CURE GOLD

Loved your Cure feature in the December issue [Take 271].Takes me right back to the Faith tour where I saw the band at Newcastle City Hall in 1981 in all their motionless, monochrome glory, standing before the giant backdrop screen… I then immersed myself in the Pornography album for many months – not entirely due to an overload of booze and hallucinogens, you understand (ah, the free student grant!) – and it was a wild sonic ride… Great to see how Robert Smith remains little changed after all these years, apart from his expanding waistline of course… He has followed his muse and put out whatever he’s felt inclined to do, without pandering to popular taste or even giving up on the lipstick and backcomb… And now he’s back to the doom and gloom again, although the various pop interludes are also great. Wonderful intimate shot of Smith and Bowie backstage at the Royal Festival Hall in 2001 by the way… Keep it coming!

John Rowe, Newcastle