AIRWAVES - With Hits "Galore" And New Set Planned, The "Never Fashionable" Cure Endures

BYLINE BY CHUCK TAYLOR

NEVER ENOUGH: For someone whose stock and trade image embodies darkness and gloom, the Cure
founder/lead singer Robert Smith is finding life just like heaven amid a just-released greatest-hits perspective, the
band"s first U.S. club dates in a decade, and a new studio album due in 1998.

Add to that the fact that the group is celebrating its 20th year after selling some 24 million albums since its first
single, "Killing An Arab," charted in 1979. Since that time, in fact, the Cure has become the virtual sole survivor
among its class of alternative pioneers born out of the early 1980s.

Smith attributes the Cure"s endurance to the fact that the group has never been deemed a trendy rock icon. "We
have never been a fashionable band," he says. "Perhaps there have been times in different countries where we
have been more in than out, but we"ve never relied on that. I think that has helped with the longevity--people judge
what we do with the music."

The other factor: "I still enjoy the music, and I still want to do it."

The band"s 18-track retrospective, "Galore," released Oct. 28 on Fiction/Elektra, covers what are arguably the
band"s most salient years, from 1987 to now, and includes modern rock staples like "Friday I"m In Love,"
"Fascination Street," "Pictures Of You," and "Why Can"t I Be You?" It picks up where the Cure"s 1986 platinum
"Standing On A Beach--The Singles" (covering tracks from 1979 to 1986) left off.

The new album, which debuted at No. 32 on The Billboard 200 in the Nov. 15 issue, includes one new song, "Wrong
Number," which peaked at No. 8 on last issue"s Modern Rock Tracks.

The cut was recorded in the summer during sessions for the Cure"s next project, which Smith hopes will hit the
streets by late spring or early summer 1998. In its original form, the midtempo "Wrong Number" included horns
and female backing singers. Says Smith, however, "There was a different song lurking in there."

After its demo version was recorded with the band--whose current lineup, with Smith, consists of longtime bassist
Simon Gallup, guitarist Perry Bamonte, keyboardist Roger O'Donnell, and Jason Cooper on drums--it was
presented to Smith"s co-producers Mark Plati and longtime contributor Mark Saunders, who sped up the song 10
beats per minute. Then, additional guitar licks were added by ex-Tin Machine member and David Bowie
collaborator Reeves Gabrels.

When Smith took the reworked track back to the band, "I played it for them, and they said, "Oh, that"s it, that"s
the single (for "Galore")," " he says.

Lyrically, "Wrong Number" was based on a couple of phone calls Smith had back-to-back with friends, during
which he would say one thing and the other parties either weren"t listening with an open mind or drew far-out
conclusions. "I took these two completely unrelated conversations and put them together," he says, illustrating
that "things can get to a point where you can have huge arguments with people, look back on it, and realize that
you were arguing for the same thing. It happens to the best people at times."

Still, Smith stresses that the track is more about rhythm and instrumentation than the message. "I was much more
concerned with the beat and the whole vibe of the song. That was more important than the individual words. With
this one, I sort of returned to a kind of songwriting I had done in the early days: a jumbled incoherence. I wasn"t
quite sure what I wanted to say. There was just more of an essence."

The process of songwriting over the past 20 years, Smith says, has evolved dramatically, actually becoming an
increasingly challenging task for him. "When I first started, with the first few singles, I wanted to be the Buzzcocks
or Elvis Costello. I was writing very upbeat, three-minute pop stuff," he says. "But within a few years, my life took
a downturn, and I felt pretty miserable. There was that struggle with who you are, what you are doing, those things.
That"s what I wrote about.

"But as you grow older and supposedly wiser, you"re supposed to know answers to questions you posed earlier in
life. I suspect most people don"t," Smith adds. "Now, my standards have gone up. My subjects have become
broader. I don"t need a mini-breakdown to write a song. As I"ve gotten older, I"ve become interested in more
things, and my horizons have broadened. The palette has more color in it."

Overall, Smith thinks this second singles collection is stronger and has had more impact than "Standing On A
Beach," adding that 70% of the tracks figure into the Cure"s live performances now. Even so, he says, it"s tough
for him to break the group"s work into such "easy slices. I think the band had a period from "86 to "92 where we
remained pretty consistent. For me, it"s been different since then.

"There are certain things musically that we often come back to, emblems and musical motifs that just attract me.
There"s one particular early-"80s sound and a late-"80s sound, based on the kinds of instruments, but if you look
at the whole body of work, it"s impossible to say there"s a definitive Cure sound--except for my voice."

As to being influenced by what"s fueling modern rock radio now: "I mostly disregard what is supposed to be
contemporary; it"s not of great concern to me," he says. "The music that I listen to--dance and classical
stations--isn"t necessarily what I write."

The band, meanwhile, has endured numerous personnel changes through the years. However, Smith says that the
current lineup is the best in years. "For the first time, with the particular band we have assembled at the moment,
there"s a kind of coherence that really brings the sound together," he says. "I think there have been times in the
past where the individuals" own diversities have made that difficult."

So far, Smith has written six tracks for the upcoming project, which the group recorded during three weeks this past
summer. He says that fans can expect to recognize the band"s signature calling cards, though, as with "Wrong
Number," the new songs are being produced with more of a dance lean than some of its recent efforts. Again,
Smith hopes to have Gabrels contribute guitar to several songs.

In the meantime, the Cure will busy itself through December playing nearly a dozen radio-station holiday shows in
major markets. "I expect it to be the heaviest, darkest set we"ve ever played," Smith says with an air of delight.
"We want to do something that people will meet with a bit of emotional impact. We plan to throw in three or four
songs this band has never played before--things I haven"t sung in 10 years."

Already, the Cure introduced "Galore" with two full-length, sold-out shows in October in Hollywood, Calif., and
New York--its first U.S. club sets in a decade. The New York gig on Halloween was cybercast on the Internet and
broadcast live on more than 60 radio stations nationwide. Both were primarily filled with songs from the collection.
Reviews gushed about the band"s tenacity and persistently tight live skills, and Smith"s increasingly personable,
energetic onstage demeanor.

"There was an upbeat vibe at those shows," he acknowledges. "It was good fun, just us onstage with our crowd."

That crowd today consists of many of the thirtysomethings that have held hands with the band since the "80s, as
well as an influx of fresh-faced fans of the latest thing. "One reason we"ve been commercially successful over the
years is that we"ve been able to hold on to that smattering of older people lined up against the wall avoiding the
chance of physical harm," Smith says with a laugh.

In either case, young or old, Smith says that proponents of the band will likely remain attentive because, over the
past 20 years, the Cure has not attempted to reinvent its mission.

"I would hate it if we matured into a middle-of-the-road rock act. That doesn"t appeal to me," he says. "I feel the
same as I did 10 years ago. I"m still doing it for the same reasons--that"s to make something. We"ve been
fortunate that a number of people have enjoyed what we"ve done through the years."