"The Cure of my life"

My story begins in 1996, Madrid. I was 14 years old and my older brother had lots of CDs, most of them scattered around his room, full of scratches and without any kind of case. I was looking for something to listen to, tired of Gun's and Roses, Nirvana and other bands that teenagers used to listen to back then. I had started to listen to bands like The Pixies and The Smiths but my music tastes weren't really defined until I found a very ugly looking CD with The Cure on its label. The name of the CD was Standing on a Beach and I had no clue that the music inside of it was going to change my life forever. I remember listening to first tracks such as Boy's Don't Cry and Killing an Arab concentrating on the guitar parts, simple but perfect, trying to replicate them on my cheap guitar.

As I advanced through the record I couldn't believe what was coming through my ears, it was like the evolution of music from a one band perspective. From A Forest to The Lovecats, to In Between Days or Close to Me. I simply felt amazed of the simple but concise evolution of a band into the different sounds of the different years. Not too long after that, I was able to borrow another CD from the Cure. The music I had heard on Standing on a Beach had surprised me a lot, but anyway it was a studio album, just singles and even tough I didn't know it then I hadn't really heard the full potential of the band, a potential that you can only spot when you hear them LIVE.

So lucky for me, the next album I got to listen was Show. For about a year I almost only listened to that double CD. Tape, Open, High and Pictures of You, it was simply too much for me. Those four songs, specially the last one, Pictures of You have really gone far inside of me. Pictures of You simply changed my concept of music, the guitar and bass line are simply perfect, when I listen to it I feel like I'm lost in space, with the melancholy thoughts that the lyrics inspire. When I listen to that sound (which I still do very oftenly) my whole life comes as a thought. I remember old friends, old pictures, old situations and not so old ones. It is without any doubt the song of my life (so far) which has walked with me along the path of living.

After a while I reached the Disintegration album, I have to admit that I don't like the studio versions as much as I like the Live versions, but it was still a fantastic experience. So far I had only listened to the Standing on a Beach and the Show records, and I really didn't know if the Cure still had much to offer me besides, how naive. So I had the CD and I wanted to try it in one of the two ways that I like to listen to music (besides concerts of course). I waited until my family went to sleep and I lay on my bed with the headphones and nothing else. The "sound was deep, in the dark", deeper than I can ever remember. Plainsong just broke my heart, then the fantastic studio version of Pictures of You, and on and on until Untitled. Probably that was the most exciting experience so far for me of listening to a studio album for the first time. The band was too much for me, in a period of two years I was starting to become some kind of Cure-head.

I could listen to nothing else but those few CDs and I just wanted more. I didn't have much money as a teenager but I managed to buy Japanese Whispers which was on sale at Madrid-rock. I liked the CD, but after the experiences I have had with the other albums I guess that I was a little bit dissapointed, although after the years I have really enjoined that album many times after that. The mp3 era had come and someone gave me a CD simply with all of the Cures music. I was extremely happy that I was finally going to be able to listen to all of their music. I remember running back home, climbing up the stairs not waiting for the elevator, starting up the computer, really nervous. Will it work? Is this really the CD I've been looking for so long? It did, indeed it worked.

I was finally able to listen to Pornography, Faith, and all of the rest. It took me a few years to digest all of the albums, some more, some less. But by the time Bloodflowers came out, I was really an extremist Cure fan. The Dream Tour, Madrid, La Riviera, year 2000, 17th or March. I wasn't really sure of what to expect of my first Cure concert, I was nervous, excited and still a kid. I went with my best friend and my brother and his friends. Honestly I didn't care about the setlist, I knew for sure that I was going to enjoy it a lot, buy I have to admit that I really really really wanted them to play Pictures of You. I was really afraid that they wouldn't play it and that it could be the only chance of my life to see the band live, because of the rumors about the disintegration of the band after that tour. I was just 18 at that time, still a kid and I had only been to two concerts then.

I can clearly remember how it started: Out Of This World, which for sure was my favourite songs on Bloodflowers. It was simply a magical moment, from there on the concert went just the best way I could expect. And then it came, Pictures of You. When the song began I got totally paralyzed, watching Robert and Gallup face to face playing those perfect sets of notes, filling the air with the most beautiful sound there can be. I remember my brother calling my attention and saying: there you have it! But I guess I was too concentrated on the music to say anything. God that was really beautiful, one of those unique moments of your life that you know you will remember forever.

August 2nd, 2002 Benicassim Festival. That was my second Cure concert. I was disappointed that I was only going to be able to see the band for an hour, and I wanted more. I remember that that summer I wasn't going to go to the festival, instead I was going to fill up my geeky computer boy need by attending a Lan Party in Valencia. I already had the ticket of the Lan Campus Party but then the Line Up of the festival came out: The Cure!!! and Radiohead!! About three hours after that I cancelled my ticket for the Party in Valencia and I was buying the ticket for the Benicassim FiberFib Concert. As I was saying, it was a pity that The Cure were only going to play for about an hour, but you never know what's going to happen, and luckyly for me, Sigur Ros, another band that I was really excited to see, cancelled their tour, and the organization of the festival offered The Cure to play double time, and so they did :)

Again, the concert started with Out Of This World. I wasn't expecting to feel as sensitive with this concert as I had been with the one in Madrid two years ago, but something happened. I went to the concert with my girlfriend. Since we had meet she had started to listen to the Cure a lot, and it was already one of her favourite bands already. She expected a lot from the show. Before the band came out, a few minutes before the crowd started to clap and cheer them on. I could feel some kind of small shake around my hands. The shackle spread though my body, and by the time they started playing, I swear that I was totally shaking, I could even feel my teeth shaking, something that has never ever happened to me again. I was like a dream coming true, I was really about to see the band again. I just couldn't believe it. The concert went smooth as butter, with a very happy ending which I enjoined all the way. There, with such a big amount of people, it was like a dream coming true. Again, one of the best days of my life.

The next concert was the day of my birthday two years after that. Me and my girlfriend took a 12 hour train to get to Santiago de Compostela, a city in Galicia the north of Spain. 16th July 2004. Nothing much to say about that concert, besides that it was truly amazing. The sound, the temperature and atmosphere, everything was simply perfect. I could see the mountains far behind, the sunset, with cold breezes of air cooling me down. I really needed to take a leak at some point, but the toilets where so far away and there was such a big line that I didn't want to miss a single second of the concert, I had to hold onto it and trust me, I almost exploded at the end :). That was the last concert with a 5 man lineup that I got to see. The concert was slightly longer than 2 hours and it ended with Faith, long version. I remember a couple, a goth couple crying close to me and I understood that they were feeling what I had felt four years ago when I listened for the first time to Pictures of You. I had a very nice feeling of being around people who felt the same way as I did in that moment. It was also beautiful and sad at the same time.

August 5th, 2005, Benicassim Spain. I wasn't planning on going to the festival that year, but again The Cure were playing so I had no choice. It was my first concert with Porl back in the band, and it was really nice. The truth is that I wasn't as suprised as the older concerts, don't know if it was because I had already seen them 3 times, of because it was a 4-piece lineup. The concert was good and I really enjoyed it, but it wasn't as emotional as the previous ones. At least I got to hear songs like The Blood or Push live :)

2008. I was lucky enough to see the band twice in the last tour. Palacio de los Deportes Madrid and Rotterdam. Both shows were really nice but I must say that it is whole different experience to see the band as 4-piece than as a 5-piece. Although Porl is the best guitar player the Cure could ever have, I really miss Roger at the keyboards.

(From: Javier Quevedo Fernández, Madrid, Spain)

Out of this world

I spent my life trying to fit in. I crumbled to peer group pressure and was your typical top 10 music fan. I never really tried to find the music that "I" truly liked - I just went with what was popular. I have memories of hearing The Cure in my teens, but not being brave enough to stand up and say "that is something I really like".

At 19, having split from my boyfriend of over two years I started finding different music - and I discovered "Thursday Night - Alternative Night" at Club Atlantis in Perth. My ears were starting to open. The Cure, The Smiths, Sisters of Mercy - all new sounds. I bought Standing On the Beach - and found I liked it. I then bought Disintegration - yes, I liked that too - but I didn't have anyone else around me to confirm that this was an OK thing to do (sad, I know).

I then met my now husband, who is not a music fan. To me, music makes the world make sense, but for him, he is happy to sit and enjoy silence. In the year that we were married, a colleague offered me two tickets to see the Cure in Perth - but I really couldn't afford it (and had no-one who would go with me), so I passed the offer up. To cheer myself up, I bought Wish, and dreamed myself into another world. Life got hectic in 1996, with my husband being diagnosed with lymphoma. I had no idea that Wild Mood Swings had been released, let alone that The Cure will still recording. My world was my husband and my focus was getting him well again.

Then came Bloodflowers. Out Of This World was my undoing - which life was real?? Soon after, The Cure came to town. A girlfriend agreed to come along with me. I warned her that according to a website that I had JUST found (Chain of Flowers) the band were playing their darker, more atmospheric stuff. The funny thing is, I thought that I KNEW The Cure - I mean, I owned Standing on A Beach, Disintegration, Wish and Bloodflowers, so I thought there would be no surprises.

10 October 2000 - The Cure played at the Perth Entertainment Centre.

Here is the setlist: Out Of This World, Watching Me Fall, Want, Fascination St., Open, Where the Birds Always Sing, Maybe Someday, Shake Dog Shake, Edge Of The Deep Green Sea, Inbetween Days, Sinking, The Kiss, Prayers for Rain, One Hundred Years, End, 39, Bloodflowers 1st encore: There Is No If, Trust, Plainsong, Disintegration 2nd encore: All Cats Are Grey, Faith 3rd encore: Just Like Heaven, A Forest

OH MY GOD!!! My ears exploded. I thought that I knew The Cure, how wrong I was. Whilst my girlfriend was whinging that they weren't playing their commercial hits, and that they did TOO many encores, I was in a world of my own - the band were playing only to me and they kept coming back because that is what I wanted. After that, I went on a journey through the back-catalogue. I bought everything I could get my hands on and I listened to NOTHING but The Cure for 12 months. Finally I found my world, my music. With the release of the self-titled album, my passion waned (slightly), it wasn't Bloodflowers. I still loved the band, but I was exploring worlds outside of the Cure. When the 4 tour was announced, I decided that I wasn't passionate enough to warrant following them around Oz, I would see them in Perth and that would be enough to keep me happy. How wrong I was. The passion re-ignited, and thanks to the "Craig to Jo" speech, I jumped on a plane and followed them to Adelaide.

After queuing for 2 hours before the show, the doors opened and I managed to jag a spot right at the front, in between Robert and Simon. I made friends with people who shared my passion and even met people who I knew through Chain of Flowers. The Cure IS a small world. Nothing will ever beat that experience - I absolutely loved it, and am now immersed in The Cure world again. The North American leg of the tour has been amazing - I seem to have moved away from my "real world" and am living in COF land - it is a true addiction. It is wonderful to share time with like-minded people.

If only I had met you all back when I needed a guiding light to REAL music.I am now hoping that there is ANOTHER tour next year - maybe for the 30th Anniversary. If there is, I will be there. I will travel and meet my friends to share in an experience that may even put my Adelaide memory to shame....... I hope so.

(From: Jo Westacott, Perth, Australia)

A question of tats

The first song I heard was In Between Days when i was 8. I liked it, but I had no idea that the group was The Cure.

The years went by and, when I was 11, a friend gave me a tape. It was Standing On A Beach,
I really didn’t know what to expect. When I put on my walkman, the first song I listened to was Charlotte Sometimes, then Boys Don’t Cry, then recognized the song I'd heard years before, In Between Days, which was a shock. A month after, somebody gave me Faith….. Since that moment, almost 17 years ago, I’ve been into The Cure.

The Cure came into my life and brought a lot of changes. I was changing my mind, changing my life, I just began to write stories and The Cure came just to save my life, literally. The first time I listened to them, I was in a karate class and I just dropped that.

Of course my relationship with The Cure has changed, it has become closer. For me, every moment of my life is related to a Cure song, maybe its weird, but it is the truth, specific moments and great changes have been marked by a Cure song. When I met The Cure, it was really good music and the discovery of a new group, a new life, a new way of thinking. Now, it is like someone’s said, it is the soundtrack of my life, it is just devotion for The Cure.

(From: Yessica Sanchez, Mexico City, Mexico)

"A beautiful chaos"

When I was 8 years old ( now I'm 30), my older brothers were all the way into the punk style... It's 1986, Standing On The Beach is on , A Forest is the next song, suddenly something happens to me, that voice calls me, make me feel different, but i was too young to know what i know now... That beat invade my head and stay there for years, over and over... The years go by, and my musical experience has change, always under The Cure influence. I changed my hair, my clothes, everything! That music made me change my life, it was like someone was written my life, lyrics became real, words so strong and beautiful, it's a beautiful chaos.

(From: Carlos Astros, Venezuela)

Cure vs Smiths

I first got into The Cure due to my mother and step-father, both lifelong fans of The Cure. (My mum's liked them since she was about thirteen, and my step-sister is named after Charlotte Sometimes). I was always picking up CDs that were lying around the house and listening to them, and when I was fourteen I found my mum's copy of Staring at the Sea. And the rest, as they say, is history.... I went to see them live at Wembley and it was easily the best concert I'll ever see. My attitude has changed quite a bit. When I was a child, they were just one of my Mum's Bands. Now, I admire the music and appreciate its influence on modern music that I enjoy. I also regularly have arguments with my mate Beth, as she is both a Cure fan and a Smiths fan!

(From Jess, age:16, East Midlands, England)

"My first party"

I´m 38 Years old/young and looking forward to the new Cure album so much!!!

My first contact with The Cure – music was at a party. It was mid-August 1985, I was 15 and at my first party, at my first girlfriend's.
I was shocked about the people with black clothes and the white faces and very special shoes!! I'd never seen before people with hair like Robert and the dancing style was very unusual. All the black-clothes people were dancing to The Cure only. Some of them to Depeche Mode too. I remember that I was impressed. The album Standing On The Beach was playing all night! And I had enough time to watch and listen. With every note more I grew more enthusiastic about the music. Not for the guests. In short. I left my girlfriend two years later but I won a new love until today “THE CURE”. I've listened to their music since that party and been to their gigs since “the prayer tour 1989”. I've seen them live 8 times. My last concert was in 2008 in Oberhausen.

(From: Frank Kronenfeld - whereabouts, unknown)

"Le Cure, they are ze best"

I am a massive Cure fan and have been since 1988 when I was 16. I think my Cure story is quite interesting because I "missed" The Cure a couple of times before I realised they were my band.

In the late 80s one of my school friends had a French pal. We lived on the same street so his pen pal stayed for a week in his house. We were all interested as to what he was like. I asked my friend what he did all day and he said he basically lazed around listening to the Cure. When I met him in person I asked him what he was into and he said "Le Cure, they are ze best". I had not heard of them and asked if they were French. He said "no, they are English". I was surprised, a French guy listening to an English band. And if they were so great why had I not heard of them? At this point I didn't think of checking them out for some reason. Looking back it may have been a bootleg copy of The Cure in Orange that he was listening to, or the head on the door.

About a year later my brother had a German pen pal called Marco. He came over to stay with us. He was also listening to the Cure. In particular the 12" version of Boys Don't Cry. I also liked the song. Even at this stage I still didn't get into the Cure though. I did think to myself that it was strange that the French and the Germans really like the Cure and my friends and I were not into them.

Shortly after this I joined the lower sixth form at school. Everyone seemd to have some musical aliegance. Lots of people were into U2 due to The Joshua Tree etc. Somebody lent me a copy of Staring at the Sea the singles. I was hooked from that point on. I loved the singles. There was no band to match them from the dark brooding "a forest" to the light hearted The Lovecats. I rapidly started collecting all the albums, I devoured all of them. Even the heavy albums such as pornography. I knew I had found my band. Not to mention the majestic Disintegration was released shortly afterwards with the strange songs such as Lullaby.

I also got The Cure In Orange on VHS. The concert blew me away. In paticular the extended version of A Forest, A Strange Day, Push... I hope they release it on blu ray as I can't watch it anymore.

I grew up on the same street as the television presenter "Vernon Kay". He has even presented MTV europe music awards. He is also a Radio 1 DJ. If you google him he will appear. I have lost touch with him but we were friends back them. One day on the radio he claimed the French pen pal was his but I am sure it was my other friend Simon who had the French pen pal. I remember because his mother was fluent in French and could tell him off in perfect French. It was impressive. So where Vernon got that idea from I don't know.

I can even play many Cure songs on my acoustic guitar including Just Like Heaven, Boys Don't Cry, In Between Days etc.

So I still love the Cure. They are my favourite band. People think I am crazy for liking the Cure but that is the way it is.. I can't wait for the next album. For me the only problem has been meeting other Cure fans. I have only seen them live once in the early 90s on the Wish tour. I thought it was a great gig. Robert went into Foxy Lady (Jimi Hendrix) at the end. I got very close to the front and was only 5 feet away from Robert Smith.

Recently I went skiing with a friend to the portes du soleil in France. We flew to Geneva airport. My friend said a previous time he had been there he met the cure. The whole band sat next to them in an aiport cafe. He warned them that the table was wonky as they had just sat at the same table and then moved. He said they were very nice people and seemed quite ordinary. Even though there was no missing Robert due to the hair. I thought to myself it should have been me, I am The Cure fan.

Another strange Cure story. I was working with a guy called "Blewitt" at work. An older guy in his late 40s. He was from the South of England near Surrey/Sussex. I had just bought the rerelease of Three Imaginary Boys and he saw it on my desk. He said to me, "oh yeah, the cure, I like The Lovecats, but not the other stuff" (this is typical from a non Cure fan). He said I used to work with the brother of Robert Smith's girlfriend. I had read a book about the Cure and remembered that Robert's childhood sweetheart was called Mary Poole. I said to him "the guy wasn't called Poole was he". When I said that the guy appeared shocked. He said "How did you know that?" When I told him about the book he still would not believe me. It was very strange.

Recently a new guy joined work and it turns out he is a big Cure fan. I had to meet one some day. Hopefully we will be able to see the next Cure concert in the UK with the new album.

Anyway, I hope you like my stories etc. This can be used for material if you like. If you use it online or something would you let me know. I would like to see other peoples stories too.

(From: John Thompson, Bolton, England)

"Pins"

It was DC 1986, and I was 15. An old friend and I had been seeing people in Georgetown with the Cure written on bags, bags with Cure pins on them, and we got curious. Went out and bought the Standing on the Beach cassette, the one with the B sides. Absolutely loved it, started to buy all Cure music we could find!

And then lo and behold, they were touring in '86, went with a big group of friends and had an amazing time, of course!

My attitude toward them has not changed at all in the past 22 years. I still love the music, love going to concerts, and buy all music I can. There have been stages in my teen and very early 20's when I was into different music, but I've always gone back to the Cure, and actually have turned many friends onto the Cure who didn't know them before.

(From: Avalon1970, Washington DC, USA)

"A soft spot in my heart"

I'm 34 years old now, and will be attending the Cure show in Dallas in June. That being said, I got into the Cure in 1986. A friend of mine, Shyla, had an older brother who was in college at the time. He was into punk and new wave bands. He would make tapes of bands that he liked for Shyla. Echo & the Bunnymen, Smiths, Siouxsie and of course The Cure. Shyla and I would listen to his tapes over and over. The first Cure song that really caught my attention was Charlotte Sometimes. I bought Standing on a Beach first, quickly followed by Faith.

By the end of 1987 I had all the Cure albums including the newly released Kiss Me album. Understand that the Cure were pretty unknown in America at the time. Of course New York and Los Angeles had a much bigger Cure following than the rest of the U.S. I "adopted the Cure/deathrock/goth" look soon after getting into The Cure. And yes, I got picked on a lot! That was a long time ago, and I don't walk around dressed all in black and make up anymore, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for the Cure. I've met Robert 3 times and seen the Cure 13 times. I rarely listen to them anymore, but when the weather gets cold and the sky is grey, I always pop in 17 Seconds or Disintegration. I will forever love them, even if I don't keep up with the new stuff.

(From: Trey, Texas, US)