Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Penelope Farmer and The Cure

Penelope Farmer (author of Charlotte Sometimes) recounts her dealings and meeting with The Cure.
Part 1 - The Cure(d)
Part 2 - The Cure(d): Robert Smith For Ever...
(Thanks Lisa)

Note: This was first posted way back on May 8th, 2008, but as it has come up again today, via BBC 6 Music and Marc Gascoigne, I thought it was worth a repost.
(Thanks Chris, @ghostfinder, and @moggieboy)

Update: You can listen to the show that Penelope Farmer attend (Earl's Court, London on May 31st, 1996) here. (Thanks pvox)

14 comments:

  1. that's one of the best cure related reads i've ever had...thanks for sharing

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  2. That's great.

    I read Charlotte Sometimes when I was a senior in high school. Putting aside the fact that three Cure songs are based off of it, it's really a great book.

    Oh, and I really don't know what Robert had against the video. I thought that it was quite good.

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  3. Wow very cool! Nice find :-)

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  4. Very good story... kind of feel bad for her seeming so poor... but she also kind of attributes some of the books success to the song... so i guess it evened out in the end... not like the cure have hung their whole career on that song... they never even put it on a proper album... which is unique for a cure single.
    (if you count japanese whispers as a proper album anyway...)

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  5. I figure that I should also mention that I used my reading of the book as a reason to do a presentation on it in my senior English class using the music video, which was really just a thinly-veiled ploy to hand out booklets filled with Cure photos and lyrics for my classmates to peruse while I showed them several Cure videos. It worked, and I even got extra credit for it! I still have some of the extra booklets stored somewhere in my former bedroom at my family's house.

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  6. Incredible and really moving. This story is amazing. Thx for sharing.

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  7. The show that Penelope Farmer attended is up on Youtube (audio only) in case anyone's interested. Charlotte Sometimes starts around the 1 hour 58 minute mark.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_T9O9zAFIU

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  8. I have relistened to the gig... And the big part of the "story" is missing...

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  9. All kinds if awesome right there..
    I got a copy of Charlotte Sometimes for my 30th birthday..

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  10. And what about "The Empty World"?

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  11. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penelope_Farmer

    Not one mention of the Cure, which I think is terrible to her legacy. If any one of us has the gift of writing, an update should be made. After all, she did inspire one our favorite Cure songs.

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  12. Though it does mention once you click the book. Off to see Muse now.

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