What do you think of Lol?

Started by Dillinger, April 14, 2007, 17:05:27

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rjl

Quote from: Oso Blanco on April 19, 2007, 09:54:37

Quote from: rjl on April 18, 2007, 20:33:53
It's still up there with "Slash, Duff & Izzy re-record 'Appetite for Destruction' with Barry Gibb", although for entirely different reasons.

They don't really, do they?

I wish. It would be miles better than Axl's freakshow. And their band with Scott Weiland. It would so ridiculously funny. Try listening to "Appetite" and think "Bee Gees".

As for Jason, I can't find much wrong with him, aside from him not being Boris. And no one is Boris...

Dillinger

the bananarama tags there as theres a link to the video in the first post and lol is making even less effort than the others in it.


so is boris the only drummer not to have played 100 years with a backing track then or something?

rjl

Oops! I was getting that video confused with something else. I have it on a DVD somewhere, as filler. I do remember one playback/mime performance where he really got into it. Almost like his trumpet playing.

While on the topic of those cheesy mime performances, I was watching one recently... Italy 87, either Toccata or Azzurro, and the funniest thing happened: Simon switched basses between songs. Why?  ;)

Oso Blanco

Quote from: farquad92 on April 19, 2007, 20:06:23
so is boris the only drummer not to have played 100 years with a backing track then or something?

Boris and Andy.
Time is the fire in which we burn ...

Carnage Visor

I HAVE MIXED FEELINGS...
Lol, although very funny in music videos and good at drums and keyboards, didn't really fit in with The Cure's image (like that's important, right? What's gotten into me?)
There's always that one guy in the band who doesn't really seem in place, and Lol was that guy. I mean, he also seemed a bit rude...
But boy is that dance in "Let's Go To Bed" hilarious! ;)

Janko

DAMN YOU LOL FOR DISBANDING PRESENCE!!!!

:smth011 :smth011 :smth011
Fatter than Bob, balder than Porl, as sober as Simon, as amusing as Jason

japanesebaby

Quote from: Janko on July 01, 2007, 15:52:52
DAMN YOU LOL FOR DISBANDING PRESENCE!!!!

:smth011 :smth011 :smth011

oh poor lol. people always blame it all on him, whatever it was. :lol:
Ay, in the very temple of Delight
Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran shrine

MeltingMan

I think his creative input on the early Cure albums was decisive and
his dismissal tragic and from my point of view only partially caused by
his own faults. The decision that he took over keyboard duties after
Pornography was long-termed fatal. He's inextricably linked with
the eighties period of The Cure without any doubt the most important
decade for the band. Good to know that he's still in touch with Robert
and even Simon. I like him as person and musician. ;)
En cette nation [Russie] qui n'a pas eu de théoriciens et de démagogues,
les pires ferments de destruction ont apparu. (J. Péladan)

plasticpassi0n

I have no qualms with him as a person. I speak to him quite regularly through social media and he seems genuinely lovely! As for his part in the band, I don't feel like he did work as hard as the others on the albums towards the end of the 80s but he was seriously ill. As much as I love the band, I also think that they contributed towards Lol's disengagement. I recall him being described as 'the band's punchbag' a few times and I know that he wasn't taken seriously by other members. Personally, I don't think the rest of the band realised how ill Lol actually was with his drugs/alcohol addiction. Maybe if they had been a little more aware of how serious it was they could have helped him.

I don't feel as though I know enough about it to go any further but all I know now is that Lol is a nice bloke and has been on the straight and narrow since 1990.
It's a perfect day for letting go
For setting fire to bridges, boats
And other dreary worlds you know
Let's get happy!
It's a perfect day for making out
To wake up with a smile without a doubt
To burst, grin, giggle, bliss, skip, jump and sing and shout
Let's get happy!

Saw TC live, Hammersmith Apollo, 21/12/14

mooki

Lol, sadly, does nothing for me. He didn't virtually nothing for the Cure, in my opinion. I think he wrote the lyrics for All Cats Are Grey or something, but he didn't do much.

Ulrich

Quote from: mooki on January 26, 2015, 09:38:36He didn't virtually nothing for the Cure, in my opinion. I think he wrote the lyrics for All Cats Are Grey or something, but he didn't do much.

How do you know? Lol is mentioned as the co-author of many songs (incl. Lovecats, The Caterpillar...)!
I don't know about his real contribution, but if Robert gives him a co-credit, I think he would've contributed at least a little?
Also, Lol played drums on many tours and all singles & albums from 1978 until 1982 (when the band wasn't that popular at first, often playing in small clubs or supporting other bands).
Then he switched to keyboards and toured & recorded with the band until 1987.

I would agree that in the end he didn't contribute much any more (he admits so himself, I guess), from 1985 onwards. However I found this quote by Lol from the book "Never Enough" by J. Apter:

"I remember Dave Allen saying to me on Disintegration that I'd played more on that album than the last couple, but I don't remember it."

For me, Lol as a founder member, did play an important part in the early Cure. (What would 17 Seconds & Faith be without his rather minimal drum sound?) Also, he was important to the band in many ways, e.g. as a "buffer" between the egos of Robert & Simon.
Of course, towards 1988, from all stories told, Lol had become "unbearable" for a band of that size.  :(
For more on this, there is an interesting topic:
http://curefans.com/curenews/lol's-thoughts-on-the-25th-anniversary-of-disintegration/
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

dsanchez

Quote from: Ulrich on January 26, 2015, 13:44:57
What would 17 Seconds & Faith be without his rather minimal drum sound?

I just wanted to point out the same. I think Lol's contribution in these albums was essential to shape that rhythm and sound.
2023.11.22 Lima
2023.11.27 Montevideo

simons-sideburn

Lol was a useless keyboard player.
If you watch carefully some live videos,he couldn't play even a cord or to use both hands.He was like Andy Fletcher of Depeche mode.Only decoration and because of him Porl ( a great guitar player) had to support him.2 keyboard playes in a rock band  :D
BUT
as a drummer he was great.Not technically but just because he contributed at the first 4 albums.
The  rhythms are simple but very catchy like in your house,the pornography album.You listen only the beginning and you can not imagine other rhythm thats why i respect him.

Snow

Quote from: simons-sideburn on December 06, 2016, 16:32:21
Lol was a useless keyboard player.
If you watch carefully some live videos,he couldn't play even a cord or to use both hands.He was like Andy Fletcher of Depeche mode.Only decoration and because of him Porl ( a great guitar player) had to support him.2 keyboard playes in a rock band  :D
BUT
as a drummer he was great.Not technically but just because he contributed at the first 4 albums.
The  rhythms are simple but very catchy like in your house,the pornography album.You listen only the beginning and you can not imagine other rhythm thats why i respect him.


I think Lol was integral to the band in those early years and his drumming was energetic and he was a good timekeeper.  I guess he should/could have bettered himself or applied himself more but drink affected him really badly, much more so than the others, and his dependence developed into chronic illness. Alcoholism isn't just about getting drunk and falling over.   It's a mental illness.   He needed help but nobody seemed either bothered or able to do that, most likely as they were all battling their own issues and demons.

I read recently that Robert Smith said that, had he been Lol's lawyer when Tolhurst tried to sue him, he'd have won the case...as RS and the rest of the band mentally tortured Lol to such an extreme. But due to his drink problem he couldn't remember and it never came up in court.   I think Robert was more than happy to accept Lol's friendship again when the olive branch was offered because he knew what a twat he'd been to him in the past when he should really have helped him more.  Allowing Lol to stay in the band even though he contributed very little wasn't helping him.  That was just guilt.

I think it was Roger O'Donnell who later admitted that Lol wrote Homesick even though Robert denied Lol had contributed anything at all, and that when he was trying his best not to drink, the others were trying their hardest to get him drunk. 

It's also telling that Robert Smith remarked about how Lol was always wanting to be liked by everyone.  When you look at footage from interviews, specially the early ones, Lol comes across as confident, eloquent and intelligent while Smith and Gallup sit and squirm in front of the camera like schoolboys.   It makes you wonder if Robert's ego didn't quite like that. 

I do think, reading between the lines, that Lol got sidelined after The Top album.  And for someone who had co-founded the group and had some input, this must have been hard for him, exacerbated by the drink problem.

All I can say about the bullying is that there never is an excuse for that.  And bullying within a community or gathering, always starts at the top of the pile and works its way down.  And it seems to me that everyone who was ever in that band followed Robert's lead or else.  Those who didn't, left or got pushed.

It's to Lol's credit that he hasn't once slung the shit around in Cured. And I'll bet, as he says in his book, that he knows where all the bodies are buried.

I think the way he was treated was truly vile.   

MeltingMan

Quote from: simons-sideburn on December 06, 2016, 16:32:21
Lol was a useless keyboard player.

From 'Cured' on page 214:

QuoteSteve turned to me after a fruitless day of knob twiddling and
said something that has always stuck with me.
'Lol, you know what that needs?'

'No?'

'RFM, mate.'
I asked him what RFM meant and he replied, 'Read the fuckin' manual!'

I like that sense of humor. :lol:
En cette nation [Russie] qui n'a pas eu de théoriciens et de démagogues,
les pires ferments de destruction ont apparu. (J. Péladan)