A band of Australian musicians come together under the leadership of former Died Pretty bassist Robert Warren for 'In Between Days', a tribute to The Cure taking place at New Globe Theatre (Brisbane) this month.
Robert is a long-time fan of The Cure and fondly recalls how he first came to discover the music of Robert Smith and co. as a young man during the early '80s.
“I was living at my folks place and there was a guy around the corner who used to come past my house and he had a really strange, goth-looking haircut,” Robert explains.
“[With The Cure] there was this feast of aural landscapes that made me expand my horizons and want to learn more about music.”
“Over time I got to know the guy through friends and he introduced me to 'Seventeen Seconds' [The Cure's second studio album, 1980], which had been out for a few years but was prior to me even getting into alternative music and discovering Triple Z and stuff.
“I just couldn't believe this weird music I was hearing and it was quite dark too, which was something I didn't know I liked until I heard it.
"Pretty much from that moment onwards I got immersed in everything [to do with] The Cure and I ended up as a Robert Smith clone at one point, walking around town back in the days of The Tube club and at Festival Hall when they came out in '84 [4 October, 1984 for 'The Top' album].”
More than any other band, The Cure form an essential bedrock in the foundation of Robert's musical awakening, introducing him to the dark and gothic sounds that would come to influence his own music greatly over subsequent year as well as bands such as The Smiths and Joy Division.
“There was just this feast of aural landscapes that made me expand my horizons and want to learn more about music, so that music really motivated and inspired me to learn more about music,” he says.
Robert has already done similar tribute shows for REM and The Smiths, and he makes up part of the permanent backing band that accompanies various guest performers.
He says the most vital aspect and overriding principle for any show they do is that everyone must bring an authentic love and admiration for the band's body of work.
For the upcoming Brisbane show, Robert and his band will be joined by Steve Kilbey (The Church), Sabrina Lawrie, Evil Dick (HITS), Kellie Lloyd (Screamfeeder) and Kevin Lennon (Ghost Audio).
“We have a principle that we don't just want any musician to do this stuff,” he says.
“We want the musicians who are truly the best fit too, because we feel that you need to be authentic, not only when you're playing the music but also the singers that we choose; they have to like the band.
“You can't do it because you want a bit of money and you just want to sing three or four songs, you have to be into the band. I think the fans can tell the difference between someone who is just getting up there and mouthing the words, and people who truly have a connection to what they're doing.
"We work on that principle with everything we do.”
