Times Live article (ahead of South Africa shows)

Started by Ulrich, March 19, 2019, 14:54:12

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Ulrich

https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/lifestyle/2019-02-24-the-cure-are-as-captivating-now-as-they-were-40-years-ago/
Quote
At their peak, The Cure offered an intelligent alternative to the '80s celebration of excess and materialism — celebrated by bands such as Duran Duran, Huey Lewis and the News and Guns 'n Roses — that spoke to those for whom money and excess, Thatcher and Reagan were not the answer. They were smart and funny and heartfelt and always walking poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti's "constantly risking absurdity" tightrope between self-expression and popular acclaim.

In the continuum of 20th-Century music there's a dark, black line that runs from '60s-psychedelic-inspired Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd through to the exquisitely vampiric obsessions of The Cure and on to the angst-ridden, self-flagellating anthems of Thom Yorke and Radiohead. Without Smith and his band there would be no Tim Burton films, no Smashing Pumpkins, no Interpol, Bloc Party, The Killers and other bands that led the early 2000s revival of indie/emo music.

He'll be 60 this year and he's heavier and noticeably more jowly but make no mistake that Smith is still the distinctive, mascara-sporting, enigmatic frontman of a band whose stamp on the history of popular culture will be cemented by their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next month, shortly after they make their first appearance in SA.
The holy city breathed like a dying man...