The Cure's long-time bassist Simon Gallup has announced his departure from the band in a Facebook post. stating briefly, "With a slightly heavy heart I am no longer a member of the Cure ! Good luck to them all"
The band are yet to release an official statement on the matter but as the shock news was met by fans in disbelief, Gallup confirmed in replies to comments his account hadn't been hacked and he wasn't unwell. Instead he elaborated slightly on his reasons for quitting in another reply, saying he'd "just got fed up of betrayal."
When you have friends like that, particularly for that long, it would take something really extraordinary for that friendship to break
An integral part of The Cure's sound, Gallup joined in 1979 to replace Michael Dempsey on bass guitar. He initially departed the band acrimoniously on the 1982 Pornography tour. He rejoined in 1984. In addition to bass, he's also been credited for keyboard and guitar work with the band.
Robert Smith alluded to his sometimes fractious relationship with Gallup, but also his admiration for his longtime friend in a 2019 interview with the NME; “For me, the heart of the live band has always been Simon, and he’s always been my best friend,” Smith said. “It’s weird that over the years and the decades he’s often been overlooked. He doesn’t do interviews, he isn’t really out there and he doesn’t play the role of a foil to me in public, and yet he’s absolutely vital to what we do.
“We’ve had some difficult periods over the years but we’ve managed to maintain a very strong friendship that grew out of that shared experience from when we were teens. When you have friends like that, particularly for that long, it would take something really extraordinary for that friendship to break.
“You’ve done so much together, you’ve so much shared experience, you just don’t want to lose friends like that,” Smith added.
The band are readying at least one, possibly two new records for release with one reportedly a return to the band's darker sound. As we reported in June, Smith has previously been candid in an interview with The Times about his initial difficulties in completing lyrics for the new material.
“I’ve struggled more with finishing the words to these new Cure recordings than at any other point," Smith reveals with unflinching honesty in the interview. We recorded 20-odd songs and I wrote nothing. I mean, I wrote a lot, but at the end I looked at it and thought, ‘This is rubbish.’ The difficulty is I’ve become such a harsh critic of myself I think, ‘Who’s going to be interested in that?"
"It is really that bad. I was listening, thinking this is the best music this band has made and my words are drivel."
