How many original members are still in The Cure?

25 September 2024, 18:00

With The Cure set to release their first album in 16 years, Songs Of A Lost World, Radio X takes a look back at the band's long history... and who's been in the band since the beginning.

The Cure have revealed that their new single Alone will premiere on 26th September. The lead track from the veteran band's long-awaited 14th album, Songs Of A Lost World, it marks the first new material from Robert Smith and co in 16 years.

Over a career lasting over four decades years, The Cure have seen members come and go. Some have even gone and come back. With a back catalogue that spans 1979's debut album Three Imaginary Boys, through the hugely successful LPs Disintegration (1989) and Wish (1992) right up to the new outing Songs Of A Lost World, there have been numerous line-ups of this enduring British band.

Radio X has gone back through the archives and totted up just how many members of The Cure there have been - and discovers that there's only one person that's been in the band since day one. And that is...

Who are the current members of The Cure?

1. Robert Smith: May 1978 - present

   Smith was born in Blackpool on 21st April 1959, but moved south to Horley in Surrey when he was three; he later moved to Crawley in West Sussex at the age of six. Robert joined a group based around his elder brother Richard, the improbably-named Crawley Goat Band, and later formed his own outfit called The Obelisk for a one-off school show in the early 1970s.

   By Christmas 1976, a band had formed around the school friends called Malice, which included Smith, drummer Lol Tolhurst, bassist Michael Dempsey, local guitar hero Porl Thompson and a local journalist called Martin Creasy on vocals.

   Robert took over vocals in the band - now known as "Easy Cure" - in September 1977 after the then-current singer Peter O'Toole left and it was this configuration that recorded demos for the German label Hansa later that year.

   

   When Thompson's extravagant guitar solos were deemed to go against the ideology of punk, the trio of Smith, Dempsey and Tolhurst reconvened without him in May 1978 under the pared-down name of The Cure.

   As The Cure's sound evolved from suburban punk to icy soundscapes and the line-up of the band began to change, Smith began to have more say in their musical direction and eventually became solely responsible for the group's lyrics. In September 1979, The Cure supported Siouxsie & The Banshees on their Join Hands tour, but when the veteran punk band's guitarist and drummer abruptly quit midway through the series of dates, Robert stood in, performing a set with the Banshees and The Cure every night.

   When The Cure imploded at the end of the Pornography tour in June 1982, Robert joined the Banshees again as an actual member, appearing on the album Hyaena and the live collection Nocturne. He also released an album called Blue Sunshine with The Glove, a side project with his Banshees colleague Steve Severin, in September 1983. However, with his own group having chart hits with The Walk and The Love Cats in 1983, Smith was drawn back to The Cure, where he's remained ever since.

   Despite promises of a solo album over the years, Robert Smith has continued to release music under the name of The Cure, right up until the band's latest album, Songs Of A Lost World, in November 2024.

   

2. Simon Gallup: November 1979 - June 1982; December 1984 to present

   Gallup used to play bass in a local punk band, Lockjaw, which morphed into the Magazine Spies, aka the Mag/Spys. Gallup became friends with Robert Smith and when The Cure made a humorous one-off single under the name Cult Hero, Simon was eased in as bass player. When Michael Dempsey was ousted from the group in October 1979, Gallup and his Mag/Spys colleague Matthieu Hartley were drafted in. Gallup appeared on The Cure's "gloom trilogy" of Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Pornography, becoming a striking figure onstage during live shows.

   Smith and Gallup's relationship broke down in the summer of 1982 due to relentless touring on top of excessive drug and alcohol consumption. The pair remained estranged during The Cure's chart success with The Walk and The Love Cats in 1983, and the subsequent album The Top in 1984. At the end of that year, however, Robert and Simon reconciled and Gallup became a permanent member of The Cure again, aside from the occasional leave of absence over the years.

   

3. Jason Cooper: 1995 to present

   Following the departure of long-term drummer Boris Williams in 1993, The Cure auditioned a number of drummers. The resulting album, Wild Mood Swings, features drum parts from Ronald Austin, Louis Pavlou and Mark Price, but the majority was performed by newcomer Jason Cooper, formerly with indie band My Life Story.

   Cooper was enlisted as The Cure's new drummer from the summer of 1995 onwards, performing with the band at Glastonbury that year, and has remained there ever since. He's now the longest-serving drummer with The Cure.

   

4. Roger O'Donnell: May 1987 to 1990; 1995 to May 2005; May 2011 to present

   Formerly a touring keyboard player with the Thompson Twins, Berlin and the Psychedelic Furs, O'Donnell was enlisted by The Cure in May 1987 to play some of the more complicated parts from the Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me LP. He became an official part of the line-up and had a key role in the making of the classic album Disintegration (1989). The lengthy Prayer Tour that year led to personal friction between band members, and Roger left The Cure in early 1990 after the release of the single Pictures Of You.

   

   He was brought back on board in 1995 when Smith needed to rebuild The Cure and played on the albums Wild Mood Swings (1996), Bloodflowers (2000) and The Cure (2004). Along with long-term member Perry Bamonte, he was dropped from The Cure's line-up for unspecified reasons, but O'Donnell rejoined the band for their historic Reflections shows in 2011, saw their first three albums performed in full.

   O'Donnell took a leave of absence for the band's Latin American shows in November and December 2023, while receiving treatment for a "rare and aggressive" form of blood cancer.

5. Reeves Gabrels: May 2012 to present

   Gabrels came to the attention of the world in 1989, when he was enlisted as a member of David Bowie's controversial rock project Tin Machine. When Robert Smith appeared as a guest musician at David Bowie's 50th birthday in New York in January 1997, the two guitarists met and hit it off, leading to Gabrels appearing on a one-off Cure single later that year, Wrong Number.

   Reeves later became a full-time touring member of The Cure in May 2012, playing at the band's Reading & Leeds headline shows. It's expected that Gabrels is a member of the line-up that has recorded The Cure's new album Songs Of A Lost World.

   

6. Perry Bamonte: June 1990 to May 2005; October 2022 to present

   Bamonte had been Robert Smith's guitar tech since 1984 and was promoted to a full time member in June of 1990, filling in on keyboard duties after being taught by Robert Smith's sister Janet! Perry (who earned the band nickname "Teddy") appeared on the albums Wish, Wild Mood Swings, Bloodflowers and The Cure, but was dismissed from the band in May 2005, alongside Roger O'Donnell.

   To the delight of fans, Bamonte appeared unannounced with the band on their Shows Of A Lost World tour, which kicked off in October 2022. It's not yet known whether he appears on the accompanying album Songs Of A Lost World.

   

Who are the former members of The Cure?

1. Lol Tolhurst: May 1978 to January 1989

   One of the founding members of the band, Tolhurst and Smith's families were friends and the pair met at school in the early 1970s. Lol was the drummer with the pre-Cure incarnations of the band and became part of the first "official" line-up with Smith and Michael Dempsey. When The Cure ground to a halt in the summer of 1982, Tolhurst switched to keyboards, which remained his role until he was sacked by Smith in January of 1989.

   The musician admits in his autobiography Cured that his alcoholism had affected his performance within the band, and despite launching a court case against Smith and Fiction Records for unpaid royalties in 1994, he was welcomed back into the fold in 2011 for a series of guest appearances at the band's "Reflections" shows.

   

2. Michael Dempsey: May 1978 to October 1979

   One of the core members of the original Cure with Smith and Tolhurst, Dempsey appeared on the band's debut album Three Imaginary Boys, plus their first three singles: Killing An Arab, Boys Don't Cry and Jumping Someone Else's Train, even offering vocals on their cover of Jimi Hendrix's Foxy Lady. The inevitable musical differences led to a parting of the ways in 1979, just as the band began working on their second album Seventeen Seconds. Dempsey went on to join The Associates and appears in the video for Boys Don't Cry made in 1986 (although only in silhouette).

   

3. Matthieu Hartley: November 1979 to August 1980

   After Michael Dempsey moved on from bass to be replaced by Simon Gallup, The Cure also enlisted former Mag/Spys keyboardist Hartley to add some textures to the new material. He appeared on the Seventeen Seconds album, but after a gruelling tour of Australia and New Zealand, Hartley quit the band in August 1980 over personal and musical differences. He remained on good terms with the group, however.

   

   The Cure - Play For Today (HD Remastered)

4. Andy Anderson: March 1983 to October 1984

   With The Cure down to the core members of Robert Smith and Lol Tolhurst in the summer of 1982, and with Tolhurst moving to keyboards, some new members were required to fulfill an appeareance on BBC-2's Oxford Road Show. Anderson was kept on for subsequent live shows through the summer of 1983 and into 1984, and appeared on the Cure album The Top. After an altercation with his bandmates in Tokyo, he was asked to leave the band. Anderson died in February 2019, aged 68.

   

5. Phil Thornalley: July 1983 to November 1984

   Thornalley is a musician and songwriter in his own right - his best-known song is Natalie Imbruglia's Torn - but made his name in the early 1980s as a young producer. He first came into The Cure's orbit when the band were looking for a new face to helm the sessions for their fourth album Pornography. When Robert Smith was looking for a bassist to play The Cure's headline set at the Elephant Fayre festival in July 1983, the frontman called Thornalley.

   

   The Cure - The Lovecats

   Phil first appeared with The Cure for one of their Top Of The Pops appearances with the chart hit The Walk and then played his first real show with the band in Bournemouth a week later. Thornalley performed the distinctive double-bass part on the single The Love Cats, but he didn't appear on the subsequent album The Top, as he was producing Seven & The Ragged Tiger for Duran Duran and The Thompson Twins' Into The Gap. Thornalley returned to The Cure for the high profile Top tour in Spring of 1984, and his last show with The Cure was in New York on 17th November.

   Phil Thornalley later produced 80s pop band Johnny Hates Jazz, taking over vocals in 1988, while still working as a producer and writer with the likes of Melanie C and Bryan Adams, while releasing his own music under the name Astral Drive.

6. 

   Porl Thompson: December 1976 to April 1978; April 1984 to December 1992; July 2005 to April 2009

   Thompson was part of the original line-up of Malice in December 1976 and was "eased" out of the band in April 1978 when the other members of Easy Cure felt that his wild guitar solos weren't part of the stripped-down post-punk sound they were looking for. He didn't lose contact with the group, however; he was in a relationship with Robert Smith's sister Janet and, together with collaborator Andy Vella, the pair's Parched Art company designed Cure artwork from 1981's Primary single onwards.

   When The Cure regrouped in the summer of 1983 as a studio project, Thompson appeared on Top Of The Pops with the band when the single The Walk raced up the charts. Porl played saxophone on the album The Top and rejoined The Cure's touring line-up in 1984. Thompson was part of The Cure's commercial peak between The Head n The Door (1985) and Wish (1992), parting ways with the band at the end of the mammoth tour in support of the latter album in December 1992. He subsequently toured with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.

   When Perry Bamonte and Roger O'Donnell left The Cure in the summer of 2005, Thompson slipped back into the line-up and appeared on the band's last album for 16 years, 4:13 Dream. Thompson left the group in April 2009 and effectively left music, legally changing his name to Pearl to signify a full time career as a visual artist.

7. Boris Williams: October 1984 to June 1993

   Former Thomspn Twins drummer Boris was parachuted in to fill in during the final stages of the Top tour in late 1984, but he quickly became a key part of The Cure during their "imperial phase", appearing on the albums The Head On The Door (1985), Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me (1987), Disintegration (1989) and Wish (1992). His last official appearance was at the XFM benefit show at London's Finsbury Park on 13th June 1993, but Boris popped back for a promo acoustic show in Paris in November 2001.

   

Also stepping in as touring or temporary members of The Cure were...

• Steve Severin: usually a member of Siouxsie & The Banshees, the musician played bass with the band on a TV appearance for BBC-2's Riverside in February 1983. The performance also featured Gini Ball and Anne Stephenson on strings.
• Derek Thompson: the former SPK man played bass with the band on a TV appearance for BBC-2's Oxford Road Show in March 1983

The Cure - One Hundred Years / The Figurehead (Oxford Road Show 1983)

• Norman Fisher-Jones: played bass with the band for a single show in Germany on 30th January 1984; a TV appearance for BBC-2's Oxford Road Show in February 1984, along with a BBC Radio session for David Jensen.
• Vince Ely: former Psychedelic Furs drummer who filled in after Andy Anderson was asked to leave the band in October 1984. After a show in Chicago in November 1984, Ely was permanently replaced by Boris Williams.
• Roberto Soave: after Simon Gallup fell ill with pleurisy during the mammoth Wish tour in November 1992, Soave filled in for twelve shows. Soave had been a member of Lol Tolhurst's post-Cure band Presence and appeared on their debut album Inside, earlier that year.
• Eden Gallup: Simon Gallup's son and bass tech filled in for his dad when the musician couldn't appear at the Fuji Rock Festival in July 2019 because of a "serious personal situation" and Austin City Limits in October the same year.
• Mike Lord: The Cure's keyboard tech deputised for Roger O'Donnell at their Latin American shows in November and December 2023.