Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / The Cure: From Three Imaginary Boys To Gothic Rock Legends [Episode 318]

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The Cure: From Three Imaginary Boys To Gothic Rock Legends [Episode 318] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: From three imaginary boys to gothic rock legends. We explored
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the discography of The Cure. Next on Booked on Rocks.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Rock and Roll, I mean I leave you you're reading.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Little Hands says it's time to rock and roll rock.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: I totally booked.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Hey everybody, welcome back to Booked on Rock, the podcast
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: for those about to read and rock. We have a
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: first time guest on the podcast, Matthew Davis. Here's the
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: author of The Cure, Every album, every song. It's part
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: of Sonic Bond's on Track series. Matthew, Welcome to the podcast.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Hello, Thanks having me.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Always good to talk to a fellow Cure fan. Always
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: loved talking about the Cure. When did you become a fan?
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Ah? Well, this nineteen ninety six. So going back to
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Fairways now, when I was ratherly young, I had was
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: first intrigued by I spoke there was a girl school
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: who I fancied and she liked them, so that was
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: when I first heard of them. I listened to him
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: a bit back then and didn't really get into it.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Was more of a sort of a dirt head, sort
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: of metal head kind of guy at the time, so
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: I didn't really get into alternative stuff that much. And
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: then a couple of years later, I go another try.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: I didn't quite sync in, and then I saw there's
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: a TV showdown here called Rage that plays music videos
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: all night, and they had did like a punk rock special,
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: and afterwards they played all the Cure videos from the
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: start up into wild mood swings and I taped that
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: was by accident, and I watched it after the punk
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: special and I thought, Okay, that's cool. Then I watched
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: it again and then again and then again, and that
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  Speaker 2: was kind of my inn And from then I started
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: buying more of the CDs and just Yeah became obsessed
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: very quickly, really, and they pretty much instantaneously became one
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: of my favorite bands of all time, all my actual
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: favorite band of all time.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: And when you talk about the Carry, you got to
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: talk about Robert Smith. He's the the Cure. This is
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: what you write here in the book. The Cure is
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the result of a dreamy boy who created a world
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: of his own, and we often like to take a
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: trip into that world. Give us a brief background of
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Robert and how The Cure is formed.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Early versions of the group back go back to the
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: mid seventies. I mean, the band that we came to
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: know as The Cure dates back to nineteen seventy six.
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  Speaker 2: So Robert Smith was always there. He was always playing guitar.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: He wasn't the singer to start with. He didn't I
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: really wanted to be the singer at first. But Michael
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Dempsey and Lowell Tolhurst the rhythm section. They were there,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: and Paul now Pearl was the lead guitarist who did
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: three different stints over the history of the band.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Pearl Thompson, that's right.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: And started out playing covers and stuff like that, as
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: pretty much all musicians do. I did it myself too,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: just learning the ropes, you know, learning how to learning
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: about structure and things like that, and learning how to
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: perform in front of people. And then they became the
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Condens was easy Cure at a certain point because that
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: was one of Lowell's songs. They picked it out of
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: a hat, and then eventually rober didn't like it sound
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: too hippish, so you took Easy off and to put
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: the on there because that was kind of the thing
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  Speaker 2: to do at the time, you know, using the definite article,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: and it stuck. That was about nineteen seventy seven. I
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: think it's a bit hard to pick the actual beginning
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: of the Q or so to speak, because they sort
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: of had that slow formation and they tend to state
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: nineteen seventy eight as their birth year. Soon verses of
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: the band were around for a couple of years before that.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then the first album they were signed to
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: the label and released an album in the UK only.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, there were a version of it did come
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  Speaker 2: out overseas shortly after that. But Three Imaginary Boys their
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: first record that was released overseas as Boys Don't Cry,
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: with a slight different track list that's I've Got That
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  Speaker 2: I came out stun Records over here, actually had a
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: better track listing because they didn't get to chooser songs
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: on the first record. Their manager and producer at the time,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: he just took it upon himself to sequence the songs,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: and he chose some of the less strong material that
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: they had laying around, and Robert wasn't very happy with that,
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  Speaker 2: So Boys Don't Cry swapped out some of the weakest
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: stuff for some of the other non album singles, like
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  Speaker 2: Boys Don't Cry itself, which wasn't even on the record
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: to start with, and it's a stronger representation of their
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: early material anyways.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: And the Cure sound that's so familiar to many, that's
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: not what we're here on this album. It's a very
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: different side. It is new wave. It's kind of post punk.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: M yeah, kind of scrappy, literate post punk kind of sound.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: It's a bit Thinness is fairly succinct, which is something
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: The Cure had always known for being. Later they got
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: in and got out pretty quickly with their songs, but
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  Speaker 2: I mean there are still the voices there, and they're
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: starting to touch upon the kind of themes and sounds
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: that it would later to greater effect. But a lot
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: of it's Yeah, it's a very formative record, but they're
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: only twenty years old when it came out.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: And Robert wasn't a big fan of the album, and
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: we know why because he had no creative control over it.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: But it's interesting he's always kept boys Don't Cry, and
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: that's a song that's he's kept in the setlist from
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: the start, so he definitely has an affinity for that song.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, and I think that's the second most
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: played song out of the whole lot. I mean, partly
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: becaus are so old, obviously, but also, yeah, it's it's
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: been proved a really popular song. It's found a lot
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: of use over the years in various formats. It's been
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: a bit of a touchstone bit of it's of old
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: rock classic. Yeah, he's otherwise downplayed that material, but as
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: you would, I mean, these are songs he wrote that
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: he was in his teens. I mean most of us
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: who look back at the person we were then and
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: go like, yeah, okay, that guy had no idea what
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: he was doing, So it's absolutely understandable he would feel
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: that way.
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  Speaker 1: Second album. You lead the chat on this album, which
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: is nineteen eighty seventeen seconds with a quote from Robert
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  Speaker 1: He says, I knew exactly what I wanted to do
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: with seventeen seconds. I knew exactly how I wanted it
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  Speaker 1: to sound, and I didn't want anyone to interfere with that.
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  Speaker 1: It features the single of Forest. This is the beginning
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: of Robert Smith's Cure that we know, and it's also
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: the debut appearance by a very important member of the band,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: which is bassist Simon Gallup, who Cure fans know how
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: important he is to this lineup, but the average fan
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: may not know. But he is essential to this lineup.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Talk about how the writing of this album began in
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: the aftermath of a Newcastle gig in October of nineteen
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: seventy nine.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I was a bit surprised myself to go
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: back and read about that. So essentially, Robert got in
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: a fight with a few businessmen in a hotel and
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: got beaten up and went back to his hotel room
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  Speaker 2: and wrote most of the lyrics for the album in
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: one sitting, and then when they got home, down with
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: guitar and his sister's organ and started putting together the
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: music for it, and he already had a fair idea
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: of how one of the next records to sound. Their
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: bass player at the time, Michael Dempsey, wasn't a big
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: fan of it. He was always a more note player,
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  Speaker 2: you know, he was. He wasn't into the sparse sound
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: that Robert wanted, because you know, what rob was pushing
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  Speaker 2: for is everything to be more simplified, pushed back and
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: more spacious, and Michael didn't really like that sound. So
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: they kind of edged him out and brought in Simon Gallup.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: As you said, who's the other mainstay of the Cure.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: He has been there almost the entire time apart from
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: that first record. He had a brief hiatus a few
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: years later, but otherwise he's always been a part of
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: the band, and he's regarded as at a central part
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: of the band by many, including myself. These a big
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: personal influence on me. Also as a bass player, I
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: can hear his influence on my play.
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  Speaker 1: Mike got so many bass lines that you recognize from
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: care songs. And he's the guy and he was a
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  Speaker 1: Robert's best man at his wedding or vice versa.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: So yeah, they've been best friends for a long time.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, they had a falling out for a little bit,
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  Speaker 1: and then.
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  Speaker 2: That's still a few years off in the future, and
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  Speaker 2: they've had a relationship from time to time, but I mean,
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  Speaker 2: best buds will be like that sometimes, as long as
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: you get through it make up again afterwards.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: A year after The Cure released nineteen eighty one's Faith
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Enough for Me. Faith is the first Cure album where
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  Speaker 1: I can say I'm a huge fan of the album
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  Speaker 1: from start to finish. Primary was a single, but All
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Cats Are Gray my standout favorite from this album. Heavily
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: influenced by the death of Robert's grandmother and other family
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: frailties as you're right, and he was really questioning his
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: own faith at this time, and he seemed to be
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: self medicating with drugs right around this time.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's something that people didn't really understand. Well, I
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: didn't even think of for a long time. I never
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: associated the cure with drugs. I mean, I knew that
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: they liked to drink, but it wasn't until later in
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: my fandom that I realized that they went through a
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: few drug phases as well, or an extended period of
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: time really. So yeah, that record, I mean, cocaine was
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: starting to come into the picture pretty heavily, which was
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: making things a bit fractious in the studio, and they
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: couldn't really lock down what they were after. They're after
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: a very fune, a real kind of gray kind of vibe,
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: and they weren't given that first. Everything just kind of
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: sounded flat and dead, which was a bit more funeral
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: than they were hoping for, because they really did get
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: a sort of drab majesty out of that sound in
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: the end, you know, and primary itself. It was a
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: good example. The original version was more upbeat, but it
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: just didn't really have that same vibe and then by
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: the time they got to the album version, yeah, they
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: stripped it down, they sped it up, and yeah, that's
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: a classic number. I mean, and in fact that there's
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: no guitar on it all. It's the two bass guitars
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: and there's not even any keyboards on that. It's so
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: sparse and it doesn't sound empty, and it really does
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: kind of sound unique. I mean, when the band has
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: played it since on stage with a couple of guitars
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: and keyboards in the mixes, doesn't sound the same. It
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: sounds good still, but you can't go past the original
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: for me, for the way that it sounds and the
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: unique nature of it.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: So up the first of the legendary trilogy of Cure albums,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty two's Pornography is next incredibly dark, intense, and
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: reflective of Robert's mood at that time. What was it
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: that was pushing him into this dark place? And how
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: was that not just affecting the music, but Robert's relationship
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: with his band meets Robert and Simon Gallup, this is
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: where their relationship fell apart.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm again drugs were playing apart. I mean, I
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: wouldn't say that was it Robert was also just going
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: through a bit of a strange phase himself. I mean,
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: he'd been through a sort of having grown up Catholic upbringing.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: It's rejected that, and then he was questioning all of
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: that during the Faith era as well and wondering what
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: that meant to him. And I think he was just
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: having a hard time understanding the world around him, dealing
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: with people. And of course the Cure are just working
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: flat out at that point. They've been going solid for years.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is an era when bands will put
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: out an album every year plus have put out nine
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: album singles as well and touring the rest of the time.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: So this's never had a break, so it's understandable the
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: stress would get the better them after for a while.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: What did you think when you first heard this one?
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Because for me, personally, I didn't. It didn't hit me
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: at first. Years later I listened to it, it's like, man,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: why didn't I like this as much? But you have
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: to be in the right mindset. You got to be
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: at maybe a certain time of year, maybe around now,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: you get into the Halloween time you start listening because
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: it's intense. It's not one you're going to play at
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: a party to get people up in on the dance floor.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: No, depends on the top of party, of course.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Not time. I guess that's true. That's true.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, when I first heard it, I mean i'd started
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: collecting the back catalog of Quell records at that point.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: This is early on in my fandom, and so I've
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: only heard the Hanging Guarden off that because Standing on
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: the Beach it was the only single off the record,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: because I didn't produce a number of sunny pop HiT's
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: funny enough and that one. Yeah, I ordered it and
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: listened to it a few times. Oh, that's pretty cool.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: But it wasn't really until a few months later and
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: I had my heart broken that I really started to
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: vibe on that record under and I found myself like
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: sitting in my car at the beach late at night,
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: like just you know, smoking cigarettes instead of wallowing and
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: self pity and listening to that record, and I was like, yeah,
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: I get it now, And it was actually a real
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: help to me at the time. It really did help
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: me to deal with some of those emotions, you know,
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: And partly for that reason perhaps it's still one of
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: my very favorite Cure records. It does have a deep
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: I do feel a deep connection with it. I do
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: feel I never really topped it in some ways. I mean,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: it's kind of a primitive and brutal record. There's almost
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: like a heavy metal intensity to it at times, which
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: I've rarely touched upon since.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, primitive is a good word too, because the album
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Covered two is very It's just a distorted picture of
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: the three guys. And then you have at the end
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: and the title track. There's a story behind that, like
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: what we're here and there they're watching something on television
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: at the time they were recording.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: That's right, they recorded some material off TV. Part of
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: it was a talk show. It was a debate between
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: or passion, at least involving Graham Chapman from Monty Python
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: and I forget who else it was now I think
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: a prominent feminine.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Politician or yeah. Yeah, it was so effective. It's so disturbing.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Book on Rock podcast will be back after this.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: This is heavy.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: There's that word again, heavy.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Why are thinks so heavy? In the future?
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Is there a problem with earth gravitational pull? What's interesting
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: is you get to the next album. Japanese Whispers nineteen
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: eighty three, definitely not Pornography Part two. Okay, this is
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: this is yeah, this is upbeat. Let's go to Bed
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: the Walk The love Cats talk about this album and
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: what Robertson tent was with the songs with this that
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: he and his bandmates wrote.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: Yes, I mean it's kind of going from watching literal
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: pornography to watching you know, like a care Bears or
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: something like that, you know, raps change. So I included
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: this record in the book even though it's not technically
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: an album, it's a collection of singles. So there were
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: three singles they put out around this time, which with
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: the loose title of the Fantasy trilogy. So let's go
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: to Bed of the Walk and the love Cats, and
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: there were a drastic change. Robert wanted to basically just
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: get rid of the sound that the Cure had and
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: get rid of even their following and just sort of
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: dismantle the whole thing because you were so sick of it,
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: and it just dragged him down so far. He realized
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: he didn't want to be like that anymore. You know,
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: he got straight a bit and just thought, Okay, I'm
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: not having any fun with us anymore. It's gone as
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: far as it can go, so less for a laugh,
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: let's just destroy it all and move on. And it
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: didn't really work that way. Somehow people still connected with
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: the music even though I mean, in the first after
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: the book, I said, you know, like a more modern example,
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: like if Trent Resna did you know the downward spiral
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: and the fragile and then put out something that sounded
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: like Britney Spears, I mean the same. I mean, it's
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: such a drastic change of pace. I'm surprised at his
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: career did manage to survive all of that, frankly, but
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: I'm very loud that it did.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Huge risk, but you could see where he had that
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: ability to write a great popsar Let's Go to Bed
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: and the Walk was influenced. I believe he was getting
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: into the joy division at the time.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Well it was compared to the New Order a lot too.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: A New Order, I'm sorry, Yeah, it was a enjoyed division.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: Well very close.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but he was inspired by New Order. Yeah, that
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: was his thing. He was getting into that. But you
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: can see how he's developing his songwriting skills. And then
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: you have the Top. Released in nineteen eighty four, The
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: fifth studio album features this single, The Caterpillar although Robert
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: had promised a solo album for a long time, it's
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: never happened. Yet. You're right that this is widely regarded
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: as the closest thing to a Robert Smith solo project.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: What sets this album apart from other Cure albums in
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: that regard in your opinion.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: Well, this is an era when Simon Gallup wasn't in
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: the band, so for the singles comprised Japanese whispers, and
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: then the top as well. To start with, the band
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: was this Robot and Lowell, Tolhurst and Lola switched over
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: from drums to keyboards, which sort of reduced his presence
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: in that luck he wasn't playing in every song now
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: and also he was still learning. So I mean Robert
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: wrote most of those songs alone. I mean Lowl did
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: chip him for some of the songs. He does get
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: a credit on some of those songs, but otherwise the
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: record was largely just Robert and then Andy Enison playing drums,
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: who had stepped in around the Love Cats era, So
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: most of that record is just the pair of them.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: Paul makes a brief appearance on saxophone on one song,
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: and he joined the band for the tour and then
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: became a mainstay after that, Lowell wasn't as involved. He
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: was becoming more of an alcoholic at that point, so
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: it wasn't as directly involved. I mean Robert was technically
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: alcoholic too, but I mean Lola is the one who
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: became known as an alcoholic and eventually became, you know,
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: so afflicted by it he couldn't function anymore. So also
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: with Robert getting getting out of his head and then
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: spending hours in the studio, and that point is also
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: working other records because he was in Susie and the
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: Bandshee's at that time as well as their guitarist, so
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: he'd been going back and forth between like touring and
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: recording with them and then touring and recording with The Cure.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: And he also had side project with Steve Severin from
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: the band Cheese, which is called The Glove. Yes, an
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: insane work ethic. I mean he was literally taking a
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: taxi from one studio to another and then sleeping for
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: a couple of hours a night wherever he could, and
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: of course indulging a way too many drinks and substances
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: as well, and to the point where he just couldn't
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: handle that anymore, and he had to step out of
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: the band Cheese because it was just eating up too
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: much of his everything. Really time energy.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Lord Torhros, did you read his book? I haven't yet, yep.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: So he's got two books out. First, one is Two
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Imaginary Boys, which is kind of his story in the Cure,
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: and then a couple of years ago put another book
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: called Goth History, which is more about talking about the
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: roots of the genre and the Cure's connection to it.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: So I've still got some quite personal stuff and reflections
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: from his time in the Cure, but it's not about
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: the Cure per se, whereas Cured is very much cured.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: Two Imaginary Boys. That one I'll tailor to Imaginary Boys.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: I'll get the title right by the end of this indurview. Yeah,
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: that one's very much a memoir, you know, which saw
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: his I'm curious when you're reading a memoir by someone
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: who spent most of the time they're talking about wasted
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: off their head, you know, on drugs and alcohol. You're like,
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: how much this to I actually believe? Because I mean,
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: it's a strange thing. When I was reading al Jordans's
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: book got from Ministry, He's son like, oh, you know,
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: if you remember the eighties, he weren't there, and then
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: he goes on to like detail the eighties in graphic detail,
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: and it's like you were taking more drugs than anyone
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: else at that time. Why should we take any of
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: this at face value? And some of what Lowell says
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: obviously is contradicted by things that Robert has said in interviews.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: That's really a matter of picking who you believe. And
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: while most people were default to Robert, I mean he's
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: been a bit tricksy with the truth from time to
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: time too, and you like to be a bit playful
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: about things come up with ulterinate versions. He's the line
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: interviews all the time because you get bored of saying
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: the same thing, so he just make things up for
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: his own amusement. So sometimes you do got to wonder
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: what's actually true, And that's one thing of doing this book.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: I've kind of had to walk the line, try and
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: find my own space because I'll be reading old interviews.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: It's like, remember, he might be taking the piss here,
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: and they're ready more recent ones where he's pro probably
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: telling them the truth as far as he recalls it,
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: But then who knows, how will he recalls it after
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: all this time and the stage he was in at
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: the time.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: I think he's down pretty good terms with Lowell nowadays.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: I think I signed interview Loll talked about that, so
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: that's cool. I don't know has he ever appeared with
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: the band over the years since he was out. He
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: was out only eighty nine.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: So the end of nineteen eighty eight, after they finished Disintegration,
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: they had a falling out. Lowell was not happy. He
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: had already been involved in the album process anyways, and
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: I don't think he even when he actually appears on
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: the record, and he claims too, but it's hard to tell.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: But he's credited on albums as like playing other instrument,
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: you know, So he wasn't always doing all that much,
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: and his participation didn't decline album after album at a
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: point where Disintegration, I mean at least one song on
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: the record came for an idea of his musically, But
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: I don't know if he actually appears on it at all.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: But they had a falling out end of eighty eight,
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: and the rest of the band said, when we go
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: on to it, we don't want him to be there,
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: otherwise we're not gone. So Robert had to make a choice.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: And then there was a quite torture lawsuit for a
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: while in the nineties where Lowell was trying to gain
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: ownership of the name, which would have been a very
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: weird scenario had that come to pass, and he lost
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: that quite comprehensively. And then they did talk for a while,
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: and then they did reconnect over the time probab about
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: two thousand, I think they really reconnected in person. And
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: then twenty eleven when the Cure decided to do the
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: shows called Reflections, it was they're playing the first three records,
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: so three Measuring You Boys, seventeen Seconds in Faith. They
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: came over here to Australia to do it first at
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: a festival here in Sydney, and they're playing all three
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: albums in their entirety. And for the Faith album they
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: got loll to come on stage and play keyboards and
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: additional percussion. And then they did an encore series of
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: these shows like in New York places like that in London.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: So there's probably about a dozen shows that Lowell played
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: on with the band after his departure much later, and
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: they do that are on good terms now, which is
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: pretty awesome. It's always good with these things come back
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: around and you can see old friends reconciling and it
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: kind of a happy ending, which is, you know something
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: else romantics really like.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Absolutely going back to the timeline now, so we're up
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: to nineteen eighty five, the Cure release an album that
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: marks the beginning of the band's peak commercially successful years,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: and that's Head on the Door in Between Days Close
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: to Me. Two singles on there, and there was an
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: excitement then return to the band on this album, specifically
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: with Simon Gallop right, So.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Robert and Simon had met up again and they'd basically
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: reconciled the differences and Simon came back to the band,
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: which was a real shot in the arm for them.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Robert said that everyone just sounded more excited when Robert
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: when and Simon came back. You know, it really gave
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: them an injection of fresh excitement and attitude. And the
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: album itself is like a real confection of pop highlights,
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: you know, like it's that the Top had things like
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: the Caterpillar, which was very much in the vein of
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: the fantasy singles, but this one at the Top als
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: had darker moments, was very very diverse, whereas this and
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: it was still very diverse, but it was more upbeat
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: all the way across. I mean ends was sinking, which
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: is still a fairly gloomy song, but otherwise it's very
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: much an upbeat record. It really plays that side of
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: the band. And that was the first album as well
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: where Robert actually wrote all of the songs and they're
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: all credited to him. So before that, the songs will
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: be credited to the band whoever was in the band
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: at the time when they made the record, they would
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: get a songwriting credit on each song, because he thought
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: that was a fair thing to do. Plus everyone was
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: chipping in to some degree, although that fell off after
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: a while. And with the head on the door, Robert
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: really said okay, so here's the songs we're doing, and
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: just had like a demo tape with him just like
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: I'm not basic guitar saying Okay, if I can make
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: these songs work like this, then they'll work with the
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: whole band, you know. So just really bake did really
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: basic demos and presented them to the band. They learned
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: the songs that ended the studio book Down Rock Podcast
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: will be back after this now might be a Dandy
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: Town for that recess.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Matthew Davis is the author of The Cure, Every Album,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Every Song writing high in the success of the Head
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: on the Door, which reached number seven in the UK
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: fifty nine in the US, along with the singles collections
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Standing on a Beach which you mentioned The Cure, you right,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: were in good spirits when they convened to work on
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: the next album in nineteen eighty six, and it resulted
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: in the album kiss Me, Kissed Me, Kissed Me, which
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: had a working title of one Million Virgins. I didn't
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: know that Robert wrote the last album on his own,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: like you said, but that changes with this album. Talk
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: about that and the difference you hear in the songs
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: as a result.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: Yes, if this record, Robert said to start with, I
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: want to tape off all of you with some songs,
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: or at least some ideas. So everyone stepped up and
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: actually wrote some material and presented it, and then they
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: all sat down listened to the songs, and everyone gave
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: the marks essentially say which one they wanted to do.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: And then so when they went to France to record
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: that record, I mean they ended up with well over
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: twenty songs. The album itself did up with eighteen songs
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: on it, and then they had a whole bunch of
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: B sides as per usual. So yeah, there's a couple
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: of songs on the other Simon Gallup wrote the music
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: for There's I think there's two that he did the
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: three that Paul Thompson and Boris put together. I don't
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: know how much input Loll had on that one. Even
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: Boris Williams, who'd been playing drums for them since late
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: nine eighty four, he came up with a tape of
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: drum rhythms and stuff like that, so at least he
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: was willing to be involved in the process and didn't
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: come from the Thompson Twins where he didn't really have
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: any involvement in the music. He was just playing along
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: with program beats and stuff like that and just paying
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: very basic stuff. So he's very pleased to be able
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: to come up with his own beats, but also to
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: be able to say, well, here's some rhythms that I
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: want to use. So yeah, I definitely led to a
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: more collaborative kind of sound. I mean, it's still very
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: much led by Robert and he still wrote most of
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: the music and all the lyrics.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Has the singles why Can't I Be You, Catch Hot
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Hot Hot, and just Like Heaven, which is, in my opinion,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: really a perfect pop rock song. I mean, it's absolute perfection.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Share what you writ in the book about the writing
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: of the song.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: The lyrics. Yes, it's just about like a holiday on
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: Beachy had that he had with Mary, his partner of
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: many years. They got together when they were fifteen years old.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Still together, yes, still together after.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: All these years. It's a real romance story, you know,
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: kind of relationship goals in a way. You know, my
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: partner and I are very affected by that. I wish
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: that we'd met when when they Zoe could be together
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: for that amount of time. But yeah, so she's always
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: been his news, and he's always always been his rock
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: and held them together when he was in danger of
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: falling apart. It must be strange to be a person
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: like that and just know how many love songs have
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: been written about she were just how many songs in general.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: I mean, I can't think of anyone else that have
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: more songs written about her, apart from maybe historical figures
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: or something at Marilyn Monroe where a lot of people
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: didn't know are probably written songs about her. But I
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: mean to know that there are like dozens or if
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: not hundreds of songs inspired by including some of the
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: best songs of all time, the most romantic songs of
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: all time. It must be quite an interesting space to be.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: But so lyrics were about that and experience that that
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: Robert and Mary had when they're down there at Beachy Head,
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: when they're close to me. Video was shot and the
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: music rober had written a little instrumental with Demo. It
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: was called Shivers at the time, and they thought it
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: sounded too much like another Girl, Another Planet. By the
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: only ones the rest of the events at NAT it'll
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: be fine, basically, so they sped it up a bit
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: and just use this compositional trick that they had started
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: using probably years before, in which I still deployed from
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: time to time now, where basically start with one or
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: two instruments, add another one, add another one at another one.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: See that the way these two is out. In the
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: old days, maybe we start with the drums and then
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: the guitar will come in in the bass and the vocals,
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: and you get to the end and they drop out
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: one by one too. We had like maybe just the
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: drums going in this case obviously start with the bass
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: and the drums, and the acoustic guitar comes in, and
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: then you've got your your guitars come in and the
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: keyboards before that theme comes in. Also, the song was
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: used as the theme song for French TV show at
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: the time, so the instrumental would have been familiar to
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: sound views in France, at least at the time before
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: it was released as a single.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: The album reached the top forty in the US, number
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: thirty five, number six in the UK. So now the
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Cure are worldwide stars. Robert is becoming part of mainstream
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: culture thanks to not just the music but the looks,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: the gothic look, and he inspired so many like Edward
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Scissorhands and you see it everywhere in the late eighties.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: But they still have another major artistic and commercial accomplishment
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: ahead of them, and that's nineteen eighty nine's Disintegration, which
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: to me is one of the greatest albums in rock
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: history period number three in the UK, number twelve in
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: the US. Considered the second now and that Cure trilogy,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: that conceptual trilogy. We have Lullaby, Fascination, Street Love Song,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: which reached number two on Billboard and I forget which
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: eclipsed it. I can't remember what was number one at
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: the time, but Pictures of You another single on there,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: and this is my Gateway Cure album changed my life.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: I swear I got it as a Christmas gift in
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one, So I go back about five years
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: behind when you became a fan. First time I heard
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: of my roommate had in college. I mean, I just
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: couldn't believe what I was hearing. It just took me
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: away to a whole another world. Robert was twenty late
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: twenties at that time, and he had already he started
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: singing about getting old like when he was twenty five,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: which is amazing. How did Robert's age influence this album?
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: And what was he thinking heading into the recording of
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: this record? He was thinking that this might be it
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: for him and the care Yeah.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: When he was younger, I mean, he didn't anticipate living
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: past twenty five. He thought he was probably going to
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: die quite fast and young and violently probably, And he
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: kind of lived that way, you know, as if the
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: try and mack had come true. But having gotten past that,
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: and you become less of a menace to himself over
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: the time a bit more stable. I found himself approaching
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: thirty and something got really depressed. And so the whole
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: album is really about the horror of turning thirty, you know,
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: which seems a bit strange when you get past that.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: I mean once you get to thirty five, or once
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: you start facing turning forth here even further to start
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: thinking what are you talking about? Cheriship while man, you know,
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: and he really made the most of it. I mean
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: that record is an absolute landmark. I mean I was
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: a bit slower off the mark with that one myself.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: When I was going back and buying the albums, I
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: said at the singles collection. I went back from there
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: and whenever I could find one of the albums, I'd
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: pick it up. I grew up in a country town,
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: so when I came down here to Adelaide, which is
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: the capital of South Australia, I would look around through
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: the stores and I'd find another one, take it home,
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: or order him in through the local records store. I
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: remember I ordered in. I already had Boys Don't Cry,
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: but I had to get three Imaginary Boys. And it
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: took thirteen months for the CD to come in to
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: the music store in my little town and it cost
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: me forty five dollars, which and at the time CDs
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: were costing thirty dollars in Australia when they were new.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: So yeah, it came to come all the way from
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: West Germany. It took over a here and it cost
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: me half as much again, but so Disintegration was one
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: that I finally stumbled across. It was actually one of
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: the last ones at the time I didn't already have
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: and it didn't hit me quite the same way at first. Really,
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: maybe because it's one of those records we hear so
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: much about. Everyone's like this is classic, this is legendary,
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: and then you get it and you listen for the
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: first time and you go, it's pretty good. Yeah, yeah,
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: but it has to grow on, I.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: Know what you mean. Yeah, the bar is set very high,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: or the expectations are set very high.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and also some of the best records of all time.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: I mean that they're growers that the first time I
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: listened to it is to understand because there's so much
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: going on. I mean, the first time I heard the
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: Downward Spiral by nine and Snails was like, you know,
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: five hours ten, you know, like it's already head closer
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: in March March of the Pigs, and I like those,
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: so they were already going. But the rest of it,
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: there was just so much. It was so dense. I
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: was like I couldn't take it in. At first, I'm like, okay,
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: it's all right, I don't understand. And a week later
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: I was like, how could I possibly live without this record?
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: You know, because I had time to give it space
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: in my head and to grow and to get to
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: know it. And it's the same with meeting people. Sometimes
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: you know, you meet and you're like, oh, yeah, hi, whatever,
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: and then months later you're like, wow, what an amazing
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: person because you've gotten to know them, and then you understand,
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: like maybe you don't think they're attractive or anything at first,
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: and latable when you actually get to know them, their
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: personality chance to and suddenly they are, you know, they
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: kind of grow into themselves. But that record was kind
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: of like that for me. I mean, whereas most fans
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: would say this is the Cure album, my favorite Cure album,
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: I never actually say that. It's in there. It's at
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: the top, but it's not one of my absolute favorites,
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: which sounds a sacrilegious thing to say, perhaps the top
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: three or top five, But I mean when you've got
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: a catalog of such quality, I mean, really it's hard
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: to define which ones your top ones are as anyway.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: I mean, when I was an angsty young man, you know,
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: used to say that The Cure was my favorite band.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Of Pornography is my favorite record of all time, And
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: these days, I don't know if I could say that
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: I have one favorite record of all time, I'd still
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: say that The Cure is my favorite band, just because
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: they've had the most emotional impact on me.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: What would you put as their number one album? For
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: The Cure, then what's at the top?
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: I don't have one. Per se in Pornography will still
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: be up there, Kissy Kissney would be up there. Disintegration
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: will be up there seventeen seconds. I mean really, almost
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: everything they put out in the eighties was just stone
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: cold banger, you know, it was just great. I mean,
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: The Top is the only album for me that isn't
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: like a straight ten out of ten, and even that's
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: like a nine, you know, it's it's right up there.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: So and it's not like the Lauses in any other sense.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, the nineties records are quite good as well,
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: and everything they've done has been quality, and then the
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: new album has been, you know, much better than anything
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: they've done for a long time.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: Booked on rock podcast, will be back after this, Oh, Here's.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: Life Look the Way to the Future. Did that? Horazion
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: never his mind on where he was.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: Getting into the nineties. The first album of that decade
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: another commercial hit, nineteen ninety two's Wish number one in
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: the UK, number two in the US. Friday I'm in
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: Love reaches number eighteen on Billboard. Hi and a Letter
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: to at least the singles the other two singles along
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: with Friday I'm in Love tell us about Friday I'm
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: in Love. The song started out quite differently.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: Yes, it's another song where Robert wrote it, and I
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: think the original demo was sort of was much slower,
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: and he kind of also thought it sounded too familiar,
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: you know, they thought it sounded like something else. You'd
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: bring people up and say, hey, listen to this. Does
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: it sound like something to you? This is something you've heard,
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: and he'll apply it to these people that he knew,
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: and they would say, no, well, it doesn't sound that familiar.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: So we'd be like, okay, great, I'm having that. And
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: again it's another song where he took it in. It
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: was a slower piece, and then Simon said, you know,
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: that would make a great pop song for he just
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: speed that up a bit, and so they did that,
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: and Simon's right again absolutely. I mean it's a fairly
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: classic piece of pop, more so than the Cure usually do,
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: because often their take on pop is quite idiosyncratic. I mean,
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: something like just like Hevin is quite a strange song really,
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: and that the chorus is almost it's not afterthought, but
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: it's fairly minor compared to all the work that's done
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: by the verses. For example, it's Fridaymn Love. I mean,
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: you've got really thematic, catchy verses and choruses as well.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: I mean they're more of a type, more of a piece,
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: the more similar. It definitely sounds like an old sixties
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: pop song or something like that that I've just done
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: a cover of, but it's very much their own work.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: I'm fascinated by the songs that didn't make that album
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: because Robert, at first he intended it to be a
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: double album, and one album was going to be the
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: upbeat songs one was going to be the down gloomier
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: side of the Cure. And then when Join the Dots
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: the box set came out and they included the songs
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: that he would have put on that double album. There
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: are some some I'll steal your phrase, there are some
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: bangers on that, some really really good songs. I'm trying
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: to think of some of the titles off the top
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: of my head, but do you agree those are some
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: guess I'll look it up. Let me look up those.
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: Twilight Garden is one of the songs that, yes, you're
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: being on record, it should have been on there, and yeah,
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: you look at it and me you think there's a
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: couple of songs on there that are pretty good but
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: knock great. So maybe you could have stuck that I'm
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: There instead or done ex banded version like a double record.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: But that was a label call, right, They did not
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: want it to be a double album.
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: Well, that one is more like they wanted to do well.
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: They possibly could have done a double record, but they're
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: talking about doing an instrumental record at the time, like
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: a companion piece called Music for Dreams.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Oh okay, so one was going to be instrumentals.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: So at one point Robert said, you know, they could
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: have made an album every six months if you didn't
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: have to write words for it, because they're so very
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: much easier than to write music than it was to
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: write complete songs. And some of those songs did come out,
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: the ones that were going to be on Music for Dreams.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: There was an EP that came out called Lost Wishes.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: It was a cassette. There was a male order for charity,
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: and they had four songs and those have been released
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: since and they're quite strong. So it would be very
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: interesting to see what they did with that. If they'd
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: done Wish and then the Era had done in that
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: Era had done like an instrumental record as well. But
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: they did have quite a lot of other material for
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: bassides and things like that which didn't make the cut.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: And Aless, This Twilight Garden is where the strongest of them,
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: but I mean the uniformly strong songs.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: This Twilight Garden, Ye play Halo, Big Hand is another one.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: I love.
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: The Big An was a quite popular one. Yes, it
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: was gonna be on the record, which is why there's
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: a Big Hand on the artwork because Paul Thompson did
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: the cover off Oh.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: Wow, Okay, they quite liked it. Yeah, now that makes sense.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: It didn't make the cut in the end there's Robert
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: and Boris. I think didn't really vibe on that one
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: as much as the others did.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: So yeah, well they only made one more album in
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: the nineties, they we Can't Forget Burn from the ninety
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: four Crow soundtrack, another great care song. Yeah, but only
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: only one other album in the nineties, and that was
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six is Wild Mood Swings, which was It
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: went to number nine in the UK twelve in the US.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: The thirteenth was the lead single, mint Car, Strange Attraction
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: and go on. Those are all the singles there. The
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: album didn't fare as well as previous ones, and attendance
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: nummers dipped. The four year absence between albums that didn't help.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: What is your opinion of that, because I distinctly remember
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: when the thirteenth was released as a lead single and
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: I didn't like the song, and I thought, well, and
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: then when mint Car came out second, why not lead
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: with that one? But Robert wanted the thirteenth, But I
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: don't know, maybe it didn't matter. We were in time
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety six where you know, tastes are changing
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: now we're into you know, Oasis was big and so
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: it was a different time. But also did they wait
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: too long?
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there is that. I mean, I wonder what would
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: have happened if they release of record ninety four or
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: ninety five. But they're going through some issues there anyways.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: I mean Lowell's court case that he launched. They were
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: dealing with that one, and then once that was over.
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: I mean also Paul Thompson left at the end of
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: the Wish tour to pursue other things. You wanted to
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: play second guitar with Page and Plant. Yeah, yeah, to
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: be in the band with half of his Auto and
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: led Zeppelin was a really big deal for him. So
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: and then Boris Williams left as well, so they were
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: down to three people. Therefore, even even Simon left briefly
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: for a point things and everyone else was leaving because
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: of him, so he may as well go. So it
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: was just down to Robert and Perry Bemonti for a
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: while there. It was their second guitarist at the time,
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: so it took a while. And then the Marshall material
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: and then they basically hide out a manor a country
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: manner in England and to set up a studio and
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: that and lived there and played there and spent probably
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: a bit too long going over it all. So the
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: record could have come a bit earlier, but I don't
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: know how much difference it would have made. Necessarily, it
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: did suffer because of changing tastes. I mean, britt pop
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: was on the ascent at the time, and everyone's like, oh,
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: Oasis is new, and like the Cure a bunch of
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: old farts now, you know, and it just seems kind
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: of ridiculous as you know, the Oasis or even a
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: very revisionist, you know. I mean, they took a lot
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: of their sound from bands like the Beatles and Status
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: Quo and things like that and just sort of rehashed old,
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: old riffs and old sounds, whereas the Cure didn't do that.
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: They were kind of sounded timeless. I mean, there were
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: points where they touched upon certain eras and certain sounds.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: I mean, like with the mixed up remixed record that
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: come out in ninety one or ninety that one was
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: kind of touching on modern trends in dance music at
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: the time. But yeah, I mean I think it's quite
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: a strong record, but it's a bit of an idiosyncratic one,
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: I mean even by QRE standards, because it's all over
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: the shop.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's unbalanced.
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, and looking at it now, you'd be like, okay,
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: we knock off maybe these two or three songs and
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: had some quite strong B sides that should have been
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: on there. I mean it used to be me as
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: that was on the thirteenth as the B side. That's
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: more of a sort of classic Cure sounding song, and
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: that was a really strong one and that arguably should
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: have been on the record. Anyways, it was the thirteenth,
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: I mean, a very bizarre choice for a first single,
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: especially when you've been away for four years or three years,
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: to come back with a record like that. That would
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: have had of the fans going like, what's going on
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: here exactly? Given that ads like kind of a salsa sound,
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: you know, and brass and stuff like that going on.
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: It was a very strange choice. But then that's Robert
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: for you. He's not going to do the expected and
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: it is a real grower as well. Whereas Midca, I mean,
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: it's much more of an upbeat piece of pop, more
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: much more in the vein of stuff off Wish, but
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: maybe a bit too much like Frida me in Love
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: to be. The first thing was the m It seemed like, okay,
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: so we're back with the same sound, whereas yeah, coming
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: back with here's a completely different sound. Did it really
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: work for them so well either?
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: Yeap Yeah. Jupiter Crash is a great tune off that
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: all Treasure Bear No Love.
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: Robert and the Cure start off to two thousands with
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: the final of that trilogy, Blood Flowers. You lead the
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: chapter on this album with quote. At the end of
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven, the Cure stock was low, wild moot
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: swings in singles collection Galore, had underperformed on the charts,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: and mutters about their increasing irrelevance. We're gaining traction. Then
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: in February nineteen ninety eight, they received a credibility boost
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: from an unlikely direction. Robert appeared on South Park voicing
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: his zero cartoon counterpart as he defeated the evil mecha Rayce,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: and one character even shouted, Disintegration is the best album ever.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: The Cure were cool again, and perhaps this played into
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: Robert's next bout of songwriting. There were songwriting sessions in
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Christmas nineteen eighty seven, but Robert was not happy with
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: what he heard. Talk about that and the song that
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: pulled him out of that phase and really inspired him
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: to move forward with a new batch of songs.
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: Well, the Glass Singles Collection came out in late ninety seven,
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: and that was a collection of songs from the Imperial phase. Basically,
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: so is everything from Kisney, Kissing and Kissney through to
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: Wish and some of their best and most popular singles.
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: The one new song on that, the one new single
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: was called Wrong Number, and that was more of an
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: electronic kind of number. They had Reeves Gabrells from Bowie's
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: band at the time, coming to play guitar in that one.
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: Obviously that would lead to further collaborations much down the line,
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: but they I think they're writing more material in that
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: kind of vein. I mean, what the Little has come
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: out is definitely upbeat and more electronic influenced, and I
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: think because that was the kind of sound Dujure they
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: were leaning into that. You know, like everyone was kind
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: of putting drum and bass beats and more techno influence
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: into their music around that time, and The Kill were
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: doing it too. But Robert realized pretty quickly that they're
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: going to be behind the trends. If they did that,
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: by the time the music came out, you know, things
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: would have changed. You know, it sounded a bit dated,
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: and a few years down the track it was going
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: to sound dated again. And then he wrote out of
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: This World, which is a much more mellow, reflective kind
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: of song, and he thought, okay, so this is where
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: it starts. Because often when he when he's making a record,
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: he has that one song was like, okay, so this
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: is the song where it starts. This is the first song,
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: and this is going to kind of dictate the feel
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: of the record to follow. So with that one, he thought, yes, okay,
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: this is a brilliant song. This is where I want
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: to be going. This is what sounds like the cure.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: Never mind that other ship would have throw that in
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: the bin no good, and so yeah, most of us
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: remained there ever since, so it's been repurposed in a
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: different style. So Bloodflowers took on a more reflective and
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: doomy kind of vibe. And at that point he said, okay,
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: so this is when you announced the trilogy. So Pornography,
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: Disintegration and Blood Flowers that before before now it wasn't like, okay,
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: we've got two albums in a trilogy, and we're going
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: to write the third one. You kind of retroactively announced
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: it when they did Blood Flowers, and then they played
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: those three records together in a few shows in Europe
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: and record and released them as a DVD to give
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: people an understanding of why they sort of fit together.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: I've got that DVD.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's quite impressive. And they're playing three albums
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: like that in one night. I mean, bands often these
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: days we'll go out and play like a classic album
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: in full, maybe a couple of songs from non Care.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: With the Cure have always played such long sets to
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: go out and say, okay, who's three albums including like
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: our longest ever record and the lo Cares as well.
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: I mean you would know from watching the trilogy DVD,
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: but there's three albums worth the material there. And then
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: they play a couple of songs as non core, and
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: there were more songs that didn't even make the DVD.
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: If oncre as well, I mean you never you always
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: get your money's worth and you go to see the Cure,
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: that's for sure. I mean seeing them full times myself,
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: and every time it's been two and a half three
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: hours at least Booked.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: On Rock podcasts. We'll be back after this.
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: Think about the future.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: Listen scat I don't know, and it'll be fined out.
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: Keep a lid on it.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: Hey, guys, thanks so much for checking out the Booked
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: on Rock podcast. If you've just found the podcast, welcome.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: If you've been listening, thank you so much for your support.
• 44:27
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• 44:29
  Speaker 1: share on social media and let people know about Booked
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: on Rock. And if you do like the podcast, make
• 44:35
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• 44:38
  Speaker 1: listen to the Booked on Rock podcast, We're on Amazon, Apple, iHeart, Spotify, Spreaker,
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: tune in, and on YouTube music. You can check out
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: the full episodes on video, along with video highlights from
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: episodes on the Booked on Rock YouTube channel. Find it
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: at Booked on Rock. Thanks again for listening. Now back
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: to the show, The Greatest Hits that came out? Oh
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: one had song cut here and again here we have
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: Robert teasing with the idea that maybe the band's over
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: and if you rearrange the letters, it spells the cure
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: and okay, is this where he cuts it off? Is
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: this you know where he cuts it here. That's a
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: great song too. I love that one. Just Say Yes
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: was another single from that the Blood Flowers album, and
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: it wasn't intended to have any hit singles, but it
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: did well, number eighteen in the UK sixteen in the US.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: Concert attendance numbers were on the rise again. Two more
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: albums released in the first decade of the two thousands,
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: the top ten self titled A four album and four
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: thirteen Dream in two thousand and eight. And at this point,
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: now it's the Cure now a legacy act and more
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: and more of like the younger bands like Blink one
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: eighty two. They even had Robert on their album and
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: they're all looking up to him. And I remember MTV
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: had rather think it was the Icon series or something
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: like that, but they were. They were celebrating the Cure.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: So things are starting to change for them in that way,
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: in a good way. Robert, though he said the Cure
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: after Blood Flowers was over, what changed his mind or
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: who changed his mind?
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: I should say, yeah, that was very much. It's Ross
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: Robinson we have to thank for that. So he was
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: a pretty influential producer at the time. I mean, he
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: did he did Korn's first two records, he did the
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: first two Slipknot records as well, and a bunch of
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: other related material. And he was known for getting a
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: visceral intensity out of the musicians. He was a very
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: confrontational producer, like he was one of these guys who
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: sort of sits back and just focus on the sounds.
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: He wasn't like Rick Ruben who was sort of pop
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: in and play the guru and like I give some
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: feedback for a while and then disappear and let the
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: engineers do the work. He would basically be in there
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: with the band while they were recording. He'd be like
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: jumping around the band while they're performing. You'd be like
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: pushing them and stuff like that, trying to provoke more
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: intensity out of them. And so he was a massive
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: Cure fan, and so he bumped into Roberts somewhere and
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: just said, I need to record your you know, this
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: is one of my one of my my bucket list items.
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: And Robert's like, okay, we could do a solo album,
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: and we mean to do a solo album for a
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: long time. Ron Ross was really insistent that it had
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: to be the Cure and Robert had been pretty happy
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: with the way things had panned out with the cure,
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: and he was kind of happy to leave it where
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: it was with Blood Flowers and the tour that came afterwards,
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: and it was a great tour. That was the first
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: time I saw them live in two thousand here in Adelaide.
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: I just moved here that very weak, so I was
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: kind of like, welcome to the wider world, you know,
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: and that was that was fantastic. Yeah, it was just
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: an absolutely amazing show.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: Robert's voice is still the scene.
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, to this day. Something you listen to him
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: and you're like, yeah, well, he's like in his sixties now.
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: Of course he sounds a bit different. I mean, you
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: listen to someone like Glenn Danzig, he sounds kind of
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: husky compared to the way that they used to do.
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: And fair enough, he's a long career. I mean, these
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: things happen. Your voice does change as you get older.
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: But Robert, I mean, he basically sounds the same now
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: as he did forty years ago. I mean, it's remarkable
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: how little has changed and that kind of suits. But
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: he's always been like young at half and he sounds
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: young as well. So it's very fitting. So yes, he
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: decided to do another record with Ross. They decided to
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: make it self titled record. Ross wanted to make it
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: like a big, doomy, disintegration type epic. That was what
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: he was pushing for, but Robert thought, we're gonna have
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: a self titled record, then it should cover all the
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: different aspects of the band, and that included the poppy
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: A side as well. So he decided to include some
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: of those songs, which in some cases kind of watered
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: it down a little bit. There's still some really strong
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: material on it, but it's not regarded as one of
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: their best records. Usually sort of falls down towards the
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: bottom when people are ranking their discography, which is not
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: saying that's bad at all. It's just that it's not
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: as strong overall when you're standing up against the catalog
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: that they record in the eighties, I mean, you have
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: to do something really special to be included amongst those.
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: I agree in four thirteen Dream kind of the same
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: feeling on that there's always going to be some great
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: moments in these albums, but as a whole, there's some,
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: you know, there's some along with the hits, and that's
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: why I'm just so pleasantly surprised by that last album,
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: Songs of a Lost World. Before I ask you about
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: that and we wrap things up by talking about that
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: last album, I haven't asked you about the rotating cast
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: of band members in The Cure. Wikipedia lists twenty three
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: different lineups. Why do you think there have been a
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: lot of changes? I mean, is is Robert hard to
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: work with? Or is it just an evolving band with
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: members who evolve and have creative differences or other career opportunities.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: What do you think?
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: It really depends on the member in question. I think
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: I don't think it's particularly hard to be in The Cure,
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: though of course you do have to understand that it's
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: going to be Robert driving the car, so to speak.
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: He's the guy in the back seat saying I turn
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: here or something like that. But I mean, you never
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: going to have full creative control, and as long as
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: you're fine with that, and as long as you're easy
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: to work with and understand what's going on. But I mean,
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: they've had some members who have come and gone, Like
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: you know, Pearl Thompson's been in the band three different
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: times now in the seventies and again in the eighties
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: and then again in the Noughts. Simon Gallat's being there
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: a couple of times, Perry Bumont's coming well he was twice.
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: Now Roger O'donnald's been in the band three different times.
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: See that's interesting though, So they're coming back. It's not
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: like they're leaving and saying screw you, I'm never talking
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: to you again. Clearly they want to come back.
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: Well, sometimes there's always been a personal connection. I mean
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: if you look at Pearl Thompson for example, I mean
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: like he goes by Pearl now it changed his name
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: after he left the Cure again for the third time,
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: but he was dating Robert's sister back in the late seventies.
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: They ended up getting married.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: Oh wow, I didn't know that.
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: So he was married to Robert's sister, Janet, and they
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: divorced in I think two thousand, So he and Robert
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: were actually related by a marriage. And Simon Gallup's wife
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: was called Carol Thompson, and a lot of fans believe
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: that she was actually Pearl's sister, which would mean that
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: they're all actually related by marriage at one point, although
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: I think she actually wasn't I remember having to change
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: that change of reference to that, like at the very
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: last second one we're put in the book out because
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: I'd read some forums and people were claiming that she
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: wasn't related even though signs he looks last year. So
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: I kind of had to make that less definitive. But
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: Y said, I the word quite quite close and have
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: a natural familial connection. In the case of Robert and Pearl,
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: there for a while and sometimes there was this bad
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: blood for a bit, and then after some time has
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: passed and people grow up a little bit and they
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: sort of realize that they want to be working together,
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: they want to be friends again, and so they come
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: back to the band. There's only been a few people
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: that have been basically kicked out and I've never returned.
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: And you know Andy Anderson, for example, he was a
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: drummer in eighty three and eighty four. I mean he
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: was just a bit of a problematic drinker at the time,
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: so yeah, he would get drunk and cause trouble. And
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: it's got to be too much. In a point where
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: you're going on a rampage through a hotel in Japan
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: or something like that, security is being called and they're
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: macing you and stuff like that. I mean, things are
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: probably getting about a hand, you know, So he was
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: let go for that reason lol. Of course, because he
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: was basically the useless alcoholic by that point as well
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty eight. Though thankfully he cleaned up after
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: that and he's had his own band since and he's
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: got his life in order. But yes, an interesting thing.
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: The cure is kind of like a family in a sense.
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: It feels like, you know, you might get away from
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: them for a while, you might not talk very much,
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: but you're the door is always open if you want
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: to come back, and if the's an opportunity for that.
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, that was the thing with Songs of a
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: Lost World. I mean that was the same lineup that
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: had for years, but then when they started touring it,
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: first night on stage, there's Perry Blonti again and no
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: one's back coming and there he is. So the back
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: to a six piece lineup now, and that's his second
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: stint in the band, So you never really know what's
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: going to happen with that.
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: Well, do you remember I was worried that Simon was
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: on again because he posted something in social media. It's
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: maybe three four years ago. He's like, I'm out, I
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: can't really get into it. But audios see you later,
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: you know, and you're like, what what the.
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: Hell is going on? Yeah?
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And then next thing you know, he's up there
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: on stage with him. I'm like, oh, thank you. So yeah,
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: it's like a family, you say, there's probably just some
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: disagreements and maybe you know, sensitive artists, maybe they just
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: you know, they have it out and then uh, you know,
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: a month later they're like, yeah, having he's cool, come
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: on back.
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: Well I got the feeling that Saw is fairly mercurial
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: personality as well. I mean he set an interview. Sometimes
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: I'll quit the band every other week, you know, you
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: just don't hear about it.
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: Booked on Rock podcasts. We'll be back after this.
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: It's intermation time.
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: Find the Bookdo on Rock website at booked on rock
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: dot com. There you can find all the back episodes
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: of the show, the latest episode in video and audio,
• 53:33
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• 53:35
  Speaker 1: to the podcast, plus all the social media platforms were
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: on Blue Sky, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and x. Also check
• 53:42
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• 53:46
  Speaker 1: Find out all the latest hot rock book releases, and
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: before you go, check out the booked on rock online store.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: Pick up some booked on rock merch. It's all at
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: booked on rock dot Com. Let's finish with Songs of
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: a Lot Worlds, which came out a sixteen year gap
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: between albums thirteen and fourteen studio Albums thirteen and fourteen
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. To me, it's one of the best
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: care albums. I mean, I know, it's easily the best
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: that they've put out since since I would say Blood Flowers.
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: What was going on during those sixteen years. I mean,
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: they were touring a lot. It's not like they were inactive.
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: I just think maybe Robert wasn't inspired yet to write
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: new music, or he was sitting on this music for
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: a while. When they got into the rock hall in
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: was it twenty eighteen, they got twenty nineteen, he's like, yeah,
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: He's like this next Halloween, you'll get it. It was
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: another five years.
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah. He's infamous for making promises that he doesn't cape. Yeah,
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: he's found out how it to rot lyrics over the years.
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: Not rotting music has been easy for him, But I
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: mean writting lyrics, I mean, because he said so much before,
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: and you know, there have been points in his career
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: where he's kind of been rehashing themes he's worked on before,
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: so I guess it must be hard for him to go,
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: what's something new that I can do that's not going
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: to be so left field that people won't accept it. Yeah,
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: they were busy touring and Reeves Gibrells joined in twenty
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: twelve as a full time member, so it's weird he's
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: been there for thirteen years now. He's only even played
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: on one record, so they we're pretty constantly getting out there.
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: And I saw them again. It was the third time
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: I saw them in twenty sixteen, then again in twenty
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: nineteen when they came over to Sydney and played at
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: the Opera House and did Disintegration in its entirety and
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: then did a second set which is all the B
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: sides off that record, plus a bunch of songs that
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: have been unreleased, so some instrumentals and stuff that only
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: came out on the Ducks Expanded version of Disintegration many
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: years later. So that was a quite interesting experience. And
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: I was there on the first night, so yeah, to
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: see that kind of stuff, to see someone's played live
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: for the first time ever. It was very interesting. It
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: was a very emotional time as well. So yes, I
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: was struggling to keep myself together during that. But I
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: guess Robert didn't really feel inspired to write lyrics or
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: like I know at one point he thought, these lyrics
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: are terrible. This is some of the best music that
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: the band's written, and my words are crap. So they
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: did start making that record twenty nineteen. It was just
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: after they came back from Australia. Actually, I believe that
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: they went to Wales and started recording the album. So
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: some of the dates back then, I mean most of it,
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: they did re record chunks of but later after they
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: hit the road again. They after Simon announced he was
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: leaving and then announced, well, action, I'm still here. They
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: started touring in late twenty two and playing a bunch
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: of new songs when they're out on the road, and
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: they had the more of a sort of grandly kind
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: of drab kind of sound like Miserable but in a
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: great way, kind of reminiscent of blood Flowers, pretty keyboard driven,
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: pretty despondent. They did that tour and then people saying okay,
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: well when's the record coming, when's the record coming? And
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: we waited, then we waited, and then bang, yeah, finally
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: they started teasing it, released the snippets a song through
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: through WhatsApp account and people sign up to and also
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: having flyers up posters with a date on it Roman numerals,
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: and yes, it's the first of November that it came out,
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: so all Saints Day and they were back with Fiction
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: Records for this one, who hadn't worked with for nearly
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: twenty five years at that point, and that was actually
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: under Robert Stipulat. The record had to come out on
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: the first of November, although which year was probably open
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: to debate because we've been talking about it for a while. Yes,
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: the record dropped, and yeah, it's what I exposed to
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: call a return to form. I mean, because I hadn't
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: done a record in sixteen years, and the two that
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: done before that were pretty good but not great, not amazing,
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: and this one it definitely stands amongst their strongest work
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: as a kind of late career high points.
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: And unlike some of the albums in the nineties, maybe
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: there are too many tracks on there. You've got eight songs,
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: very six single. Yeah, I mean it's trimmed down to
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: the best of the best of whatever he put together
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: for songs heading in loan. The lead track is absolutely phenomenal.
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: An end song is my second favorite song, so you
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: got the first track, final track are just brilliant, and
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: everything in between just it's just so powerful. There's just something.
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: The magic seemed to be back, and he's now inspired again.
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, he says there's going to be something following this.
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: Now it's hard because you think, okay, well, whatever got
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: in going again, that's a good thing, we have more
• 58:27
  Speaker 2: of that, And then you think, well, you know, the
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: record was heavily inspired by the death of his parents
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: and his brother, so you know, yeah, yeah, we don't
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: want more people. He loves to be dropping off the
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: twig just so he can get more great cue music,
• 58:38
  Speaker 2: you know. But yeah, whatever, I mean, it did take
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: a while, but it was worth the wait. I mean,
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: you rather have that maybe than another couple of records
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: in the same vein as the last couple, which felt
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: a little bit like treading water, whereas this one definitely
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: feels like a confident stride forward. There is supposed to
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: be another record or two following this one, so there
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: was supposed to be another one about now before they
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: went back out on the road, But so far we've
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: gotten is a remix album. There was three disc set
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: or two discs in some cases, mixes of a Lost World,
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: which is quite interesting, but it's a curiosity. It's a
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: stop gap. It's not the next step along the path.
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: So we're waiting now a bated breath for the next announcement,
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: announcement for the next record, because they did record enough
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: material with the last record that they could have done
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: a double eving a triple record at the time. But yeah,
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: as you said, there was only eight songs, and that
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: was actually Mary's influence because Roberts said, Okay, it's going
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: to be twelve songs. It's going to be ten songs,
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: and she said, You're like, it's going to be too
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: much for people to take in. You know, want to
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: keep it, keep it cut down a bit more, and
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: it's going to have more impact. It's not going to
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: drag on as much. I'll leave people hungry for it.
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: And yeah, she was right.
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: Less than an hour forty nine minutes, just over forty
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: nine minutes. And I noticed that some of the songs
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: on here it's the classic Cure sound where that great
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: thematic grand opening where you don't hear Robert singing. It
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: takes a little while, maybe like a third of the
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: way into the song, but some of these songs literally
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: half the first half of the song is instrumental and
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: then he comes.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: In at six before he comes in.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, yeah, it's it's phenomenal. I love it, and
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: the book is a nice way to get caught up
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: for those who are maybe you know, passing fans of
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: the Cure, just getting into them, because I have a
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: feeling there's a lot of younger people now who are
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: getting turned down to the Cure and they want to
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: know about the history of the band, and you can
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: get it here. We should know too. This book not
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: only covers the studio albums and the singles, but this
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: has the B sides, the rare tracks, right, the live records,
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: the remixes. It's all in here, so fans can expect
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: to get a whole lot in this book.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, every officially released song up to this point, which
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 2: was a problem because when I first saw in the
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: contract to do the book was actually in late twenty
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: twenty one, and the book was supposed to be delivered
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: in twenty two, is going to be out by the
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: middle of the year. But then because Robert started saying, oh,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 2: there's a new record coming, new record's coming, I was like, well,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 2: hang on a second, Hang on a second. All right,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: so let's hang on to that one for a bit.
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 2: So I'd deersisted on it for a while, waiting for
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: Songs of a Lost World to actually come out, and
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: then so I could include that, because otherwise I thought,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: you know what will happen. I'll finish the book, I'll
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 2: hand it in, it'll be published, and then like a
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 2: month later, the new record all come out and my
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: book will instantly be out of date.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah. I remember I asked Stephen Liamb about if
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: Stephen Limb is the he's the guy in charge of
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: Son of Way. I said, I said, have you done
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: anything on the cure yet? At the time, this was
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: maybe three years ago, and and so at that time
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: he had I'm sure he was having discussions with you
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: about it.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I was already on board for that one
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 2: because I actually the way I've got involved asonic Bond
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: was I saw one of the books in the library
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: here was that the Kate Bush one and I picked
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: it up and I read that and at the back
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 2: I said like, I'm looking for authors, and I was like, oh, okay,
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 2: so when online to see you know what they were
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: all about? And I thought, what if they've got a
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: book on the cure and they didn't. I thought, oh okay,
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: oh yes, this could be an interesting way for me
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 2: to get into it because I've never written nonfiction at
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 2: that length before. I mean, I generally write fiction and
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 2: horror fiction at that So for me to do a
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: whole book which is stuff that actually happened is a
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 2: bit of a novelty. You know.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about where people can find out more
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: about you online? What other books you have if people
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: go to Amazon, or do you have a website or
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: social media that people can go to.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: Yes, I really could be doing a bit more to
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 2: exploit myself, I suppose. But I do have a blog.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 2: It was just Matthew R. Davis fiction dot WordPress dot com.
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 2: You can find me on Facebook and on Blue Sky.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: I'm pretty open there. I don't have a particularly professional
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: way of going about anything. I'm afraid I don't know.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: I was trying to be authentic in these things, and
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: it's been myself as opposed to like, here's my slick
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: media presence. But I mean, I really I could do
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: a bit better, I think, but it's just sounds as
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 2: hard as to keep the wheels and the tracks at all,
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: you know. So yeah, you can look me up, Matthew R. Davis.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: I do have a bunch of other books, my first
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: collection of short stories. You can see the Cure influence
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: right there.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: If only tonight we could sleep. Yes, kiss Me kiss Me.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: That's the name of the song. Yes, the name of
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: the song, just kissed me kiss Me. Yep, that's cool.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's one of my favorite songs. I actually performed
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: a version of that live at the book launch. I
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 2: put a band together because I'm a musician as well,
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: and I haven't haven't really been playing in bands for
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 2: a while now, but I put together a little pickup
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: group for that one, just to do a few of
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: my songs in between readings from the book. And I thought, well,
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: you know what, why not do a cover of that
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 2: song since I borrowed the title for the book. That
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: was quite interesting. That was a very interesting experience. It's
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: one of two Cure songs I've performed live. I've also
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 2: did a cover of This is a Lie Off while
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: Mood swings. Yeah, that's part of an acoustic duo many
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: many moons ago. Now that one's on YouTube too, I'm
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: not going to tell them a bit to find it
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: because it's pretty rope, all right. But the guy that
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 2: I was in the duo with he posted it and
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: then shared it with being like, okay, yeah, yeah, I
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: was twenty years old and I wasn't much of a
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 2: singer at the time, and yeah, trying to tackle an
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 2: little kestrel waltz was just two acoustic guitars is maybe
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 2: a little more ambitious than we can handle at the time.
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, congratulations on this book The Cure, every album, every song.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: It's out now. It's wherever books are sold, and you
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: can look forward on Amazon all the usual places. Sonic Bond,
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: Burning Shed dot com is where you can get it
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: in the UK, and if you want to look forward
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: to your nearest independent bookstore, you can find your nearest
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: story at bookdown Rock dot com. Matthews, thank you so
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: much for doing this. We've been working on trying to
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: get this schedule for a while and glad we made
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: this happen. And again, congratulations on the book. I always
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: of reading about and talking about the cure.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me Eric. That's it. It's in
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: the books.