This past week has been all about The Cure for me. I've loved them since my early teenage years and continue to buy their albums as they are released. Jeff Apter's Never Enough: The Story of The Cure
captures the ups and downs of their 30+ year career - from the early days in middle-class Crawley, through the coke & booze-fueled Faith
/Pornography
sessions/tour, to the platinum years of Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
and Disintegration
, and ends with 2004's self-titled album
.
All of it is here: the recording sessions and subsequent tours, the breakdown and sacking of original member Lol Tolhurst, Robert Smith's dual duties with The Cure and Siouxsie & The Banshees and Smith's psychedelic side-project with Banshee Steven Severin, The Glove
- all in its decadent glory. A humorous footnote appears about Apter's interview request to Severin that was rejected when the former Banshee requested an 'appearance fee' for his memories to be used in the book. Apter was able to secure a lot of insight with interviews with former members and band associates, including Tolhurst and original bassist Michael Dempsey.
- all in its decadent glory. A humorous footnote appears about Apter's interview request to Severin that was rejected when the former Banshee requested an 'appearance fee' for his memories to be used in the book. Apter was able to secure a lot of insight with interviews with former members and band associates, including Tolhurst and original bassist Michael Dempsey.
I really enjoyed Never Enough. There were a few minor mistakes, such as a few year mixups and song title spellings, but I assume those are corrected in the revised edition*. Definitely a great read for fans of The Cure. If I remember correctly, the last book I read about them was called Ten Imaginary Years
, that focused on the first ten years of the band.
. There were a few minor mistakes, such as a few year mixups and song title spellings, but I assume those are corrected in the revised edition*. Definitely a great read for fans of The Cure. If I remember correctly, the last book I read about them was called Ten Imaginary Years, that focused on the first ten years of the band.
* My review is based on the hardcover version, originally published in 2005. A revised edition was released in paperback format on April 6, 2009.
or 
Published by Omnibus Press - 352 pages.
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Interesting, thanks Bret. I may have to pick this one up.
ReplyDeleteCheck this out, though it's slow loading and I do believe you already have it, but it's a fun site:
http://www.thecuredisintegration.com
Lew: Yeah, it was a cool book. I have seen that site. Pretty rad.
ReplyDeleteAnji: According to the book, Lol has been sober since Disintegration, so that's like 21 years! He seemed to be in a pretty bad place back then - it's good to hear that he's doing well. Thanks for the link. Will keep it real with that one later. :)
Some surprising songs on the list below: Robert Smith's top 80s songs (Lew Breeze Tip(tm): Robert Smith is The Cure's singer for those of you who don't know):
ReplyDeleteRobert Smith’s “My ’80s Top 30″ on Sirius XM’s 1st Wave:
ABC, “Look of Love”
The Associates, “Tell Me It’s Easter on Friday”
David Bowie, “Let’s Dance”
Kate Bush, “Cloudbusting”
Cocteau Twins, “Persephone”
Christina, “Things Fall Apart”
D.A.F., “Sex Unter Wasser”
Depeche Mode, “Personal Jesus”
Dinosaur Jr, “Freak Scene”
Echo and the Bunnymen, “Killing Moon”
The Fun Boy Three with Bananarama, “It Ain’t What You Do…”
Peter Gabriel, “Red Rain”
Human League, “Human”
The Jesus and Mary Chain, “Some Candy Talking”
Joy Division, “The Eternal”
Chaka Khan, “I Feel For You”
Madness, “Return of the Lost Palmas Seven”
My Bloody Valentine, “Lose My Breath”
Mel & Kim, “Respectable”
New Order, “Everything’s Gone Green”
Yoko Ono, “Walking On Thin Ice”
Pixies, “Gigantic”
The Pretenders, “Don’t Get Me Wrong”
Prince, “Starfish & Coffee”
Psychedelic Furs, “Heaven”
Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Dear Prudence”
Soft Cell, “Tainted Love”
The Sugarcubes, “Birthday”
Suzanne Vega, “Small Blue Thing”
Tom Waits, “In the Neighborhood”
I am a little surprised there wasn't a The Cure song in there.