Prescribe The Cure
My first experience of The Cure was one of contraband and mystery. There was this kid at our school called Joel Smith who not only had Robert's last name, but styled himself on the front man in every way. Complete with back combed greasy black hair and eye liner he would set up a black market stall in the boys changing rooms where he would feed the school's addiction to The Cure. Sat behind a case full of home-recorded tapes, he would quiz each twitchy buyer as to their current knowledge and exposure to this music in order to judge what level they were ready to enter this world.
As a young and impressionable 15 year old, I stood patiently in line and on hearing that I had virtually no knowledge of them he thought long and hard and rummaged through his case. He emerged with the first album Boys Don't Cry, telling me that this would be about all I could handle at this early stage and after parting with my hard earned pocket money off I went with my Cure prescription.
To this day I would totally agree with Joel as to his diagnosis of what I could handle - and Boys Don't Cry's palatable songs were a perfect entry level to what would become a life long love affair with this band.
13th Mar 2009 - Tumblr