Hidden signed MoaLW vinyl

Secret 7" reveal

Secret 7" has revealed the identity of all of the artists behind the artwork of this year's auction. View the full gallery here.

Here's Robert Smith's (sold for £3,500) and Andy Vella's (sold for £610).

Lol & Gray Tolhurst in San Francisco last night

Bear Tree raffle

We’re raffling off The Cure MOALW acetate! This is your chance to win one of the rarest Cure records to exist. At the band’s request all proceeds will go to War Child. £5 a ticket, you can buy as many tickets as you like! UK only! 

https://beartreerecords.com/products/the-cure-charity-raffle-ticket

Clash review of MoaLW

From Clash:

The Cure – Mixes Of A Lost World

A varied, refreshing look at the band's monolithic return to form...

For a band primarily known for their melancholic and immersive songs, a remix album might seem like an odd offering from The Cure. Those familiar with the group, however, will know they have a long-standing relationship with remix culture. From relatively early in their career, their tracks have occasionally been reworked—whether it’s the far superior single mix of ‘Close to Me’ (complete with the beloved trumpet section), or the ‘Mixed Up’ album, released at the height of the Baggy scene in 1990. That record is a mixed bag in terms of quality, but it showcased the flexibility of The Cure’s lush melodies and Robert Smith’s unmistakable vocals.

In the years since, artists as varied as Gorillaz, Faithless, and Crystal Castles have enlisted Smith to lend his signature angst and longing to their dancefloor-ready tracks. Still, an entire remix compilation reimagining the band’s monolithic return to form, ‘Songs of a Lost World’, is a curious proposition. But with all Cure royalties going to War Child UK, why not? Spurred on by a handful of unsolicited remixes he received over Christmas, Smith has managed to rally 24 artists to rework his songs of death and the passage of time.

The results are surprisingly sprightly and effective, with the likes of Paul Oakenfold, Orbital, Four Tet, and Sally C pushing the original album’s eight monochrome tracks into vibrant new territory. Sure, there’s something a little perverse about turning a song about the passing of Smith’s brother into a full-on rave anthem—but it only underscores the emotional power of the originals. Roger O’Donnell’s keys, in particular, are repeatedly used as the melodic backbone for these producers’ fresh interpretations.

Oakenfold’s take of the aforementioned track, ‘I Can Never Say Goodbye,’ goes for something cinematic and truly epic in scope. It’s a nice pivot and is practically begging to be used on a tense movie trailer. Cure superfan Trentemøller goes for a respectfully ethereal go at ‘And Nothing Is Forever’ before things go raucous at the midway point. Daybreakers disassemble ‘Warsong,’ using mere shadows of the original’s menacing guitar and organ to rebuild it into something darkly anthemic and fun.

With only one relatively short album used as a basis for the comp, there’s some repetition over the course of the deluxe edition’s tracklist. It’s a relatively small squabble, though, an unavoidable conceptual one. ‘Mixes Of A Lost World’, for the most part, is a varied, refreshing listen. The Cure have proven themselves to be one of the UK’s most beloved and influential acts. Their sound has stood the test of time and, in doing so, proves quite resilient to being twisted, trimmed, and smudged into other genres. There’s a spooky sincerity inherent in their music that will always defy trends. 

Words: Sam Walker-Smart

7/10

Quietus review of MoaLW

From The Quietus:

Reissue of the Week: The Cure’s Mixes Of A Lost World

Rock remix projects are typically inconsistent, says JR Moores. The Cure’s latest foray into the format is a mixed bag, with the most successful moments those which somewhat stifle Robert Smith’s sadness

JR Moores

There’s no denying that Songs Of A Lost World was a monumental latter-day triumph. But let’s be honest for a minute: how many times have you re-listened to it since its release in November 2024? Be honest now and take into account how morbid it was, even by the standards of The Cure. For 50 minutes, Robert Smith told us again and again that one day he was going to die. Also, that one day you are going to die. And that everyone you know is going to die. At least The Flaming Lips delivered the same message while dressed as massive chickens and showering the listener in confetti, glitter, and balloons. 

The Cure’s fourteenth studio album exists for those times when you will really need it; as nobody’s reaching for their 4K collectors edition of Michael Haneke’s Amour every Saturday before they head to the pub are they? When I find myself on my deathbed, I doubt I’m going to regret that I could’ve spent more time listening to Robert Smith remind me that, sooner, rather than later, I was going to find myself on my deathbed. I don’t mind if you think of me as someone who’d rather listen to an Oliver Burkeman self-help podcast or ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams, instead of unforgivingly bleak and existentially forensic music, but that’s just the way it is.

For the percentage of people who might already have played Songs Of A Lost World to death, as it were, The Cure have now provided a treble album of remixes. It’s a funny old thing, the rock remix album. By nature they are usually patchy. This includes the small number of them that could claim a degree of cultural significance, such as Nine Inch Nails’ Further Down The Spiral. Naturally, some of the artists drafted in will apply more graft than others; with some in the “less graft” camp happy to settle for whacking a donk in among the stems provided, then settling back to wait for PayPal to ping, before summoning their dealer via Signal.

The shoddiest remix albums are seen as cash-ins, but they’re actually less than this because it’s barely believable that many of them turn a profit; many actually come off more like a desperate gamble. Even in the format’s heyday, during the long CD boom, once all the architects had been paid and the booklets printed off, there’d still be plenty anxiety concerning the (near) completists of both remixers and remixees alike who might realise that they simply didn’t need to hear The Crystal Method and Danny Tenaglia extending the length of album tracks which had been satisfying enough in the first place. 

The Cure have prior with 1990’s Mixed Up and its lesser discussed sequel from 2018, Torn Down. The former was condemned by some as a bandwagoning rip-off, received by others as a curiously enjoyable foray back onto the dancefloor after an absence of some years. It has since been reappraised as impressive evidence of the band’s continued quest for relevancy. For Robert Smith at the time, Mixed Up was “the record that drunk Cure fans should listen to, [because] it really makes you feel good, which is unusual for us.”

This time around, most of the contributors are not actively trying to appeal to inebriated listeners to quite the same extent. And you can hear the effort some have made in injecting different kinds of life into the music that accompanies Smith’s recent morbid observations. Paul Oakenfold’s Cinematic Remix of ‘I Can Never Say Goodbye’ does what it says on the tin. This pounding combo of synths & strings suggests a gothic reboot of the Mission Impossible franchise in which Tom Cruise battles vampires with Jenna Ortega as his trusty new sidekick. (Handily, if shot, both stars are around the same height.) Similarly full-on renditions, equally suitable for the closing credits of a CGI blockbuster, are provided by Daybreakers and Mental Overdrive.

Most of the tracks foreground Smith’s forlorn and minimally manipulated vocal takes, keeping them high in the mix, if not always throughout the whole song. There are notable exceptions, however, such as the Meera version of ‘All I Ever Am’, on which the voice now entertainingly evokes a chipmunk in a K-hole. Four Tet handles the music of ‘Alone’ so delicately, with his signature blissful jittering, that it’s almost a shame when Smith turns up halfway through to remind us once more of The End. The same might be said of Mogwai’s oceanic and echoing treatment for ‘Endsong’. As might be expected of the pedal-board-focused post rock veterans, it emphasises and embellishes the emotionally engulfing nature of The Cure’s sublime guitar effects. That voice does make an appearance, eventually, but those otherworldly textures are celebrated as the pièce de résistance. 

JoyCut hint, at first, that they might only include Smith’s wordless croaking. Alas, they cop out by using lots of his verses, so it seems like an opportunity missed for disembodied and deconstructed abstraction. The bolder Craven Faults jettison the vocals of ‘I Can Never Say Goodbye’ to distil its source’s melancholic essence into a nine-minute ambient instrumental. In contrast Shanti Celeste’s February Blues Remix of ‘Alone’ aims, in spite of its subtitle, for clubby William Orbit euphoria and is at its most effective when Smith’s whisper floats in the surroundings like that belonging to a fairy godfather.

Refreshing positivity is also provided by the Cosmodelica Electric Eden Remix of ‘And Nothing Is Forever’, its upbeat feel helping to reiterate that, although it too is about ageing and finality, this is one of Smith’s most defiant love songs. Another at the lighter end of the spectrum is Âme’s ‘A Fragile Thing’. Feasibly influenced by 1983’s ‘The Love Cats’, in the way it singles out the bassline amid an otherwise sparse track to make for a strangely jaunty experience.

Remix collections tend to be a mixed bag. Mixes Of A Lost World is no different. As with Mixed Up, it invites a mixed reception. The Cure are donating their royalties to War Child UK, so its release needn’t be viewed too cynically. Given that it’s a whopping 122 minutes long, you might want to whittle down its 24 songs into a slimmer playlist spotlighting those cuts that work best. If you have the time and the inclination to bother, that is. As Smith is at such pains to hammer home, there is only so much sand in the hourglass.

Mixes Of A Lost World is out today via Fiction, with at least £1 per purchase going to War Child

NTS takeover

Update: If you missed Robert's Takeover today, or want to listen again...

https://www.nts.live/shows/the-cure

The Cure take over NTS tomorrow. 

tune in from noon until 5pm BST for radio contributions by Robert Smith, Cosmodelica, Daniel Avery, Mogwai, Shanti Celeste & The Twilight Sad

nts.live

Cassettes of Mixes of a Lost World

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NTS schedule

Here's the schedule for The Cure's NTS takeover today. Times shown here are US central.

Starts at noon BST.

US start times are 7am eastern, 6am central, 5am mountain, 4am pacific 1am in Hawaii.

Check the schedule page for the times where you are.
https://www.nts.live/schedule

Daybreakers on their Warsong remix

From Billboard:

Robert Smith Says Daybreakers’ Remix of The Cure’s ‘Warsong’ Has ‘A Real Sense of Drama’: Listen

By Katie Bain 

A collection of remixes of The Cure’s 2024 album Songs of a Lost World is out Friday (June 13), and ahead of the release, electronic duo Daybreakers is exclusively sharing their edit of the group’s “Warsong” from the project.

In Daybreakers’ hands, the steady, heavy, four minute and 17 second original becomes more than six minutes of hypnotic synth and muscular basslines, with a long build releasing into sped up of vocals from The Cure frontman Robert Smith and the entire edit containing the same sense of mystique and style of the legendary U.K. band is known for.

“As long time fans of The Cure, we had always wanted to do a project with them, and via our mutual friend and legendary producer, Mark Saunders, the opportunity arose when Robert got in touch to discuss our interest in doing a remix,” the duo tell Billboard in a joint statement.

Made up of producers Ric Scott and Alex Hush, Daybreakers previous work includes remixes of U2’s “Love Is Bigger Than Anything In It’s Way” and Madonna’s “I Rise.” “I Rise” hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart in Aug. 2019, aided by a package of remixes from artists including Daybreakers, Tracy Young, DJLW, Kue and Offer Nissim. “Love Is Bigger Than Anything In It’s Way” also hit No. 1 on this same chart in July of 2018 on the power of a remix collection that Daybreakers was a part of.

Scott and Hush’s first work together was a 2020 edit of Erasure’s “Hey Now (Think I Got A Feeling)” after which they decided to make Daybreakers an ongoing project.

As Mixes of a Lost World project came to life, Smith offered Daybreakers two tracks to choose from, one of them being ‘Warsong” which the pair say “really lent itself to something that we could incorporate our sound with. The song has a conflicted sadness to it but at the same time, we knew we could really make it work with a dance vibe.”

Daybreakers remix of “Warsong” has a real sense of drama,” Smith tells Billboard. “The breakdowns are simple, but far-out, and the vibe is cool, but urgent. It is one of my favorites on the [remix] album.”

Mixes of a Lost World will also feature edits by Four Tet, Orbital, Trentemøller, Chino Moreno, Paul Oakenfold and more. The project is out June 13 via Fiction/Capitol Records. In a statement made when the project was announced, Smith said that The Cure “has a colorful history with all kinds of dance music, and I was curious as to how the whole album would sound entirely reinterpreted by others.”

“To be chosen to do a remix is a great honor and we are thrilled with how much Robert likes the remix and we hope others do as well,” Daybreakers add. “Being included on the remix album alongside such a great variety of talented artists and producers is a huge privilege. Additionally, with all of The Cure’s recording royalties being donated to the WarChild UK charity, it really is for a wonderful cause.”

Far Out review of MoaLW

From Far Out:

The Cure – ‘Mixes of a Lost World’ album review: A rhythmic expansion of the dark realm

Kelly Scanlon

When Robert Smith started receiving an influx of Songs of a Lost World remixes, he felt his world expanding. The Cure have always been prominent (and limitless) world-builders, but what about how these worlds are seen from the other side? What about when we’re let into the side of the Cure that they have no control over, the side entirely reinterpreted by those observing from the sidelines?

The beauty of Songs of a Lost World wasn’t that it proved the Cure still had it; it was all gorgeous hues of the band’s consistent sense of foreboding, the unveiling of impending finality that never revealed itself with enough clarity to know if it was actually real or imagined. This is where Lost World picks up, entrenched in the haze of the ambiguity that never fails to pull us into its rapture, acknowledging the familiarity without feeling too close to a shadow of its former self.

And through that seemingly endless journey of cloaked self-discovery, staring at blood-red moons, wondering “how I got so old”, Smith basked in the fatal beauty of presenting more questions than answers, thriving on vulnerability and suffering while spotlighting the most intricate experiences and feelings along the way. It’s immersive, but in a way that feels grittier in its own darkness, like finding meaning in the trenches of having absolutely nothing (“It’s all gone / No hopes, no dreams, no world”).

As such, a full, complete project like Lost World feels without the need for any kind of expansion, but we all know that finality hasn’t always been Smith’s strong suit. Ever the master of toying with incomplete albums, runtimes and the setbacks of getting it all wrong, Mixes of a Lost World feels like an entirely expected step, one that highlights all of Lost World‘s lost words in technicolour, storyboarding Smith’s inner mind with the freedom of unrestricted conventions.

And that means meandering the depths of the different parameters of dance music, giving Lost World a kind of intensified viscera that ventures beyond the walls of the source material. As Smith explained: “Just after Christmas, I was sent a couple of unsolicited remixes of Songs of a Lost World tracks and I really loved them. The Cure has a colourful history with all kinds of dance music, and I was curious as to how the whole album would sound entirely reinterpreted by others.”

Notable highlights are the ones that dramatise the original or heighten that sweet spot where the familiar foreboding comes to the shore, like Paul Oakenfold’s ‘Cinematic’ Remix of ‘I Can Never Say Goodbye’, alongside the Orbital Remix of ‘Endsong’. The Twilight Sad Remix of ‘A Fragile Thing’ also gives it an inexplicably retro feel, while Mogwai’s ‘Endsong’ comes in like a storm, unforgiving, powerful from start to finish.

These 24 new versions hold their own as standalone and broader pieces to the puzzle, offering insight into new, previously undiscovered edges to Lost World, ones that offer more in the instrumental segments and the way they compound attention over Smith’s lyrics. Though these new elements rarely come close to the instrumental magic the Cure has already mastered, they certainly offer new avenues for exploration, letting you fester in those ambiguous realms for just a little bit longer.

Perhaps the star here is actually Deftones’ Chino Moreno’s take on ‘Warsong’, not just because of how much darker his composition makes the track feel but also because its added rhythmic cadences and pulsating notes drill in the meaningful urgency behind the track, giving it a more open relevance to today’s political climate and all the ways human conflict is tearing it down, detectable in the understated afflictions alone.

Just like the source material, these undeniable strokes of melancholy also give it an additional sense of vibrancy, taking the band’s original motifs without trying to turn them into something different, something far away from what makes them so great in the first place. Perhaps that’s the real beauty of Mixes; it takes what’s already there and enhances it, giving it more means for possibility beyond the world we’re already familiar with.

Warsong (Daybreakers remix)

Sonic Boom raffle

From Sonic Boom (Toronto):

The Cure Dance Party Alert & Acetate Raffle!

This Saturday June 14 from 1-3pm

Release Playback event with Guest DJ Prince Josh

The Cure 'Mixes Of A Lost World'

Pick up your copy of 'Mixes Of A Lost World' and get a Cure Litho or Tote Bag with purchase (while quantiles last)

ALSO !! At the event there will be a raffle for the Exclusive MOALW Acetate with all proceeds going to War Child!

It is one of only of 24 produced WORLDWIDE! Details and contesting available in store only.

Cure songs in Mixtape game

From Worth Playing:

'Mixtape' is a coming-of-age action adventure game built around the patchwork joy and emotional power of mixtapes.

'Mixtape' will feature music from iconic artists like The Cure, DEVO, Lush, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Joy Division, and many more. 

Thank you note from Robert

From Danny Briottet (Renegade Soundwave):

Got a nice card from Robert Smith in the post thanking me for remix of The Cure’s ‘And Nothing Is Forever’ from forthcoming Mixes of a Lost World album. I actually finished it at 4am due to a deadline, sent it to Robert and went outside for some air and ting, came back feeling mashed only to see a message from Robert pop straight up. I thought bloody hell I hope he’s not gonna tell me he doesn’t like it and to fix it up. But the message said ‘Danny I love it, thank you ‘ - great end to a proper all night old school session. Thanks to Daryl Bamonte for the hookup and my dread mix partner Rico Conning as ever.

Record Parlour auction

From The Record Parlour:

Our auction for The Cure's Mixes of a Lost World acetate has just launched.

All proceeds will be given to the band's charity of choice - @WarChildUK so whatever you spend will be going to a great cause!!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/286628968448

1 week until MoaLW

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Spindizzy raffle

To celebrate the release of The Cure's 'Mixes Of A Lost World', audio fragments from the album have been pressed to vinyl acetate.

We were one of a small number of very lucky independent records shops to be nominated by the remix artists to receive one!

The Acetate was played on request for a week in the store so has some play wear.

If you want to get your hands on this extremely rare piece of The Cure memorabilia, we're running a charity raffle on our website.

You have until 12pm (midday) Monday 9th June to enter. We will then draw a winner and notify them via email by the end of that day.

Tickets cost €10 and all the donations will go to War Child Charity. You can purchase as many entries as you like from our website, link in bio. 1 ticket = 1 entry. The more you buy the greater the chance! Remember ALL proceeds go to charity!!!!

Good Luck! 

https://spindizzyrecords.com/products/the-cure-moalw-acetate-charity-raffle?_pos=1&_sid=46297200f&_ss=r

Secret 7" reminder

From The Cure:

Not long left to get your hands on a one-of-a-kind 7" vinyl of Warsong: Troxy Live 2024 in the @Secret7s auction! Bidding closes 1 June from 2pm uk.givergy.com/Secret7/

Drone:Nodrone (Daniel Avery remix)

Music Mania raffle

Win our Mixes of A Lost World acetate. One of only 24 in existence. All proceeds go to War Child UK.

You can now purchase a lottery ticket to win this extremely unique acetate LP.

There is no limit to the number of lottery tickets you can buy. The more tickets you buy, the more your name will be entered in the draw! 

You can enter the lottery up until June 12th 2025. We'll draw a winner June 13th, official release date of the full Mixes Of A Lost World.

https://www.musicmaniarecords.be/166-the-cure/19734-mixes-of-a-lost-world-acetate-lottery-ticket

Cindy & Lol with Phil

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Sweat Records auction

Up for grabs! Thank you so much to the fans who came out to listen to The Cure's "Mixes of a Lost World" acetate! We were incredibly honored to be one of just 24 record stores in the world to receive this exclusive piece. Starting today, we are auctioning it off with 100% of the proceeds going to War Child, which supports children living in conflict zones. You've got one week to bid to take home this super rare, one-of-a-kind collectible from The Cure

https://www.ebay.com/itm/226781046973

Thorne raffle

🎟️🎟️🎟️THE TIME HAS COME🎟️🎟️🎟️

THE MOALW ACETATE CHARITY RAFFLE IS UPON US

As one of only 24 record shops in the WORLD to be sent this precious disc we have had the pleasure of playing it to you all this month but the time has come for it to find a new home…

COULD IT BE YOURS?!

To be in with a chance of winning this piece of EXTREMELY RARE Cure memorabilia you will need to purchase a raffle ticket from us in-store or by calling 0131 228 1000.

🎟️Tickets are £5 each

🎟️No limit to how many tickets you can buy so get as much you like to increase your chances of winning

🎟️100% of your £5 goes to War child

🎟️The winning ticket will be randomly selected from Jake’s wee Cure ticket box and announced on MOALW release day, Fri 13th June

🎟️The acetate can ONLY be collected from Thorne Records in Edinburgh. IT WILL NOT BE POSTED

With news this week that 93% of children in Gaza are at immediate risk of famine, War Child need our money more than ever

Thorne Records will donate £100 to the final raffle total

Best of luck everyone x

Monorail raffle

The time has come.

You can win our Mixes Of A Lost World acetate from The Cure. All proceeds go to War Child UK. Buy as many tickets as you like.

It's been incredible to be involved, thank you to The Cure, their team + the artists who nominated us.

https://monorailmusic.com/product/mixes-of-a-lost-world-acetate-raffle-ticket/

Stranger Than Paradise raffle

 RAFFLE NOW LIVE! ✨

 @thecure.com Mixes Of A Lost World

SUPER LTD ACETATE

ONLY 24 EXIST!

ENTER OUR RAFFLE NOW FOR A CHANCE TO WIN🎁

100% OF PROCEEDS TO @warchilduk.bsky.social 

❤️ @danielmarkavery.bsky.social for nominating the store❤️

All details:

https://www.strangerthanparadiserecords.com/blogs/news/the-cure-mega-limited-acetate-war-child-charity-ra/

Resident raffle

From Resident:

The Cure - War Child Charity Raffle!

Entry Here: https://www.resident-music.com/productdetails&product_id=128134

Tickets cost £5 and all the donations will go to @warchild. You can purchase as many entries as you like!

We were one of a small number of very lucky independent records shops to be nominated by the remix artists (which for us happened to be Orbital) to receive a 1 of 24 @thecure acetate!

And as luck would have it, @orbitalband were popping in to sign copies of their new reissue of the ‘Brown Album’, so we asked them to sign our acetate too!

If you want to get your hands on this extremely rare piece of @thecure & @orbitalband memorabilia, we’re running a charity raffle on our website. 

You have until 12pm (midday) Monday 9th June to enter. We will then draw a winner and notify them via email by the end of that day.

Ruby Fields covers Lovesong

Full list of stores with audio fragments

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Audio fragments in Toronto

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Win a copy of MoaLW

Be one of five to win The Cure's 'Mixes of a Lost World' on 3CD Deluxe or 2LP! Enter here.

Only open to residents of Canada.

Secret 7" test pressings

We're very excited to reveal that we have now added the super-rare test pressings for all seven Secret 7" tracks for 2025 to our auction.

Even more excitingly the test pressings for @thecure's Warsong, @frankturner's Be More Kind, @GregoryPorter's Merchants of Paradise, @JessieWare's Beautiful People and @keaneofficial's Black Rain and @SophieEB's Devotion have all been signed by the artists themselves. 

Not only could you get your hands on a rare collector's item, but bidding on our test pressings is the only way to guarantee that you are bidding on the Secret 7" track of your choice.  

Bid now at bit.ly/4jaeWHq, auction items 702-751

Mark Hoppus talks about The Cure

Mark Hoppus from Blink-182 talks about his love for The Cure, the influence of Simon Gallup, playing with Robert Smith, and his "close encounter" with Robert. Cure talk from15:09-17:56.

Audio fragments at Resident

From Resident:

🎶 @thecure ‘Mixes of a Lost World’ sounding mega in the shop 🎶

Anniversary edit on WDR

From AHundredYears:

The Cure: Anniversary 1978-2018 at London Hyde Park 2018. 

A 20-song version will be broadcast on german WDR television at 2:00 a.m. in the night of 18 to 19 May.

Cure comic in Italy

From Pietro:

Hi! A graphic novel just came out in Italy telling the story of the birth of The Cure.

Read more here.

Endsong (Orbital Remix)

Audio fragments in Sheffield

From Bear Tree Records:

Honoured to have received this acetate from @thecure featuring audio fragments  from their forthcoming remix album!

Audio fragments in Brighton

From Resident:

Somethings just arrived @thecure.com 👀

Audio fragments from Mixes Of A Lost World have been pressed to vinyl acetate which will decay more & more with each play.

Keep an eye out on our socials for more info on how to get an exclusive listen!

More info - www.thecure.com/moalw/

Audio fragments in Edinburgh

From Thorne Records:

BIG NEWS: 

We're the only shop in Edinburgh to get a "Mixes of a Lost World" acetate from The Cure—only 24 exist worldwide! 

Hear it in-store daily 'til May 26, then we auction it for @warchilduk.bsky.social  

It decays as it plays—very Cure. 

More info: thecure.com/moalw

Signed turntable auction

From Secret 7":

We have 7 Rega turntables signed by Robert Smith to be won! 

Our pals at @RegaResearch have generously donated seven Planar 1 turntables, signed by the legendary frontman of @TheCure.

Six signed turntables are up for auction, with the six highest bidders each receiving a signed turntable.

One signed turntable will go to the winner of our prize draw. By donating just £10 to @WarChildUK you could be in with a chance of winning.

🔗 Enter the prize draw and auction at https://secret-7.co.uk/rega-turntables/

⏰ Prize draw ends: Sunday 1 June 2025, 19:00 BST

Another podcast with Daryl Bamonte

Europe In Synch podcast EP 11

Daryl Bamonte (Archangelo Music) shares insights from his 25-year career working with Depeche Mode and The Cure, and looks at the music industry’s evolution over the years since he started.

Audio fragments of Mixes of a Lost World

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My Best Shot: Andy Vella

From The Guardian:

‘I’ve met people with tattoos of it’: Andy Vella on shooting the Cure’s Boys Don’t Cry cover

‘The guitar, the hair, the mystery – I think I captured who the Cure are with this picture. When I showed it to Robert Smith and the band’s manager, they jumped up and down’

Interview by Amy Fleming

Ithink this is the Cure image that’s most reproduced. I’ve met people with tattoos of it. It’s been bootlegged, like, millions of times. The bootlegs are rubbish, though – half the time someone’s obviously cut the stencil out with a scalpel, and it’s so crude.

This image was used for the cover of Boys Don’t Cry when it was rereleased in 1986. It was taken during the video shoot, which featured three boys playing the band when young. I used to just go to those shoots as a fly on the wall, grabbing shots where I could – you try to not get in the way.

Robert Smith does that thing with his hand when he relaxes – I guess playing guitar must be quite tiring on the hands – so there’s a lovely restfulness about the image. I like how reflective it is. The silhouette of Robert was always interesting to me: the guitar, the hair, it always seemed to work. I like the dramatic, mysterious feel of the image.

I’ve worked with clients who are not specific about what they want, and you’re always thinking in the back of your mind: “Am I doing the right thing?” Every creative probably goes through that. But Robert knows what he wants: it’s good to work with people like that.

I started collaborating with the Cure in 1981. Whenever we did a shoot, the band would ask: “Do you think you got something good?” And I would say: “I don’t know until I’ve developed it.” You’re grabbing things, you’re playing with spontaneity. You see stuff through the viewfinder, and you’re composing in that. It was only later on in my career that I also started taking Polaroids.

On this shoot, though, the film jammed. I wound it back into the camera, hoping for the best. When I took it to the lab I said: “I’m not sure anything’s on this.” But there was, and when I showed the pictures to Robert and the band’s then manager, Chris Parry, the next day, they jumped up and down and said: “That’s the picture we’re going to use.” It was frame 21 on the film and it had jammed at 22 – I was lucky. That’s the beauty of this kind of work: sometimes we’re successful because of the choices that we make, but sometimes it’s the choices other people make.

The original image is black and white but the record cover is a colourised version, where I’ve used photographic dyes on top of the print. There are slight pinks and yellows and things in there, but it’s subtle. I was taught at art school to add and enhance, not take away, so I still wanted it to feel on the monochromatic scale. I didn’t want it to look too tripped out, I wanted it to have realism. But I do think I captured exactly who the Cure are with that picture, and it’s been tried and tested since with the amount of people who relate to it.

When I was younger, I had a paper round specifically so I could buy records. Then I would hide away in the corner of my house with headphones on, immersing myself in the record sleeves. I remember thinking Meddle by Pink Floyd was the best thing. It’s just a brilliant cover – a big ear with water droplets on it. It was trippy and amazing and summed up a brilliant album. Now I’ve got students who want to get into music-industry design. I don’t know if it’s easy or difficult today, but I think if you’ve got talent and passion, you can do whatever you want.

 Until 1 June, 700 unique artist-designed record sleeves, including Andy Vella’s new the Cure design, are in a global online auction in aid of War Child, the specialist charity for children caught in conflict

Andy Vella’s CV

Born: Hampshire, 1961

Trained: Royal College of Art

Influences: Man Ray, André Kertész, Raoul Ubac, Wols

High point: “There are three: being invited by War Child to design a sleeve for Secret 7” 2025; having my Obscure book of photographs exhibited in Sydney Opera House in 2019; and, at Mick’s request, shooting Mick Rock’s portrait”

Low point: “Not having my camera with me when I see a great photo!”

Top tip: “Shoot loads. Think of the composition within the frame, and what it is you are trying to capture or communicate. Use light, fogging or real distortion for effects rather than relying on post-production. Go for authenticity. I try not to get bogged down with the technical, I aim for what I am after and allow all mistakes to hijack what it is I am creating.”

 The headline on this article was amended on 8 May 2025. An earlier version said that the image was used as the album cover of Boys Don’t Cry; in fact, it was used as the single cover upon its 1986 rerelease.