It all began in 1976 when 17-year-old Robert, attending St. Wilfrid's Comprehensive high school in Crawley, Sussex, formed The Easy Cure with schoolmates Michael Dempsey (bass), Lol Tolhurst (drums) and local guitar hero Porl Thompson. The four of them began composing and making demos almost immediately, and in a short time managed to put together an impressive repertoire of original music that included classics like "Killing An Arab" and "10.15 Saturday Night". By 1977, the fledgling group won a national band competition organised by Ariola-Hansa, a German-owned label that would have led to the release of a single and a debut album, were it not for the fact that the band's relationship was doomed. Hansa sees The Easy Cure as a fresh, malleable pop band, but even at this young age, the obstinate Robert has other ideas........ Within the course of an unsatisfying year, the two parties split up, having failed to produce any releases. Frustrated but not discouraged, in 1978 the group loses the word 'Easy' from its name and Porl Thompson from the line-up. As a result, an eager trio, now known simply as The Cure sends a four-song demotape to a number of record labels. They quickly followed up with enthusiastic feedback from Polydor's art director Chris Parry and The Cure signed a contract with his new label - Fiction Records - in September of that year. It became a long-lasting partnership, in fact they are still together today. Work on a first single and album began immediately, with sound engineer, Mike Hedges, and, through a distribution deal with 'Small Wonder Records'. the December release of 'Killing An Arab' is met with great success. The song is re-released on the Fiction label in January 1979, followed by the album 'Three Imaginary Boys' and the strangely captivating mixture of peculiar and obscure imagery and essential, angular music creates many controversial reactions. The album kicks off an intense period of concerts throughout Great Britain. During these concerts The Cure play with other emerging bands such as Wire, Joy Division and The Jam. They released two more singles not included on the album, 'Boys Don't Cry' and 'Jumping Someone Else's Train', as well as a couple of collateral projects with 'The Obtainers' and 'Cult Hero'. The single 'Boys Don't Cry' was a moderate success in the US, which resulted in the album 'Three Imaginary Boys' being re-mastered under the new title 'Boys Don't Cry'. At the same time, the lasting association between The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees began, as after two dates supporting the Banshees' UK tour in late 1979, Robert found himself playing two gigs a night, having to replace guitarist John McKay who had left the Banshees. At the end of this incredibly agitated period, subtle but unresolvable differences within the band ended with the quiet departure of Michael Dempsey. Simon Gallup (bass) and Matthieu Hartley (keyboards) joined the band, and in early 1980 the four-piece Cure embarked on two weeks of studio recordings. This time with co-producer Mike Hedges, the band decided to explore the darker side of Robert Smith's compositional talent and the result was the minimalist classic 'Seventeen Seconds'. The first single from this album of extraordinary clarity and grace is the distinctive, almost cinematic 'A Forest', which becomes the first real hit single in the UK with which they earn an appearance on 'Top Of The Pops'. "Seventeen Seconds" reached No 20 in the UK album charts and The Cure set off on a strenuous world tour of Europe, the US and Australasia. Unfortunately, the efforts of a hectic year prove too much for Matthie, who is forced to leave the band. Once again a trio, The Cure recorded 'Faith' in the spring of 1981, again with co-production by Mike Hedges. "Faith" is a funereal album, creating atmospheres of a bleak and stark musical landscape and evoking a world of dissolution and fear. The band also finished the instrumental soundtrack for the film 'Carnage Visors' in support of their tour. "Faith" reached No. 14 in the UK album charts and spawned another hit single, the abrasive and insistent "Primary". The 'Picture Tour' that follows is an intense experience for everyone and when the single not taken from the album entitled 'Charlotte Sometimes' is released in October, the band deserve a break. But there is no time for breaks. Instead, in early 1982 The Cure return to the studio to record a collaborative album with Phil Thornalley, which was to be the culmination of their increasingly morbid fascination with darkness, despair and decay. 'Pornography', released in May, is infected with a black, ruthless nihilism, and ironically becomes the first Cure album to crack the top ten in the UK album charts. The 'Fourteen Explicit Moments' tour sees the band become increasingly erratic and violent, and when they release the single 'The Hanging Garden', Simon Gallup leaves the band. Having pushed himself and others around him beyond the limits of excess, Robert realises that he has come to a reckoning and that the only way to distance himself from all that the band has become is to lighten things up. He does this by imitating the cheesy 'disco' style of "Let's Go To Bed", and it is an immediate, if unexpected, success in the US! The Cure's line-up is still in disarray - the single was recorded with the collaboration of Steve Goulding, drummer of Wreckless Eric, Lol Tolhurst having switched to keyboards - but another key relationship for The Cure is born with the production of the single's promotional video, and the collaboration with Tim Pope is another partnership destined to last. The Cure continue to redefine themselves in 1983 with the rhythmic, electronic dance of 'The Walk' (UK No. 12) and the demented cartoon jazz of 'The Lovecats', which becomes the first single to enter the top ten charts. Robert feels vindicated: he had gone through the anger and despair of 'Pornography'. , and with the release of these 3 completely different singles, he had effectively turned the perception of others of the Cure on its head. The year 1983 is divided by Robert's commitments to record and tour with the Banshees. He collaborated on the albums 'Hyaena' and 'Nocturne', and also completed the album 'Blue Sunshine' as 'The Glove', an experimental project with the Banshee, Steve Severin. In December, the Cure's 3 singles with their B-sides are released together as the album "Japanese Whispers". In 1984, 'The Top' is released and although it is marked as a Cure album, Robert actually plays all the instruments except the drums. The result is a strangely hallucinogenic mix that slips into the top ten charts, while the infectiously psychedelic single 'The Caterpillar' enters the Top 20 singles charts. Robert also simultaneously records Tim Pope's single 'I Want To Be A Tree'. With the worldwide 'Top Tour' featuring a line-up that includes Andy Anderson on drums, Phil Thornalley on bass and the return of Porl Thompson on guitar, the band now seems up and running. But for a variety of reasons, with the end of the tour both Andy Anderson and Phil Thornalley leave the band. Boris Williams (drums) joins and Simon Gallup (bass) returns to replace them. This new line-up began work in 1985 with "The Head On The Door" with enthusiasm, zeal and a real sense that something was 'boiling in the pot'.........Various and different, and still inspired by a pop sensibility and simplicity, "THOTD", co-produced with Dave Allen, reached No. 7 in the UK charts. The resonant single 'Inbetween Days' is followed by 'Close To Me' and another stunning collaboration with Tim Pope that sees the 5 Cure inexplicably trapped in a wardrobe, balanced perilously on the cliff top, Beachy Head, renowned for being a point of numerous suicides! "THOTD" managed to reach 59th place in the US Billboard charts, and the world tour in support of the album together with the ever-growing devotion of the fans paved the way for the huge success of the flawless collection "Standing On A Beach". Released in May 1986, with the title taken from the first line of 'Killing An Arab', the album includes all the singles and B-sides the Cure had released up to then. Accompanied by a video version of the collection 'Standing On A Neach', these releases and another huge world tour, including their first time as headliners at the Glastonbury Festival, launched The Cure headlong into true worldwide success. The album enters the Top 50 of the US charts and all of a sudden the American media become fascinated by Robert Smith, one magazine calls him "Kate Bush version of a man" and when in a moment of spite Robert cuts his famous hair, he makes headlines on "MTV News On The Hour"! "Boys Don't Cry" is re-sung, remixed and re-released as a single and a year of numerous concerts and festivals culminates in August with Tim Pope's film of live concerts entitled "The Cure In Orange" released both for cinema and as a video the following spring. In 1987, The Cure came out with an excellent and ambitious double album entitled 'Kiss Me Kiss Me'. Lyrically and musically, it is the most complete album they have ever made. The album's greatest strength, still with co-production by Dave Allen, is its extreme diversity and extraordinary variety of styles. The band moves easily from dreamy beauty to nightmarish horrors. They release hit singles such as "Why Can't I Be You?", "Catch", "Just Like Heaven" and "Hot Hot Hot!!!", all accompanied by beautiful and even more inventive videos made by Tim Pope. With the arrival of Roger O'Donnell on keyboards, the Cure's 6-piece line-up toured the world with the 'Kissing Tour' from July to December, garnering enormous success. In 1988, the first decade of the Cure's career is officially documented with the biography 'Ten Imaginary Years' - then the band takes a couple of well-deserved months off. Meeting to prepare new demos, it becomes apparent that Lol Tolhurst's increasingly precarious position becomes untenable and so he inevitably leaves the band. Lol's exit is followed by the 1989 release of the album 'Disintegration'. A wonderful co-production with Dave Allen, the album is classic, funereal, grandiose, powerful and brooding. It entered the charts at number 3. Four singles from the album are hits: "Lullaby" (which won a Brit Award for best video), "Fascination Street", "Lovesong" and "Pictures Of You". The tour that followed - "Prayer Tour" - was truly spectacular with some of the best live performances ever by the Cure, and the European stops included, among many memorable concerts, three amazing nights at Wembley Arena. While in the USA, the concerts held in sports stadiums (Giants and Dodgers) sold out. In early 1990, Roger O'Donnell left the band and was replaced by road manager and lifelong friend Perry Bamonte. The Cure are headlining at various European festivals, including Glastonbury for the second time. In the same year, they donate the royalties from their live album 'Entreat' to their favourite charities. They released the single 'Never Enough' and released the album 'Mixed Up', a collection of old and new remixes from such luminaries as Mark Saunders and William Orbit. The album also included the remix of the single 'Close To Me' done by Paul Oakenfold and reached No. 13 in the UK charts and No. 14 in the US. In February 1991, The Cure finally took home the "Best British Group" award at the Brit Awards, and celebrated by filming a secret concert in London calling themselves the "Five Imaginary Boys" and presenting four new songs that would later be included on their next album. They also released "Playout" a live video with 'behind the scenes' scenes also containing some of the footage from this secret concert as well as other strange TV performances! "Wish" in 1992 is declared the Cure's best album. Once again with co-production by Dave Allen, the album, where guitar sounds take centre stage, impresses with its richness and multiplicity of facets. It went straight to No. 1 in the UK charts and No. 2 in the US and included three wonderful hit singles: "High", "Friday I'm In Love" and "A Letter To Elise". Another fantastic year for The Cure with the kaleidoscopic 'Wish Tour' taking the band around the world again, selling out everywhere. The power and emotion generated by the "Wish Tour" concerts inspired two live albums "Show" and "Paris", both released in 1993. "Show" a double album also released in cinema and home video versions, features the band on stage in Detroit, USA performing all their hits and more, while "Paris" a limited edition, features the band live in Paris performing a more eclectic selection of songs. Immediately following the tour. Guitarist Porl Thompson leaves the band again (this time in harmony!) and The Cure appear as a four-piece as headliners at the 'Great Xpectations Show' in support of XFM at London's Finsbury Park. The band contributes the song 'Burn' to the soundtrack of the film 'The Crow', and also does a cover of 'Purple Haze' for the Jimi Hendrix tribute album 'Stone Free'. The recording of new material is delayed in 1994 by a lengthy lawsuit filed by Lol Tolhurst and finally settled in favour of the plaintiffs Robert Smith and Fiction Records, and by the unexpected departure of drummer Boris Williams. A period of auditions followed, and very soon Jason Cooper joined the group as the new drummer, while Roger O'Donnell returned on keyboards. In 1995, The Cure contributed to the soundtrack of the film 'Judge Dredd' with the song 'Dredd Song' and performed a cover of David Bowie's 'Young Americans', also for XFM . They interrupt recording with co-producer Steve Lyon to do European festivals, including for the third time - an unprecedented event - the 25th Glastonbury Festival. The band returns to the studio (actually actress Jane Seymour's country villa!) to finish the new album in time for Christmas...... In January 1996 The Cure play, again as headliners, at the two Hollywood Rock Festivals in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and return to England for the release of the album 'Wild Mood Swings'. Although the vast scale and scope of the album's variety is shocking to many people, it still reaches the top of the world charts! The "Swing Tour", The Cure's biggest tour to date, kicks off, and while the four singles "The 13th", "Mint Car", "Strange Attraction" and "Gone" garner hits everywhere, the band play more than 100 amazing worldwide concerts in front of ever more amazing crowds. In January 1997, Robert is invited to David Bowie's 50th birthday party at Madison Square Gardens NYC, and joyfully performs a couple of songs on stage with his lifelong idol......Later that year, a collection, both album and video, entitled "Galore" is released, which includes all the singles from the Cure's second decade, including the new song "Wrong Number". Other major festivals in the USA and Europe followed, as well as live performances on TV. In early 1998, Robert appears in an episode of the TV series "South Park" and records the song "A Sign From God" for the Trey Parker and Matt Stone film "Orgazmo". The Cure also record "World In My Eyes" for the Depeche Mode tribute and "Something More Than This" for the album "X-Files". During the summer, The Cure are guests of honour at 12 other European festivals, play a secret gig in London for the "Blind Date" competition organised by Miller Beer, before returning to the studio in Jane Seymour's villa to record a new album with co-production by Paul Corkett (Depeche Mode, Placebo, Nick Cave). In 1999, the band finished recording and mixing the new album 'Bloodflowers' at the RAK studio in London and the Fisher Farm studio in Surrey County. They travelled to New York to film an episode of VH1's 'Hard Rock Live', which aired in spring 2000.