The Cure consists of Jason Cooper, Perry Bamonte, Robert Smith, Roger O'donnell, Simon Gallup.
This article is about the rock band. For other meanings, see The Cure (1995 film) or cure.
The Cure is a British band widely seen as one of the leading pioneers of the British alternative rock and post-punk scenes of the 1980s. A combination of lead singer Robert Smith's iconic wild hair, pale complexion, smudged lipstick, and the frequently gloomy and introspective lyrics have led to the band being considered part of the gothic rock genre. Smith rejects this and other attempts to confine the band to a single genre. The Cure have sold close to 30 million albums worldwide.
In 1976 Robert Smith, a 17-year-old student, formed The Easy Cure with classmates Michael Dempsey (bass), Laurence "Lol" Tolhurst (drums) and Porl Thompson (guitar) from St. Wilfrid's Catholic Comprehensive School in Crawley, Sussex. They began writing their own songs almost immediately, and quickly amassed a repertoire of original material and a growing following.
In 1977, The Easy Cure auditioned for Hansa Records and received a recording contract worth £1000. A year later, following disagreements about the direction the group should take, the band, newly renamed The Cure, were signed as a trio (minus Porl Thompson) on former Polydor records scout Chris Parry's new Fiction label (distributed by Polydor). One early recording - "Do the Hansa" - has been seen as a humourous slap in the face of Hansa Records by The Cure for not signing them. This song, along with "Pillbox Tales", went unreleased until it was included as one of the B-sides to the 1986 re-release of the single " Boys Don't Cry".
The Cure released their first single " Killing an Arab" to both acclaim and controversy: while the single's provocative title led to accusations of racism, the song is actually based on French existentialist Albert Camus' story The Stranger. The single was packaged with a sticker label that denied the racist connotations.