From
Classic Rock:
A book featuring rare and previously unseen photographs of The Cure is set for release next month.
Collated by the band's official photographer Andy Vella,
Obscure will be released on September 18 and includes a foreword by frontman Robert Smith.
Smith says the book is "dreadfully funny, terribly honest and strangely melancholic."
Vella co-created the artwork for many of The Cure's albums, including
Faith, The Top, The Head On The Door, Disintegration and
Wish, and has worked with the band since 1981.
The book features photographs spanning four decades and includes shots from this year's gig at The Royal Albert Hall.
"I get something different from Robert because I've known him for
so long", Vella tells Classic Rock. "He plays to my lens in a completely
different way to others. When I'm photographing other people, for
example fashion shoots, it's very much like I'm in charge, but when I
photograph The Cure,
they are. Quite often, the band don't
take me very seriously: Boris Williams [former drummer] used to throw
stuff at me, while Roger O'Donnell would always say that my flash
hadn't gone off. As a result, I'm able to capture the band
enjoying themselves in a way that isn't usually seen.
"It really annoys me when I read about the band being such
miserable bastards, because they're really not, and I think I capture
that. I want Cure fans to see them in the way that I do. You can go on
the web and see loads of shots of Robert, but the problem with press
shoots is that they always show the band in a certain way. This is
different: it's a little bit fly-on-the-wall.
"I think fans will end up loving the band more than they do
already. When I was putting this all together, I was thinking 'there's
so much stuff!', but it feels like a really powerful collection. It's
not pretentious, and it's not po-faced: from page to page, it's more
like a documentary. And that's what I wanted."
Obscure is available now to pre-order from Foruli Codex.
(Thanks David)
