I like the cure but i always looked at it as a punk band or the one and only decent emo band.

I saw The Cure as more pop, to be honest. In the 1980's there was a host of bands who were definitely pop, and chart regulars, but who were more serious than the throwaway stuff one usually means by 'pop'. Heaven 17, Tears for Fears, The Cure, Propaganda and no doubt many more.

The Cure were never goth in my book, certainly.

Unlike now, Goth in the '80s was a thing that you probably didn't get to know about until you were 16+ and started reading NME. The Cure definitely attracted an under-16 Smash Hits audience.

they certainly have pop sensibility but i love them. not gothy until you get a look at them.

Through their chart success. Lots of bands that were not traditional pop were making it onto Top of the Pops regularly. I remember the Teardrop Explodes too.

For a scene, goth has quite a mix of musical styles, which is a rare thing.

OLD MAN TALK ALERT!!!!

Do you remember the episode of Top of the Pops when Robert Smith appeared twice, once with The Cure and once as a Banshee? The Banshees song was probably Dear Prudence. Those were the days...

hole was on top of the pops a couple of times i think. i'll try and find the video somewhere.

Oh, no. But I remember All About Eve sitting still, refusing to play their instruments as a protest against not being allowed to perform live.

I remember Frankie Goes to Hollywood swapping instruments in a simlar protest.

And I remember with special fondness the time the thoroughly wretched Bon Jovi 'performed' You Give Love a Bad Name, after which Sir John Peel said 'and that was Bon Jovi with We Give Music a Bad Name.

did anyone ever actually play their goddamn instruments or sing on that show>?

For a long time it just wasn't allowed. Eventually it was all live, I think.

that, if i do say so myself, is fucking retarded.

It is indeed

Highlights have included Jimi Hendrix being forced to mime to someone else's track being played by mistake (in the days of live broadcast), Shane Macgowan of the Pogues drunken performance of "Fairytale of New York", featuring his inaudible falling over the drumkit, and John Peel's appearance as the mandolin soloist for Rod Stewart on "Maggie May".

I thought that the All About Eve sitting about episode was because Julianne Regan didn't have any sound in her earpiece, so didn't know she was supposed to be miming.


By the way, the Cure / Banshees TOTP episode was December 1983. The Banshees did Dear Prudence and The Cure did The Love Cats.

Oh. Maybe. Could be right, I suppose. That's one to look up.

Seems you're right. Well done. You'd get rep for that, if the system would let me.

All About Eve infamously failed to take their cue to mime Martha's Harbour live in 1988. The music played out for broadcast, the cameras went through the choreographed moves, but someone forgot to turn on the studio monitors. The result - the poor saps just sat there, shrugging bemusedly at the audience, for the first two minutes of the song. Career killer? Well, it didn't help much, put it that way.

Mark E Smith once majestically read his lines from a crumpled sheet of paper, I've been reminded.

I also remember a Peelie-introduced show where the cameras spent a long time throughout one song lingering on one girl's ample cleavage, and afterwards he announced, "and if you would like to apply for a job as a BBC cameraman, just apply to...." or something similar.


EDIT - There probably ought to a "Top Top of the Pops Memories " thread at this point, seeing as it's not long left for this world. Best leave it a week or so though.

He once promised that if the Mighty Wah's 'Sinful' didn't get to number one 'I'll come and visit your kitchen'. I never saw him though.

He also once referred to every artist on the show as 'multi-talented' for (so far as one could tell) no good reason other than it was screamingly funny.

There's no such thing as good Goth Rock.

I'd forgotten about this thread, and how much I enjoyed it. I'm re-opening the lid of the coffin in which it was buried because I bought the NME's Goth review magazine at the weekend. The memories came flooding back so fast they nearly knocked me off my feet.


Sisters of Mercy are still the tops.

early sisters...
andrew eldritch's voice alone constitutes a genre...

apart from the sisters of mercy, faith/pornography era the cure...
the mission is basically an offshoot from the sisters..
i'm okay with siouxsie and bauhaus, although i'm not too into them...

and of course, joy division is gothic..


what i don't understand is the american kids with the tattoos and the makeup and the MTV videos owning up a genre that is laced with sugar and hype, then claiming to be "goths"...

the south park gothic kids probably summed it up....