The Jukebox Rebel

The demo to “10:15 Saturday Night” had caught Chris Parry’s attention in 1978 and led him to sign the band to his newly founded record company, Fiction Records. The track was written by Robert Smith at the age of 16 one evening while sitting at the kitchen table feeling “utterly morose” watching the tap dripping and drinking his dad’s home made beer. It's the essence of The Cure right there! Arriving on the back of a well-received single (“Killing An Arab”), a session for John Peel and some encouraging press reviews, the keenly anticipated debut from the Crawley trio arrived in May, 1979. They line-up: Robert Smith (20, guitar, vocals, harmonica), Michael Dempsey (20, bass, backing vocals) and Lol Tolhurst (20, drums). Although the aforementioned “10:15” serves brilliantly as a starter, what follows is largely anticlimactic. There's a snotty arrogance to their lo-fi Post-Punk shtick, but I may be mistaking that for existential anguish, perhaps it's a bit of both. It seems to me that it’s all attitude over aptitude at this stage and certainly they did not assert themselves in the studio, with Chris Parry and Mike Hedges reportedly controlling the sessions. Smith would later comment: “a lot of it was very superficial – I didn't even like it at the time. There were criticisms made that it was very lightweight, and I thought they were justified. Even when we'd made it, I wanted to do something that I thought had more substance to it”. Critics liked it though - they had a future.

The Jukebox Rebel
06–Mar–2013

A1	[03:42] The Cure - 10.15 Saturday Night (Robert Smith, Michael Dempsey, Lol Tolhurst) Post-Punk
A2	[02:17] The Cure - Accuracy (Robert Smith, Michael Dempsey, Lol Tolhurst) Post-Punk
A3	[02:49] The Cure - Grinding Halt (Robert Smith, Michael Dempsey, Lol Tolhurst) Post-Punk
A4	[03:44] The Cure - Another Day (Robert Smith, Michael Dempsey, Lol Tolhurst) Post-Punk
A5	[03:03] The Cure - Object (Robert Smith, Michael Dempsey, Lol Tolhurst) Post-Punk
A6	[02:00] The Cure - Subway Song (Robert Smith, Michael Dempsey, Lol Tolhurst) Post-Punk
B1	[02:29] The Cure - Foxy Lady (Jimi Hendrix) Post-Punk
B2	[02:17] The Cure - Meathook (Robert Smith, Michael Dempsey, Lol Tolhurst) New Wave
B3	[02:37] The Cure - So What (Robert Smith, Michael Dempsey, Lol Tolhurst) Post-Punk
B4	[03:23] The Cure - Fire In Cairo (Robert Smith, Michael Dempsey, Lol Tolhurst) New Wave
B5	[02:49] The Cure - It’s Not You (Robert Smith, Michael Dempsey, Lol Tolhurst) Post-Punk
B6	[03:32] The Cure - Three Imaginary Boys (Robert Smith, Michael Dempsey, Lol Tolhurst) Post-Punk
B7	[00:53] The Cure - Untitled [1979] (Robert Smith, Michael Dempsey, Lol Tolhurst) Blues Rock / Soul Rock

ratings by TJR