

The Kiss scared the hell out of me at first, but it was exciting, and I remember how I would sit around in my room listening to it, imagining all these filmic sequences that formed a coherent story alongside it.

I just went Cure nuts after that, to the point where people I didn't even know that well at college were coming up to me with Cure cassettes they no longer wanted (because they'd got the CD versions), to help me complete the picture. I distinctly remember getting The Top and Pornography on cassette... I think I've still got them.

So slowly but surely I built up my collection and in 1995 I staged a piece of multimedia theatre at The King's Head in Islington called 'Famous Last Words' (I was a BTEC ND performing arts student for the two previous years). Not only did I get permission from Ita Marten at Fiction Records (with Robert's blessing) to use various tracks in the show, I also peppered the dialogue with variations on lines from songs on the Pornography album (rather like James O'Barr did in the Crow graphic novels). I did the show again in '96/'97 and toured it 1998 before a final London run in 2001.

Meanwhile, I'd become interested in making my own music. It was Lullaby that really turned me on to songwriting. I loved the way it seemed to have many meanings (for example, the literal man-eating spider at one of the scale, and the suffocation of an intense/obsessive relationship at the other); I loved the way the form married to the content - it sounds spidery with the big fat hairiness of the bass balanced by the dewy-web-delicate guitars. Hell, when you play the bass line, even your fingers move like the legs of a tarantula!

So now I front 'Sunflies', a band heavily influenced by The Cure, Nirvana, PJ Harvey, Muse, Joy Division and often compared to Arcade Fire and Placebo (by NME no less!).

My first Cure gig was at Wembley Arena during the Swing Tour ('96). Whilst WMS is not hailed as one of the band's best albums, I'd recently split up with my girlfriend and songs like Treasure, Jupiter Crash, This Is A Lie and Bare seemed to resonate deeply. And Want is just stunning! However, because I'd just split up with my girlfriend I had a spare ticket, which I gave to my friend Stuart. He then split up with his girlfriend and didn't feel like going, so gave the ticket to a complete stranger. Which was weird.

Anyway, the next album was of course Bloodflowers. This came out on Valentine's Day 2000, not long after my dad's 59th birthday (1st Feb), not long after he'd been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. The themes of finality explored in this record again held great significance for me. I didn't listen to much else from the time it came out until the time my father died in September that year. I still give it a spin from time to time but can't help but be reminded of that very difficult year. That said, it was a year of great happiness too; I got married on 17th June and naturally The Cure featured heavily in the playlist for our celebrations. If I have one negative thing to say about Bloodflowers, it's that by today's standards the pace is rather subdued where the energy of previous material still holds up; I later read somewhere that Robert had taken a dogmatic approach and set rules like "nothing under 80bpm and nothing over 120bpm" or something like that.

However, the Bloodflowers show at Wembley Arena is probably my favourite concert of all time.
I guess the next thing that springs to mind is my slight disappointment with some of the things that followed. I've never understood the choice of Cure singles, and Cut Here from 2001's Greatest Hits is probably my least favourite song of all time - really yucky sticky keyboard line and lacklustre in almost every other respect, a bit like a New Order football song. The B-side (Signal To Noise) however, was fantastic and much more in the vein of what I would have hoped for from a Cure single at that point in time! Initially I was excited about the collaboration with Saffron, but was disappointed that she and Robert just shouted their way through 'Just Say Yes' together all the way through. Thank God for the acoustic bonus disc when it comes to getting a decent version of that song!

The Trilogy DVD is a highpoint of recent history and the B-side and rarities collection Join the Dots was a joy to acquire... There are some real gems like This Twilight Garden, Harold & Joe and The Big Hand that I'd been after for years.

Then came The Cure produced by Ross Robinson. I was really disappointed at first (except for Labyrinth). It seemed that the band's sound had changed quite significantly with the precision replaced by a forced chaos that came off as awkward. However, whilst I've always admired Robert's knack for vocal harmonies, stripped almost bare here he establishes himself as a truly wonderful vocalist, building on the enormous sustain glimpsed on Bloodflowers' Watching Me Fall and a range not previously showcased to this degree. I really wanted to like the album and with Robert setting the standard for vocals, I persevered with it, partially to sing along and develop my own voice. So over time it grew on me enormously. I don't think there are any classic Cure songs on there that I couldn't live without (whereas this is the case on previous works), but it's a good record and it earned the band the critical praise they'd been missing out on in the UK for too long.

Approaching present day, I have to say I was largely disappointed with the Festival DVD (not a great sound mix and all the fan footage makes for a poor viewer experience) and I was absolutely gutted at how bad the sound was at the Wembley Arena show on the recent/current '4 Tour'. All I could hear was kick drum and Robert's (albeit better-than-ever vocal). I moved around the auditorium desperately seeking a sweet spot where I might hear Porl's guitar or Simon's iconic basslines and get a better take on Robert's baritone guitar parts - things that really define many of the songs - but it was impossible. Perhaps it was because this was my first time standing at Wembley Arena, when I usually sit upstairs? All I know is, when A Forest failed to kick in because the bass couldn't be heard, I decided not to stay any longer. I thought some of the keyboard replacement work was clever when I could make out the guitar parts, and songs like The Walk were pleasantly surprising, but the set list was predictable and it just felt so different (and not in a good way) from all the other Cure shows I've been to.

So I'm now at a cross-roads. Has this band, that I've literally gone round praising for the last 15 years finally gone off the boil for me? Should they have ended with Bloodflowers as threatened (along with every previous record), even though I prayed at the time they'd go on to do more and more? Only the next album will tell.

Whether it's what I'm hoping for or not, I'll be satisfied as long as I can get hold of Pirate Ships (the Wendy Waldman cover) and Yesterday's Gone (the Reeves Gabrels collaboration) on CD as part of the next batch of re-issues!!

The Cure really is the soundtrack to my life. Other significant moments include losing my virginity to Mixed Up and going on a 3-day bender for my 21st birthday with The Head on the Door on repeat the WHOLE time.

(From James Scott, England)

"Just Like Heaven"

I'm 32 years old and I've been into The Cure since I was 15. I remember the very first time I ever heard a Cure song - My high school boyfriend and I were at the local Wendy's and he asked me to listen to Just Like Heaven. I recall not being entirely thrilled with it, but he insisted I borrow Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me. I agreed to give it a chance and took it home. It quickly grew on me and in no time I was completely obsessed with this brilliant band. My boyfriend made a few copies of his cassettes while I slowly built my own collection by asking all my relatives to buy me nothing but Cure albums for Christmas and my birthday.

I still remember the thrill of getting a new-to-me album and the shivers I'd get from a particularly engaging song (such as Mixed Up's version of A Forest). I currently own all their albums (on cd now, of course), as well as some bootlegs and collectible vinyl, and I've seen them four times in concert so far (once at Wembley Arena in England which was a dream come true). Even after all these years they are my #1 favorite band and I can't foresee that ever changing. That being said, I'm not a blind fan - I feel some of their albums are weak (Wild Mood Swings) while others are quite solid (Faith). I will always have a soft spot for their earlier work, although I'm really looking forward to their new album as well as seeing them live next month in Chicago.

(From: Nicole, USA)