Berlin

I grew up in East Berlin. Rias broadcasted Lullaby and Lovesong in 1989. Time was very exciting, because the "revolution" was taking place, I was 13 and was very into music, especially the soundtrack of Dirty Dancing. I loved those two songs. when the wall came down and I attended school in West Berlin, my new friend Rebecca posessed tapes of the cure, because her uncle had been a big fan. We exchanged the tapes. I listened to them on and on, during the breaks, on the way to and from school, in the evening, alone or with Rebecca. The highlight was their concert in 1992. I cried almost the whole time. I had a little break when Wild Moon Swings was released but from the Berlin concert 2000 on, I grew bigger and bigger fan.

(From: Yvonne Chadde', East Berlin, Germany)

"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)

"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)

"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)

"There was one lone Cure fan in my English class"

In 1987, I was reading a Thrasher Magazine profile on then young pro- skateboarder Tony Hawk. The article mentioned that The Cure was one of Tony's favorite bands. Hawk was one of my heroes then, and I thought "If he likes them, I should definitely check them out."

I lived in Virginia at the time and our middle school had it's share of Smiths and U2 fans. Fortunately for me, there was one lone Cure fan in my English class. Clad in black and white leggings, a black top, a black skirt, bright red lipstick, topped with tousled blue black hair, Alyssa looked like something out of The Cure's Lullaby video. She was an avid Cure fan and let me borrow the double vinyl release for Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. I protected the bright red sleeve as I made my way home from school to drop the needle on the vinyl. I listened with curious intensity to the first track The Kiss. Thudding Flanged Bass, building dynamics ... all leading into the wailing wah-wah guitar work.

At the crescendo of what seemed like a wall of sound, Robert Smith began his vocals. I was stunned. I was hooked. I listened to Kiss Me over and over and over again. In addition to the lyrical content, I was fascinated with the production value. I loved the placement of the instruments in the aural spectrum. Drums here. Rhythm Guitars over there. I loved the ups and downs. The dynamics were amazing. From that point forward, I began amassing their entire catalog, any reading material on the band, miscellaneous promotional items, limited pressings, strange one off collaborations, etc. I also made every effort to see them live when touring in the US. The Cure has been my favorite band for over 20 years. They are still relevant. They are still evolving. With every new release, The Cure continue to connect with me in the way they did when I was 12.

(from: Patrick Miller, Mississippi, USA)

"it was a massive change in the way I perceived music"

I'm 34 and I first heard of the Cure when I was 15. I heard Lullaby on the radio and instantly liked it, I then bought Disintegration and it was a massive change in the way I perceived music. It also perfectly matched with my "teenage angst". I became a fan and started to gather everything about them, and I've been a huge "encyclopedic" fan since then.

My relation to The Cure shifted throughout the years, in the sense that in the first years I listened only to that. But the longer and longer gaps between the records allowed me (together with some more maturity) to listen to other kind of music. But as soon as there is some movement on COF, I start listeing to them again. As I started with Disintegration it is clear that Wish then even more Wild Mood Swings and to a lesser extent Bloodflowers were disappointments, but it is normal, as these records are less inspired and I was also out of my teenage vision and I was growing up. Lately (since 2004) I had ambiguous feelings about the band, mainly because of Robert. I still love the music, but Robert's attitude is getting on my nerves a lot. It all started when Roger was fired (one of my favourite side of the band is the plainsong-like sound of the keyboards, and I really miss it), and also during that mini-war with COF, that I found really unfair.

My favourite band member has always been Simon, and I started playing bass thanks to him. I really liked Porl at the time. Now that he's back, due to the fact that it matched Roger's departure, I am not so sure I'm that happy (many of my fav songs are more atmospheric and require ghostly keys). I never really enjoyed Perry and his departure didnt change anything. Jason is transparant.

As anyone, I always have good memories of Boris, but to tell the truth, when I listen to Entreat, I find the drum playing far too present and too fast and too strong. I also disliked the way I was starting to change some songs (In Your House on Paris is awful). Lately, I really didn't understand why they would do a world tour without the album, playing festival setlists, although they perfectly know that the venues are filled with "real fans" as these concerts are sold out without any supporting material nor publicity. I'm looking forward to hearing the new record though, and even hope for some more concerts in fall, to support the new album, when it is finally released!

(From: Eric, Belgium)