Entretiens avec The Cure

Word Smith
Whether his band likes it or not, the Cure's Robert Smith is still a perfectionist.

By Gelu Sulugiuc 10.03.07

AT 48 YEARS OLD, the Cure's Robert Smith says he's not too old to be wearing eyeliner and lipstick and play three-hour gigs all over the world. "My makeup is pretty '80s, isn't it?" he says with a chuckle. "My appearance is preposterous anyway, so it doesn't matter how old I am. It puzzles me why such a big deal is made about it. It's part of the ritual of going onstage and performing. It doesn't come that naturally to me even though I've done it for years."

Drinking heavily before performing also used to be part of Smith's ritual, but he cut down considerably in recent years.

"I always knew when we were playing stadiums that I was too drunk to be good, but it didn't seem to matter that much to people," he says. "I am keenly aware of how old I am, and I've always maintained that there's something reasonably charming about seeing a 17-year-old fall over after one beer too many and very far from charming seeing a 47-year-old keel over after one beer too many."

When guitarist Perry Bamonte and keyboardist Roger O'Donnell left the Cure in 2005, perhaps the biggest surprise was that they lasted that long. It had been 10 years since the last lineup change in a band notorious for a volatility its leader admits may spring from his own unwillingness to compromise.

"I'm always the driving force of the band, and if everyone's happy with what I want to do it's a happy band, if they're not it's not," says Smith, the Cure's singer, guitarist and main creative force. "I find it ridiculous to do something I don't want to do, so it leaves everyone only one option, to leave. It's very hard to leave a successful group. Sometimes it takes a little cajoling and a little nod to make people realize they're not happy in what they're doing and holding everyone else back."

With founding member and brother-in-law Porl Thompson back on guitars after 13 years, Smith set out to make the Cure's 14th studio album. "Porl's brought back a sense of urgency, we've got a rock edge again," says Smith. "There's no need (for keyboards) when you've got someone like Porl playing guitar. He can pretty much create any sounds you want."

The problem now is that Smith himself is not happy with what he's doing. He wrote 33 new songs, aiming toward a record in the vein of his 1987 masterpiece Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, which melded radically different styles and moods. But he is constantly trying to improve the songs, postponing the album's release twice so far. Still without a title, it is now tentatively scheduled for April or May next year.

"As usual, I'm holding it up because I can't get the words how I want them," Smith says. "I find myself stopping short and thinking I've done this before better, so it's hard to find subject matter that really matters to me, things that I really want to sing. I just don't want to make a record because we're in a group. That flies in the face of what I've always wanted the Cure to be. It frustrates the others a lot I think, but there's not much anyone can do about it. The last four Cure albums have really stalled on my lyric writing. I think it's worthwhile because they end up better than they otherwise would have been. I never worry about writer's block, I figure if I don't have anything to write about I shouldn't be writing."

To finish the double album, the Cure canceled almost all dates on its U.S. tour this fall—one of the few exceptions being its Bay Area Download Festival appearance. The other shows have been rescheduled for May and June of next year.

By then, the new album should be on store shelves. Smith is producing it himself, recording the band with minimal overdubs in an attempt to capture the vibrancy and brink-of-disaster excitement of a demo tape. "It kind of teeters on the edge; everyone's concentrating and trying hard to get it right," he says. The band members spent one day per song, playing until they got the right take. Then Smith wrote words to fit the recording, an approach he hadn't used since Pornography in 1982.

"It has more color, more style," he says. "There are no overdubs. Some songs have what one might call mistakes in them, but they sound great and that pushed me to this idea of not trying to refine everything all the time. It's incredibly varied at the moment. Everyone has contributed so there are some very different styles. I like the idea of it being more in the style of the Kiss Me album with different things happening. But the art of that is to get it to all hang together, which is quite difficult as well."

Smith credits his friends and fans with keeping him from his retirement dream of growing a beard and writing film soundtracks. But as his ambition pushes him to constantly refine his new album and improve his live show, he finds himself thinking about his legacy.

"I'm genuinely surprised at the people's reaction when we play shows, it's hard to ignore it," he says. "It's gratifying to know that people still want the Cure to exist. The best thing about playing live is that we're an old band playing to a young audience. As long as I still enjoy it I should keep doing it. I find it slightly upsetting to see seriously old people performing contemporary music. I haven't quite reached that stage, but I'm aware that time is moving on. Once I won't be able to sing for three hours and also mentally wanting to do it, that's when I'll stop. I don't want the Cure to fizzle out doing 45-minute shows of greatest hits. It would be an awful way to end the legacy of the Cure."

THE CURE performs on Saturday (Oct. 6) at the DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL, also featuring A.F.I., KINGS OF LEON, BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB, SHE WANTS REVENGE, METRIC, THE BLACK ANGEL, 65 DAYS OF STATIC, VAU DE VIRE SOCIETY and more, at 2pm at Shoreline Amphitheatre, 1 Amphitheatre Pkwy., Mountain View. Tickets are $29.50–$75. (408.998.TIXS)

A rare appearance by the Cure
RECONFIGURED ENGLISH BAND PLAYS THE DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL

By Shay Quillen
Mercury News
Article Launched: 10/04/2007 01:38:29 AM PDT

Over three decades and 12 studio albums, through buoyant alt-rock hits and some of the gloomiest music ever put to tape, there has been one constant in the Cure: singer, lyricist and goth icon Robert Smith.

"If I want to do something and someone in the band doesn't want to do it - if they absolutely will not do it - then they leave the band," Smith says matter-of-factly. "It's not harsh. It's just that I can't compromise in certain areas, and I don't see the point."

The Cure will make its only U.S. appearance of the season Saturday, headlining the Download Festival at Shoreline Amphitheatre. But it won't be the same lineup fans have seen over the past decade. Since the band's last visit to the Bay Area in 2004, Smith has fired two members and brought back guitarist Porl Thompson - also Smith's brother-in-law - for his third stint in the band.

"If I want to do something one way and someone wants to do it another way, their way is just as valid," says Smith, whose unkempt hair and red-white-and-black visage have become as iconic for Generation Xers as Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp was for the Lost Generation. "But my way is the way that I want to do it."

Despite his gloomy reputation, Smith is upbeat, down-to-earth and quick to laugh as he calls from the South Coast of England, where the band is in the studio finishing up an ambitious double album. So ambitious, in fact, that a North American tour slated to start Sept. 13 had to be pushed back to
the spring so the band could finish it.

Smith pledges that the band will put the as-yet-untitled album to bed by the end of the year. At the record company's insistence, it will also be available as a truncated one-disc version.

"I could keep doing it till next Christmas, because it's fun to do, so I'm imposing this deadline," Smith says, adding, "the others are also getting a little bit tetchy."

Smith credits the band's creative burst to the return of Thompson, who performed on such Cure classics as "Just Like Heaven," "Lovesong" and "Friday I'm in Love" before leaving after the band's most popular album, 1993's "Wish." The current lineup also includes longtime bassist Simon Gallup and 12-year veteran Jason Cooper on drums.

"I think with Porl coming back, and the dynamic changing in the group, the whole mood in the studio was so different," Smith says. "I couldn't remember the last time I'd felt so happy in the studio. I wanted to go in each day, and I couldn't wait to start. I think it was the same for everyone."

Smith says the album contains both "weird, upbeat songs" and "very sad songs."

"We're all at an age where people are dying around us, basically," says Smith, 48. Given that fact, "there's a somber kind of feel to some of the songs. But there's also a great deal of madness going on, because Porl coming back into the group has really had an effect on the three of us."

Smith, who sang the line "It doesn't matter if we all die" on the band's pitch-black 1982 LP "Pornography," says he believes depressing music can serve an important purpose.

"When I was in my teens, if I listened to Nick Drake, for example, I felt soothed," he says. "When I first heard Joy Division, when I first heard Ian Curtis sing, it touched me in a way that I felt connected."

And Smith doesn't see angst as a purely teenage phenomenon.

"I don't believe that anyone ever really gets beyond angst, unless of course you find Jesus or your own personal god - in which case, of course, life's a blast," he says. "But if you don't, there's always that kind of nagging feeling that tends to undermine everything one does.

"I think a lot of depression comes from that, that kind of feeling of alienation, that feeling of being alone. Occasionally Cure songs stray into that territory, because I still have those feelings from time to time - obviously not all the time, and thankfully a lot less often than I used to. But I've never worried about it. At the same time I can get on stage and sing 'Lovecats,' " he says, referring to the band's jaunty U.K. hit single from 1983.

Smith has talked about breaking up the band for a quarter-century now, and he still says he'll pull the plug when the time is right.

"Every time we do anything as a band, whoever is in the band, I always say it's my mantra that you should treat this as if it's the last time you'll ever do it, because one day it will be," Smith says. "It sounds kind of hippie-ish and trite," he says with a small laugh, "but it's genuine."

Download Festival

With the Cure, AFI, Kings of Leon, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, She Wants Revenge, Metric, the Black Angels, 65 Days of Static and Vau de Vire Society

Where: Shoreline Amphitheatre, One Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View

When: 3 p.m. Saturday

Tickets: $29.50-$75 (lawn four-packs available for $89)

By Warren Fiveash

Published Date: 14 February 2008
Location: Crawley


MEMBERS of The Cure are known for being secretive sorts – but we
managed to track down founding member Lol Tolhurst in his LA home.
The former Horley man spilled the beans on his friendship with enigmatic frontman Robert Smith and what it was like being part of one of the most influential bands of the last 25 years.

The keyboardist and drummer, who is now part of an act with his wife, Cindy Levinson, called Levinhurst, explained how the group formed in Crawley.

He said: "Me and Robert actually met on the first day of school at St Francis when we were five-years-old.

"We were influenced by people like Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd then
later on it all came to fruition with the new punk movement.

"The Clash playing at the old Leisure Centre was one of the defining moments of my youth.

"After seeing them I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life."
And Lol said he still chews the fat with lead singer and pal Robert
Smith.

He said: "Me and Robert had a falling out in the early 90s but it's since been resolved.

"A few years back Robert was in Los Angeles and we met and talked all
night and put to rest the old demons as it were."

But as Lol pointed out, Robert wasn't always the lead singer.
Martin Creasy, who used to work at the Crawley Observer, originally sang for the band.

Lol was originally drummer, before moving on to the keyboards, something
which he admits was a natural progression.

The Cure started out by playing gigs at The Rocket, now known as The Railway, in Brighton Road, as well as pubs in Redhill and Horley.

Last year The Railway celebrated the anniversary of The Cure's first gig
proper in 1977.

He said: "I grew up in Horley, but went to school in Crawley as my mother wanted me to go to a Catholic school.

"We first played the Rocket pub in Crawley by the railway station.

"We used to hang out at The Apple Tree on Sunday lunch times too.
"Occasionally the blues guys would let us play a song or two."

In 1976, when the band started gigging, they were writing about a postwar New Town that had gone through dramatic changes since the
end of the war.

Lol added: "Looking back on the times it was apparent we were influenced
greatly by our surroundings in the same way bands like The Clash were influenced by theirs.

"We even had a song on our first album 'Three Imaginary Boys' that was
directly inspired by the railway underpass in Horley called 'Subway Song'.

"All the eccentric characters we grew up around influenced us greatly too.

"Remember, although it was the 70s, Crawley and surrounding areas were
still undergoing a lot of changes since World War Two and we were part of that too, I feel."

In recent years there have been more bands playing locally in the area but, because of the competition in London and Brighton, many have
found it difficult to break into the mainstream.

But Lol said: "We are living proof you can succeed.
"I still have some friends in Crawley and I know there is a radio station (Martletts Radio) that supports local bands so there is a way to start a band I'm sure.

"To a certain extent we were lucky to be in the
right place at the right time you know, but we also worked
very hard to get somewhere.

"Before we went full time with the band I remember I had a job in Manor
Royal and we would be playing gigs in Wales, driving half the night to get back at 4am to go to work at 7 am.

"We also had a commitment to our belief in what we were doing.
"We spent three years at Robert's parents' house practicing three times a week before we recorded our first album."

Lol has not been back to the UK since he left for LA in 1996, but says he could be on his way back to the country with his band Levinhurst.

He added: "I've been away too long. I want my son (who is now 16) to see
where his father grew up and meet his uncle who still lives in Crawley.

"I think visiting the area will help him make sense of some of the things I say to him as well.

"I would love to tour Britain and hope some far-sighted promoter reading this gets in contact to help make it happen."

? For more information about Lol and his band Levinhurst visit www.myspace.com/levinhurst.

The full article contains 786 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
Last Updated: 15 February 2008 2:57 PM

ARTE - Eye On Berlinale


http://www.arte.tv/popup_berlinale_2008/video-44-233.html#

YouTube Simon Porl & Jason interview (Berlin '08 )



Interview de Simon Porl et Jason

à propos du nouvel album !!!! (de 4min20 à 8min10)

Xfm recently hosted a conversation between Robert Smith and David Bowie. The result is one and a half hours of discussion of life, art, and music. Mary Anne Hobbs will be broadcasting selections throughout the month. Here is a little taster...

Smith: I have never felt the desire to live outside England. Mainly because of family, really...

Bowie: I am at exactly the opposite pole to you on all counts. I mean, I haven't lived in England since 1974. That's the last time I've lived here and I just haven't had family that way. I have had my son but it has very much been the single parent situation and his life and now I have just started my family is really sort of beginning, including my son of course and Iman's daughter - I am suddenly a family of 4 from nothing and it is really strange. So for me, in a way, it is a new beginning and I think, because of that, there is almost some kind of domestic need for me to come back to England and find roots again. I am enthraled by the atmosphere over here again. The last 2 or 3 years I found coming back to London really exciting very time I have come back.

Smith: That's the difference. I lived in London for about six years because I don't come from London, I come from down in Sussex and I moved up here because I just got fed up with sleeping on people's floors basically. So I bought a flat and I liked it for the period I was here which was through the mid to end of the 80s but I hate coming back to London, I really do.

Bowie: But is that just a sense of boredom? Over familiarity?

Smith: I think there is a difference between London and England. Like, where I come from is almost too English - the Sussex coast - but it is good in the way that I travel round England. We stay in England. Obviously we go abroad as a group and we play and stuff, but everyone lives in England and everyone moves around England. We all live in different parts and we visit each other so you kind of get to see more of England that I think of as England rather than just London because London has become ... Actually, travelling up here through London to get here today I had forgotten how awful it is. The suburbs of London are, like, incredible

Bowie: Tell me about it, because that's where I grew up and the suburbs of London are...

Smith: And I was listening to 'The Buddah of Suburbia' - Good Grief! this is all too much for me!

Bowie: Its the greyness of it all, I mean it was a man-made Orwellian society ready cast in stone. I think all my generation just wanted to escape.

Smith: Its the look in people's eyes. It is just so different. You just hit the suburbs of London and everyone looks terrified...

Bowie: Yeah

Smith: Its really weird. You drive up through Sussex and people are chatting at traffic lights and people actually stop when the orange light is flashing.

Bowie: But does that rural affability quickly turn to vehemence were you to do something that interferes with the actual neighbourhood?

Smith: I am not accepted at all but I don't mind that. See, that is the plus side for me. In London it would be easier for me to go out and socialise whereas where I am I retain a sort of anonymity and a distance - not that anyone is really that bothered. I might get Italians on the beach with binoculars but the locals really haven't taken me to their heart. I would be horrified if they had.

Bowie: Firstly, do you write for an audience ever in your mind or are you writing to satisfy your own need - because I will go somewhere else with that but I just want to clarify that first?

Smith: Crumbs.. I think that at a point which - I will think about it while I am talking - I probably seriously redefined who I was writing to which leads on to yes, I did at some point accept that I was writing with other people in mind. I don't think early on... I don't think one ever believes that one is ever going to be heard by enough people for it to really matter.

Attention all Cure fans: Better find some wood to knock on. For their 13th studio album (and first in four years) the U.K. miserablists are basically telling bad luck to suck it—prepping two discs comprising 13 tracks each, with “13” imagery running throughout. “I have never been superstitious,” singer Robert Smith says. “Full moons are my favorite.” The godfathers of gloom have been recording the album since last summer, when they decamped to an old converted farmhouse—Smith calls it “lived-in”—in the English countryside. “There’s a garden outside, and stables,” he says. “It’s quite genteel.” It’s also just a few miles from the icy waters of the English Channel. Has Smith applied his waterproof guyliner and gone for a dip? “I’ve looked at it,” he says, chuckling. “I’m not much of a swimmer. Only after a few beers.”

Although the album features its fair share of despair (Smith calls “Christmas Without You,” about the death of a close friend, “one of the most unhappy things we’ve ever recorded”), he says it is, on the whole, “more upbeat.” The fastest songs are “manic psycho rock,” and “Don’t Say Anything” stars a colorful cast of aliens and freaks.

“It’s been a fun couple of months,” Smith says. “Certainly the most fun I’ve ever had in a studio.” Might the black-clad master of melancholy actually be approaching (gasp) happiness? He laughs. “I’ll be happy when it’s done.”


All About Our Album
Producer: Robert Smith
Studio: Parkgate Studio, Battle, England
Last Album: The Cure, 2004
New Album: As yet untitled, due this spring

J'ai lu ça et je ne suis pas étonnée par le comportement de Robert pour avoir passé un peu de temps avec lui. Il est adorable et très attentif envers ses fans. Je ne suis pas sûre qu'il y ai beaucoup de leader de groupes célèbres aussi accessible que lui !

waouwww ~ çà, çà me déchirerait pour qqes temps je crois

comme bcp je crois: on y pense parfois mais le mieux est le hasard
De là à faire le guet pdt des heures, non.


Mais l'histoire de ce Bill et Mauro est géniale !! Quelle surprise !

Même si, effectivement, prendre l'avion d'une date à l'autre devait forcément augmenter les chances de les rencontrer.


Chapeau pour avoir su garder un minimum de sang froid -- je ne sais pas du tout comment je réagirais mais rester zen est le mieux, comme ils ont fait.

excellent !! et bien raconté en plus

je ne l'ai jamais rencontré en vrai, mais d'après ce qu'on a pu m'en dire, ça ne m'étonne pas de robert ce genre de choses...

ouais il est tres timide (Robert)..un mec comme nous en fait..et c'est pour ca que je l'aime bien...c'est un mec qui se regale de jouer avec ses potes sur scene.....et c'est pour ca que ca marche..il est pas la pour faire de la branlette sur scene, il se fait plaisir avant tout....
J'ai aussi lu l'histoire de Bill..super!!!!! Mais qui c'est ce Michael..??? C'est le BodyGuard?

Et oui Bill le roi de la classe !

columbojeff a écrit:

ouais il est tres timide (Robert)..un mec comme nous en fait..et c'est pour ca que je l'aime bien...c'est un mec qui se regale de jouer avec ses potes sur scene.....et c'est pour ca que ca marche..il est pas la pour faire de la branlette sur scene, il se fait plaisir avant tout....
J'ai aussi lu l'histoire de Bill..super!!!!! Mais qui c'est ce Michael..??? C'est le BodyGuard?

Oui c'est le bodygard qui est très sympa aussi d'ailleurs.

TIM POPE at Wembley !!!!

tim pope's snews:
snews or is it a snews?

"As if this week wasn’t already busy enough, while I was in Rome I got an e-mail from Robert Smith for The Cure’s Wembley show, saying he’d put me down for three tickets. I had to go, despite being knackered. The show was bloody excellent. The keyboards were gone and a lot of stuff was played by Porl on guitar, which gave the songs a whole new feel. It was as if they were written only the day before and had lost that Eighties twang (for which we all get accused). Call me an ‘anorak’ but I counted amongst their excellent set 18 videos on the old Pope walking stick. 18 videos is more videos than most people have probably done these days. Anyway, I shall be meeting up with Bob socially, or for a curry, in the next week or so, at a secret location in the UK. They’ve just recorded a whole new album, which after the show I am very keen to hear… Should be an interesting meeting!"


http://www.timpope.tv/index.php?page=63



The Freak Show in Never Enough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri8fQ-7eVAY

Oh dear...
March 31, 2008 10:00AM

Oh dear - well, all hell seems to have been let loose by my last delirium-fueled posting on this website! I am told by the person running the site that we have received literally hundreds of emails, after I mentioned going to see The Cure play live at Wembley. Though I think the main interest came from me also mentioning that I may be going to see Robert. I am going to see him and although these events tend to be fairly sporadic, they are always fun and it's nice to catch up. There is FYI talk of a project, but I shall let him announce this at a time that he sees fit, rather than me doing so. It will be a very interesting project. Though it may not involve videos. Hmmm. Is this going to make the debate even more ferocious? Or will it assuage the rumours? We shall see! Just so you know - and, God, there seem to be a few of you interested - my meeting with Robert is delayed for the moment, as he is working hard and so I am I with Neil Young and Gianna Nannini. I am off to Prague this Friday and then plan to go to either San Fran or Hawaii to work with Neil, but rest assured as soon as there is any "proper news" you wil be the first to know...


http://www.timpope.tv/snews.html

Rencontre avec LOL


Description très intéressante d'une rencontre récente d'un fan avec Lol

http://www.beachofstone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1322


My conversation with Lol Tolhurst

I've mentioned several times that I talked with Lol after a Levinhurst show back in August, but haven't yet went into detail. Well, I'm finally going to list what we talked about, to the best of my recollection. It's going to be a little disjointed and out of order, so bear with me.

Lol said that he hasn't had an alcoholic beverage since 1989. Just to note, the strongest thing he had at the show was an energy drink.

The most important things in his life now are his son, his wife Cindy, and his music.

He said that he and Robert have discussed remixing Levinhurst and Cure tracks, but that Robert told him not to e-mail anything. The reason is because Robert refuses to upgrade from dial-up service, so the files would take really long for him to download, which means that Lol has to physically mail things to him. Lol, on the other hand, has high speed service, and thinks that Robert should upgrade.

Lol's previous band, Presence, was created in reaction to him being asked to leave The Cure, because he really wasn't sure what to do afterward. His music with them wasn't as personal as his music with Levinhurst. He's much more satisfied with the music that he and Cindy have written.

Lol was disappointed when Robert handed the website over to the record company, and thought that he should have let fans manage it instead, like the Levinhurst site. He went on to provide the people of Chain of Flowers as a specific example.

Lol was confused as to why Robert was releasing remastered versions of the albums at this time, because the US rights for the early albums were going to revert over to the band within about half a decade or so. According to him, every time a band's albums are re-released, the time before the rights in the US revert over to them starts all over again. He cracked that he wondered if he'd still be alive when the US rights finally revert over to the band.

When I asked him about 'The Easy Cure', which is, as all of you probably know, where The Cure got their name from, he said that the song was basically a bunch of songs combined together, and that he may have a copy buried in a box somewhere in his house.

I mentioned a review of an early Levinhurst show that Andy Anderson was supposed to join him for, but couldn't because he was delayed by visa problems. The writer quipped that Lol spent most of the night "playing "other instruments"". When I asked him what he felt about comments like that, he said that they don't bother him.

At some point, I said to Lol something along the lines of, "I'm curious about something. You know how how a lot of things are just myth and never really happened? I was wondering, is it true...," at which point he smiled as he cut me off and said, "You talking about Billy Idol, right?" I said yes, and he said, "It's true", then went on to describe the scene as we know it, and then he told me that there's something that most people don't know, which is that there was a part two. The Cure met Billy Idol again in 1984. When Billy saw Lol, he said, "You look familiar. Have we met before?". Lol lied and told him, "No".

I'm sure there's more to that part of the conversation, but that's all I can remember at the moment.

Anyway, Lol had to go to the tour bus. I was following him out, but had to go back for a few things. When I came back out, he'd already gotten on the bus. I wondered for a few moments if I should knock, and decided that I should take the chance, so I did. He answered, and apologized, then said, "I was going to come back out." Then he invited me on the bus, where his wife offered me donuts and fruit juice, which I politely declined, but I accepted a bottle of spring water.

Lol was pretty silent for most of the time, as he seemed to just want to unwind, but when I asked what he thought of the new Cure album, he said basically that he didn't have an opinion. His wife on the other hand, wasn't impressed.

While I was talking with his wife, who is a very nice person, we got into a discussion about books. I can't quite remember anything about that part, except that it turns out that Lol had read one of the same books as I had, a science fiction novel titled 'Beggars in Spain', by Nancy Kress.

I got the impression that Cindy doesn't think much of Robert, because she asked me if I was familiar with Siouxsie's "Fat Bob" comments. She also feels that Lol has aged much better than Robert, and was disappointed that Lol wasn't invited to the Rock Walk of Fame ceremony. She said that Lol should be present when The Cure are inducted into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame (we all know that it's just a matter of time ).

Cindy and I also discussed movies. We agreed that 'Frida' was a good film, and she also liked or wanted to see (can't remember which) 'Maria, Full of Grace', which was about a teenage drug mule. In turn, I mentioned 'Liquid Sky', which is one of the strangest films that I've ever seen.

At the end, Lol and Cindy were nice enough to ask DJ Dangler, who'd set up the show, to give me a ride to the bus terminal. He took a picture of us infront of their hotel, and then I took a picture of him with them. Dangler and I talked a bit after we reached the terminal, and then I went in to wait for the bus back to Buffalo.

Finally, I'd like to say that Lol is a very humble man who constantly downplayed his role in The Cure during our conversation. He's very soft-spoken, and is just generally a very nice guy. As I've said more than once on this board, he doesn't deserve the slamming that so many Cure fans give him.

That's pretty much it. If I remember any more, I'll post it in this thread.




Dans le 3è post il est également question de la fois où Lol a rencontré Billy Idol et lui a pissé dessus




The Cure were on tour with Billy Idol's band at the time, Generation X. Lol had to use the bathroom, but there were two big guys blocking his way. He really had to go, so he forced his way past. He found Billy Idol in a compromising position with a young woman. Idol basically told Lol to get the ::bleep:: (I'm sure that you get the idea ) out. Lol obliged him, but not before he peed on one of Billy's boots. Billy cursed at him again as he walked out. The Cure were kicked off of the tour not long after that.




I'd been to the Toronto Curiosa Festival show just a few days before that, and would have regretted not being able to go to the Levinhurst show. I got to the Buffalo Bus Terminal just 15 minutes before the bus to Rochester started boarding, and Lol was very flattered by the effort that I'd made to get to the show. Honestly, I hadn't expected more than perhaps being able to get his autograph (which I did, along with his wife and their guitarist), so this was way beyond my expectations.

Lol is the same way on the Levinhurst message board as he was in person. He's genuinely interested in what fans have to say, and does his best to answer every question that he's asked.

Ah, and now I remember a couple more things that we discussed...

Lol doesn't like big record companies, and said that he's going to stay with smaller labels to release Levinhurst's material. He also said that he honestly believes that The Cure won't record anymore after their contract with Warner is fulfilled.

Il me semblait que c'était Robert qui avait pissé sur Billy Idol

Non non, c'était bien Lol, c'est dans Ten Imaginary Years que Robert avait raconté cette anecdote, je crois (à moins que ce ne soit dans La Thérapie de Robert Smith). Y a de toute façon que Lol pour être bourré au point d'en arriver là !

C'est vrai t'as rason Julien et c'est bien dans ten imaginary years que j'avais lu ça.

l'anecdote est aussi racontée dans "never enough"

Charlotte Sometimes and The Cure

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Granny seems to remember promising the story of The Cure and Charlotte Sometimes - the song -a long while back. She is about to start posting more, much heavier stuff, about the care home for people with mental problems. But she thought she'd post this first as light relief. Yet again, though, she'll be writing in the first person.

*****

Years and years ago, in the late sixties, I wrote a book called Charlotte Sometimes, a book set in the kind of English boarding-school my twin sister and I attended/were incarcerated in - take your pick - for part of the fifties. The main character - Charlotte - finds herself switching back and forth between the year 1918 and her own time, taking the place of another girl in 1918, while that same girl takes her place in the 50's. The whole book turned - though I didn't see that when I wrote it - on identity; how do people identify you as you? How could they accept one person as quite another (assuming the two people look reasonably similar to start with as Charlotte and her 1918 equivalent did)? This happens to be a particularly relevant question for twins in general, and still more so for two not identical but similar looking twins like my sister and me, quite different in character and ability - even opposites in many respects, she right-handed, me left - but always taken together not singly. This was another connection I did not make at the time I was writing. The book would probably have worked less well if I had.

But other people made connections; the book struck chords; became my most successful by far. Just how successful I didn't realise till more than twelve or thirteen years later when one of my children came home from school and said 'Did you know, mum, there's a song called 'Charlotte Sometimes'?

No, Mum did not. Nor did her agent, whom she alerted immediately. Neither listened to rock much, neither had heard of the group called The Cure that performed this song. 'Get a copy' ordered the agent, so Granny went out and bought the single. The lyric to the song was on the record sleeve. Not only was it about confused identity, much of it consisted of quotes from the book. The title of the instrumental track on the B side, what's more, was another quote from the book.

Now copyright law at the time was a very crude instrument. 'Moral' and 'intellectual' rights, acknowledging an author's ownership of themes and ideas, as well as the actual text which incorporated them did not exist. The sole criteria for judging whether copyright had been breached was the proportion of a text used. Taking a mere two lines, from a poem, from a song lyric, in any book of mine would have constituted a breach of copyright unless permission was given for it, and, often, a hefty fee paid. On the other hand the amount of text used in a song lyric, even a longish one like this, was such a relatively small part of an entire novel that it would not count as breach of copyright. Nor did an author have any right to a title. Nor do they still. Googling Charlotte Sometimes for this piece I discovered a relatively recent film of the same name, not related to my book in any way. Such a title is unlikely to be pure coincidence. I suppose it's a kind of flattery really- even though I'm sure the inspiration here was the Cure song not my book - perhaps I shouldn't mind; but I do; a bit. I thought up that title first.

The blatant use of the text in the song was another matter; even then, it was, possibly, contentious, despite the limitations of the copyright law. Letters, faxes, were exchanged between my agent and the Cure's management. The Society of Authors took the matter up and went to consult counsel; counsel's advice was that yes there might be a case for breach of copyright in this case, but if the matter went to court they couldn't be sure of the outcome. The Society of Authors, a fairly timid organisation on the one hand, and a fairly poor one on the other, decided to take it no further. As I couldn't afford to follow it up myself, as the company were threatening to delete the song, and it was already clear it was doing wonders for my sales - and adding somewhat to my fan mail - we decided to back down.

So things went on for ten years or more. The extra income from Charlotte was useful; it was less than a pittance compared to what the Cure would have earned on their song, but at least it kept the book in print - it is the only one of my books that has always stayed in print, going through 3 or 4 separate editions. I enjoyed some of the other fallout too; the letters from people I wouldn't normally have expected to hear from; the reports in music journals like New Musical Express about girls deciding they were schizophrenic and renaming themselves 'Charlotte' because of the song - and directly or indirectly - because of my book; the naming of a yacht, 'Charlotte Sometime' - one year it came second in the round-the-Isle-of -Wight race. I ceased to be annoyed, even enjoyed the whole thing. It's good to be remembered for something as a writer, if only for one book. Many other writers disappear altogether but I didn't, entirely.

The Cure themselves went quiet for a while, They issued some new albums from time to time but did not tour. But in 1996 I think it was, I saw that they were going to tour again, starting with a huge gig at Earl's Court just up the road from Hammersmith where I was living. I decided to try and get tickets; to get myself backstage if possible, to meet the Cure themselves; in particular to meet the group's lead singer and song writer, Robert Smith. It wasn't easy getting in touch with them; even when my agent and I managed it between us - discovering in the course of this that The Cure's base was in a building they'd named 'Charlotte House' - the management was deeply suspicious. The law had changed by now, moral ownership was acknowledged, they appeared to suspect I was going after them again. Finally my agent and I convinced them this wasn't so. They agreed: yes, there would be tickets for me at the Box Office. And yes if I came early and went back stage, I would be allowed to meet Robert Smith himself.

And so it was I offered the second promised ticket to my twin sister's daughter, my niece, born a year after the book came out and named, appropriately for the evening, 'Charlotte' (if I so much as hinted that she might have been called after the fictional Charlotte, my sister would rise up out of her grave to clobber me, so I won't). On a June evening - or was it July?- we set off together for Earl's Court for my - if not Charlotte's - very first - and probably last - rock concert.



Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Earl's Court is ENORMOUS. And noisy - or so it seemed to me. But then the only times I'd been there before was for the Royal Tournament - an entertainment now, thankfully, defunct - either as a child or, later, with a wargame-mad son. There were a lot of bangs in that. But rock concerts, I suspected, come much louder.

Charlotte and I had been told to present ourselves an hour before the show was due to start. We picked up our tickets, and were led out of the entrance area and through into a cavernous space, the wide but not very tall screens separating one section from another making it appear still higher, still vaster. It was so much beyond any human scale that the group waiting in the same space as us looked dwarfed, like as yet unconnected cogs in some industrial metropolis. There was nothing to sit on, or lean against. It was dusty, I think. If not it looked it. Various other people came in and out. Someone who seemed to be in charge of the group admonished them from time to time, bossily but cheerfully.

We waited a long time. More people came, more people went. Apart from us, only the group stayed put. We were told that the people were American Cure fans from the mid-west, winners of some competition for which the prize was a trip to London, tickets for the Earl's Court gig and a meeting beforehand with The Cure themselves. All of them were clutching record sleeves, photographs, all of them were looking awed and excited, chattering among themselves in rather frantic American voices

Time went on. It was not until almost time for the sold-out concert to start that the whole of the Cure sloped in between two of the screens; sloped really is the right word, I promise you - slouch might have been near too; but 'slope' is better. Some of them clutched instruments; they had quite a lot of hair between them. They looked pretty much as you'd expect a pop group to look, not that I'd had much experience. The American group converged on them giving little shrieks. Pens came out, record sleeves and pictures were signed, the group smiled in a bored kind of way: clearly this wasn't their favourite aspect of the job. Why should it be?

Even so it took up a lot of time. The time the gig had been advertised to start was well past already.

I'd given up hope of anyone coming near us. Charlotte, shifting from foot to foot, was looking at me and shrugging. I was looking at my watch again, ruefully, and shrugging back. But then quite suddenly, everyone disappeared - the group of fans, the Cure, the watchful functionaries, the security guards, everyone; everyone but Robert Smith that is, who was sloping towards us (yes, 'sloping' once again will do it) hair on end, lipstick smudged, a beer can in one hand, and in the other a very tatty copy of the first paperback edition of Charlotte Sometimes. It was a Puffin book and the picture on the front was of two little girls: the only girly-looking edition of the book ever, and the very last one I would have expected him to be holding.

'Hi,' he said, thrusting it towards me. 'Could you sign it for me, please?'

He opened it up: from the first page onward, line after line had been underlined in pencil. 'You see how inspired I was,' he said, adding behind his hand, looking at me sideways, 'how I nicked it.'

I laughed, I couldn't help it. Then I signed, as requested, with more than the usual flourish. 'To Robert,' I wrote, 'love from Penelope.' And added my whole name to the title page, the way writers do.

Robert Smith apologised for the beer can. 'I have to keep my throat in good shape,' he said. Then he apologised for not being able to play the song in the main part of the concert, 'We've got to publicise the new album, you know. We'll play it as encore,' he said. 'I promise.' Underneath the lipstick, the standing on end hair, the Gothic everything, I can promise you, wombats, that Robert Smith really was just a nice, not to say very nice, very well brought-up boy from Sussex who not only loved his long-term wife but also probably loves -or loved - his mother.

Even eleven years older, he probably still is a very nice boy at heart. Why shouldn't he be?

Then he told me the story of how he'd come across the book in the first place.

'My elder brother used to read to us at bedtime,' he said, 'I was about twelve or so and he was still reading books to us. Your book was one of them, it never got out of my head. Once I got into music I wanted to make a song about it. That's how it happened.'

We didn't mention copyright. I admitted I liked his having written the song, and we agreed it might be nice to be in touch again, in slightly less rushed circumstances. 'Have to go. I'm running late' he said and sloped off, still clutching his beer can, still clutching his tatty copy of Charlotte, now with my signature inside. And 'Love from Penelope.'

I can't quite say the concert was an anti-climax. Unlike some later Cure concerts that year it got lousy reviews in various places; among other things there was a lot of trouble with the sound system. Yet it still seemed amazing to me, from my innocent standpoint, much more noisy even than Royal Tournament, and much more spectacular, lighting-wise, though I wasn't so sure about the music (I gathered afterwards it was far from their best album). I suppose it would have seemed tame to anyone who's ever seen Madonna, which I hadn't and still haven't except on television, briefly. But it didn't seem tame to me. The way the sound, the light, took me over, thrummed through me, physically, was outside anything I'd had experienced before. It was thrilling, as opera can be thrilling, though in an entirely different way. (Still, probably, I prefer opera. Sorry about that.)

The band went out and came back before the encores. And then it happened. A few familiar chords sounded; everyone started cheering. Robert held up a hand - stilled them - 'you all know the song', he said - more cheers, but stifled - 'this evening,' he went on, 'the writer of the original book is here in the hall with us.' The cheers rose again and he didn't stop them this time as the lights swung round to where Charlotte and I were sitting and picked us out. People craning round to see, I got up, put up my arms, waved my hands about and acknowledged them; the first and - certainly - the last time I'd get that kind of buzz, the kind rock stars are used to, but writers most certainly aren't, even the best known ones. Then the chords swelled up again, the cheers faded and I sat back and listened with everyone else to what was by now, even to me, something deeply familiar, even effecting in its way. My tune you could say; yes, really.

Robert Smith and I never did get round to communicating. I don't know we'd have had much to say to each other if we had. I seemed to remember sending him a Christmas card that year, but that was it. If he was grateful to me for the book - I think he was - I suppose I have to say - through slightly clenched teeth, being, among other things so very much poorer than he is - I have to be grateful to him too for that brief moment of pop glory, and for all the rest. Charlotte after all is still in print, has even gone into a new American edition. Cheers, Robert, wherever you are; though wine rather than beer is my tipple, I'm raising my glass to you.


Charlotte Sometimes and The Cure
http://grannyp.blogspot.com/search/label/Charlotte%20Sometimes%20and%20The%20Cure



About Me

Name: Penelope Farmer
Location: Lanzarote, Spain

Author of children's books, including Charlotte Sometimes, adult novels autobiographical anthologies. Now trying her luck on the internet with 'Lifting the World.' She lives in exiled bliss - mostly - on a Canary Island,with her very own beloved, helping to tend the rock pool in their kitchen. And continuing to write; this blog, not least. Loves malt whisky, her Beloved's cooking (most of the time) books, the sound of the cello, hot baths and octopus eyes, dark chocolate and boiled eggs. Above all she loves - and misses - her grandchildren, provided she can send them home when SHE chooses...

Lol at The Shrine

Lol comments on the Shrine show.


Monday, June 02, 2008

The Shrine

So Cindy and I went off to see The Cure at The Shrine here in Los Angeles last night. Really strong and powerful performances from everybody I thought. This was the first time ive seen the band as a four piece and I have to say I was very impressed.It was truly rockin at the shrine!
One of the highlights for me was how so many of you guys came up to say hello to me afterwards.That made it a great end to a very nice evening! Thanks!




Setlist
Intro (Adagio For Strings), Out of This World, Pictures of You, Fascination Street, alt.end, A Strange Day, The End of the World, The Baby Screams, Love Song, Sleep When I'm Dead, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Lullaby, The Perfect Boy, Kyoto Song, The Only One, Push, How Beautiful You Are, Inbetween Days, Just Like Heaven, Primary, Us or Them, Signal To Noise, One Hundred Years, Bloodflowers

1st encore
Plainsong, Disintegration

2nd encore
"Simon would like to dedicate this next song to Lol and Michael. Says he can play it much better (without them?)"
Three Imaginary Boys, Fire In Cairo, Boys Don't Cry, Jumping Someone Else's Train, Grinding Halt, 10:15 Saturday Night, Killing An Arab

3rd encore
"Cause I'm not sure how to play Happy Birthday, we'll do this instead."
Faith!!! (Happy Birthday to Simon mixed in, plus 2Late extra lyrics)

Le Retour de Saturne

Analyse très intéressante d'un astrologue professionnel
qui fait le rapprochement entre la création de DISINTEGRATION
et la période du "retour de Saturn" de Robert Smith


http://chainofroberts.blogspot.com/2008/07/astrology-of-disintegration.html



Sunday, July 20, 2008

The Astrology of Disintegration

One of the things that I find so fascinating about the Cure's 1989 album, Disintegration, is it's close correlation to the Saturn return period of band leader Robert Smith. I have wanted to write this for some years, particularly after having undergone my own Saturn Return. For those readers who may not be familiar with this more esoteric astrological concept, I will briefly explain.

Saturn Return

Saturn return refers to the point at which the planet Saturn returns to the same location in your chart as when you were born. The astronomical orbit of Saturn is roughly 29.5 years (29.66) in length. So, for instance, if you have Saturn at 23 degrees of the sign of Leo in your natal or birth chart, then at some point, roughly between the ages of 28-30, it will return to this same degree of the same sign. The discrepancy between the astronomical orbit of Saturn and the astrological degrees is due to astrology taking into account periods of retrograde motion, where the planet appears to move backwards in relation to the movement of the Earth. So in astrology, we say that your Saturn return relates more to the precise degree of the sign than to the physical orbit.

The years between 28-30 are the first return period in most people's lives, but if you are of particularly long-lived genetic material, you may experience up to three complete Saturn cycles in your life. Although many people can feel the effects of Saturn return beginning up to 2 years in advance and continuing for up to 2 years afterward, generally speaking the time within 18 months immediately surrounding the 29th birthday is the most intense period of change, with the entire 3-year cycle from 27-30 encompassing the majority of the transformation.

Saturn the planet is known in astrology as the Teacher, the Taskmaster and the Disciplinarian. Well, that doesn't sound like any fun at all, does it? The lessons of Saturn are generally among the most difficult in life, and yet paradoxically, these can be the most rich, rewarding and long-lasting of lessons should we be lucky enough to master them and work through the Saturn Return period of our lives with integrity and honesty. Saturn Return can be a painful and bittersweet time of transition, where we lose much of what we knew of before and struggle to be reborn as our true selves. Many people experience a process of being stripped to the core, where all of our masks are torn away and we must retreat into ourselves for an extended amount of introspection and meditation.

Saturn removes the illusions surrounding all of our thoughts and feelings. Relationships may be thrown into a new light, as we finally begin to see those around us as they truly are, including ourselves. It is as though our whole lives before this time have been spent creating a cocoon of our own making, a safe and yet self-limiting space where we do not see outside of ourselves very well. Then, when we finally do break free of the cocoon we emerge sparkling new, different, much more complete and infinitely more beautiful than we were before.

Robert Smith's Chart

I have not been able to turn up a confirmed time of birth for Robert Smith, so the chart that I have done relies on my experience as an astrologer in order to determine his time of birth. I have not done a thorough chart rectification in order to determine an exact time of birth, so the following is merely speculation, based on a cursory rectification that uses his marriage date and the major album release dates as significant events. I have also included his family's move in March of 1966 as a relocation event. Using the Solar arc progression of year-for-a-day, I have tentatively identified his birth time based on these events as 11:08 am, on April 21st, 1959 in Blackpool, UK.

>>Download the chart here (pdf)

In this chart, Robert's Saturn falls at 7 degrees of Capricorn in retrograde, and the birth time of 11:08 am would place the planet in the 6th house. The 6th house is known both as the house of health as well as the house of how we work. With Saturn in it's native sign of Capricorn, the experience of Robert's Saturn return is that it was most likely an intense period of adjustment with lots of very strong lessons about duty, responsibility, mortality, dealing with the harsh realities of life, and the pain that can come along with those lessons. One's career is of ultimate importance to those with Saturn in Capricorn, and they have a deep desire to invest everything into being successful. Natives of this aspect also find it very difficult to delegate responsibility, and this is borne out in the making of Disintegration, as we shall see.

With Saturn in the 6th house, Robert may also have experienced some health issues that intensified his feelings of mortality, and may have come to the conclusion that he needed to change or improve his habits in order to live a longer and healthier life. A retrograde Saturn very often points to issues of dealing with authority figures, so he may have felt that he was on the receiving end of a lot of undue criticism from people who were in a position of power in his life, such as record label executives or others who affected the way he worked. He may have had to come to terms philosophically with his day-to-day work of being a musician as being his job, and may have had to impose or increase the amount of organization on his life which may have not been there as much in the past. Saturn in the 6th house calls us to impose order on chaos, and to create a reliable, steady routine that allows us to flourish.

Finally, in Never Enough: The Story of The Cure by Jeff Apter, Robert is quoted on page 233 as saying that the album is directly influenced by "the fact that I was going to be thirty". Most of the time, the influences of Saturn Return are so powerful in an individual's experience that they are felt and acknowledged even by those who do not possess a belief, or even knowledge of the aspect.

Disintegrating

Many sources, articles and interviews of the time mention that Robert had gone into a deep depression following the Kissing Tour of 1987. While the Cure had just completed a sold-out global tour and had released a very commercially successful album with Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, as the tour came to a close, the band was in a state of chaos and upheaval. Relations with Robert's childhood friend Lol Tolhurst had become very difficult due to his increasing alcohol abuse, and Roger O'Donnell had been brought into the band in order to have a functional keyboard player within the group. Robert had gotten his first real taste of global pop super-stardom, and was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the accompanying demands and difficulties. As Robert approached his 29th birthday in April of 1988, he had isolated himself in a flat with his fiancee, Mary Poole, and was reportedly dealing with his depression through increasing amounts of LSD.

It was during this time that Robert began to work independently on much of the material that would eventually result in the songs on the album Disintegration. He is later quoted as saying "I would have been quite happy to have made these songs on my own. If the group hadn't thought it was right, that would have been fine." To me, this quote clearly presents the idea that the seeds of genius at the heart of Disintegration were being formed in the seething, internal cauldron of chaos and transformation that characterized Robert's mental and emotional processes during his difficult Saturn Return period of 1987-89. The demos which Robert had created independently were shared with the band following his 29th birthday of April, 1988. During the months following, in summer of 1988, the band gathered at drummer Boris Williams' house and recorded the first songs of the album, based on the demos that Robert had previously recorded.

Interestingly, it was after Robert had gone away from the group once more that he again independently wrote the song "Lovesong" as a wedding present for Mary. Robert and Mary were married on August 13th, 1988, not even 4 months after his 29th birthday, and her wedding present became one of the Cure's top selling singles of all time, and their biggest American hit to date. A very strong characteristic of the Saturn Return time-frame is that individuals will either divorce or separate (if already married) or will meet or marry their life partner, so again the timing of the wedding of Robert Smith and Mary Poole is very meaningful in this context.

Intimate relationships that can stand the test of Saturn tend to be stronger and even more committed than before, so again the fact that they have now enjoyed (nearly) twenty years together is significant indeed. Finally, that one of his strongest commercial hits is based upon his love for Mary and was written during this time of intense creativity is also to me, significant.

Disintegration was recorded in Hook End Manor Studios during the fall and winter of 1988, and it was completed with an ever-increasing sense of hostility and isolation within the band. Robert famously barely spoke to the other band members during the recording sessions. During the winter of 1988, the final departure of Robert's childhood friend, Lol falls right in line with the energies of the Saturn return, where everything that is unnecessary or which does not support us in our growth must fall by the wayside.

Fortunately for us, Robert was able to channel many, if not all of the lessons of his Saturn Return into a magnificent masterpiece. Even the name of this album speaks of the effects of the Saturn return upon this artist. It was released on May 12, 1989, just a few weeks after Robert Smith's 30th birthday. Although it was released to some critical acclaim at the time, it is now widely hailed as one of the musical masterpieces of the late 20th century.

The songs on Disintegration embody the lessons of the Saturn Return in an extremely emotional, raw and beautiful way. They capture the entire range of feelings inherent in these turbulent years, from the absolute despair of the understanding of the mortality of existence to the transcendent, eternal love of the soul-mate. From the powerful anger of "Disintegration"( the song) to the soulful howl of "Prayers for Rain", we are captured and carried along on Robert's journey through his long night of the soul. Existential horror resides alongside open anguish, and is contrasted neatly with both the pathos of "Pictures of You" and the cartoonish, mocking, nightmare landscape of "Lullaby".

The themes running through the songs on Disintegration speak to the core of the human experience of love, death, suffering, wonder, deep connection with another soul, the darkness at the heart of joy and the glimmer of hope even in the depths of despair, so it is no wonder that this music has resonated so strongly with so many people since it was released.

Saturn Return and Masterworks

From science (Marie Curie's discovery of radium and polonium) to art (Georgia O'Keefe's first exhibition), from music (Duke Ellington begins to play at the Cotton Club) to literature (Shakespeare becomes head playwright at the Globe), the biographies of influential individuals worldwide abound with evidence of the transformative and powerful time that is the Saturn return. During this time, one's life is decisively and irrevocably changed, and one's future is shaped by the actions, experiences and decisions of the cycle. Astrologer and author Richard Tarnas in his work Cosmos and Psyche calls it a "period of biographical crystallization", and many astrologers consider it to be the final rite of passage into real adulthood.

From the end of 1987 through the subsequent release of Disintegration in 1989, it is clear that Robert underwent a transformative and powerfully life-changing time, and we are indeed fortunate that such a personal transformation has been shared with us in such an immediate and exquisite way.

I'll leave you with a few final words from Robert Smith about this time in his life:

"So it's all come back round to breaking apart again
Breaking apart like I'm made up of glass again
Making it up behind my back again
Holding my breath for the fear of sleep again
Holding it up behind my head again
Cut in deep to the heart of the bone again
Round and round and round
And it's coming apart again
Over and over and over"
-Disintegration (song)


For more information about Saturn Return, you can visit the following links:

Saturn, the 29th Year by Skye Alexander
Saturn, the planet of Karma - Astrology.com
Saturn Return