Nabilone is a synthetic cannabinoid with therapeutic use as an antiemetic and as an adjunct analgesic for neuropathic pain. It is a synthetic cannabinoid, which mimics the main ingredient of cannabis (THC). Chemically, nabilone is similar to the active ingredient found in naturally occurring Cannabis sativa L.

In Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Mexico, nabilone is marketed as Cesamet. It was approved in 1985 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting that has not responded to conventional antiemetics. Though it was approved by the FDA in 1985, the drug only began marketing in the United States in 2006. It is also approved for use in treatment of anorexia and weight loss in patients with AIDS.

Although it doesn't have the official indication (except in Mexico), nabilone is widely used as an adjunct therapy for chronic pain management. Numerous trials and case studies have demonstrated various benefits for condition such as fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis.

Nabilone is a racemic mixture consisting of the (S,S) and the (R,R) isomers ("trans").

Clinical trials

The main settings that have seen published clinical trials of nabilone include movement disorders such as Parkinson's syndrome, chronic pain, dystonia and spasticity neurological disorders, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, and the nausea of cancer chemotherapy.

A study comparing nabilone with metoclopramide, conducted before the development of modern 5-HT3 antagonist anti-emetics such as ondansetron, revealed that patients taking cisplatin chemotherapy preferred metoclopramide, while patients taking carboplatin chemotherapy preferred nabilone to control nausea and vomiting. Another study compared nabilone alone to nabilone with dexamethasone. The study found that the combination worked better than the single medication. An older study revealed that nabilone was more effective than prochlorperazine in controlling nausea, though in this study, only 9% of nabilone patients had complete resolution of symptoms. A follow-up to this study revealed similar findings.

One study compared the efficacy and tolerability of nabilone with that of dihydrocodeine in the treatment of neuropathic pain. The authors found that nabilone was not as effective as dihydrocodeine in controlling pain, and caused a higher incidence of minor adverse drug reactions than did dihydrocodeine. One critic of the study has suggested that nabilone might be best suited for the treatment of patients suffering from central and spasticity-related pain, for which there is stronger evidence for the benefits of cannabinoid therapy; however, these patients made up only a small fraction of the study's population, and the study was not designed to identify subgroups which might have responded more favorably to treatment than others.

A clinical trial performed in Canada reviewed the use of nabilone to treat nightmares in individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. The study found that nighttime administration of nabilone reduced the frequency and/or intensity of nightmares in 34 out of 47 (72%) of patients, with 28 reporting complete cessation of nightmares. This study is limited to the extent that there was no placebo control, but warrants future investigation into the use of cannabinoid therapy in the treatment of post-traumatic stress syndrome and other disorders involving recurrent nightmares.

References

Category:Cannabinoids Category:Benzochromenes Category:Phenols Category:Ketones

ca:Nabilona de:Nabilon fr:Nabilone it:Nabilone pl:Nabilon sv:Nabilon

name	The Cure
background	group_or_band
origin	Crawley, England
genre	Alternative rock, gothic rock, New Wave, post-punk
years active	1976–present
label	Fiction, Suretone, Geffen, Polydor, Elektra, Asylum, Sire|, Warner
associated acts	Malice, Easy Cure, The Glove, Siouxsie and the Banshees
website
current members	Robert SmithSimon Gallup Porl Thompson Jason Cooper
past members	Michael DempseyMatthieu HartleyPhil ThornalleyAndy AndersonBoris WilliamsPerry Bamonte Lol Tolhurst Roger O'Donnell }}

The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member. The Cure first began releasing music in the late 1970s with its debut album Three Imaginary Boys (1979); this, along with several early singles, placed the band as part of the post-punk and New Wave movements that had sprung up in the wake of the punk rock revolution in the United Kingdom. During the early 1980s, the band's increasingly dark and tormented music helped form the gothic rock genre.

After the release of Pornography (1982), the band's future was uncertain and Smith was keen to move past the gloomy reputation his band had acquired. With the 1982 single "Let's Go to Bed" Smith began to place a pop sensibility into the band's music (as well as a unique stage look). The Cure's popularity increased as the decade wore on, especially in the United States where the songs "Just Like Heaven", "Lovesong" and "Friday I'm in Love" entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart. By the start of the 1990s, The Cure were one of the most popular alternative rock bands in the world. The band is estimated to have sold 27 million albums as of 2004. The Cure have released thirteen studio albums and over thirty singles during the course of their career.

History

Formation and early years (1973–1979)

The first incarnation of what became The Cure was The Obelisk, a band formed by students at Notre Dame Middle School in Crawley, Sussex. The band made their public debut in a one-off performance in April 1973, and featured Robert Smith (piano), Michael "Mick" Dempsey (guitar), Laurence "Lol" Tolhurst (percussion), Marc Ceccagno (lead guitar) and Alan Hill (bass guitar). The first real incarnation though came in January 1976 when Ceccagno formed Malice with Smith and Dempsey along with two other classmates from St. Wilfrid's Catholic Comprehensive School, with Ceccagno on lead, Smith on guitar, and Dempsey switching to bass. Ceccagno soon left, however, to form a jazz-rock fusion band called Amulet. Increasingly influenced by the emergence of punk rock, Malice's remaining members became known as Easy Cure in January 1977. By this time, Smith and Dempsey had been joined by Lol Tolhurst from The Obelisk on drums, and new lead guitarist Porl Thompson. Both Malice and Easy Cure also trialled several unsuccessful vocalists before Smith finally assumed the role of Easy Cure's frontman in September 1977.

That year, Easy Cure won a talent competition with German label Hansa Records, and received a recording contract. Although the band recorded tracks for the company, none were ever released. Following disagreements in March 1978 over the direction the band should take, the contract with Hansa was dissolved. Smith later recalled, "We were very young. They just thought they could turn us into a teen group. They actually wanted us to do cover versions and we always refused." Thompson was dropped from the band in May, and the remaining trio (Smith/Tolhurst/Dempsey) were soon renamed The Cure by Smith. Later that month the band recorded their first sessions as a trio at Chestnut Studios in Sussex, which were distributed as a demo tape to a dozen major record labels. The demo found its way to Polydor Records scout Chris Parry, who signed The Cure to his newly formed Fiction label—distributed by Polydor—in September 1978. However, as a stopgap while Fiction finalised distribution arrangements with Polydor, in December 1978 The Cure released their debut single "Killing an Arab" on the Small Wonder label. "Killing an Arab" garnered 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' novel The Stranger. The band placed a sticker label that denied the racist connotations on the single's 1979 reissue on Fiction. An early NME article on the band wrote that The Cure "are like a breath of fresh suburban air on the capital's smog-ridden pub and club circuit" and noted "With a John Peel session and more extensive London gigging on their immediate agenda, it remains to be seen whether or not The Cure can retain their refreshing joie de vivre."

The Cure released their debut album Three Imaginary Boys in May 1979. Due to the band's inexperience in the studio, Parry and engineer Mike Hedges took control of the recording. The band, particularly Smith, were unhappy with their debut; in a 1987 interview, he admitted, "a lot of it was very superficial – I didn't even like it at the time. There were criticisms made that it was very lightweight, and I thought they were justified. Even when we'd made it, I wanted to do something that I thought had more substance to it". The band's second single "Boys Don't Cry" was released in June. The Cure then embarked as the support band for Siouxsie & The Banshees' Join Hands promotional tour of England, Northern Ireland, and Wales between August and October. The tour saw Smith and Tolhurst pull double duty each night by performing with The Cure and as the guitarist / drummer with The Banshees when their guitarist John McKay and drummer Kenny Morris both walked out on the group just two days into the tour. That musical experience had a strong impact on him: "On stage that first night with the Banshees, I was blown away by how powerful I felt playing that kind of music. It was so different to what we were doing with The Cure. Before that, I'd wanted us to be like The Buzzcocks or Elvis Costello, the punk Beatles. Being a Banshee really changed my attitude to what I was doing."

The Cure's third single "Jumping Someone Else's Train" was released in early October 1979. Soon afterwards, Dempsey was dropped from the band due to his cold reception to material Smith had written for the upcoming album. Dempsey joined the Associates, while Simon Gallup (bass) and Matthieu Hartley (keyboards) from The Magspies joined The Cure. The Associates toured as support band for The Cure and The Passions on the Future Pastimes Tour of England between November and December—all three bands were on the Fiction Records roster—with the new Cure line-up already performing a number of new songs for the projected second album. Meanwhile, a spin-off band comprising Smith, Tolhurst, Dempsey, Gallup, Hartley and Thompson, with backing vocals from assorted family and friends, and lead vocals provided by their local postman Frankie Bell released a 7-inch single in December under the assumed name of Cult Hero.

Gothic phase (1980–1982)

Wary, due to the band's lack of creative control on the first album, Smith exerted a greater influence on the recording of The Cure's second album Seventeen Seconds, which he co-produced with Mike Hedges. The album was released in 1980 and reached number 20 on the UK charts. A single from the album, "A Forest", became the band's first UK hit single, reaching number 31 on the singles chart. The album was a departure from The Cure's sound up to that point, with Hedges describing it as "morose, atmospheric, very different to Three Imaginary Boys." In its review of Seventeen Seconds the NME said, "For a group as young as The Cure, it seems amazing that they have covered so much territory in such a brief time." At the same time, Smith was pressed concerning the concept of an alleged "anti-image". Smith told the press he was fed up with the anti-image association that some considered to be "elaborately disguising their plainness", stating, "We had to get away from that anti-image thing, which we didn't even create in the first place. And it seemed like we were trying to be more obscure. We just didn't like the standard rock thing. The whole thing really got out of hand." That same year Three Imaginary Boys was repackaged for the American market as Boys Don't Cry, with new artwork and a modified tracklist. The Cure set out on their first world tour to promote both releases. At the end of the tour, Matthieu Hartley left the band. Hartley said, "I realised that the group was heading towards suicidal, sombre music—the sort of thing that didn't interest me at all."

The band reconvened with Hedges to produce their third album Faith (1981), which furthered the mood of misery present on Seventeen Seconds. The album peaked at number 14 on the UK charts. Included with cassette copies of Faith was an instrumental soundtrack for Carnage Visors, an animated film shown in place of an opening act for the band's 1981 Picture Tour. In late 1981, The Cure released the non-album single "Charlotte Sometimes". By this point, the sombre mood of the music had a profound effect on the attitude of the band. The band would refuse requests for older songs in concert, and sometimes Smith would be so absorbed by the persona he projected onstage he would leave at the end in tears.

In 1982, The Cure recorded and released Pornography, the third and final album of an "oppressively dispirited" trio that cemented the Cure's stature as purveyors of the emerging gothic rock genre. Smith has said that during the recording of Pornography he was "undergoing a lot of mental stress. But it had nothing to do with the group, it just had to do with what I was like, my age and things. I think I got to my worst round about Pornography. Looking back and getting other people's opinions of what went on, I was a pretty monstrous sort of person at that time". Gallup described the album by saying, "Nihilism took over [. . .] We sang 'It doesn't matter if we all die' and that is exactly what we thought at the time." Parry was concerned that the album did not have a hit song for radio play and instructed Smith and producer Phil Thornalley to polish the track "The Hanging Garden" for release as a single. Despite the concerns about the album's uncommercial sound, Pornography became the band's first UK Top 10 album, charting at number eight. The release of Pornography was followed by the Fourteen Explicit Moments tour, where the band finally dropped the anti-image angle and first adopted their signature look of big, towering hair and smeared lipstick on their faces. The tour also saw a series of incidents that prompted Simon Gallup to leave The Cure at the tour's conclusion. Gallup and Smith did not talk to each other for eighteen months following his departure.

Increasing commercial success (1983–1986)

With Gallup's departure from The Cure and with Smith's work with Siouxsie & the Banshees, rumours spread that The Cure had broken up. In December 1982, Smith remarked to Melody Maker, "Do The Cure really exist any more? I've been pondering that question myself [. . .] it has got to a point where I don't fancy working in that format again." He added, "Whatever happens, it won't be me, Laurence, and Simon together any more. I know that."

Parry was concerned at the state of his label's top band, and became convinced that the solution was for The Cure to reinvent its musical style. Parry managed to convince Smith and Tolhurst of the idea; Parry said, "It appealed to Robert because he wanted to destroy The Cure anyway." With Tolhurst now playing keyboards instead of drums, the duo released the single "Let's Go to Bed" in late 1982. While Smith wrote the single off as a throwaway, "stupid" pop song to the press, it became a minor hit in the UK, reaching number 44 on the singles chart. It was followed in 1983 by two more successful songs: the synthesiser-based "The Walk" (number 12), and the jazz-influenced "The Lovecats", which became the band's first British Top 10 hit, reaching number seven. The group released these studio singles and their B-sides as the compilation album Japanese Whispers, designed by Smith for the Japanese market only, but released worldwide on the decision of the record company. The same year, Smith also recorded and toured with Siouxsie & the Banshees, contributing as guitarist on their Nocturne live video and their Hyaena studio album. Meanwhile, he recorded the Blue Sunshine album with Banshees bassist Steven Severin as The Glove, while Lol Tolhurst produced the first two singles and debut album of the English band And Also The Trees.

In 1984, The Cure released The Top, a generally psychedelic album on which Smith played all the instruments except the drums—played by Andy Anderson—and the saxophone—played by returnee Porl Thompson. The album was a Top 10 hit in the UK, and was their first studio album to break the Billboard 200 in the U.S., reaching number 180. Melody Maker praised the album as "psychedelia that can't be dated", while pondering, "I've yet to meet anyone who can tell me why The Cure are having hits now of all times." The Cure then embarked on their worldwide "Top Tour" with Thompson, Anderson, and producer-turned-bassist Phil Thornalley on board. Released in late 1984, The Cure's first live album, Concert consisted of performances from this tour. Near the tour's end, Anderson was fired for destroying a hotel room and was replaced by Boris Williams. Thornalley also left due to the rigors of the road. However, the bassist slot was not vacant long, for a Cure roadie named Gary Biddles had brokered a reunion between Smith and former bassist Simon Gallup, who had been playing in the band Fools Dance. Soon after reconciling, Smith asked Gallup to rejoin the band. Smith was ecstatic about Gallup's return and declared to Melody Maker, "It's a group again."

In 1985, the new line-up of Smith, Tolhurst, Gallup, Thompson, and Williams released The Head on the Door, an album which managed to bind together the optimistic and pessimistic aspects of the band's music that they had previously shifted between. The Head on the Door reached number seven in the UK and was the band's first entry into American Top 75 at number 59, a success partly due to the international impact of the LP's two singles, "In Between Days" and "Close to Me". Following the album and world tour, the band released the singles compilation Standing on a Beach in three formats (each with a different track listing and a specific name) in 1986. This compilation made the US Top 50, and saw the re-issue of three previous singles: "Boys Don't Cry" (in a new form), "Let's Go To Bed" and later "Charlotte Sometimes". This release was accompanied by a VHS or LaserDisc called Staring at the Sea, which featured videos for each track on the compilation. The Cure toured to support the compilation and released a live concert VHS of the show, filmed in the south of France called The Cure in Orange. During this time, The Cure became a very popular band in Europe (particularly in France, Germany and the Benelux countries) and increasingly popular in the U.S.

Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me and worldwide success (1987–1993)

In 1987, The Cure released the double LP Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, which reached number six in the UK, the Top 10 in several countries and was the band's first entry into the U.S. Top 40 at number 35 (where it was certified platinum), due to the combination of the band's rising popularity and the success of lead single, "Why Can't I Be You?". The album's third single, "Just Like Heaven" was the band's most successful single to date in the US, being their first to enter the Billboard Top 40. After the album's release, the band embarked on the successful Kissing Tour. During the European leg of the tour, Lol Tolhurst's alcohol consumption was interfering with his ability to perform so The Psychedelic Furs keyboardist Roger O'Donnell was frequently called upon to stand in for him. In 1989, The Cure released the album Disintegration, which saw a return to the gothic atmospheres of earlier releases like Faith and Pornography. It became their highest charting album in the UK to date, entering at number three and featuring three Top 30 singles in the UK and Germany ("Lullaby", "Lovesong" and "Pictures of You"). Disintegration also reached number twelve on the US charts. The first single stateside, "Fascination Street", reached number one on the American Modern Rock chart, but was quickly overshadowed when its third US single, "Lovesong", reached number two on the American pop charts (the only Cure single to reach the US Top 10). By 1992, Disintegration had sold over three million copies worldwide.

During the Disintegration sessions, the band gave Smith an ultimatum that either Tolhurst would have to leave the band or they would. In February 1989, Tolhurst's exit was made official and announced to the press; this resulted in Roger O'Donnell becoming a full-fledged member of the band and left Smith as The Cure's only remaining founder member. Smith attributed Tolhurst's dismissal to an inability to exert himself and issues with alcohol, concluding, "He was out of step with everything. It had just become detrimental to everything we'd do." Because Tolhurst was still on the payroll during the recording of Disintegration, he was credited in the album's liner notes as playing "other instruments", however it has since been revealed that he contributed nothing to the album in either performance or song writing. The Cure then embarked on the Prayer Tour, which saw the band playing stadiums in America.

In May 1990, Roger O'Donnell quit and was replaced with the band's guitar technician Perry Bamonte. That November, The Cure released a collection of remixes called Mixed Up. The album was not well received and quickly slid down the charts. The one new song on the collection, "Never Enough", was released as a single. In 1991 The Cure were awarded the BRIT Award for Best British Band. That same year Tolhurst filed a lawsuit against Smith and Fiction Records in 1991 over royalties payments, and claimed joint ownership of the name "The Cure" with Smith; the verdict was handed out in September 1994 in favour of Smith. In respite from the lawsuit, the band returned to the studio to record their next album. Wish reached number one in the UK and number two in the US and yielded the international hits "High" and "Friday I'm in Love". The Cure also embarked on the "Wish Tour" with Cranes, and released the live albums Show (September 1993) and Paris (October 1993). As a promotional exercise with the Our Price music chain in the UK, a limited edition EP was released consisting of instrumental outtakes from the Wish sessions. Entitled Lost Wishes, the proceeds from the four-track cassette tape went to charity.

In the years between the release of Wish and the start of sessions for The Cure's next album, the band's line-up shifted again. Thompson left the band once more during 1993 to play with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, and Bamonte took over as lead guitarist. Boris Williams also left the band, and was replaced by Jason Cooper (formerly of My Life Story).

Period of transition (1994–1999)

The album sessions began in 1994 with only Smith and Bamonte present; the pair were later joined by Gallup (who was recovering from physical problems), and Roger O'Donnell, who had been asked to rejoin the band at the end of 1994. The Cure performed "Burn" in the movie The Crow and "Dredd Song," the theme song of the 1995 movie Judge Dredd starring Sylvester Stallone. It was not released on a Cure album until 2004 on Join the Dots: B-Sides & Rarities 1978–2001 (The Fiction Years).Wild Mood Swings, finally released in 1996, was poorly received compared with previous albums and marked the end of the band's commercial peak. Early in 1996, the Cure played festivals in South America, followed by a world tour in support of the album Galore. Galore contained all of the Cure's singles released between 1987 and 1997, as well as the new single "Wrong Number", which featured longtime David Bowie guitarist Reeves Gabrels. Gabrels also accompanied the Cure on a brief American radio festival tour as an onstage guest guitarist for "Wrong Number". In 1998 The Cure contributed to the soundtrack album for The X-Files feature film as well as the Depeche Mode tribute album For the Masses, with their cover of "World in My Eyes".

Recent years (2000–present)

With only one album left in their record contract and with commercial response to Wild Mood Swings and the Galore compilation lacklustre, Smith once again considered that the end of The Cure might be near and thus wanted to make an album that reflected the more serious side of the band. The Grammy-nominated album Bloodflowers was released in 2000 after being delayed since 1998. According to Smith, The album was the third of a trilogy along with Pornography and Disintegration. The band also embarked on the nine-month Dream Tour, attended by over one million people worldwide. In 2001, The Cure left Fiction and released their Greatest Hits album and DVD, which featured the music videos for a number of classic Cure songs. In 2002, the band headlined twelve major summer music festivals, and played three extended concerts (one in Brussels, two in Berlin) in which they performed the albums Pornography, Disintegration and Bloodflowers in their respective entireties each night. The Berlin performances were released on DVD as The Cure: Trilogy in 2003.

In 2003, The Cure signed with Geffen Records. In 2004, they released a new four-disc boxed set on Fiction Records titled Join the Dots: B-Sides and Rarities, 1978-2001 (The Fiction Years). The compilation includes seventy Cure songs, some previously unreleased, and a 76-page full-colour book of photographs, history and quotes, packaged in a hard cover. The album peaked at number 106 on the Billboard 200 album charts. The band released their twelfth album The Cure on Geffen in 2004, which was produced by Ross Robinson. It made a top ten debut on both sides of the Atlantic in July 2004. To promote the album, the band headlined the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival that May. From 24 July to 29 August, The Cure headlined the Curiosa concert tour of North America. While attendances were lower than expected, Curiosa was still one of the more successful American summer festivals of 2004. The same year the band was honoured with an MTV Icon television special.

In May 2005, Roger O'Donnell and Perry Bamonte were fired from the band. O'Donnell claims Smith informed him he was reducing the band to a three-piece. Previously O'Donnell said he had only found out about the band's upcoming tour dates via a fan site and added, "It was sad to find out after nearly 20 years the way I did but then I should have expected no less or more." The remaining members of the band—Smith, Gallup and Cooper—made several appearances as a trio before it was announced in June that Porl Thompson would be returning for the band's 2005 Festival summer shows, as well as their set at Live 8 in Paris on 2 July. Later that year, the band recorded a cover of John Lennon's "Love" for Amnesty International's charity album Make Some Noise. It is available for download on the Amnesty website, while the album was released on CD in 2006. On 1 April 2006, The Cure appeared at the Royal Albert Hall on behalf of the Teenage Cancer Trust. It was their only show through to the end the year. In December a live DVD, entitled The Cure: Festival 2005 including 30 songs of their 2005 Festival tour was released.

The Cure began writing and recording material for their thirteenth album in 2006. Smith initially stated it would be a double album. The Cure announced a last-minute postponement of their autumn 2007 North American 4Tour in August in order to continue working on the album, rescheduling the dates for spring 2008. Titled 4:13 Dream, the album was released in October 2008. The group released four singles and an EP—"The Only One", "Freakshow", "Sleep When I'm Dead", "The Perfect Boy" and Hypnagogic States respectively—on or near to the 13th of each month, in the months leading up to the album's release. In February 2009, The Cure received the 2009 Shockwaves NME Award for Godlike Genius.

In 2011, the band played their first 3 studio albums in their entirety during two shows in Sydney, Australia. These "Reflections" shows notably featured Roger O'Donnell and Laurence Tolhurst, both in a keyboard and percussion role. The shows are due to be released on DVD in 2011.

Musical style

The Cure are often identified with the gothic rock subgenre of alternative rock, and are viewed as one of the form's definitive bands. However, the band has routinely rejected classification, particularly as a gothic rock band. Robert Smith said in 2006, "It's so pitiful when 'goth' is still tagged onto the name The Cure", and added, "We're not categorisable. I suppose we were post-punk when we came out, but in total it's impossible [...] I just play Cure music, whatever that is." Smith has also expressed his distaste for gothic rock, describing it as "incredibly dull and monotonous. A dirge really." While typically viewed as producers of dark and gloomy music, The Cure have also yielded a number of upbeat songs. Spin has said "The Cure have always been an either/or sort of band: either [...] Robert Smith is wallowing in gothic sadness or he's licking sticky-sweet cotton-candy pop off his lipstick-stained fingers."

The Cure's primary musical traits have been listed as "dominant, melodic bass lines; whiny, strangulated vocals; and a lyric obsession with existential, almost literary despair." Most Cure songs start with Smith and Gallup writing the drum parts and bass lines. Both record demos at home and then bring them into the studio for fine-tuning. Smith said in 1992, "I think when people talk about the 'Cure sound,' they mean songs based on 6-string bass, acoustic guitar, and my voice, plus the string sound from the Solina." On top of this foundation is laid "towering layers of guitars and synthesisers". Keyboards have been a component of the band's sound since Seventeen Seconds, and their importance increased with the instrument's extensive use on Disintegration. With the Departure of Roger O'Donnell in 2005, keyboards have not been as prominent in the band's album 4:13 Dream and their live shows.

Music videos

The band's early music videos have been described as "dreadful affairs" and have been maligned for their poor quality, particularly by the band itself. Lol Tolhurst said, "Those videos were unmitigated disasters; we weren't actors and our personalities weren't coming across." It was with the video for "Let's Go to Bed", their first collaboration with director Tim Pope, that The Cure would become noted for their videos. Pope added a playful element to the band's videos; the director insisted in a 1987 Spin interview, "I think that side of them was always there, but was never brought out." Pope would go on to direct the majority of The Cure's videos, and his videos, which became synonymous with the band, helped expand The Cure's audience during the 1980s. Pope explained the appeal of working with The Cure by saying, "The Cure is the ultimate band for a filmmaker to work with because Robert Smith really understands the camera. His songs are so cinematic. I mean on one level there's this stupidity and humour, right, but beneath that there are all [Smith's] psychological obsessions and claustrophobia."

Legacy

The Cure were one of the first alternative bands to have chart and commercial success in an era before alternative rock had broken into the mainstream. In 1992 the NME declared The Cure had during the 1980s become "a goth hit machine (19 to date), an international phenomenon and, yep, the most successful alternative band that ever shuffled disconsolately about the earth". Smith has noted he looks at Cure-influenced bands like Interpol and My Chemical Romance with affection, adding, "I also think [Interpol bassist] Carlos D.'s obsession with Simon Gallup is sweet." Interpol lead singer, Paul Banks was quoted as saying ""The Cure is the band that all of us in Interpol can say influenced us. When I was younger I listened to them a lot. Carlos as well. Actually, he took a straight influence from this band on the way he played the bass and the keys. To me, Robert Smith is also one of these examples: you can't be Robert Smith if you're not Robert Smith. It's one of the bands with the deepest influence on Interpol, because we all like them. They're legendary."

Several references to The Cure and their music have been made in popular culture. A number of films have used the title of a Cure song as the film's title, including Boys Don't Cry (1999) and Just Like Heaven (2005). The Cure's gloomy image has been the subject of parody at times. In series two of The Mighty Boosh, The Moon sings 'The Lovecats' over the credits. In the same episode, a powerful gothic hairspray, Goth Juice, is said to be "The most powerful hairspray known to man. Made from the tears of Robert Smith." The Mary Whitehouse Experience often featured brief clips of the stars of the show performing comical songs and nursery rhymes as The Cure in a morose style. Robert Smith appeared in the final episode of the first series of The Mary Whitehouse Experience singing "The Sun has got his hat on" before punching the character Ray (played by Robert Newman) whilst uttering Ray's catch phrase "Oh no what a personal disaster". Robert Smith was also portrayed on an episode of South Park (Season 1, Episode 12) where he transforms into the form of Mothra and battles Mecha-Streisand to save the day and Kyle shouts "Disintegration is the best album ever!" In Craig Thompson's graphic novel Blankets the chapter seven is called "Just Like Heaven". The same chapter shows Raina singing some lyrics from this song to Craig.

Discography

Three Imaginary Boys (1979)

Seventeen Seconds (1980)

Faith (1981)

Pornography (1982)

The Top (1984)

The Head on the Door (1985)

Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987)

Disintegration (1989)

Wish (1992)

Wild Mood Swings (1996)

Bloodflowers (2000)

The Cure (2004)

4:13 Dream (2008)

Members

;Current line-up

Robert Smith – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards (1976–present)

Porl Thompson – guitars, keyboards (1976–1978, 1983–1993, 2005–present)

Simon Gallup – bass guitar, keyboards (1979–1982, 1985–present)

Jason Cooper – drums, percussion (1995–present)

References

Sources

Apter, Jeff. (2006). Never Enough: The Story of the Cure. Omnibus Press. ISBN 1-84449-827-1

Further reading

Ten Imaginary Years, by L. Barbarian, Steve Sutherland and Robert Smith (1988) Zomba Books ISBN 0-946391-87-4

The Cure: A Visual Documentary, by Dave Thompson and Jo-Ann Greene(1988) Omnibus Press ISBN 0-7119-1387-0

The Cure: Songwords 1978–1989 S. Hopkins, Robert Smith and T. Foo (1989) Omnibus Press ISBN 0-7119-1951-8

In Between Days: An Armchair Guide To The Cure by Dave Thompson, Helter Skelter Publishing (October 2005) ISBN 1-905139-00-4

The Cure – Greatest Hits (songbook containing 20 of their best, transcribed note-for-note with tab, chord symbols and complete lyrics), Hal Leonard Corporation (May 2002) ISBN 0-634-04667-5

Robert Smith: "The Cure" and Wishful Thinking by Richard Carman (2005) Independent Music Press (UK) ISBN 9-78095-497041-3

''Jeremy Wulc : My dream comes true : Carnet de route avec The Cure. (2009) Editions : Camion Blanc

External links

'Chain of Flowers' – News about The Cure

Category:BRIT Award winners Category:English alternative rock groups Category:British New Wave musical groups Category:Gothic rock groups Category:Musical groups established in 1976 Category:British post-punk music groups Category:People from Crawley

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Name	Morton Downey, Jr.
Birth date	Sean Morton Downey, Jr. December 09, 1932
Birth place	Los Angeles, California, United States
Death date	March 12, 2001
Death place	Los Angeles, California, United States
Occupation	Talk show host, Singer, Actor, DJ
Website	http://www.mortondowneyjrhome.com}}

Morton Downey, Jr. (December 9, 1932 — March 12, 2001) was an American singer, songwriter and later a television talk show host of the 1980s who pioneered the "trash TV" format on his program The Morton Downey Jr. Show.

Legally named Sean Morton Downey, Jr., he dropped "Sean" from his stage name, as his father, Morton Downey had.

Career

Downey attended New York University. He was a program director and announcer at a radio station in Connecticut in the 1950s, and later worked in various markets around the U.S., including Phoenix (KRIZ), Miami (WFUN) and Seattle (KJR). Like his father, Downey pursued a career in music, recording in both pop and country styles. He sang on a few records and then began to write songs, several of which were popular in the 1950s and 1960s. He joined ASCAP as a result. In 1958, he recorded "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams", which he sang on national television on a set that resembled a dark street with one street light. In 1981, "Green Eyed Girl" charted on Billboard Magazine country chart, peaking at #95.

In the 1980s, Downey was a talk show host at KFBK-AM in Sacramento, California, where he established his abrasive and much imitated right wing, populist style, relentlessly deriding anyone who disagreed with him or had a liberal point of view. Downey's success laid the groundwork for more aggressive, opinion-based talk radio.

Downey was fired in 1983 for cracking "an ethnic joke about a member of the city council out there who was of Asian descent, and he refused to apologize [for it];" he was replaced on KFBK by Rush Limbaugh, who has held the time slot ever since, later via his national syndication. Downey also had a stint on WMAQ-AM in Chicago where he unsuccessfully tried to get other on air radio personalities to submit to drug testing. Downey's largest effect on American culture came from his popular, yet short-lived, syndicated late 1980s television talk show, The Morton Downey Jr Show.

Television

Downey headed to Secaucus, New Jersey, where his highly controversial television program The Morton Downey Jr. Show was taped. Starting as a local program on New York-New Jersey superstation WWOR-TV in the fall of 1987, it expanded into national syndication in early 1988. The program featured screaming matches among Downey, his guests, and audience members. Using a large silver bowl for an ashtray, he would chainsmoke during the show and blow smoke in his guests' faces. Downey's fans became known as "Loudmouths", patterned after the studio lecterns decorated with gaping cartoon mouths, from which Downey's guests would go head-to-head against each other on their respective issues.

Downey's signature phrases "pablum puking liberal" (in reference to left-liberals) and "zip it!" briefly enjoyed some popularity in the contemporary vernacular. He particularly enjoyed making his guests angry with each other, which on a few occasions resulted in physical confrontations. One that occurred on a 1988 show taped at the Apollo Theater, involving Al Sharpton and CORE National Chairman Roy Innis. The exchange between the two men culminated in Innis shoving Sharpton into his chair, knocking him to the floor and Downey intervening to separate the pair.

Because of the controversial format and content of the show, distributor MCA Television had problems selling the show to a number of stations and advertisers. Even Downey's affiliates, many of which were low-rated independent television stations in small to medium markets, were so fearful of advertiser and viewer backlash that they would air one or even two local disclaimers during the broadcast.

During one controversial episode Downey introduced his gay brother, Tony Downey, to his studio audience and informed them Tony was HIV positive. During the episode Downey stated he was afraid his audience would abandon him if they knew he had a gay brother, but then said he did not care.

The Washington Post wrote about him, "Suppose a maniac got hold of a talk show. Or need we suppose?" David Letterman said, "I'm always amazed at what people will fall for. We see this every ten or twelve years, an attempt at this, and I guess from that standpoint I don't quite understand why everybody's falling over backwards over the guy."

Celebrity, cancellation, and bankruptcy

The success of the show made Downey a pop culture celebrity, leading to an appearance on Saturday Night Live in 1988, WrestleMania V in 1989 in which he traded insults with Roddy Piper and Brother Love on Piper's Pit, and later roles in movies such as Predator 2 and Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation. He was also cast in several television roles, often playing tabloid TV hosts or other obnoxious media types.

In 1988, Downey recorded an album of songs based on his show, entitled Morton Downey Jr Sings (released in 1989) . The album's only single, "Zip It!" (a catch-phrase from the TV show, used to quiet an irate guest), became a surprise hit on some college radio stations.

Over the course of the 1988-89 television season, his TV show suffered a decline in viewership, resulting in many markets downgrading its time slot; even flagship station WWOR moved Downey's program from its original 9:00 PM slot to 11:30 PM in January of 1989, where it was followed by the then-new Arsenio Hall Show. However, following Hall's strong early ratings, the two series swapped time slots several weeks later, thus relegating Downey to 12:30 AM in the number-one television market.

In late April of 1989, he was involved in an incident in a San Francisco International Airport restroom in which he claimed to have been attacked by neo-Nazis who painted a swastika on his face and attempted to shave his head. Some inconsistencies in Downey's account (e.g., the swastika was painted in reverse, suggesting that Downey had drawn it himself in a mirror), and the failure of the police to find supportive evidence , led many to suspect that the incident was a hoax and a plea for attention.

In July 1989 his show was cancelled, with the owners of the show announcing that the last show at been taped on June 30th, and that no new shows would air after September 15. At the time of its cancellation, the show was airing on a total of 30 stations across the country (including WPHL in Philadelphia), and its advertisers had been reduced primarily to "direct-response" ads (such as 900 chat line and phone sex numbers).

In February 1990, Downey filed for bankruptcy in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.

Later career

In 1990, Downey resurfaced on CNBC with an interview program called Showdown, which was followed by three attempted talk radio comebacks: first in 1992 on Washington, D.C. radio station WWRC; then in 1993 on Dallas radio station KGBS, where he would scream insults at his callers. He was also hired as the station's VP of Operations. The following year he returned to CNBC with a short-lived television show, Downey, that was similar in theme to his earlier, more popular show. In one episode, Downey claimed to have had a psychic communication with O.J. Simpson's murdered ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson.

His third - and final - attempt at a talk radio comeback occurred in 1997 on Cleveland radio station WTAM in a late evening time slot. It marked his return to the Cleveland market, where Downey had been a host for crosstown radio station WERE in the early 1980s prior to joining KFBK. This stint came shortly after the surgery for lung cancer that removed one of his lungs.

On August 30, 1997, Downey quit his WTAM radio talk show to focus on pursuing legal action against Howard Stern. Downey had accused Stern of spreading rumors that he resumed his smoking habits, to which publicist Les Schecter retorted, "He hasn't picked up a cigarette." His replacement was former WERE host Rick Gilmour.

Following his death, news reports and obituaries incorrectly (according to the Orange County Register) credited him as the composer of "Wipe Out." As of 2008, Downey's official website (and others) continue to make this claim. Prior to Downey's death, Spin in April 1989 had identified the "Wipe Out" authorship as a myth.

Controversies

In 1984, at KFBK radio, Downey used the word "Chinaman" while telling a joke. His use of the word upset portions of the sizable Asian community in Sacramento. One Asian-American city councilman called for an apology and pressured the station for Downey's resignation. Downey refused to apologize and was forced to resign, with Rush Limbaugh taking his place.

Downey was sued for allegedly appropriating the words and music to his theme song from two songwriters. He was sued for $40 million after bringing a stripper onto the show and calling her a "slut", a "pig", a "hooker", and a "tramp", claiming that she had venereal diseases, and banging his pelvis against hers.

At one point, he was arraigned on criminal charges for allegedly attacking a gay guest on his show, in a never-aired segment. In another lawsuit, he was accused of slandering a newscaster (a former colleague), and of indecently exposing himself to her and slapping her. Downey punched Stuttering John during an interview done for The Howard Stern Show.

In various interviews, he expressed remorse for some of the extreme theatrics of his TV show, saying he had taken things too far. He added that he had been a "bastard." However, he also claimed that his show was of a higher quality and not as "sleazy" as Jerry Springer's.

Personal life

Morton Downey Jr's parents were also in show business; his father, Morton Downey, was a popular singer, and his mother, Barbara Bennett, was a singer and dancer. His aunts included Hollywood film stars Constance and Joan Bennett, from whom he was estranged, and his maternal grandfather was the celebrated matinée idol Richard Bennett. Born into a life of luxury, he was raised next door to the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. He is not related to actor Robert Downey, Jr or to journalist Leonard Downie, Jr..

Downey was married four times and had four children from three of those marriages. With wife Helen he had Melissa, with Joan he had daughters Tracey and Kelli, and with fourth wife and widow Lori he had a daughter. He and Lori met when she appeared as a dancer in a show he attended in Atlantic City.

According to Terry Pluto's book, Loose Balls, Downey was one of the owners of the New Orleans Buccaneers basketball team in the American Basketball Association in the late 1960s.

Downey was also president and co-founder of the proposed World Baseball Association in 1974. The WBA proposed a number of rule changes, including the use of five designated hitters to replace defensive players who would remain in the game; the use of one designated runner per game; the pitcher would be required to throw a pitch within 20 seconds; a walk would be on three balls instead of the usual four; and stealing home after the sixth inning would count as two runs. The WBA never played a game.

In the Super Mario Bros. video game series, the character, Morton Koopa, Jr. was named after him.

Death

In 1996, Downey was diagnosed with lung cancer and had one of his lungs removed. He did a complete about-face on the issue of tobacco use, going from a one-time member of the National Smokers Alliance to a staunch anti-smoking activist. He continued to speak against smoking until his death from lung cancer in 2001.

After being diagnosed with lung cancer, he commented, "I had spawned a generation of kids to think it was cool to smoke a cigarette. Kids walked up to me until a matter of weeks ago, they'd have a cigarette in their hand and they'd say, 'Hey, Mort,' or, 'Hey, Mouth, autograph my cigarette.' And I'd do it." He also blamed tobacco companies for lying to consumers about cigarettes.

Notes

External links

Official Morton Downey, Jr. Web Site

Category:1933 births Category:2001 deaths Category:American talk radio hosts Category:American television talk show hosts Category:American Basketball Association executives Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:Deaths from lung cancer Category:Imperial Records artists Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of English descent

fr:Morton Downey Jr. it:Morton Downey Jr. fi:Morton Downey Jr.

name	Morton Downey
background	solo_singer
birth name	Sean Morton Downey
alias	Morton James
born	November 14, 1901
death date	October 25, 1985
origin	Wallingford, Connecticut, U.S.
instrument	Vocalist, piano
genre	Jazz}}

Morton Downey (November 14, 1901 – October 25, 1985) was a singer popular in the United States, enjoying his greatest success in the 1930s and 1940s. Downey was nicknamed "The Irish Nightingale".

Early years

Sean Morton Downey was born in Wallingford, Connecticut, the child of James and Bessie (Cox) Downey. He later dropped his first name in favor of his middle name as his professional name

Music

For a time in the 1920s, Downey, a tenor, sang with Paul Whiteman's Orchestra. He first recorded in 1923 for Edison Records under the pseudonym Morton James; the following year he recorded for Victor with the S.S. Leviathan Orchestra. In 1925 he began 4 years of recording for Brunswick Records. In 1926 he had a hit in the show Palm Beach Nights.

He toured London, Paris, Berlin, New York City and Hollywood. He also began appearing in motion pictures in 1929.

Downey was also a songwriter whose most successful numbers include "All I Need is Someone Like You", "California Skies", "In the Valley of the Roses", and "Now You're in My Arms", "Sweeten Up Your Smile", "That's How I Spell Ireland", "There's Nothing New", and "Wabash Moon". He joined ASCAP in 1949.

Radio

In 1930, Downey began making national radio broadcasts after opening his own nightclub (The Delmonico) in New York. He was voted America's "Radio Singer of the Year" in 1932. At the time, Downey was featured nightly on the Camel Quarter Hour radio broadcast. In the 1930s he recorded for ARC, Hit of the Week, and Decca Records, and in the 1940s made records for Columbia.

Television

Starting in 1949, Morton Downey began appearing on television. In the 1950s, he hosted the television show Star of the Family.

Personal life

Morton Downey was the father of the right-wing television personality Morton Downey, Jr., by his first wife, actress Barbara Bennett (1906–1958), the sister of actresses Constance and Joan Bennett, and with whom he ultimately had five children, four sons and a daughter: Michael, Sean (Morton Downey, Jr), Lorelle, Anthony and Kevin. Her early promise as a dancer and actress gave way to her turbulent marriage with Downey. The couple married in 1929, and divorced in 1941. She would marry singing cowboy actor Addison Randall shortly afterward. Downey's second wife was Margaret Boyce Schulze (1922—1964), the former wife of Prince Alexander zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen and the granddaughter of Colorado mining industralist William Boyce Thompson.

Downey owned a house in Hyannis, Massachusetts next to Joseph P. Kennedy's. This house was used by John F. Kennedy as his summer White House.

Downey's third wife was Ann Trainer, the widow of Howell Van Gerbig and the former wife of John Kevin Barry; they married in 1970. Downey died from a stroke in Palm Beach, Florida, aged 83.

References

External links

Morton Downey Sr. at IMDB

Category:1901 births Category:1985 deaths Category:American male singers Category:American pop singers Category:American musicians of Irish descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:People from Palm Beach County, Florida Category:People from Wallingford, Connecticut Category:Deaths from stroke Category:Disease-related deaths in Florida

it:Morton Downey