DID YOU KNOW...

 1  ... the group was originally called Easy Cure? In 1978 Robert decided to change the name of the group from Easy Cure, to just plain The Cure. He felt that the name Easy Cure sounded too "hippyish", too "American west coast".

 2  ... if you switch the letters around in the song title "Cut Here", it spells The Cure? Robert at one time thought that "Cut Here" might be The Cure's final recording, hence the double meaning name.

 3  ... Robert's favorite brand of lipstick is Jane Cosmetics " #3 Reddest" ?

 4  ... Robert met his wife Mary Poole in grade school (St. Wilfrids Comprehensive School)? They started dating in 1974 and after being sweethearts for many years, they got married August 13th, 1988 at Worth Abbey in Sussex, the site of one of The Cure's first performances 12 years earlier. The wedding was very secret, no journalists or fans were invited, and Simon was the best man, not Lol.

 5  ... for Robert's wedding gift to his wife Mary, he wrote "Lovesong" for her? When he gave her a tape of the song, she went away to another room to listen to it. She soon came back and smothered him with kisses.

 6  ... the youngest member of The Cure is present drummer Jason Cooper (1/31/67) and the oldest is former drummer Andy Anderson (1/30/51)? The oldest present member is keyboardist, Roger O'Donnell (10/29/55).

 7  ... on Robert's passport he has musician written in for his occupation?

 8  ... the very first concert that Robert ever attended, his older brother took him, he was 10 years old? The event was the Isle of Wright Festival where Jimi Hendrix performed among others. Unfortunately, he didn't get to see Hendrix play because his brother locked him in a tent, while his brother went off to be with a girl.

 9  ... the very first record that Robert bought when he was a kid was David Bowie's, "Ziggy Stardust" album?

10 ... Robert lives near Brighton, in the South of England, next to the sea?

11 ... The Cure have had seven top 20 hits, five top 10 albums, and have sold over 28 million albums worldwide?

12 ... the most successful song The Cure ever did was "Lovesong"? It peaked at #2 on the U.S. Charts on 10/21/89. Janet Jackson's "Miss You Much" was #1.

13 ... at the Werchter Festival in Belgium (7/5/81), The Cure were told to stop playing? Everything at the festival was running late and the festival promoters felt most of the crowd was there to see groups like Dire Straits and Robert Palmer, which happened to be the next act. Robert Palmer's roadies started motioning The Cure to stop playing. After only their 12th song, The Cure were told if they didn't stop playing they were going to pull the plug, so The Cure agreed to do one last song. They ended their set with a longer than normal version of A Forest, (especially for 1981). During an instrumental portion of the song Simon and Robert conspire on stage how to make the song last longer, to make a point. In fact, Robert Smith even adds some lyrics to make the ending longer, "Such a long end, such a long end." When The Cure finally do finish the song Simon yells out to the crowd, relieving some of his frustration with the situation, "f * * k Robert Palmer, f * * k rock and roll!" Years later when asked about the incident, Robert proclaimed "it was f * * king brilliant", but Lol commented, "we were punks".

14 ... Robert and Simon are big soccer fans? Robert's favorite team is the Queens Park Rangers, and Simon's favorite is Reading FC. Robert has even been known to require promoters of European festivals to schedule his performances so they don't conflict with World Cup soccer matches.

15 ... The Cure's "Show" video was actually taped over a two day period at the Palace of Auburn Hills (Detroit), MI on 7/18/92 and 7/19/92? They used 8 cameras both nights and the black and white footage was filmed by local art students.

16 ... Tray Parker, the producer of the animated TV show Southpark, is a big fan of The Cure? When Robert recorded his lines for the show ("Mecha-Streisand" episode #112), the producers only gave him his lines not the complete script, so he was completely surprised when he finally saw his episode when it aired (2/18/98). He has said that one of the lines from the character Stan, "Disintegration is the best album ever", was quite a complement.

17 ... Paul "Porl" Thompson, ex-guitarist for The Cure, is Robert's bother-in-law? He is married to Robert's younger sister Janet.

18 ... The Cure have actually Played at a wedding and a Christmas Party? On 12/22/78 they played the Upjohn Christmas Party where robert's father worked, and on 09/19/98 they played at Ray Cokes wedding in St. Tropez. When Video Jock Ray Cokes asked The Cure to play at his wedding, only a few of the 75 guests had any idea what was going on. Ray got up to sing "Just Like Heaven " and when he couldn't remember the words he asked "Where are The Cure when you need them?" They duly walked on stage in their best Wedding suits and performed 8 of his favorite songs. The party was on a beach in St. Tropez.

19 ... The Cure were actually on the same bill as Willy Nelson believe it or not? They both appeared on "Later with Jools Holland", a TV Show in England (4/23/96). They technically played together as they both played along during the musical intro with Jools Holland and the other acts on the show.

20 ... The Cure was the support band for Siouxsie & The Banshees in 1979? When two members of the Banshees suddenly left the band, Robert was recruited as their new lead guitar player. The two bands continued to tour together with Robert playing a whole set with The Cure each night then taking a short break and then coming back out on stage as a member of The Banshees and playing another whole set with them.

21 ... The Cure have performed on five continents, only Africa and Antarctica have not seen any Cure appearences?

22 ... Simon and Robert got into a fight with each other in bar in France? In 1982 during the Fourteen Explicit Moments Tour after a concert in France, the boys had words over a bar tab. Simon ended up hitting Robert and a fight followed. Robert flew back to England, leaving a note that said he wasn't coming back. Simon did the same that afternoon. With only a few concerts left on the tour and a three day break for cooling off, both decided to come back to finish. The final concert on the tour was in Brussels (6/11/82). The show was quite flat and during the last song of the encore, they decided to change instruments around. Their support band, Zerra 1, had joined them on stage as well. They decided to play, the some what improvisational, free form song "Forever". Robert played drums, Lol played bass, Simon played guitar and Gary Biddles, a part time roadie and friend of Simons did the vocals. Biddles started singing that "Smith is a wanker, Tolhurst is a wanker, only Simon is worth anything in this band", and "The Cure is dead". Robert got pissed and through his drum sticks at Gary's head and told him to "f * * k off"! Simon and Robert didn't see each for almost two years after that.

23 ... Robert lost his virginity at age 15? He lost it with Mary at a costume party.

24 ... according to a web-poll, The Cure are in the Top 10 most bootlegged bands in history? The Cure's official opinion on bootleggers is one of indifference. Since almost every show they ever do is bootlegged, they don't care if their audience tapes their concerts, but unfortunately for their fans, most venues do. Robert feels, "it's very rare that one [of these bootlegs] is of good enough quality to be listened to by anyone other than the most fanatical fan", but Robert does hate what he calls "fake albums". But some of the members of the band don't agree with this policy. Roger has spoken out against the practice of illegal taping in the past, and most of the other members feel that Napster, the on-line file sharing site, was partly responsible for the poor Bloodflowers CD sales.

25 ... during the Dream Tour the Lighting Designer was Abagail Rosen Holmes? She took over from long time Cure Lighting and Set Designer, Roy Bennett. Perhaps you saw her at one of the Dream Tour concerts dancing along with the music, behind those giant lighting consoles. No two shows were exactly the same, but each concert reflected her unique style. A true artist, she "felt" the lighting cues, firing off great lighting sequences as the music moved her.

26 ... Robert almost killed himself and his band when he drove his car "off-road" across some farm fields and then rolled it down a mountainside? One night in 1986 he decided to escape the stress of recording by taking a night time drive. Robert was admittedly drunk and unfortunately the whole band was crammed into the car at the time. He was driving his cumbersome, Russian built Lada complete with Russian language controls. Luckily, no one really got hurt, but the Lada didn't make it.

27 ... Robert has 23 nephews and nieces?

28 ... The Cure's "Disintegration" was Melody Maker's Album Of The Year in 1989?

29 ... there have been 12 official members of The Cure? Not including session players or temporary replacements, there have been 4 drummers (LAURENCE (LOL) TOLHURST / CLIFFORD (ANDY) ANDERSON / BORIS WILLIAMS / JASON COOPER), 3 guitar players (ROBERT SMITH / PAUL (PORL) THOMPSON / PERRY (TEDDY) BAMONTE), 4 keyboard players (LAURENCE (LOL) TOLHURST / MATTHIEU HARTLEY / ROGER O'DONNELL / PERRY (TEDDY) BAMONTE) and 3 bass players (MICHAEL DEMPSEY / SIMON GALLUP / PHIL THORNALLEY). The numbers don't add up because some band members have changed the instrument they play in the band.    *Derek Thompson - bass / Vince Ely - drums / Roberto Suave - bass / have been short term replacements*

30 ... that Lol Tolhurst could not manage to play the drum part on "Let's Go To Bed"? He couldn't quite manage the "Disco" beat. He tried to do a drumbeat for the song for about three days. It cost a small fortune in studio time. In the end they had to get a session drummer, Steve Goulding, to do it. Lol was going to pretend that he had played it until he realized that if he had to play it somewhere and he couldn't do it, he would be humiliated. Shortly after, Lol switched from playing drums for the group to playing keyboards

31 ... Standing On The Beach / Staring At The Sea, sold more copies than any other Cure album? Even though it did not chart as high as some other Cure albums, sales continue to be strong. Released in 1986 it was certified "Double Platinum" on 12/12/97 selling over two million.

32 ... Mary Poole, Robert's wife, worked as a part time model and a nurse for mentally handicapped children? Around 1986 Robert had Mary give up her job to become his full time girlfriend. Robert and the band were working such crazy hours, that he never got to see her when she was working her day job.

33 ... the master tapes of The Cure's Seventeen Seconds album were accidentally erased? The master tapes of Seventeen Seconds, originally released in 1980, were destroyed. Chris Parry, the owner of Fiction Records, kept the masters by an old washing machine and the electric motor erased the tapes. In 1990 The Cure released their Mixed Up album, which features remixes of older Cure songs. Almost all of these remixes were made from the original songs, so when they dug out the old tapes of Seventeen Seconds there was nothing on them. One of the songs from Seventeen Seconds that had to be completely re-recorded was "A Forest". Robert and Simon sampled Lol's old drum sound from another song. Then Simon got his old original bass and Robert got his original guitar and amp and they played it again note for note. They did have to change the solo at the end, because Robert couldn't remember how the original one was and no one had a copy of the original in the studio at the time.

34 ... Robert is allergic to garlic? Because he tours all over the world Robert can order his food without garlic in many different languages.