Daryl update

As many of you know, Daryl Bamonte has formed a band, Compact Space, with Florian Kraemmer and Christian Eigner (drummer with Depeche Mode). They are now on Twitter, @_compactspace, and will have an announcement on April 26th. (Thanks Roger)

More Sean Penn as "Robert" photos

Update (April 14th, 2011): Some outtakes from the film have been posted on YouTube. Also, the film will be in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. (Thanks Marco and Luca)

Update 2 (April 15th, 2011): The Playlist, Consequence of Sound, and TwentyFourBit have stories about it.

Original story (March 1st, 2011): As most of you will remember, in Sean Penn's new film, 'This Must Be The Place', director Paolo Sorrentino says he based the look of Penn's character on Robert Smith. David collected a bunch of photos of Sean filming the movie, so here they are. I don't know, looks like a little of RS, mixed with a lot of classic Wayne Hussey, to me. (Thanks David)

Roger Update

From Roger's newsletter: "I had a meeting with Gill Tarlton who is head of strings at the Centre For Young Musicians. We discussed the performance of my suite "Quieter Trees" and how it would progress. I met the arranger John Kirby on that Saturday and we now have a tentative date of Juy 2nd 2011. I personally believe this will be a career topping moment for me and I would so love for as many of you to come as possible. I wont be performing so I can enjoy it with you. I would just love to share this amazing special day in my career with everyone that has supported me for so long. I will let you have more details when I know. I am going to be filming the whole process for possible DVD release.

In the midst of all this I agreed to two more shows, one on the boat in London again which is called Ship of Fools on Sunday June 5th and the second at the WGT festival in Leipzi Germany. The show in Leipzig will also have Jo Quail my friend and an amazing cellist performing also Alan Wilder from DM with his Recoil project.

Lastly I have finally made the Synthesist T shirt that I have been talking about for ages!"

And from Twitter today: "Quieter Trees debut performance by the CYM String Orchestra confirmed for July 2nd in London at the Morley College!"

Congratulations, Roger! Could not be happier about this for you!

Sydney 1981 Faith show petition to Triple J

Update (April 13th, 2011): Bumping this up for Brent and for the 30th anniversary of the release of 'Faith' this week. Come on, Triple J, play it!

Original story (Oct. 20th, 2010): "With the 30th anniversary of Faith coming up in just a few months from now, and Lol's comments recently about thinking it would be fun to do some 30th anniversary shows for the Faith album with the original line-up, I had an idea and spent 10 minutes making this petition today.

Triple J radio in Australia recorded The Cure's Sydney 1981 show, a great show and best sounding recording of the tour (I'm sure you know the version of Faith on the Charlotte Sometimes 12" b-side).

Over the years Triple J has played the odd song here and there, I made this petition to ask them to please broadcast the whole show in full, what better time to do it than for the 30th anniversary!"
(Thanks Brent)

The Cure in 3-D

Virtual Festivals reports that Bestival will be filmed, and broadcast, in 3-D.

Update: It will be live for 2 hours each day, 7 & 1/2 live hours total, and a 90 minute special after the ed of the festival. More details here, here, and here. (Thanks Perfect.Murder)

'Disintegration' #17 on Q's Top 50 British Songs

'Disintegration' comes in at #17 on Q magazine's 50 Ultimate British Songs in their March issue. Full list here. (Thanks Perfect.Murder)

'Trilogy' on NME list

The Cure's 'Trilogy' makes it on to NME's 20 Live DVDS Everyone Should Own list. And rightfully so. The DVD is great and the Blu-ray is incredible! We really need 'In Orange' and 'Show' out on DVD & Blu-ray, too.

Porl's Gibson ES-345 for sale

Porl's Gibson ES-345 is for sale on ebay from New King's Road Vintage Guitar Emporium. (Thanks Xta)

'Entreat Plus' for RSD update

An update on the story posted here - It looks like the 'Entreat Plus' vinyl will NOT be a Record Store Day release, as Sunshine Records originally indicated. There has been no official word from anyone, no one (WEA, retailers, etc.) can find it on any RSD release list, and everything still points to it being canceled/indefinitely delayed. While it is still listed on Sunshine Records' website list, it is not on their more detailed list on Facebook, and I can't find any other record store that has any mention of it. Sunshine either had some bad info or WEA changed their plans.

Still, if you are going anyway, maybe to pick up the limited edition Deftones 'Covers' EP, featuring their live version of 'If Only Tonight We Could Sleep', look around for it...just in case.
(Thanks to everyone who helped with this)

CoF updates

I've added a separate page for Cure Covers. The dates listed in the page titles indicates the last time each of the pages were updated.

Also added Ronda's tattoo to the Cure Tattoo photo gallery.

Cure and Depeche Mode 1987 studio footage

Thanks to the always excellent Slicing Up Eyeballs for posting this as their Vintage Video today.

Update: And here's more from Miraval.
(Thanks Perfect.Murder and Impression of Sounds)

Robert works with Rebecca Black!

As unlikely as it might seem, Robert has recorded a new version of 'Friday I'm in Love' with teen internet sensation Rebecca Black. (In case this wasn't obvious, it was an April Fools joke from Funny or Die)

Cure parties and events

April 1st: Sheffield, England - Cure Special at Offbeat Indie Night.
April 7th: Fullerton, CA - The Curse at The Slide Bar.
April 9th: Rome, Italy - Cure party with Concura.
April 9th: Mexico - The Cure & Siouxsie night at Allende Red (The Djs: ROBAS * MAYOR TOM * VRK * KAT VAMP) FREE ENTRANCE
April 21st: Chicago, IL -The Cure Tribute Night/Robert's B-Day Celebration at Neo (10pm - 4am) FREE ALL NIGHT IF YOU DRESS LIKE ROBERT
April 21st: Seattle, WA - Fascination Street at Tractor Tavern.
April 22nd & 23rd: Berlin, Germany - Cure Fan Weekend and A Strange Night party.

Rumor: Cure South American tour

The Cure rumor mill continues to work overtime. This time it's a rumor of a full South American tour: "One of the most important bands of the English post-punk hits concerts in Brazil. The Cure arrives in late September / early October as part of a South American tour that also goes for Argentina, Chile and possibly more countries." (Thanks Fabinho)
Read the full article at Area VIP (English translation).

My now standard disclaimer for these rumors - As of today, the only officially confirmed Cure show in 2011 is Bestival. You want to make sure you see them this year? Get to Bestival. Until Robert says otherwise, that is the only Cure show for this year.

30 Day Song Challenge: SDWAY

Audio Justice is doing a 30 day song challenge, and for Day 1: Your Favorite Song, Dan picked 'The Same Deep Water As You'. (Thanks @AudioJustice)

Rumor: Cure in Chile this October

Here we go again...so this time it's a Chilean newspaper (English translation) claiming that possibly, maybe, they think The Cure are playing in Chile the 3rd week of October, but they're not quite sure because it's all top secret.
I don't mean to sound so negative about it. After all, this one is more plausible than some of the other rumored shows, given Robert's tease of "(HOWEVER, IF YOU LIVE IN SOUTH AMERICA, YOU MIGHT CONSIDER WAITING A WHILE BEFORE BOOKING YOUR TICKET... YOU NEVER KNOW... )", but I'll repeat what I said for that false Germany rumor. As of today, the only officially confirmed Cure show in 2011 is Bestival. You want to make sure you see them this year? Get to Bestival. Until Robert says otherwise, that is the only Cure show for this year.
Still, good luck to the South American fans. Hope this gets confirmed for you. (Thanks Raul)

Charity Auction Prints for Japan: Robert Smith

"This is a link to a Japan relief fundraiser auction. Ive donated a photo of Robert Smith for the auction. I took the photo in 2009 at Coachella.

Photographers donating prints for auction to help the people of Japan following the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. You can bid on and win photographic prints with 100% of the money going direct to a charity helping with the relief effort."
(Thanks sad giraffe)

'Disintegration' is #9 on Rolling Stone poll

The Cure's 'Disintegration' came in at #9 on Rolling Stone's 10 Best Albums of the 80s Readers Poll. (Thanks Scott/@swig75)

Rumor: Cure in Germany this Autumn?

Update (03/28/11): False. Wilco contacted concert organizer Norbert Döpp, and he says that while there will be another tour, it won't be this year: "Da ist leider nichts dran. Diese Schreiberlinge vertreten einem das Wort im Munde. Es wird eine CureTour geben, aber sicher nicht in diesem Jahr. Sobald ich was höre, bist Du der erste der davon erfährt." (Thanks Wilco)

Original story (03/25/11): Interesting comment in the online version of German magazine Zitty. While talking about the concert industry in Berlin, the organizer of Cure concerts in Germany says that The Cure will play there this Autumn, and talks a bit about the root canal Robert had to have before the 2008 Velodrom show. Here's a rough English translation of that part:

"What really helps are growing contacts, says Döpp. Close friendships. For example, with Robert Smith, the lead singer of The Cure. That would never happen here without Döpp as partners. Especially not since the thing with the molar tooth: pre-concert at the Velodrome last Cure tour Smith was plagued by terrible pain, Döpp brought him to his dentist who proceeded to perform root canal treatment. Something welded together. In the fall The Cure will return to Germany. Döpp has already received an email."

Again, as of today, the only officially confirmed Cure show in 2011 is Bestival. You want to make sure you see them this year? Get to Bestival. Until Robert says otherwise, that is the only Cure show for this year. But let's hope we get some very good news from RS soon. (Thanks Boris)

Pitch-corrected version of Bananafishbones

"As I'm sure you're aware, the Remaster of The Top has "Bananafishbones" playing a little bit faster than the original studio version (which gives Robert's voice an unnatural, almost helium sounding quality to it). I used some software to correct this problem because I hated hearing this song at the wrong pitch whenever it would come on in my car but I do like the loudness of the remaster. I was just doing this for myself at first but I thought I would send it your way so we can share it with other Curefans.

Here's Bananafishbones (Remastered) at the ORIGINAL studio tempo of 144bpm and with the correct pitch.
And here's Bananafishbones (Remastered) at the REMASTER tempo of 151.95bpm and with the correct pitch."
(Thanks to Brian from the The Curse)

Note: As I've been reminded, Robert says the original version is the wrong pitch. The remastered one is the way he intended it to sound. Still, if you prefer the old "wrong" version, now you have a choice.