How old were you when you discovered The Cure?

Started by ksphotos, January 30, 2017, 21:24:53

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ksphotos

Tell me about how you found The Cure. How old were you? What year was it?

I was about eleven years old in 1986 when I first saw the Love Cats video on MTV. A cute guy in eyeliner playing with cats? Sign me up! LOL About a year later, I got Standing on a Beach on cassette and listened to it non-stop.


smileforget

I was thirteen in the fall of 2007 when I found a box of my mom's old cassette tapes in the basement, among them Disintegration, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, and Boys Don't Cry. I read delicately through the lyric notes and knew then that I was somehow fated to find these tapes. I liked the cover art on Boys Don't Cry so I popped it in. The cassette had been paused just before Fire in Cairo, so that was the first song I heard. I remember just laying back in the dark letting the music float over me, thinking to myself how I've just found a band that's going to change my life. And from there my obsession took off.

The following year I got to look forward to the release of 4:13 Dream. If my excitement over that album was any indication, I can only imagine how it was for older (wiser) fans to have anticipated the release of new Cure albums in the 80s.

It's been nearly ten years since those first quintessential moments in my family's basement where I lay, sprawled, soaking up the music and falling in love with this band. I finally got to attend my first concert at age 21 in June of 2016. If only little thirteen year old me had known that I would one day wait 6 hours in the hot Chicago sun to stand front row at a Cure show!

Ulrich

"Welcome" to the both of you!

I guess I told the story before... but here goes: in 1985 I heard "Inbetween days" on the radio (it was a hit in England, possibly a minor hit in Germany too). At first, I didn't even know how the band looked!
In a music paper I read an album review and saw a few pics. I was intrigued and bought the album "The Head On The Door" (still one of my faves). I was 16.
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

-:- Elle Lie -:-

As I mentioned in my presentation topic, my elder sister started listening to the Cure at 12 years old (1986). Living in the same room and loving to do as the big sister, I began to sing their songs at 8 years old. I remember a room full of posters including one that was with velvet and that I loved to fondle.

ksphotos


LaStellaNera

My cousin, who wasn't even in the gothic, wave or punk scene, had the 'Disintegration' album on vinyl and showed it to me sometimes in the early 90's, when I was about 16 or 17.

I was fascinated by the cover as well as Robert Smith, and when my cousin started the record I immediately fell in love with 'Plainsong'.

I didn't buy the vinyl, but the CD version for myself shortly after that and loved the whole album. There are other albums that I love and some I don't, but everything 'The Cure' started with 'Disintegration'.

Weave

Hello anyone. Mine is the tale of two Cures. I was 20 when I went to college in 1983, a farm boy from western Pennsylvania, tired of disco, southern fried rock and the crap played on the radio (except the Grateful Dead) Finally I heard great bands like The Specials, and The Cure. I remember having Standing on the beach. I got to see them play at the Spectrum in 86, and MSGarden in 1987.  In 1990, I gave up all the worldly music for following the Lord Jesus until 2002. When the fellowship imploded then my family stepped away...
I'm still a believer but mellowed some and allowed music back in my life. From 2002 until 2016 the only album I had was KMKMKM, maybe twice a year I'd play it. I always told people my two favorite bands were the Dead and The Cure. and last year I decided to buy more albums. Familiar with Boys dont cry and KM, plus knowing their hit songs like Lullaby/lovesong/Friday etc. Wow was I in for a thrilling ride I decided to buy all studio albums. How can you choose which album is best. Discovering Faith/Pornograpghy Head on the door, Disintegration. Speechless! I had Mixed up back in the day too, but folks I really love Wild Mood Swings. I remember being turned off by The Cure, WMS and 413, just because of the cover art. How lame. But I do love The Cure 2004 and 413. The Cure album helps with bad days for sure. I found Show and Paris, but the penultimate album i found was Wish and the last one I just got a month ago. (waited six months for possible xmas present was The Top. FAntastic. Earlier I got Join the Dots. Sorry but I love it all. I haven't stopped listening to them since Jan 2016.  YOu can have Club America though, I understand it, but neah.
Oh yeah, On 5/31/16 I took my 16 year old daughter to see them in Ridgefield Washington  at the Sunlight Amphitheater. That was when I realized I needed to get back in Cure shape so to speak.
Thanks for reading.

Ulrich

The holy city breathed like a dying man...

tzare

About 13 or 14 y.o. i would say, i can't remember exactly.

The only thing i can say is that a friend of school gave me a tape to listen to some Police music, but on B Side there were a few songs from The Cure (probably from Standing on a beach album), and well, there is when all started, couldn't care less about the Police, and i played those cure songs all the time, and then  i started to search for the Cure music and info, quite limited at that time, to be honest, no internet, no money, living in Spain did not help... so i had to wait for the summer when i used to go to UK to learn some English and when visiting London pay a visit to those huge record stores (Virgin... ) that didn't exist in Barcelona and i bought all i could afford, LP, singles, even  two or three years later i bought Ten Imaginary Years book!

btw, i am 44 now, and must admit i hadn't listened to the Cure for a while, no time, children, but last year tour made me enjoy again (maybe was tired to listening to the same so many times, since we hardly have  new records from them, and the last ones id didn't find them as enjoyable as the old ones, at least when released (2004-2008), i have been revisiting them since i went to the concert in Barcelona last November, and i am enjoying them quite a bit now :) )
But now i am listening them a lot, looking for new info, searching for live performances on youtube, and also trying to find recent interviews to band members, Robert of course, but also the rest. And that is why i joined this forum after finding it from twitter. Only other cure site i knew before was A chain of Flowers.


Ulrich

Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing the pics!  :smth023
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

dsanchez

It was around 1992 when I first discovered (for real) The Cure so I was 15. I probably heard "Boys Don't Cry" before but for sure it was in 1992 when I started to pay more attention. I didn't click with The Cure at first because I was listening more synthpop (PSB and the bands of TechnoDrome International). I remember having a copy of "Wish" in audio cassette. I think watching "In Orange" was the turning point... that concert opened for me a new world and made a Cure fan, and a fan in general of bands using "guitars". I still listen Synthpop, but in less scale.
2023.11.22 Lima
2023.11.27 Montevideo

Oh No

I like to read these stories. Here's mine. Around 1985, I was 5, my brother was 15. We shared the same bedroom. He would play the Standing on the Beach cassette to go to sleep. I remember listening and finding it strange and a bit scary as I gazed at the rain and the trees outside the window. When I heard it again some 9 years later I was amazed. It sounded so familliar and yed so far away. I was hooked.

Mez7000

I first listened to Head on the Door in 1985 when I was 15 and wasn't impressed, but then went and bought Staring at the Sea in 1986 when it was released and that was it, hooked! Went and got the back catalogue on cassette and then CD (!), and haven't stopped loving them since.  Definitely my fave band still even after 30 years!
21.07.89 - Birmingham NEC
19.01.91 - Great British Music Weekend, Wembley Arena
01.05.92 - St. Austell Coliseum
25.06.95 - Glastonbury
16.12.96 - Birmingham NEC

...still too few times and far too long since the last gig!

Ulrich

Welcome to "Oh No" and thanks for the story.

Quote from: Mez7000 on April 19, 2017, 18:42:25
I first listened to Head on the Door in 1985 when I was 15 and wasn't impressed

Now that's a bit shocking, but welcome anyway!   :-D
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

MeltingMan

I had listened a lot to DM when my turning point came: the Wish album.
I was 20 years old and lived in my first own flat, far away from 'home', but
I spent the weekends there and I remember clearly some bicycle tours with
my younger brother. The nature and the music from Wish is something that
I will never forget.
En cette nation [Russie] qui n'a pas eu de théoriciens et de démagogues,
les pires ferments de destruction ont apparu. (J. Péladan)