Cured: The Tale of Two Imaginary Boys

I found this a highly enjoyable book. It doesn't go too deeply into details about the making of The Cure's albums or insight into the songs, if that's what you're looking for. But what this book does is share Lol's life experiences, starting from his childhood. It's extremely vulnerable and heartfelt. I enjoyed the casual conversational tone that he keeps consistent throughout. It felt like Lol and I were hanging out in person. My biggest accolade goes to the fact that he's very honest, even at the expense of not making himself look too good all of the time. It's a journey through life's struggles and losses, achievements and joys. And in the end, it's a book about redemption. It's about looking back at your life, about what you find when you acknowledge your failures as your own responsibilities, and what you find about yourself then. It was more than one of those stories about an ex-alcoholic who figured out his way in life by quitting the bottle - but what he finds can be applied to all of us, even those who aren't ex-alcoholics. Additionally, I enjoyed that while telling the many stories he shares of The Cure's early tours, Lol often quickly frames events with a bit of social, political, and/or economic history. It helped greatly to understand the worldview of a specific time and place. The anecdotes of youthful debauchery were also fun; they weren't generic (as in roll my eyes because ugh it's the same old rock band story in every rock band book), yet at the same time very relatable. I found myself laughing out loud when he'd remind me of the silly things my friends and I used to do when we were kids. Being that this book is about TWO imaginary boys, it's also a reflection on the complexities of the relationships between people. It delves quite deeply into Lol's friendship with Robert. Sometimes it did feel like Lol talks more about Robert than he does about himself, but I think by talking about Robert so much, he actually reveals a lot about the kind of person that he is. When he's not battling his demons, he's extremely observant, very much in tune with his surroundings without needing to be in the spotlight all of the time, and a very loyal friend. I was so impressed by the amount of respect and trust he had for his friend Robert, and when he notices the good in people, it never comes across as being fake. Sometimes I read memoirs by people I like, that unfortunately leaves me with a less than stellar impression and makes me like them less. This book was quite the opposite. The Cure is one of my most favorite bands ever, but I never cared TOO much about Lol. However, this book really changed my impression and made me like him a lot more.

One of the best music memoirs/autobiographies I've read--and not just because I love the Cure. Funnily enough, I had been thinking about the lack of any really good recent books about the Cure, or by a member of the Cure--and not a day later, I read that this book was about to be released. I ordered it and waited eagerly for its release. I didn't know what to expect; I haven't read or heard all that many interviews with Lol, and I wasn't sure what his style, voice, or tone would be like. Music autobios/memoirs are a crap shoot. Some are well done and leave you with a good sense of the individual and the evolution of his or her music and career; some are informative, but all too obviously written by ghost writers or edited with a heavy hand; and some are just plain disappointing across the board due to bad writing and/or the lack of honest self reflection and introspection on the part of the musician. So I was very pleased to find out how much I truly enjoyed the book (I read it in a couple days). Lol is honest and authentic, which makes this book a satisfying read. He does an excellent job of recounting stories from the Cure's early days from his own perspective, providing insight into the personalities and relationships that make The Cure The Cure. He's respectful of his former bandmates, while primarily turning the critical eye towards himself. And unlike some musicians, he doesn't start telling a story only to end it abruptly with "well, I won't get into what happened next, it's too personal." Any story he tells, he tells from beginning to end, getting the point across without being unnecessarily salacious or shocking. This indicates a respect for the reader as well. I'm really glad I read this book (and happened to hear about it at just the right time). I applaud Lol Tolhurst for the work he did in providing us with a genuinely insightful and satisfying read.

Al comprar Cured, no le puse expectativas, simplemente decidí leer lo que Mr. Tolhurst quería contarnos y dejarme llevar. Soy fan de The Cure y el conocer de primera mano cómo y en qué ambiente se gestó la banda, me ha encantado. Anécdotas de unos adolescentes que antepusieron sus objetivos a las circunstancias adversas fruto del lugar y el tiempo que les tocó vivir. Nos cuenta cómo se sucedieron los acontecimientos para llegar a ser lo que actualmente son, una banda de reconocido prestigio con unos fans muy fieles a los que ellos respetan y por los que se esfuerzan para ofrecerles siempre lo mejor de sí mismos. Nos narra con mucha sinceridad cómo los demonios internos se pueden apoderar de uno sin llegar a ser verdaderamente consciente mientras estás enfrascado en tu día a día haciendo realidad tus objetivos hasta que te das de bruces con la realidad y debes tomar serias y definitivas acciones para salir del pozo. Lectura agradable y ligera. Altamente recomendable a los fans de The Cure. A mí me ha abierto una nueva senda para volver a escuchar su música y verla con otros ojos, mucho más consciente de la labor y entresijos que hay detrás. Estas memoires hacen que me guste más, si cabe, esta banda de la que soy fan desde hace casi 40 años.

I have been a rabid fan of The Cure since only last year, 2019, when I discovered there was much more to the band than their most famous commercial hits like In Between Days, Close to Me, Friday I'm in Love and many others. Going through and discovering their back catalogue of their late 70's beginnings and subsequent early 80's classic albums, their mid 80's transitional period, their true greatness in albums like The Head on the Door, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, Disintegration and Wish, their frequent shifts between band members who joined, left, then came back again, others who were there for a while then left for good, the diversification of their music encompassing post punk, alternative rock, pop, sensitive melodic ballads and even a little jazz, their very humble backgrounds of middle class suburban young men who morphed into very individual artistic personalities that embodied the whole gamut of human emotion in their work and grew to appeal to people of all ages and backgrounds from countries all over the world from Europe to the Americas to Australia....all this totally fascinated and stunned me and eventually led me to purchase founder member and drummer/keyboardist Lol Tolhurst's book Cured which encompasses the whole story from the very beginnings through all the first tumultuous decade of the band and beyond up to the writing of this book in 2015. But this is not only a written record of the band's experiences during the late 70s up to the late 80's during which Lol was a member of the band. It is a very humane, sensitive, emotional and intelligent telling of a very personal story of a young boy who suffered loneliness and the problems of having an alcoholic father to discovering his love of books and music as his solace to making friends with schoolmate and musical soulmate Robert Smith (who is an essential factor of the book) and later with Michael Dempsey (who formed the first real band The Cure which had morphed out of their very early schoolfriend bands Malice and Easy Cure); to being introduced to alcohol at the age of 13; to the first teenage experiences of meeting girls and falling in love; to the early tragic death of his mother whilst touring in 1981 and enjoying the first great successes with the band; to the dark shadows of his increasing alcoholism which takes up huge chunks of the book as Lol struggles hopelessly to get out of the hole he was digging and subsequently finding himself getting more and more out of control, ending up being discovered by the police and put in a prison cell (though only for a night); the added feelings of helplessness and hopelessness which seriously affected his musical career, causing problems during recording and touring which broke down the close relationship he had with Robert and with the rest of the band members which were his second family; to his leaving the band during the late 80's in acrimonious circumstances; to his futile experience of taking the band to Court after seeking help for his alcoholism; to the death of his first newborn daughter after living for just a few days and the breakdown of his first marriage which had always been a troubled relationship; to his subsequent financial problems; to his relocation to the USA for good; to the desperate emotions of severe depression as his whole life broke down; to his eventual spiritual salvation in the American desert location of Death Valley; to his meeting the love of his life, his second wife Cindy; to the chance to be a good father and have a close relationship with his son Gray (from his first marriage) and to the subsequent reinvention of himself as a contented man with peace in his heart and a great desire to put all the bad experiences of the past behind him and reconcile with the people whom he had hurt with his former behaviour and who had meant so much to him, which meant Robert and the rest of The Cure, to such an extent that he performed live on stage with them again in 2011, 25 years after he had left the band for good. It is an incredible story and one with which many people who have struggled to fight the demons in their own life can truly engage and empathise with. Lol has a great gift of describing the atmosphere of a pub, town, concert venue, country, human beings and above all genuine emotions in just a few words and sentences written in very erudite, expressive and intelligent English. He is economical and yet all encompassing and that has been one of the wonders of the book for me. It gave me much more than I originally expected. Lol also gives a no holds barred description of what it was like growing up in suburban England in the 1970's - the dullness and boredom, the underlying resentment of the adults living there, the endless grey clouds and rain of typical English weather which only added to the drabness and sadness of the environment, the unemployment which led to a social atmosphere of restlessness, endless drinking and violence which Lol and his friends/bandmates encountered everywhere they went in their home country and the politics of those times so in this sense he gives a very clear social picture of the era he was born into and brought up. This characteristic of the book continues in Lol's descriptions of the first European cities the band visited on their tours outside of the UK - Holland (where the naivety of the band members and their crew and friends was put to the test), France (whose food and climate he thoroughly enjoyed), the USA (New York which he disliked and Los Angeles which he loved), Germany (especially Berlin and the division of the Wall), Greece (where he witnessed first hand the violence that could erupt during large concerts), Argentina (which had a similar atmosphere due to the underlying tensions that still existed a couple of years after the demise of the military dictatorship that had dominated the country during the late 70's and early 80's) and Brazil (where he discovered a special tropical alcoholic drink which in his words proved "lethal"). There are several humorous and funny anecdotes of experiences that the guys went through during their innumerable live concerts in the UK and abroad which are related with a sarcasm and wit that is consistently enjoyable. These stories provide a foil to the ongoing tragedy of Lol's young life in his 20's and 30's when he had to cope with early family loss and his increasing alcoholism so the gamut of life and human experience is tackled, against a background of continuing and increasing success in his musical career. Lol demonstrates great affection for the many fans of The Cure, which are part of the band "family", and great admiration for Robert Smith, who he has watched grow from a young schoolboy, to a teenager with a weird sense of dress and a desire to escape from the drab surroundings of their hometown and an uninspiring future that society at the time offered to young men and achieve something worthwhile with the art that he loved, to a true musical master and genius, leading his band on a unique musical journey that has hypnotised countless generations of fans, creating a unique visual image of himself which is thoroughly individual and original and has stood the test of time, being consistent in his own life and music philosophy while proving willing to reinvent the musical style of the band to appeal to as many different emotions as possible, to an older man and generous entertainer who remained touring regularly with the band and performing live at various music festivals well into his middle age and up to the present and the cusp of old age , thus introducing the 40 year catalogue of Cure music to whole new generations of musical admirers. Of course, the best part of this book is that it has a happy ending and the final chapters, dealing with the reinvention of his life after freeing himself psychologically from all that he had been through, starting a new life with his beloved Cindy and Gray, his reconciliation with Robert and the exhilaration of performing live again with The Cure, and his realisation that the band would always be an essential part of his life and the greatest gift that had been given to him, really leave you on a high! I highly recommend this very special book not only for Cure fans but in general as a hugely intelligent read which is a veritable lesson of life.

Sono una fan dei Cure, su di loro avevo già letto, ascoltato e visto quasi tutto, in rete e su carta. Questo comunque è un ulteriore punto di vista, una pennellata di colore in più a una storia affascinante di persone indubbiamente fuori dal comune. Purtroppo, ma comprensibilmente, si focalizza molto sugli esordi, sorvolando parecchio sul periodo di maggior successo commerciale, antecedente la sua fuoriuscita dal gruppo. Non c'è gossip o polemiche, c'è grande senso di lealtà, rispetto, onestà nel trattare persone e fatti. Verrebbe proprio voglia di abbracciarli tutti e in particolare Lol. Spero che recuperi sempre più la memoria e continui a scrivere...noi fans non ne abbiamo mai abbastanza

I love all the details Lol has provided in this book. (I hope he doesn't mind me calling him by his first name, despite being a stranger). I can understand how some people just whizzed through this book, not being able to put it down, however, I've been taking more time with it, looking up a bunch of the places he mentions. It really gives me a more accurate picture of what he and Robert Smith experienced growing up, both before, and during, The Cure. Some writers probably wouldn't bother with so many details, but I really enjoy looking up the specific places - concert venues, recording studios, the various important places in Crawley and Horley when they were young. This is an honest book too. He's not trying to make things look overly polished, like he's somehow beyond all of us. There's only so much you can write in a book, and I think he gave a good amount. Not too little, not too much. Reading this book though makes me wish for a similar book from Robert. It would be really interesting to see his viewpoint going through a lot of the same things. This book has really brought back a lot of memories of my own, being a Cure fan and visiting Crawley with spending time in London (from Canada) back in 1992. What a life Lol has had!

Loved it. Explains each album. Some boring parts near the end though. But overall, extremely well written. Buy it.