never enough!
life as a cure fan, from far away to close-up, by stuart braithwaite of serial support act mogwai.
“the cure have endured as a live band because robert is a perfectionist.”
MY SISTER WAS a huge Cure fan, and through her, I became totally obsessed with the Standing On A
Beach singles compilation, on cassette, with all the B-sides.
Disintegration was the first album I ever bought, and I bought all their others too.
There are many different layers to The Cure, so much that they can do. Obviously, they’re a brilliant singles band, but they can be amazingly minimalist or more frenzied too. Robert’s lyrics have resonated with me my whole life, as a kid, then a teenager and still now that I’m older.
Pornography is my favourite album, I think because I’ll always be a teenage goth. But it’s very focused and loud, and very singular. I listened to
Faith just the other day.
Now that I don’t listen to music in quite the same obsessed fashion, it amused me to think I knew every single weird little bass noise and hi-hat on those records.
Mogwai have some songs that sound just like The Cure, but beyond that, what we’ve incorporated the most is how their songs have not one but several melodies, all interwoven, which makes their music so interesting. It’s such an atmospheric sound and they’re not afraid to use different tools to manipulate and affect the mood. The first Cure show I saw was on the Prayer tour, at Glasgow SECC, 1989. They played the whole of Disintegration, which blew my mind, three hours every night. There aren’t many bands that play for so long, but I never find their shows too long: you just need strong ankles! The Cure have endured as a live band because Robert is a perfectionist. Most bands just get up and bash away, but he takes it unbelievably seriously, with a level of detail I’ve never seen elsewhere. They have a little practice space backstage so they can rehearse something if they want, and Robert listens back to every show, all three hours of it or more. When Mogwai have toured with the Cure, I’ve only missed one of their shows after we played, when Celtic were playing Rangers and I had to get some sleep beforehand! My favourites live tend to be from Pornography –A Strange Day, The Figurehead, A Hundred Years. But Disintegration’s title track has a really frantic energy. It’s great watching Rob give his guitar hell.