Many fans have known The Cure with Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, a 1987 double album full of pop jams such as “Why Can’t I Be You?” and the obligatory one, “Just Like Heaven”. They could also have known the band with Disintegration, an LP that they released in 1989 and with which they also completely changed their pop style to transform it into depressing songs but with an aesthetic that years later became a musical genre.
Between these records – and these years – for Robert Smith and company the point of a bipolar scale was nothing new; in fact, it was a way of life. Or at least that seemed given to the singular look of the band that was between dark and gothic (which in the end has been almost the same). Those outlined eyes, semi-red lips, tousled hair, and black clothing from head to toe, were the mantra of the British group.
However, what few know and almost no one imagines, is that at some point in life before being gloomy, The Cure was made up of a pop band. Right around the time, they were singing “Boys Don’t Cry.” That is why we remember them in a video in the late 70s.
It is important to note that in those years, The Cure managed to make its way into British post-punk and new wave, along with bands such as The Damned, Joy Division, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. They were one of the pioneers in adopting that makeup almost straight out of the Bram Stroker book even before the term “goth” or “gothic” even existed.
For all this and more, is that we give you the first appearance of The Cure on television, specifically at the Theater de l’Empire in Paris on December 3, 1979.
In the videos below, you will also find the Albert Camus-inspired track and first single, “Killing an Arab”, as well as a song that they would include on their second album, Seventeen Seconds, but that sounds a bit like Disintegration. We are talking about the predecessor of “A Forest” that at the time they called it “At Night”, a song that sounds similar, but has completely different lyrics.