I became a Cure fan back in high school, right about the
time the band recorded a rerelease video for their song “Boys Don’t Cry” to
promote their Standing on a Beach (1986) hits collection. By my sophomore year
of high school (1987) I was ratting my hair up and wearing button down shirts
with cardigan sweaters and had built a shrine to The Cure in my bedroom out of
posters, magazine clippings, and t-shirts, which was so impressive that people
from different schools in the area would come to look at it. (It was a little weird.)
Anyway, flash forward to me being an old man, (I no longer rat my hair), who is
still a massive fan of the band, as is my wife. My older daughter, on one of
her shopping flings to Portland, Oregon, spots a new memoir by one of the
founding members of The Cure, and she buys it for us. (Thanks Frankie!!!) Cured
– The Tale of Two Imaginary Boys.
Lol Tolhurst – Cured (2016)
Cracking into a book like this, a candid look at a band that
I’ve idolized and loved for three decades, can be a fearful experience. I’ve
read autobiographies before that actually diminished the authors some in my
eyes, but this book doesn’t take any luster away from my heroes. There are a
ton of anecdotes from the history of The Cure in this book: formative moments,
family history, run-ins with the law, riots at concerts, crossovers with
performers from other bands---the types of things one would expect (and enjoy)
in a band member’s autobiography, but what this book is REALLY about is
Tolhurst’s personal journey from childhood to Cure-hood and beyond. It’s a
somewhat tragic story, but with a solid redemptive ending, which, in the face
of all the bullshit going on in the world right now, was nice to read.
Tolhurst’s writing style is conversational, and he knows how
to tell a story. He includes an impressive amount of detail, while sticking to
the backbone of his tale, which is, ultimately, his battle with alcoholism. You
could say that this was a “typical” alcoholics’ tale, the fun leads to despair
and such, except for the fact that Tolhurst was a founding member of one of the
most important rock and roll bands of the last forty years, and his story is
inextricably intertwined with the story of the band.
For most people, Robert Smith IS The Cure, but as Tolhurst
points out in this memoir, The Cure is not a solo project, and the evolution of
the band has always been a product of Smith's collaborations.
From the original formation of the band all the way to their status as world
class superstars, Tolhurst was the OTHER original collaborator, a link that
connected Smith and the band back to their roots in a small town, south of
London, called Crawley. Without Tolhurst, there might not have been a Cure, and
even if there were, it wouldn’t have evolved the way that it did. (The
underappreciated album, The Top, was JUST Smith and Tolhurst when they started
doing the demos, and it marks some of their best work and most original songs: “Let’s
Go to Bed,” “The Walk,” “The Caterpillar,” “Upstairs Room,” “Shake Dog Shake,”
and “Give Me It” are all brilliant and come from that album.)
What Tolhurst also does well, besides tell a good story, is
point out the humanity behind the superstars. A lot of people forget that the
PERFORMERS we see in music videos or in concert or even appearing on television
shows (like South Park, remember?) are personas. Beyond the concert footage,
beyond the albums and the photo shoots, the people in a music group are HUMANS,
with lives and worries and personalities (that sometimes conflict), and that
working together and touring together for months or years at a time can be
extremely difficult. Some people seem to be born to it. Robert Smith, who is
the only full-time member of The Cure who has continuously toured and performed
with the band since 1976---and continues to even as I write this---seems to be born
to the life, but he’s a rarity. For Tolhurst, the strain and the emotional toll
required…lubrication. He turned to alcohol and drugs to help get through the incredible
stresses of life in a high-profile band, but the “self-medication” got out of
control. It’s a familiar story, sure, but the backdrop for his narrative (life
with The Cure) is fascinating.
The book is good. Well written, interesting details, with a
quirky tone. There are a ton of Cure anecdotes in here that any fan will enjoy,
and there is a solid redemption narrative for people looking for a bit of a
pick-me-up in our dark and dreary times. The story does dip several times into
the “sentimental” pool, which I usually don’t care for, but if we think of it
in Tolhurst’s terms, it’s the only way this book could have been written. He
lost family members, he lost friends, he (very sadly) lost a daughter, lost his
association with the band (and the only identity that he’d ever really known
because they had been The Cure since they were teenagers!), and he almost lost
his own life on several occasions. There’s no way to tell this story without getting
a little emotional, so I’ll forgive him. And yes, Robert Smith comes through it
all like a hero, and I still love The Cure!
---Richard F. Yates
(Primitive Thoughtician and Grand Hoohaa of The P.E.W.)
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