- Do you play sports all together ?

Robert : We try to but it usually lasts about two minutes, before someone injures someone else. For the first time it's become a group again, since about 3 years, since it was me, Simon, Lawrence. It has become a group again, yeah.

- Is it important in the music being always all together, being a group ?

Robert : Not in the initial stages, no. A lot of that is still left out to me. When I sort of have the start of an idea then I give it to the rest of them. And we start to become a group. But we haven't yet started to write music as a group. But the five of us only have been together for a year. It's not very long really.

- Is the way you work now different from what you used to do in the past ?

Robert : The way we worked on The Head on the Door album is the same as what we did for Seventeen Seconds. We had a lot of songs and then we rehearsed them all together. Then, we did demos and we decided what sounded gound. We worked them all out before we actually went to the studio for the first time. Whereas what we've been doing the last four years to go to the studio and then just say : "Well, we've got a month. Let's make a record".

- What do you do when you're in London ? Sports, clubs ?

Robert : Sports ? (laugh). I don't do anything, just stay in bed, watch TV, go to the pub.

Lol : I swim to the pub !

- What's the best thing to do for a tourist in London ?

Simon : To go home !

- Do you enjoy music shows on TV ?

Robert : No, I don't.

- What about other towns, other countries. Do you like Paris ?

Robert : Yes. The Pompidou Center. But Paris is a bit impersonal.

- What do you like in Modern Art ?

Porl : Videos.

Lol : Porl.

- What's your favorite video ?

Robert : In Between Days.

- Do you think you have enough money for the videos ?

Robert : We don't spend much money on videos. I think it's stupid to spend Cure money on a video just to sell a record. We still control what we're doing.

- So where do you spend Cure money ?

Robert : On what we do. It sort of goes back into making another record really. And also it goes in Lawrence's massive drinking as well. He costs half of what we earn in drinks.

- And you don't ?

Robert : No, I don't drink.

Simon (pointing to Lol) : You can't look this good without drinking.

Robert : It's a myth that I drink... Look, a pig ! (pointing to the sky)

- You seem fascinated by kids...

Robert : I like their naivety. I want to steal it.

- Would you want to go back being a kid ?

Robert : I don't think I've ever grown up, really. I'm totally irresponsible a lot of the times. And that's only what children are really. It's only people tell them what to do and noone tells me what to do. It's the only difference.


IN A PUB

Robert : I used to have really long hair lots of years ago when I was a hippy...

- Is hair cut important for you ?

Robert : I mean, it's part of everyone's look but it doesn't really mean anything other than it's long ! I never thought I was fashionable.

- Do you wear the same clothes in the street and on stage ?

Robert : Yes. I always wear the same clothes. I'd look like this either I was the singer of the Cure or not. It doesn't make any difference. I've got to look some way. But because I am the singer of the Cure, how do I look, is my image. I mean, that's why it changes a lot 'cause I don't really care. There's no continuity in the visual side of what we do. It's totally unimportant what we look like. We just wear the same suits 'cause otherwise we lose each others in railway stations. It's more what you think, an attitude, not what you look like. If everyone wore what they wanted to wear, we'd look like the Village People. We don't do anything to convince the people that don't like us that they should. Because they believe we're a bunch of old duffers basically. They see us and go : "God, look at that...".

- Is the Cure's music a dream ?

Robert : It's dreamy. Sometimes I'd be writing thinking it's real. And then I realize I dreamed it. 'Cause I say to one of the others : "Do you remember when we did this ?". And they'd say : "No, we didn't do that". Then I realize it was a dream. I like dreaming. I think it's good. It makes it worth. Otherwise you lose out on the time that you're asleep. It's a bit boring to wake up and you've lost another few hours out of your life. It's good to wake up and be sweaty like I'm now and you just murdered someone. You think "oh, I just murdered someone, completely brilliant".

- So for you dream and life are really close ?

Robert : Yeah. I'm just waiting to wake up at the moment. Life isn't really that important. I don't think. In the sense, I wouldn't worry either would stop.


FICTION OFFICE

Lol : I spend a lot of the times being boring and typing things into computers but the rest of them, they hate it.

- Do you have hobbies ?

Lol : Yes, but I don't think that anybody would like to hear about them really. they're probably too obscene.

- Do you all have the same hobbies ?

Lol : Yes, sometimes.

- Do you speak French ?

Lol : No, not much. I'm losing my brain when I try to, even if I used to. But the older I get, the more stupid I become.

- I've heard that you liked Serge Gainsbourg. Can you understand his lyrics ?

Lol : Well, some of it. But I also like his music. And I prefer his very old songs. I don't like his reggae stuff.

- As for literature, what are you interested in ?

Lol : Anything I can read, basically. That's sort of a nebulous question. I read lots of things. The last thing I read was a book by Simone de Beauvoir, the letters to Sartre.

- What about music ?

Lol : I try not to listen too much music. But I sometimes listen to piano music.

- Are you afraid of being influenced by what you listen to ?

Lol : Yes, definitely.

- What bands do you like ?

Lol : I like Echo & The Bunnymen.

- What about your private life ?

Lol : It's really bad !

- You're living in London ?

Lol : Yes, unfortunately. Because it makes you too crazy, dismantled, too fast sometimes.

- How do you see success ?

Lol : I don't know. Tell me when we've got success. Success is like a spiral. You're going up and up and you don't know when you're at the top.

- What's power for you ?

Lol : Just to be able to do what I want, when I want, with who I want.

- Are you with people you want to be with ?

Lol : Yes, most of the times.

- Do you think it's important that the group changed from what it was at the beginning ? Do you think it changed something in your mind and in Robert's mind ?

Lol : Yes, it makes things more interesting. It stops things from getting boring. And you could get bored, if it was the same people all the time. At the moment, I think it's happy. It's good.

- Are you impressed by other artists ?

Lol : I try not to because when you start being impressed by people, you become blinded by what might be their faults.

- Some people say that it's impossible to make music outside of the States or outside of England...

Lol : Yeah, but the reason that people say that is because they think it should be impossible, but it's not. People can work in other places you know...It just happens there's a lot concentrated here and in America but there's no reason why other countries or other people shouldn't be able to express what they want to express. I think it's happening now a bit in France. I see it with a few people, I see it strongly.

- Who are these people ?

Lol : Just the people I worked with this summer. The Bonapartes and before that Baroque Bordello. It's a lot harder for them than it was for maybe us to start. But there's a great tenacity. And I see that in a lot of people so... it's good.

- Is the Cure more than a band for you ?

Simon : Yeah. 99% of my existence. Friends, as well... 'Cause that's what you need. Besides the 1% that is a drink.

- What does the Cure mean for you ?

Simon : A lot of things. You can't actually list them.

- What about your hobbies ?

Simon : Drinking. Playing video games. Watching TV.

- Do you watch news TV ?

Simon : Sometimes I watch anything that's rubbish.

- Do you believe in love ?

Simon : Yes, but I can't describe love 'cause it's different from one person to another.

- Do you love animals ?

Simon : Yes.

- Do you think people see you as a funny guy or a sad boy ?

Simon : I don't know. I have no idea.

- What are you favorite conversation subjects ?

Simon : Drink. Let's talk about drink. What's your favorite drink ?

- What about you ?

Simon : Vodka and grapefruit with lots and lots and lots of ice. It's like heaven.

- Do you have other friends in music except from the Cure ?

Simon : It's a funny question saying other friends in music because I never consider us as being in music as such. We play music, we are not in music.

- Is music an Art or a business for you ?

Simon : Neither. It's a business because it's a way to survive. But you can survive on something else.

- What do you do when you leave the stage ?

Simon : I just talk to them (the others) and get drunk with them.

- Nothing else ?

Simon : No, that's the most important thing to do.

- What about politics ?

Simon : I'm not well informed to tell an opinion about it. I wouldn't be presomptious. We've been out of England for six months. So I don't know.

- So you've been to the States. What did you like there ?

Simon : Football games, tennis.

- So Boris, you're reading comics ? Do you like them ?

Boris : Yes. But I don't read that much.

- Can you tell me a little of your life before the Cure ?

Boris : Just before the Cure I worked with the Thompson Twins for about 3 years. And when I just finished a tour in America, I was in California, and the Cure's drummer just left. So they asked me to finish the tour with them.

- You're working with the Cure or you're playing with them ?

Boris : No, being in the Thompson Twins was like a job but I'm playing with the Cure. I really enjoy what I am doing now.

- Did you know the Cure before you entered the band ?

Boris : No, not really. Phil Thornalley who was playing bass at the time but noone else in the band. I had no record.

- Can you tell us about how you met the Cure and how you decided to come into the band ?

Boris : Well, how I met them was that, as I said, I knew Phil Thornalley, 'cause he was an engineer of the Thompson Twins at that time. So when the Cure were in California, I went to see them play and I took the place of their drummer, Andy Anderson, who had left the band in Japan, to finish off the tour. Then, the band asked if I'd do the record and I said yes.

- And you became friends at the beginning ?

Boris : It didn't take long, and I hope I'll be a drummer for the Cure for a long time, 'cause it's the best thing I've ever been involved in.

- What else do you enjoy in life ?

Boris : Riding motorbikes dangerously.

- What are the other bands you like ?

Boris : I don't really listen to other bands. I sometimes listen to jazz music.

- Do you enjoy listening to the radio ?

Boris : No. I think over here the radio is terrible because you have no choice. You've got nothing decent.

- Do you often go to clubs ?

Boris : No, not that much.

- Did you have a lot of work for the album the Head on the Door ?

Boris : Yes, that was Robert's idea to have different sounds of drum on every songs. It got quite tedious to set up drum kits and to find the right sounds. I had to spend hours kitting the drums everyday before we started anything.

- What's love for you ?

Boris : I don't know. I don't even know if I believe in it, in the accepted meaning of the word "love". I believe in some kind of love, I think. There are so many different ways of going through love.

- What instruments do you play on stage ?

Porl : Guitar, keyboards, and sometimes saxophone.

- Which is your favorite instrument ?

Porl : Guitar.

- What are you interested in, except the Cure ? I mean, you're always with toys ?

Porl : (laugh). Art mainly.

- Do you paint ?

Porl : Yes, I did a lot, but now for the covers.

- What are you going to do after the Cure's tour ?

Porl : Decorate my flat in a 1920 style.

- Do you think the Cure is only Robert's business or is it yours also ?

Porl : Well, it's Robert's in the sense he's writing lyrics. But otherwise, we're friends playing music together.

- Do you write songs ?

Porl : Not for the Cure. Just for myself.

- Would you enjoy having these songs played by the Cure ?

Porl : No, because they're for myself. They're not meant to be played live.

- Do you sometimes think about a solo career ?

Porl : No, not really.

- Do you enjoy drinking ?

Porl : No, I don't touch any kind of alcohol (the rest of the band laughs).

- So Robert, you've been working with Tim Pope for some time. What is it between you and him ?

Robert : He made a Soft Cell video a long time ago and I thought it was good. Up to then, we have had very bad video directors and I thought it was time for us to find some new imagination. The Soft Cell video is full of imaginative things. So we've got to meet him. And as soon as he walked in the door, I thought "brilliant". 'Cause he had a really horrible shirt and a really horrible pair of trousers. And one eye was going up there, one eye was going like that. "This guy must be a brilliant film director to get away with it". And we've been with him ever since really.

- Are you working together on the videos ?

Robert : Yes, initially we give the ideas of what we want to do. We tell him how we want ourselves to be seen. Then, really we leave a lot out to him. It would be stupid to tell someone like Tim Pope what to do. I mean, he's there as the video director. In the next stage we're much more involved. We work together on what the video is going to look like. The "in between" of the film is left really out to him.

- Your inspiration for your songs sometimes came from Mary, didn't it ? Who is she for you ?

Robert : Who is she ? I mean, I couldn't imagine myself without her anymore. She's just like... I don't know, it's not like boyfriend and girlfriend. We've known each other for about 15 years and I've always enjoyed talking to her. And I suppose after 15 years, you tend to share a lot, many experiences. I've done so many things for the first time with her...

- Could you tell me a few songs or albums in which she appears as the main source of inspiration ?

Robert : Seventeen Seconds is the most obvious one. Since then, nothing's been so obvious. We know each other too well. Now, we're living together, whereas we weren't before. so it's different. A lot of our early songs have references to Mary, but also references to other people. I suppose Mary's more aware of them and people are more aware of Mary. But a lot of other people have been involved.

- Who for instance ?

Robert : You wouldn't know them. (laughs)

- Friends ?

Robert : Yes, people who've come across basically.

- One of your hobbies is watching horror films. Can you tell me about it and about the way you choose them ?

Robert : I hadn't seen very many recently up until this tour we've just done in America. We had a bus with a video on it. We managed to get hold of some completely brilliant splatter films. You know it's good when there's a murder before the credits have even come out. Then you know it's gonna be a good film. I only watch them in company. You need a lot of audience participation to enjoy horror films. It's not good on your own. We would like to do a horror film with Pap for Give Me it of the Top. I'd like to do it, we could kill him.

- You love blood ?

Robert : That's alright. Yes.

- Can you talk about the In Between Days video ?

Robert : It was a particular video 'cause the ones we did before had no storyboard for instance. They were much more spontaneous. We just had an idea of what we had to do and then the director left us to improvise a lot. With In Between Days, we wanted to make a video that just portraited us as we are. Without looking glamourous or anything. Because it's the most tedious thing in the world seeing the same people with different faces.

- What about Close To Me ? Who got the idea ? Tim Pope or you ?

Robert : I thought it could be good to see us standing in a wardrobe on the top of a cliff, because it would look very claustrophobic.

- Do you like the video for Lets Go To Bed ?

Robert : Seeing it now is very different from the time we did it. It was after Pornography. People had the image of deadly faces. So the best thing for us to do was to look silly on the video.

- Do you like making videos ?

Robert : Yes, I do, but not exclusively for public's consumption.

- What do you think of the way you work now ?

Robert : We've never written songs entirely as a group. I don't think it would work if we sat down and say : "Well, we're a group and we're gonna make an album". Unless you're really competent and you're gonna make a jazz album or something in which everyone is gonna jam and because of what you are it's gonna turn good. You've got to have some kind of discipline. And I think it only comes really from someone, from one person, having some kind of control. And it's not in a dictatorial sense. A lot of the time, when it gets beyond the point of committee, it doesn't actually become stronger, it becomes more deluded. And that would happen if we'd say "Right, all five of us are gonna have exactly the same say on what we do". I don't think this is right. If there was this idea of committee, then it would get to the stage when you start arguing. Being in the Cure is not like being in prison. Everyone is free to do everything they want outside of it. I wouldn't like to compromise with the others. I would certainly feel like changing things and it wouldn't be very fair of me. After all that, I think the next record that we'll do. We'll probably do it more as a group than any other record we've done. Just because everyone's got their own ideas.

I don't think you should really spend more than half your time doing one thing. I mean, I enjoy spending half of my time not doing anything. The other half of my time I devote it to doing something in the Cure. Otherwise I'd spend a quarter of my time being in the Cure and a quarter of my time doing something else. Which is what I did with the Banshees. Which is why I suffered. I would hate to give up the half of my life that exists outside of doing this. 'Cause I never had the ambition of being rich and famous.


BY A CANAL

- Robert, who is Lawrence for you ? More than a musician ?

Robert : You mean less than a musician.

- But he's a friend too ?

Robert : Yes, he's just there. We've known each others for such a long time. When the Cure started there was an assasination attempt by me on Lawrence's life. And it went wrong. I've been just trying ever since. It's easier to try and kill him when he's nearby.

Lol : That was my 18th birthday when the assasination attempt occured. I was asleep in Robert's back garden at six in the morning...

Robert : And I tried to bury him.

- Which one of you is a part of the brain of the other ?

Robert : I don't know. We know each others so well now. I mean, most things are left unsaid. 'Cause I know exactly what he's thinking and he knows exactly what I'm thinking.

- When was it the first time you met ?

Robert : When we were 5.

Lol : Yeah. 5 years old. It was at school. But we weren't really friends with each others until about 15 or 16 or something like that.

Robert : Our brothers knew each others as well.

- What style of music did you first play ?

Robert : We used to play cover versions of T Rex, David Bowie or Jimi Hendrix.

- You still like Jimi Hendrix ? I've seen tapes in your car...

Robert : What were you doing in my car ? (laughs). Yes I still like him.

- Chris Parry is also very important as far as the beginning of the Cure is concerned.

Robert : Yes, we first met him in a pub in London. We had sent a tape to Polydor. He liked it and Polydor didn't. So he decided he would make his own record label and put us on it. He was the first person from a record company we met and he didn't take himself seriously. He was doing it for fun, not for money. So we decided we would sign with him, just for that reason alone.It's worth 'cause he still does it for fun, not for the money.

- This tour is probably your most successful tour and probably this album is more successful than the others...

Robert : I think there's lots of reasons. Really. One, I think, is the record itself is probably more accessible, it's easier to listen to for a lot of people. It's easier for radio stations to format it in a certain way. And also because about longevity, I mean, that counts a lot, it shouldn't really but it does. 'Cause people think "oh, they've been around a while so they must be good". That sort of attitude. Which isn't necessarily true. And also the fact that we've been exposed a lot recently. And particulary since The Walk and the Lovecats. So it's all sort of built up. It's not anything to do with us. I mean, in a perfect world, we would have been n°1 with Boys Don't Cry. If I didn't think everything that we do is good, then we wouldn't do it.

Lol : I think it's funny because, to us we think, you know, we've been going for such a long time but there's a lot of people coming to see us now, for them, the first time we started was when Lovecats came out. They don't know anything before that. We have a sort of very varied audience : very young girls to Mums and Dads. It's very strange.

- Some people think you've sold parts of your soul in this particular record. What do you think of that ?

Robert : I'll punch him in the mouth if anyone says that to me. Our attitude is the same. This record could be the first in the way we approached it. I think there's always going to be a pourcentage of people who want to keep a group like the Cure for themselves. And they want it to be their pet group. And when you obtain a bit of success, they may either say "We were there first" or they'd say "Oh, they used to be good but now they're not". And people like that, I hate, I really hate them. At the same time, I don't care.

- Lawrence, could you tell me what you think about you still being in the band after so many years ? How do you explain that ?

Lol : I think I just don't present problems to other people. We're very close, one to the other, also.

- The Cure is a group for a long time ?

Robert : I hope it lasts. But I mean, I never predict it to last. The people involved are too volatile to predict anything really. It'll be good if we make another record with this group. So now, we throw you in the canal ? (looking at the journalist)

TIM POPE IN THE STREET

- Do you enjoy working with the Cure ?

Tim : Oh yes ! They're very sweet boys. Terribly sweet boys.

- And why do you enjoy working with them ?

Tim : I've worked with them for a couple of years. What I like in their music, what I like working with them, is, you see, like a lot of people, they make videos. People normally says : "I want this to happen". But the Cure don't ever come to me and say that. Robert comes to me and says "I want this atmosphere" and he leaves the rest to me. That is why our videos turn out quite well. It's a bit more flexible.

- Do you think you have similar ideas from one video to another ?

Tim : Yes, I think a lot of people making videos don't really think that you can get ideas between videos, but with the Cure, we always have done that. There are loads of ideas on all of them.

- What ideas do you think are between your videos ?

Tim : For example, the Cure always have balloons on their videos. What I think is that Robert is a true English eccentric. He's absolutely a nut case. He's massively mad. Basically. Therefore the films are very easy, all I do is a close up to his face and I just let him go a bit mad. So it's quite easy.

- Do you think he's really mad ?

Tim : No, he's very intelligent. He's very bright. But I think he is a sort of eccentric and that he knows that he is an eccentric. But whether he is really or not, I don't know.

- Do you think you are an eccentric ?

Tim : No, I don't think so, but he is. I know he thinks I am. You see, what I like about the Cure's music is that : it's always a bit fiddly, especially for the last single, Close To Me. When I first started working with Robert, he was a very shy character. But lately we really developped this really strange personality with all the smudged lipstick. And I love this sort of stuff that he does. And I think it really suits the Cure's music very well. This sort of stuff. Very funny.

- Who got the idea for the In Between Days video ?

Tim : Well, Robert and I met an afternoon over a cup of tea. And Robert said to me : "What I want you to do is -come up with something which has never been done before". And I thought : "That's what everyone says to me". Robert wanted it to look like the first video that a band has ever made, you see. Robert wanted to come up with an interesting way of shooting a band. He liked the idea of all this colour. So I got into the idea on Thursday and had to come up with the idea on Friday and then shoot it on Tuesday and build all the machinery to do it, you see. So I had the idea of throwing the cameras away and all that sort of stuff. I think you've got the film of us in which we are actually shooting that idea. So if you look at it, you will see that Robert, at first, felt a bit unsure about the camera. The other reason I did it was to scare my producer because these cameras cost a big deal. So, I thought that it was a good laugh.

- In Close To Me, the Cure were close to death, while they stayed in the wardrobe. Who got this strange idea ?

Tim : What Robert said to me was that he wanted it to be very claustrophobic. A bit like my interview now. And then, I think, came up to the idea of the wardrobe, and then I sort of put everything together. I think he's a bit like an old black and white movie star. Because he's very over-exagerated. The way he uses his black make up and that sort of thing. There are a lot of ideas like in those old movies, with a wardrobe going over cliffs. Over here, in England, all the TV stations got really worried about it and started to say : "Are we encouraging children to get into wardrobe and throw themselves over cliffs ?". But I thought it would need a lot of wardrobes.

- How do you think he gets on with the other people of the band ?

Tim : Oh, very well. Robert seems to write the songs. He seems to be a representative to the others, I would hazard. In the last one, Close To Me, I think Lawrence was definitely the star. I have no doubt. When I got the rushes back from that... I did Robert's bit first and then I got all the other guys. I did them all single shots. One person after another. When we put Lawrence in, he satthere and everyone hammered him, which I thought was very funny. So I think he fills that founction, a very good founction.

- You said you felt that Robert was eccentric. So do you take him as he is or do you feel that you can use him as you do with Simon or Lawrence or someone else ?

Tim : What I like about Simon, they're like a mirror image of each others. And I think that's really funny, so there's a good visual thing there. And Lawrence is like... the funny man. And as I see Robert as the straight man. And then all the others sort of fit into that madness. There's a certain sort of Cure madness.

- Which is your favorite Cure video you've done ?

Tim : I really like The Walk, but I also liked very much the new ones. I make a lot of films for different sort of people. But my film with the Cure always seem to work better than with other people. Maybe it's because I understand their madness a bit more. I certainly think they are mad though.

- Are you working on another film now ?

Tim : Yes, a film with Bonnie Tyler. It's a big change from the Cure and from wardrobes don't you think ?

- Do you still want to be a tree ?

Tim : Yes ! (showing his "I want to be a tree" t-shirt under his shirt)

CHRIS PARRY / PERRY BAMONTE

- Do you sometimes talk to TV and say what you think about the Cure ?

Chris : No, and I don't talk to people who have French accent.

- But can you do for us ?

Chris : No !

- Have you been working with the Cure for a long time ?

Chris : Yes, for 7 years, since August 1978.

- So that means you believe in them.

Chris : Yes, I do.

- Can you explain why you believe in them ?

Chris : Because they are nice people. Because their music is fresh. They are good fun to be around. I like what they do. They play music and there are lots of other aspects which I enjoy. I'm having a good time being successful, otherwise you wouldn't be here, so that's nice too.

- Do you think they will sell a lot of record in the next months and years ?

Chris : They'd better !

- Thank you Chris.

- Do you think that the Cure are different in life and on stage ?

Perry (a bit drunk) : No, they're exactly the same. Whatever they do on stage, that is how they are in life. They are the most wonderful people I have ever met. They're my own family. I work purely for nothing, because to me, they are everything. I am an orphan myself, I have no family. And then suddenly I'm embrassed by this whole family of people. They love me and I love them in return. They are the most beautiful people I could ever imagine to meet in my whole life. When you watch them on stage, that is how they are in real life. They are the Cure. And please, just love them as I love you !

- Have you been working with them for a long time ?

Perry : Years and years and years...

- What do you do with them ?

Perry : I tune the guitars, man !

- Are you always on stage with them ?

Perry : Always, whenever they are playing I'm there. If anything needs to be done, then I am there, man. Someone has to be there, all the time, because if anything goes wrong, someone has to be on stage and chuck these people off the stage and tune those strings and sort of leads out. It's really important ! I'm the person to do that, because I believe in the Cure and I hope they believe in me.


(Journalist : Childéric - Transcription of the unbroadcast parts : Pierre Barthelemy-Sabine Blanquefort for Anomalie fanzine)