{"id":430601,"date":"2026-02-17T15:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T15:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/430601\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T15:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T15:24:09","slug":"the-insane-bar-tab-that-almost-split-up-the-cure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/430601\/","title":{"rendered":"The insane bar tab that almost split up The Cure"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

Tue 17 February 2026 11:28, UK <\/p>\n

The touring process for The Cure<\/a>\u2018s seminal 1982 album Pornography was a ghoulish period for the band. Despite the retro-fitted glamour of what touring appears to be to outsiders, the truth is that the band on the road is usually suffering in one way or another. If you\u2019re lucky, it is just sleep deprivation, but for the most part, a wild cocktail of insomnia, drugs, drink and a travelling circus means you have your fair share of clowns, ringmasters and serious incidents. <\/p>\n

The Cure were notorious for their booze consumption. Robert Smith and his band gained a rightful reputation as perhaps the indie scene\u2019s most potent downers of the devil\u2019s juice, only outshone by Bananarama<\/a>. The tour was posing a significant problem for their well-being. <\/p>\n

Drug-fuelled arguments filled their days, and band members found themselves in a trough-like low at night. The iconic record being perhaps the only slight blessing from this period, their future was hanging by a thread, and the slightest little inconvenience could escalate into a hellish argument, with one petulant spat over a bar bill nearly cutting short the band\u2019s vibrant career.<\/p>\n

When the album was released, The Cure immediately immersed themselves in life on the road. Despite the inner turmoil that seeped into the recording of Pornography not yet being settled, the issue was silently simmering below the surface. Living in such a confined space with one another for a prolonged period of time can lead to disastrous results for any band, and The Cure were equal cannon fodder<\/a>. Robert Smith and co. later claimed that they had never even had a single argument before this time. It was, however, their fourth record, and the tempers were beginning to flare. <\/p>\n

\u201cDuring Pornography, the band was falling apart, because of the drinking and drugs. I was pretty seriously strung out a lot of the time,\u201d Robert Smith later confessed to Rolling Stone. \u201cI know for a fact that we recorded some of the songs in the toilets to get a really horrible feeling because the toilets were dirty and grim. Simon doesn\u2019t remember any of that, but I have a photo of me sitting on a toilet, in my clothes, trying to patch up of some of the lyrics. It\u2019s a tragic photo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>Credit: Album Cover<\/p>\n

Everything about the tour was troubling, from the band\u2019s relationships with one another off-stage to their dark stage design under the spotlights. \u201c[The stage] was confrontational compared to what had come before,\u201d former drummer Lol Tolhurst wrote in his autobiography Cured: The Tale of Two Imaginary Boys<\/a>. \u201c[It] comprised of screens that were remotely operated to come down over the drum kit which was placed to the side of the stage. They also covered other areas of the stage to create different effects. It was stark, to say the least\u2026 The effect was similar to sitting in a pub or club with a mirror bar\u2026 A little disconcerting for the audience, which was part of our intention,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

Word soon spread about the nature of the live shows, which seemingly put off some of the fairweather fans, with many concerts on tour seeing The Cure play to half-filled rooms. It was a tense situation for all involved, and it spilt out into their personal lives. In Strasbourg on May 27th, the tension between Robert Smith and bassist Simon Gallup reached a breaking point following another disappointing evening. Tolhurst decided to stay away from his bandmates following the show, instead opting to hang out with support act Zerra One. <\/p>\n

While Tolhurst had a relaxing drink away from the band, it was anything but calm when Smith and Gallup found themselves in a vitriolic argument over an unpaid bar tab. It would put the sparkling era of The Cure to the sword, all for a few drinks. In truth, what it really spoke of was the bubbling tensions that simmered beneath the surface and threatened to envelop the band. So often, groups who found fame together, rising from nothing to stardom, issues can develop and fester over time before something makes the snap. In this case, it was a few beers. <\/p>\n

What started as a war of words over the bill ended with a full-blown fistfight between the two men.\u00a0\u201cI was about to leave when some guy came up and told me I hadn\u2019t paid for my drinks,\u201d remembered Gallup in Ten Imaginary Years, \u201cHe thought I was Robert. I was knackered, but the bloke took me up to the bar, and Robert appeared to see what was going on. I hit him, he responded, and we had a fight.\u201d <\/p>\n

In the same book, Smith recalled: \u201cI was on the first floor of this club when they came up and told me there was a problem downstairs. Simon was so wound up that no one could talk to him \u2013 he was screaming at the barman, this young kid who was nearly in tears. By himself, Simon would have never behaved like that, but he was surrounded by the road crew, so he was behaving the way he thought a rock \u2018n\u2019 roller ought to behave.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Alamy<\/p>\n

For The Cure singer, the reasoning behind the dispute can be squarely blamed on the bar bill and the perception that Smith wasn\u2019t paying his own: \u201cHe didn\u2019t want to pay for his drinks because he thought I wasn\u2019t paying for mine. I told him to shut up, and he punched me. It was the first time he really laid into me, we had an enormous ruck, and I said \u2018That\u2019s it\u2019, walked out, got a cab back to the hotel, got my suitcase, my passport from the tour manager\u2019s room and got on the first flight to London. That was at 6.30 am, and I was home by half past ten. I left a note saying I wasn\u2019t coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith then walked out on the band despite them still having Swiss, French and Belgian legs of the tour to finish, but the frontman decided to head home to Crawley with Gallup also vanishing from the tour. \u201cIn a bar in Strasbourg, things got so out of hand that I just took the first flight home,\u201d Smith later remembered. <\/p>\n

It was enough to confirm that Smith\u2019s time in the band was coming to an end unless some serious changes were made: \u201cFor me, it was over and out. But when I unexpectedly showed up home, my dad wouldn\u2019t let me in. \u2018You have a responsibility as an entertainer,\u2019 he said. \u2018People have bought tickets, get yourself back on tour\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

With his tail firmly between his legs after a telling off from his dad, he and Gallup flew back to finish off the run of dates, but that wouldn\u2019t turn out to be a wise decision. On the final night of the tour, Simon Gallup shouted \u201cRobert Smith is a c***\u201d into the mic, while Smith threw drumsticks at Gallup, yelling \u201cf*** off\u201d. \u201cThat night\u2026 felt like death,\u201d Tolhurst would write in his book. \u201cIt was the death of that version of The Cure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201dI remember that we were in the dressing room, and I thought in one hour The Cure is finished,\u201d Smith would later add. \u201cSo I thought: let\u2019s make it a memorable goodbye.\u201d Of course, it wouldn\u2019t be the end of the band but certainly the final nail in the coffin for this iteration. <\/p>\n

Gallup would leave the band following the tour before rejoining in three years with a renewed vigour thanks to the much-welcomed break with him and Smith ready to put their previous troubles behind them. When he returned to the group, they began the ultimate hot streak of their career, starting with The Head on the Door and were truly an unstoppable force with the bassist back in the fold.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy) Tue 17 February 2026 11:28, UK The touring process for The Cure\u2018s seminal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,596,128,27155,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-430601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-homepage","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-the-cure","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}