THE CURE

Random and bite-sized facts on all things from the mythical figures that make up The Cure. Totally random but totally fascinating if you're into it. Do you know The Cure now?

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Robert Smith Didn't Like The Cure's First Album

Robert Smith later admitted that he didn't even like Three Imaginary Boys when it came out. Fiction Records had the final say over the tracklisting and artwork, and Smith felt the album sounded too lightweight.

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Fiction Chose the Album Cover

The cover of Three Imaginary Boys wasn't Robert Smith's choice. Fiction Records controlled the artwork, something that helped convince Smith he needed much more control over The Cure's records in future.

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Robert Smith Played Guitar for Siouxsie and the Banshees

While The Cure were still developing their darker sound, Robert Smith temporarily played guitar with Siouxsie and the Banshees. He toured with them in 1979 and appeared on their live album Nocturne.

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A Forest Wasn't Really About a Childhood Dream

"A Forest" has often been described as coming from a childhood dream about being lost in a forest. Robert Smith later backed away from that story, saying the song wasn't actually based on such a dream.

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Faith Started Out Much Happier

The first demos for Faith were recorded in Robert Smith's parents' dining room and were surprisingly upbeat. Then members of the band lost family members, and Smith said the mood of the group changed completely within about two weeks.

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The Cure Used a Graveyard for Their Faith Tour

The Cure's 1981 tour film Carnage Visors was accompanied by an instrumental soundtrack written by the band. It was originally shown before their concerts while the audience waited for the band to appear.

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Robert Smith Called The Top Almost a Solo Album

Robert Smith later described The Top as the closest he'd ever come to making a solo album. He said he didn't have a very coherent idea of what the album was, and admitted that he thought it showed.

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The Cure Once Played Other Bands' Songs at Rehearsals

When The Cure were starting out, they didn't have many songs of their own. Robert Smith said they often finished rehearsals by playing other people's music, including pop, rock, psychedelia, rockabilly, reggae and punk songs.

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CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES CAME FROM A BOOK

The Cure's "Charlotte Sometimes" was based directly on a 1969 children's novel by Penelope Farmer. Robert Smith later described it as a "very straight lift". The B-side, "Splintered in Her Head", also took its title from the book.

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THE DROWNING MAN WAS LITERARY TOO

"The Drowning Man", from Pornography, was inspired by Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels. The Cure have a surprisingly strong literary thread running through their early songs.

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PICTURES OF YOU STARTED WITH A FIRE

Robert Smith has said that "Pictures of You" came out of a house fire. Going through what was left afterwards, he found his wallet containing photographs of his wife Mary. One of those photographs was also used for the single's artwork.

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THE BOYS DON'T CRY COVER WAS ALMOST LOST

Photographer Andy Vella took the photograph used for the 1986 reissue of "Boys Don't Cry" during a video shoot involving three children dressed as the band. The film jammed, but Vella managed to recover the photograph. Robert Smith and manager Chris Parry immediately liked it and chose it for the cover.

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THE COVER WAS ORIGINALLY BLACK AND WHITE

The famous "Boys Don't Cry" reissue photograph was originally shot in black and white. Andy Vella later added very subtle colour using photographic dyes, keeping the picture looking almost monochrome.

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THE GLOVE WAS A CURE / BANSHEES SIDE PROJECT

Robert Smith and Siouxsie and the Banshees bassist Steven Severin formed The Glove in 1983. Their only album, "Blue Sunshine", was deliberately psychedelic and grew out of the two musicians' interest in 1960s psychedelia.

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ROBERT SMITH COULDN'T SING ON MOST OF THE GLOVE ALBUM

Smith's record contract prevented him from singing on another band's recordings in the normal way, so Jeanette Landray was brought in to sing most of the vocals on The Glove's "Blue Sunshine". Smith himself only sang on two tracks.

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CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES WAS RECORDED IN ONE TAKE

When The Cure recorded "Charlotte Sometimes", Robert Smith said the very first take was perfect. Nobody had told the others what to play beforehand. They simply went for the atmosphere and somehow got it right first time.

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THE B-SIDE WAS MADE THE OPPOSITE WAY

The B-side of "Charlotte Sometimes", "Splintered in Her Head", was built completely differently. The drums went down first, then Simon Gallup worked out the bass, and Robert Smith added guitar afterwards. Smith said the two tracks showed two completely different ways of making a Cure song.

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THE CURE MADE A 27-MINUTE PIECE FOR A FILM

"Carnage Visors" is a nearly 28-minute instrumental soundtrack the Cure recorded in 1981 for an animated film made by Simon Gallup's brother. It was originally issued on cassette with "Faith", rather than as a normal standalone record.

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THE CURE'S FIRST ALBUM CONTAINS A HOME DEMO OF 10:15

The deluxe edition of "Three Imaginary Boys" contains Robert Smith's home demo of "10:15 Saturday Night", recorded in February 1978. There's also a group home demo of "The Cocktail Party" and early versions of several other songs.

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ROBERT SMITH WAS ONLY 18 WHEN THE FIRST ALBUM WAS RECORDED

Smith wrote "10:15 Saturday Night" and "Killing an Arab" when he was about sixteen. The Cure recorded "Three Imaginary Boys" when he was eighteen, which helps explain why Smith later felt detached from some of the material.

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THE CURE WERE ALREADY EXPERIMENTING AT REHEARSALS

Before they had enough of their own songs, The Cure would often finish rehearsals by playing other people's music. Robert Smith later recalled that they tried everything from pop and rock to psychedelia, rockabilly, reggae and punk.

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THE CURE'S FIRST REAL HIT WAS "A FOREST"

"A Forest", from "Seventeen Seconds", was the band's first bona-fide hit single. It came from a much more stripped-down version of The Cure than the huge group they would eventually become.

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THE GLOVE WAS FILLED WITH PSYCHEDELIA

When Robert Smith and Siouxsie and the Banshees bassist Steven Severin finally made The Glove's "Blue Sunshine" in 1983, they drew on films including "Barbarella" and "Yellow Submarine", as well as psychedelic imagery and B-movie horror.

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THE CURE HAD A SIDE BAND CALLED CULT HERO

Before "Seventeen Seconds", the Cure members recorded as Cult Hero. Robert Smith played guitar and Simon Gallup was involved, but the singer was Frank Bell, a local postal worker who was a friend of the band. "I'm a Cult Hero" and "I Dig You" were released as a single in 1979.

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CULT HERO WASN'T REALLY THE CURE

Cult Hero wasn't simply another name for The Cure. It was deliberately treated as a separate project, with Robert Smith wanting to experiment with a different singer and a different kind of song. The two Cult Hero tracks were later included as extras on the deluxe edition of "Seventeen Seconds".

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"A FOREST" HAD A VERY EARLY VERSION

The first versions of "A Forest" appeared before the finished studio recording. The deluxe "Seventeen Seconds" material includes an early group home instrumental demo, showing the song before it became the much darker and more spacious track on the album.

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THE CURE RECORDED "FAITH" DEMOS AT HOME

Some of the earliest "Faith" material was recorded at Robert Smith's parents' house. The deluxe edition includes his home instrumental demos of "Faith" and "Doubt", as well as a group home demo of "Drowning".

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"PORNOGRAPHY" HAS A STRANGE HIDDEN HISTORY

The deluxe edition of "Pornography" contains an instrumental called "Airlock: The Soundtrack". It lasts more than 13 minutes and comes from the same period as the album, giving a glimpse of how far The Cure were experimenting away from conventional songs.

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THE CURE RELEASED AN ALBUM THAT WAS ALMOST A SOLO RECORD

"The Top" was made at a time when Robert Smith was doing a huge amount of the work himself. Smith later called it the closest he had ever come to making a solo album. He also described it as probably the patchiest Cure album.

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THE CURE'S RARITIES FILLED FOUR CDS

In 2004, The Cure released "Join the Dots", a four-CD collection covering B-sides and rarities from 1978 to 2001. It was so extensive that it included material that had previously been scattered across singles, compilations and obscure releases.

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THEY EVEN RECORDED THEIR OLD SONGS AGAIN

In 2005, The Cure re-recorded one song from each of their first four albums for an unusual project called "4play". Robert Smith, Simon Gallup and Jason Cooper made the new versions with original producer Mike Hedges.

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THE CURE WERE LOCKED IN A WARDROBE

For the "Close to Me" video, Tim Pope put the Cure inside a wardrobe. Robert Smith had been bedridden with chickenpox as a child and developed a fear of enclosed spaces, which Pope used as part of the idea. The wardrobe was eventually pushed into the sea.

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THE "LOVECATS" VIDEO WAS FILMED WITHOUT PERMISSION

Tim Pope found a house he wanted for the "The Lovecats" video while looking at an estate agent's window. He got the keys by pretending to be interested in renting it, filmed the Cure inside, and handed the keys back afterwards.

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TIM POPE MADE 37 CURE VIDEOS

Tim Pope directed 37 videos for The Cure. He became so closely associated with the band that his strange, surreal visual style became almost as recognisable as the band's music.

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ROBERT SMITH HAD A CAMERA PUT INSIDE HIS MOUTH

While making the "Lullaby" video, Tim Pope put a camera inside Robert Smith's mouth to get one of the video's bizarre shots. Pope later admitted he was worried about knocking Smith's teeth out.

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"THE EMPTY WORLD" CAME FROM THE SAME BOOK AS "CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES"

Robert Smith returned to Penelope Farmer's novel "Charlotte Sometimes" years after writing the Cure song of the same name. "The Empty World", on "The Top", also draws directly on the novel, making it another Cure song built around the same strange story.

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"THE EMPTY WORLD" USES WORDS FROM THE NOVEL

"The Empty World" contains the phrase "stiff as toys and tall as men", which comes directly from Penelope Farmer's "Charlotte Sometimes". The song is therefore more than just a vague literary influence.

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"PIGGY IN THE MIRROR" WAS INSPIRED BY A FILM

Robert Smith said "Piggy in the Mirror", from "The Top", was inspired by Nicolas Roeg's film "Bad Timing". The song is one of the album's particularly strange and unsettling moments, fitting the film's darker psychological atmosphere.

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"WHY CAN'T I BE YOU?" WAS MUCH LONGER ON 12-INCH

The normal version of "Why Can't I Be You?" runs for just over three minutes, but the 12-inch version stretches it out to more than eight minutes. The extended mix was released in 1987 alongside an extended version of "A Japanese Dream".

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