Constance Mary Whitehouse, CBE (born Constance Mary Hutcheson, 13 June 1910 – 23 November 2001) was an English social activist known for her prominent opposition to social liberalism and the mainstream British media, both of which she accused of encouraging a more permissive society. She was the founder and first president of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, through which she led a longstanding campaign against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). A staunch social conservative, the motivation for her activities derived from her traditional Christian beliefs and her work as a teacher of sex education.

Born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, Whitehouse became an art teacher, at the same time becoming involved in evangelical Christian groups such as the Student Christian Movement and Moral Re-Armament. She became a public figure via the 'Clean-Up TV' pressure group, established in 1964, in which she was the most prominent figure. The following year she founded the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, using it as a platform to criticise the BBC for what she perceived was a lack of accountability in the BBC, and an excessive portrayal of sex, violence and bad language.

During the 1970s she broadened her activities, and was a leading figure in the Nationwide Festival of Light, a Christian campaign which gained mass support for a period; she initiated private prosecutions against Gay News and the director of the play The Romans in Britain, which had been performed at the National Theatre. Her campaign against the former was based on a perception of its blasphemous content.

A controversial figure in her lifetime, for her critics Whitehouse was a highly censorious figure and she has been accused of homophobia. She became an object of mockery in the media, especially the BBC. In 2008, a BBC docudrama Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story starred Julie Walters as Whitehouse.

Early life[link]

Born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England, Whitehouse won a scholarship to Chester City Grammar School.^[2] On leaving, she did two years of unpaid apprentice teaching at St John's School, Chester, and attended the Cheshire County Teacher Training College in Crewe, specialising in secondary school art teaching. Hutcheson was involved with the Student Christian Movement before qualifying in 1932. She became an art teacher at Lichfield Road School, Wednesfield, Staffordshire, where she stayed for eight years.

She joined the Oxford Group, later known as Moral Re-Armament (MRA), in the 1930s. At MRA meetings, she met Ernest Raymond Whitehouse; they married in 1940 and remained married until Ernest's death, in Colchester, aged 87, in 2000.^[3] The couple had five sons, two of whom (twins) died in infancy.^[4]

After raising her children and returning to teaching in 1953, she taught art at Madeley Modern School in Shropshire from 1960, in due course taking up responsibility for sex education. Shocked at the response of her pupils to moral issues, she became concerned about what she and many others perceived as declining moral standards in the British media, especially in the BBC.

"Clean Up TV" campaign and the NVALA[link]

Impetus[link]

Mary Whitehouse began her activism in 1963 with a letter to the BBC^[5] requesting to see Hugh Greene, the BBC's Director General. Greene was out of the country at the time, so she accepted an invitation to meet Harman Grisewood, his deputy,^[6] a Roman Catholic who she felt listened to her with understanding,^[7] but over the next few months continued to be dissatisfied with what she saw on television. With Norah Buckland, the wife of a vicar, she launched the 'Clean Up TV Campaign' in January 1964 with a manifesto appealing to the "women of Britain". The campaign's first public meeting on 5 May 1964 was held in Birmingham's Town Hall.^[8] Richard Whitehouse, one of her sons, recalled in 2008: "Coaches arrived from all over the country. Two thousand people poured in and suddenly there was my mother on a podium inspiring them to rapturous applause. Her hands were shaking. But she didn't stop".^[9] Although he regularly clashed with Whitehouse, the academic Richard Hoggart shared some of her opinions and was present on the platform with her at this first public meeting.^[10] The Times commented in the following day's edition: "Perhaps never before in the history of the Birmingham Town Hall has such a successful meeting been sponsored by such a flimsy organisation".^[11]

Sir Hugh Greene, knighted in January 1964,^[12] became her bête noire. He was, according to Whitehouse, "more than anybody else [...] responsible for the moral collapse in this country".^[13] The CUTV manifesto claimed that the BBC under Greene spread "the propaganda of disbelief, doubt and dirt ... promiscuity, infidelity and drinking".^[14] In place of this, the authors argued, the Corporation's activities should "encourage and sustain faith in God and bring Him back to the hearts of our family and national life."^[15][16] The 'Clean Up TV' petition, using the manifesto, gained a total of 500,000 signatures. Whitehouse complained in 1993 that during Hugh Greene's period at the BBC, "hardly a week went by without a sniping reference to me".^[2] Whitehouse's critics did respond quickly. The playwright David Turner had heckled her^[13] at the Birmingham Town Hall, his work was criticised during the meeting,^[7] and within a few months Swizzlewick, a twice-weekly series he had created, featured a parody of her.

In a speech given in 1965 Greene argued, not naming Mrs Whitehouse directly, that the critics of his liberalisation of broadcasting policy would "attack whatever does not underwrite a set of prior assumptions", and saw the potential for "a dangerous form of censorship...which works by causing artists and writers not to take risks." He defended the right of the Corporation "to be ahead of public opinion."^[17] Sir Hugh Greene himself ignored Whitehouse, blocked her from participation in BBC broadcasts and purchased a painting of Whitehouse with five breasts^[13] by James Lawrence Isherwood.

The National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (now known as Mediawatch-UK) was formally launched to succeed the CUTV campaign in November 1965,^[8] replacing what they themselves perceived as CUTV's negativity with an active campaign for legislative change.^[18] The NVALA eventually gained about 150,000 members.

Through the letters she frequently sent to Harold Wilson, then Prime Minister, Whitehouse caused particular difficulties for civil servants at 10 Downing Street.^[19] These letters expressed her belief that, through the Royal Charter, ultimate responsibility for BBC output lay with the Government, rather than with the BBC's governors, whom she felt to be failing in their duties. For some time Downing Street intentionally "lost" her letters to avoid having to respond to them.^[19] Geoffrey Robertson, QC, suggests that when Greene left the BBC, in 1969, contrary to the view that it was because of disagreements over the appointment of the Conservative Lord Hill as BBC chairman in 1967, whereby she could be given some credit for his departure, it was more to do with a political struggle between the BBC and Wilson.^[20] However, Hill was prepared to meet Whitehouse at Broadcasting House.^[21]

Offensive programming?[link]

Whitehouse criticised the work of Dennis Potter from Son of Man (1969) onwards, arguing that the BBC was at the centre "of a conspiracy to remove the myth of god from the minds of men",^[22] and also A Clockwork Orange (1971). In the case of the violence in A Clockwork Orange, she rejected any attempt to show a 'copycat' correlation in academic studies, but urged its acceptance as a fact arrived at by common sense.^[23]

The satirical comedy Till Death Us Do Part attacked many of the things Whitehouse cherished. She objected to its profane language: "I doubt if many people would use 121 bloodies in half-an-hour",^[5] and "Bad language coarsens the whole quality of our life. It normalises harsh, often indecent language, which despoils our communication."^[5] Whitehouse and the NVALA won a libel action with a full apology and substantial damages against the series' writer, Johnny Speight, after he implied in an interview that the organisation's members and its head were fascists.^[24] Shortly after the court case was concluded she was mocked in an episode of the series itself entitled "Alf's Dilemma" (27 February 1967) where Alf Garnett is seen reading her book Cleaning Up TV and agreeing with every word.^[24] She was also critical of comedians such as Benny Hill and his use of dancers; she described Dave Allen as "offensive, indecent and embarrassing" after a comic account of a conversation following sexual intercourse.^[25] In return, comedy writers during this era did see her as possessing humorous potential. The Goodies comedy team created an episode of their series entitled "Gender Education" (1971) with the principal objective of irritating her.

War coverage met her ire. During his brief period as editor of Panorama (1965-66^[26]), Jeremy Isaacs received a letter from Whitehouse complaining about his decision to repeat Richard Dimbleby's coverage of the liberation of the Belsen concentration camp. She complained about this "filth" being allowed on air as "it was bound to shock and offend". In a 1994 interview, Whitehouse continued to maintain that it was "an awful intrusion" and "very off-putting".^[27]

The Vietnam War, "the first 'television war'",^[28] received extensive coverage during the early part of her public career. She felt such war coverage proved the medium was "an ally of pacifism".^[29] In a 1970 speech to the Royal College of Nursing she argued: "However good the cause ... the horrific effects on men and terrain of modern warfare as seen on the televion screen could well sap the will of a nation to safeguard its own freedom, let alone resist the forces of evil abroad."^[29] Trying to reconcile this "pacifism" with her objection to fictional violence, she saw such news coverage as "desensitisation"^[29] in which the media use the "techniques of violence" to raise "impact" in order "to satisfy an apparently insatiable demand for realism."^[29]

She claimed that Doctor Who had nightmarish qualities, saying it "contains some of the sickest, most horrible material"^[5] and describing it as "teatime brutality for tots".^[30] Between 1975 and 1977, while Tom Baker played the Doctor and Philip Hinchcliffe was the series producer, she made complaints about several serials. A dramatic incident in "The Seeds of Doom" led to her claiming: "Strangulation – by hand, by claw, by obscene vegetable matter^[14][31] – is the latest gimmick, sufficiently close up so they get the point. And just for a little variety show the children how to make a Molotov Cocktail."^[32] Following "The Deadly Assassin" in 1976, she wrote her strongest letter of complaint yet to the BBC about the content of the serial and received an apology from Director-General Charles Curran. The freeze-frame ending to the third episode, in which Tom Baker appeared to be drowning, was subsequently edited. The BBC ordered the series' next producer, Graham Williams, to lighten the tone and reduce the violence and horror following Whitehouse's complaints. Senior television executives commented that at this time her views were not disregarded lightly.^[33]

Her supporters have asserted that the Whitehouse campaigns helped end Channel 4's "red triangle" series of films in 1986; claimed by Channel 4 to be intended to warn viewers of material liable to cause offence, the broadcasting of these films with the triangle had also received criticism from non-supporters of Whitehouse. She was also said to have had a role in the 1990 extension of the Broadcasting Act and the establishment of the Broadcasting Standards Council, which later became the Broadcasting Standards Commission^[34] (in 2004, this was subsumed into the Office of Communications). William Rees-Mogg, the first chairman of the BSC, commended her involvement in ensuring that "the public view was always taken into account".^[34]

In 1990, while appearing on In the Psychiatrist's Chair (BBC Radio), Whitehouse claimed that Dennis Potter had been influenced by witnessing his mother engaging in adulterous sexual activity. Potter's mother won substantial damages from the BBC^[35] and The Listener.^[36] Her own favourite programmes were Dixon of Dock Green, Neighbours, and coverage of snooker.^[2][37]

Whitehouse's early campaign and her disagreements with the BBC under Sir Hugh Greene were the basis of a drama first broadcast in 2008 entitled Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story, written by Amanda Coe.^[38] Julie Walters played the part of Mary Whitehouse, Alun Armstrong played her husband Ernest, and Hugh Bonneville played Greene.

Other campaigns and private prosecutions[link]

Permissiveness[link]

Whitehouse had taken up other campaigns against the permissive society by the early 1970s. She objected to the UK edition of The Little Red Schoolbook, "'a manual of children's rights'"^[39] on sex, drugs and attitudes to adults, which was successfully prosecuted for obscenity in July 1971. It had originally been published in Denmark where, according to Whitehouse, it had done "incalculable damage"^[40] and was "a revolutionary primer",^[41] in which "open rebellion against the 'system', be it school, parents or authority generally, was openly advocated, while children were constantly exhorted to collect evidence against teachers of alleged injustices or anything which was likely to enhance revolution."^[42] She was "greatly relieved - for the sake of the children" at the £50 fine and £115.50 costs imposed on Richard Handyside and Geoffrey Collins, its publishers,^[43] who also had works by Che Guevara and Fidel Castro on their small list of publications. For Whitehouse it was a "fundamental right of a child to be a child" and "the duty of mature people to ensure that childhood is protected against the inroads of those who would exploit its immaturity for political, social or personal gain."^[44]

Along with the (Catholic) Labour peer Lord Longford, Malcolm Muggeridge and Cliff Richard,^[45] Whitehouse was a leading figure in the Nationwide Festival of Light, which protested against the commercial exploitation of sex and violence in Britain. The Festival's mass "rally against permissiveness" in Trafalgar Square was attended by 50,000 people in September 1971.^[8] That same year she had an audience with Pope Paul VI regarding 'moral pollution'.^[5]

Following the release on appeal of the defendants in the Oz trial, "an unmitigated disaster for the children of our country",^[46] Whitehouse launched the Nationwide Petition for Public Decency in January 1972, which had gained 1.35 million signatures by the time it was presented to Edward Heath in April 1973.^[47] She had around 300 speaking engagements during the period of her highest profile.^[13] In 1975^[48] Whitehouse,^[49] a pornographic magazine, was launched by publisher David Sullivan.

[edit] Gay News

Whitehouse used private prosecutions in a number of cases where an official action was not forthcoming. She was the plaintiff in a charge of blasphemous libel against Gay News in 1977 (Whitehouse v. Lemon). It was the first such prosecution since 1922. "I simply had to protect Our Lord," said Mrs Whitehouse at the time,^[50] though both the Archbishop of Canterbury Donald Coggan and Cardinal Basil Hume declined Whitehouse's invitation for them to give evidence at the trial.

The private prosecution concerned "The Love that Dares to Speak its Name", a poem by James Kirkup, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature,^[51] the theme of which was the sexual fantasies of a Roman Centurion about the body of Jesus Christ. Denis Lemon, the editor and owner of Gay News, had published the poem on the basis that the "message and intention of the poem was to celebrate the absolute universality of God's love."^[52] Gay News lost the case; the jury decided the case on a 10-2 majority. Lemon and his paper were fined, with Lemon receiving a nine-month suspended prison sentence. The Court of Appeal and the House of Lords dismissed appeals, although Lemon’s sentence was quashed.^[53]

Geoffrey Robertson, QC, the barrister for Gay News in the case, described Whitehouse as homophobic in The Times in 2008, saying: "Her fear of homosexuals was visceral".^[20] He describes the beliefs she reveals in her book, Whatever Happened to Sex?, as "nonsense", such as her assertion that "homosexuality was caused by abnormal parental sex 'during pregnancy or just after'", saying that for her, "being gay was like having acne: 'Psychiatric literature proves that 60 per cent of homosexuals who go for treatment get completely cured'”.^[20] The Scotsman, in 2008, while asking whether society might have benefited from Whitehouse's campaign, also pointed to this case when it said "Whitehouse’s views on homosexuality were extraordinarily prejudiced."^[54]

[edit] The Romans in Britain

In 1982 she pursued another private prosecution, this time against Michael Bogdanov, the director of a National Theatre production of Howard Brenton's The Romans in Britain, a play that "drew a direct parallel between the Roman invasion of Celtic Britain in 54 BC and the contemporary British presence in Northern Ireland."^[55] The first act contains "a brief scene"^[55] of (simulated) anal rape, but the Police had visited the production three times and found no basis for legal action.^[56] In the private prosecution Whitehouse's counsel claimed Section 13 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956, which described the offence of "procuring an act of gross indecency",^[57] was applicable. Because this was a general Act, there was no possibility of defence on the basis of artistic merit, unlike that permitted under the Obscene Publications Act.

Since Whitehouse had not herself seen the play, the prosecution evidence rested on the testimony of her solicitor, Graham Ross-Cornes, who claimed he saw the actor's penis, but had seen the play from the back row of the stalls 90 feet from the stage.^[57] Lord Hutchinson, counsel for Bogdanov, was able to demonstrate the nature of the illusion performed on stage.^[57] This was achieved by suggesting that it may have been the actor's thumb protruding from his fist, rather than his erect penis. The defence had argued that the Act did not apply to the theatre; the judge then ruled that it did. The action was withdrawn after the prosecution counsel told Whitehouse that he was unable to continue with the case;^[57] the litigation was ended by the Attorney General putting forward a plea of nolle prosequi. However, both sides claimed a victory; the plaintiff's side asserted that the important legal point had been made with the ruling on the applicability of the Sexual Offences Act, while Bogdanov said it was because she knew that he would not be convicted.^[58] Mrs Whitehouse was ordered to pay £14,000 costs.^[2]

The case was the subject of a radio play, Mark Lawson's The Third Soldier Holds His Thighs, on BBC Radio 4 in 2005. Whitehouse's account of the trial is recorded in A Most Dangerous Woman (ISBN 0-85648-540-3); she wrote that she was of the opinion that the legal point had been established, and they had no wish to criminalise Bogdanov, the play's director.

Margaret Thatcher's government[link]

By the 1980s, Mary Whitehouse had found a more powerful ally in the Conservative government, particularly in Margaret Thatcher herself, whose government's support base partially consisted of Christians and social conservatives. Despite this, it has been claimed that the market orientation of the Thatcher government prejudiced it against Whitehouse in private.^[59]

It has been claimed though, by commentators not necessarily in agreement with her, that Whitehouse's efforts played a part in the passage of the Protection of Children Act 1978, the Indecent Displays (Control) Act 1981, which concerned sex shops, and the Video Recordings Act 1984 which banned 'video nasties'. A term reported coined by Whitehouse,^[60] she screened edited highlights from these films for MPs at the House of Commons in late 1983,^[61] which included extracts from The Evil Dead (1981) considered by her "the number one nasty".^[60] It was "a highly effective means of lobbying the Thatcher government to introduce tight state controls on the burgeoning video industry".^[61]

Later years and assessments of her influence[link]

Mary Whitehouse was appointed a CBE in 1980.^[8] In 1988, she suffered a spinal injury in a fall, which severely curbed her campaigning activities.^[2] Whitehouse retired as president of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association in 1994; the Association was renamed Mediawatch-UK in 2001. She died, aged 91, in a nursing home in Colchester, Essex, on 23 November 2001.

The journalist Mary Kenny believes "Mary Whitehouse was a significant figure. Some of her battles were justified, even prophetic. Today her attacks on ‘kiddie porn’ would be widely supported."^[62] Despite earlier clashes, Michael Grade said of her: "She was very witty, she was a great debater, she was very courageous and she had a very sincere view, but it was out of touch entirely with the real world."^[33] The comedian Bernard Manning also commented, "She'll be sadly missed, I imagine, but not by me."^[63] The academic Richard Hoggart observed: "her main focus was on sex, followed by bad language and violence. Odd: if she had reversed the order, she might have been more effective."^[10]

Writing in the Dictionary of National Biography, the philosopher Mary Warnock comments, "Even if her campaigning did not succeed in ‘cleaning up TV’, still less in making it more fit to watch in other ways, she was of serious intent, and was an influence for good at a crucial stage in the development both of the BBC and of ITV. She was not, as the BBC seemed officially to proclaim, a mere figure of fun."^[4]

The papers of the NVALA from the period 1970-1990 have been deposited at the Library^[64] of the University of Essex.^[65]

See also[link]

• Censorship
• Culture Wars
• Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story
• John Beyer
• Pornography
• Whitehouse v Lemon
• The Pink Floyd song "Pigs (Three Different Ones)"

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Ramsey Campbell (1987) "Turn Off: The Whitehouse Way" (an account of a public appearance by Mary Whitehouse) in Ramsey Campbell, Probably, PS Publishing, ISBN 1-902880-40-4
• Max Caulfield (1976) Mary Whitehouse, Mowbray, ISBN 0-264-66190-7
• Geoffrey Robertson (1999) The Justice Game, Random House UK. (A memoir of a prominent barrister who, among other historic trials, defended several of Whitehouse's targets in her private prosecutions).
• Michael Tracey & David Morrison (1979) Whitehouse, Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-23790-0
• Mary Whitehouse (1967) Cleaning-up TV: From Protest to Participation, Blandford, ISBN B0000CNC3I
• Mary Whitehouse (1971) Who Does She Think She is?, New English Library, ISBN 0-450-00993-9
• Mary Whitehouse (1977) Whatever Happened to Sex?, Wayland, ISBN 0-85340-460-7 (pbk: Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 0-340-22906-3)
• Mary Whitehouse (1982) Most Dangerous Woman?, Lion Hudson, ISBN 0-85648-408-3
• Mary Whitehouse (1985) Mightier Than the Sword, Kingsway Publications, ISBN 0-86065-382-X
• Mary Whitehouse (1993) Quite Contrary: An Autobiography, Sidgwick & Jackson, ISBN 0-283-06202-9

External links[link]

• My mother was a snob, says Mary Whitehouse's son
• Mary Whitehouse was right about a lot of things
• "The Mary Whitehouse Effect", (BBC Radio 4 programme)

The Cure
The Cure performing in Singapore in 2007. Left to right: Porl Thompson, Jason Cooper (back), Robert Smith, Simon Gallup.
Background information
Origin	Crawley, England
Genres	Gothic rock,[1][2] alternative rock, New Wave, post-punk
Years active	1976–present
Labels	Fiction, Suretone, Geffen, Polydor, Elektra, Asylum, Sire
Associated acts	Malice, Easy Cure, The Glove, Siouxsie and the Banshees
Website	www.thecure.com
Members
Robert Smith Simon Gallup Roger O'Donnell Jason Cooper Reeves Gabrels
Past members
Lol Tolhurst Michael Dempsey Matthieu Hartley Andy Anderson Phil Thornalley Boris Williams Porl Thompson Perry Bamonte

The Cure are an English alternative 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.^[1][2][3]

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.^[4] The Cure have released thirteen studio albums, 10 EPs and over thirty singles during the course of their career. Since 2010, they have been working on a fourteenth studio album.^[5]

History[link]

Formation and early years (1973–1979)[link]

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).^[6] In January 1976 the band took a more substantial form of what would be 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.^[7] 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 auditioned several vocalists before Smith finally assumed the role of Easy Cure's frontman in September 1977.^[8]

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.^[9] 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."^[9] Thompson was dropped from the band in May, and the remaining trio (Smith/Tolhurst/Dempsey) were soon renamed The Cure by Smith.^[10] 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.^[11] 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.^[12] The Cure released their debut single "Killing an Arab" in December 1978 on the Small Wonder label as a stopgap until Fiction finalised distribution arrangements with Polydor. "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's novel The Stranger.^[13] 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."^[14]

The Cure released their debut album Three Imaginary Boys in May 1979. Because of the band's inexperience in the studio, Parry and engineer Mike Hedges took control of the recording.^[15] 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".^[16] The band's second single "Boys Don't Cry" was released in June. The Cure then embarked as the support band for Siouxsie and the Banshees' Join Hands promotional tour of England, Northern Ireland, and Wales between August and October. The tour saw Smith pull double duty each night by performing with The Cure and as the guitarist with The Banshees when John McKay quit the group.^[17] 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."^[18]

The Cure's third single "Jumping Someone Else's Train" was released in early October 1979. Soon afterwards, Dempsey was dropped from the band because of his cold reception to material Smith had written for the upcoming album.^[19] 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.^[20] 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.^[21]

Early Gothic Phase (1980–1982)[link]

	"One Hundred Years" (1982) noicon Sample of "One Hundred Years" from Pornography.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

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.^[22] 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.^[23] 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."^[24] 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."^[25] At the same time, Smith was pressed concerning the concept of an alleged "anti-image".^[26] 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."^[27] 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."^[28]

The band reconvened with Hedges to produce their third album Faith (1981), which furthered the mood of misery present on Seventeen Seconds.^[29] The album peaked at number 14 on the UK charts.^[23] 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.^[30] 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.^[31]

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.^[32] 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".^[16] 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."^[33] 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.^[34] Despite the concerns about the album's uncommercial sound, Pornography became the band's first UK Top 10 album, charting at number eight.^[23] 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.^[35] 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.^[36]

Increasing commercial success (1983–1986)[link]

	"Just Like Heaven" (1987) noicon Sample of "Just like Heaven" from Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me.
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With Gallup's departure from The Cure and with Smith's work with Siouxsie and 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."^[37]

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."^[38] 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 from as a throwaway, "stupid" pop song to the press,^[39] it became a minor hit in the UK, reaching number 44 on the singles chart.^[23] It was followed in 1983 by two more successful songs: the synthesiser-based "The Walk" (number 12), and "The Love Cats", which became the band's first British Top 10 hit, reaching number seven.^[23] 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 and 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.^[23][40] 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."^[41] 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.^[42] Thornalley also left because of the stress of touring.^[43] 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.^[44] Smith was ecstatic about Gallup's return and declared to Melody Maker, "It's a group again."^[45]

In 1985, the new line-up of Smith, Tolhurst, Gallup, Thompson, and Williams released The Head on the Door, an album that managed to bind together the optimistic and pessimistic aspects of the band's music between which they had previously shifted.^[46] 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,^[23][40] 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,^[40] 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.^[47]

[edit] 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^[48] and was the band's first entry into the U.S. Top 40 at number 35 (where it was certified platinum),^[23][40][49] due to the combination of the band's rising popularity and the success of lead single, "Why Can't I Be You?".^[50] 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.^[51] 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.^[52]

	"Lovesong" (1989) noicon Sample of "Lovesong" from Disintegration. "Lullaby" (1989) noicon Sample of "Lullaby" from Disintegration.
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In 1989, The Cure released the album Disintegration, which saw a return to the gothic atmospheres of earlier releases like Faith and Pornography.^[53] 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").^[23][54] Disintegration also reached number twelve on the US charts.^[40] 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).^[51] By 1992, Disintegration had sold over three million copies worldwide.^[55]

During the Disintegration sessions, the band gave Smith an ultimatum that either Tolhurst would have to leave the band or they would.^[56] In February 1989, Tolhurst's exit was made official and announced to the press;^[57] 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."^[58] 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 the US. On 6 September 1989, The Cure performed "Just Like Heaven" at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles.^[59] In February 1990, the song won the Brit Award for Best British Video.^[60]

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.^[61] 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 Group.^[62] 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.^[63] 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".^[23][40] 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 1993, the band were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album for Wish.^[64]

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 (1994–1998)[link]

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.^[65] The Cure performed "Burn" in the movie The Crow and "Dredd Song", the theme song of the 1995 movie Judge Dredd starring Sylvester Stallone (The former song despite never being released as a single nor ever played live, is regarded a fan favourite of Cure fans and fans of 'The Crow'). 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.^[66] 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".

	"Out of This World" (2000) noicon Sample of "Out of This World" from Bloodflowers.
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Later years (1999–2009)[link]

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.^[67] The Grammy-nominated album Bloodflowers was released in 2000 after being delayed since 1998.^[68] According to Smith, the album was the third of a trilogy along with Pornography and Disintegration.^[69] 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.^[40] 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.^[23][40] 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.^[70] The same year the band was honoured with an MTV Icon award in a television special presented by Marilyn Manson.^[71]

The Cure in concert in 2004. From left to right: Robert Smith, Jason Cooper, and Simon Gallup

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."^[72] 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.^[73] 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.^[74] 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.^[75]

Reunion with former members and next album (2010–present)[link]

On January 13, 2010, Smith announced on The Cure's website that they were working on the follow-up to 4:13 Dream and an iTunes exclusive release. He explained, "There is an 'exclusive' iTunes Cure album still in the works... and part two of the Dream sessions is slowly taking shape."^[5] In August 2011, Smith told Hot Press that The Cure may not be interested in wrapping up the leftover material that was recorded during the 4:13 Dream sessions. He explained, "It's one of those things that it's been left so long now I expect it will come out as a half-finished sort of thing. I'm not sure if the band wants to complete it, which is sort of the elephant in the room. What happened to the second half of the album? No one mentions it! We're aware that it's there. Nobody really wants to talk about it. Maybe it will come up after a few post-festival beers!". Smith later added, "I think between now and this time next year, The Cure will take precedence over anything else. Until I get the second half of this album out, I won't do another collaboration."^[76]

In 2011, the band played their first three 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. Porl Thompson was absent from the performances. The shows are due to be released on DVD in 2012.^[77] The band later headlined Bestival. Roger O'Donnell again joined the band on stage. On 11 September 2011, Roger O'Donnell announced on his Facebook page that he had officially rejoined the band. The band announced seven more Reflections shows, one in London, three in New York City and three in Los Angeles.^[78] On Tuesday 27 September, The Cure was announced as a nominee for 2012 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.^[79] The Cure have been announced as one of the three headliners of the 2012 Reading and Leeds Festivals.

Musical style[link]

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."^[80] Smith has also expressed his distaste for gothic rock, describing it as "incredibly dull and monotonous. A dirge really."^[81] 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."^[82]

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."^[83] 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.^[84] 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."^[84] On top of this foundation is laid "towering layers of guitars and synthesisers".^[85] 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.^[86] 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[link]

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."^[87] 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."^[16] 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.^[88] 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."^[81]

Legacy[link]

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".^[55] 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."^[89] 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."^[90]

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 Love Cats' 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 catchphrase "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[link]

• Three Imaginary Boys (1979)
• Boys Don't Cry (1980)
• Seventeen Seconds (1980)
• Faith (1981)
• Pornography (1982)
• Japanese Whispers (1983)
• 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[link]

Current line-up

• Robert Smith – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards (1976–present)
• Simon Gallup – bass guitar, keyboards (1979–1982, 1985–present)
• Roger O'Donnell – keyboards (1987–1990, 1995–2005, 2011–present)
• Jason Cooper – drums, percussion (1995–present)
• Reeves Gabrels – guitars (2012–present)

See also[link]

• Wikipedia books: The Cure

References[link]