Bassist Simon Gallup says he's left The Cure

15 August 2021, 12:57 | Updated: 17 August 2021, 18:09

The musician says that he's "no longer a member" of the veteran British band, citing "betrayal" as the cause.

By Radio X

@RadioX

Simon Gallup, long-term bassist with The Cure, has announced that he's left the band.

In a post on Facebook on Saturday 14 August (since deleted), Gallup said: "With a slightly heavy heart I am no longer a member of The Cure.

"Good luck to them all."

When questioned if he was OK by a friend, the musician replied: "I'm OK... just got fed up of betrayal." Frontman Robert Smith and The Cure's official channels have yet to comment on the news. In an interview with The Guardian in June 2018, Smith noted that as one of the longest-serving members, if Gallup left the band, "it wouldn’t be called the Cure”.

Gallup appeared on many of The Cure's most iconic tracks, including A Forest, In Between Days, Pictures Of You, Just Like Heaven and Friday I'm In Love.

The news comes in the same week that Smith made a pair of high-profile appearances with Damon Albarn's Gorillaz at London's O2 Arena, performing their collaboration Strange Timez for an audience of NHS workers. In recent weeks, Smith has also appeared on a new song with Scottish band CHVRCHES, entitled How Not To Drown, while also reportedly working on The Cure's long-awaited new album, the follow-up to 2008's 4:13 Dream.

Gorillaz - Strange Timez ft. Robert Smith - London O2 Arena, 11/8/21

Gallup joined The Cure in November 1979 as a replacement for founding member Michael Dempsey who appeared on the band's first album Three Imaginary Boys and the classic single Boys Don't Cry. He was then a key part of the group's gloom trilogy of LPs - Seventeen Seconds (1980), Faith (1981) and Pornography (1982) - before a falling out with Robert Smith led to the bassist being dropped from the line-up until he returned for the 1985 album The Head On The Door.

The Cure - A Forest (live at Pinkpop 2019)

Gallup also briefly took a break from The Cure in 1994 when the band were effectively on hiatus after becoming entangled in legal issues with another former member, Lol Tolhurst, in a case over royalties. The bassist was back in the line-up for 1996's Wild Mood Swings and has performed with the band ever since.

During the group's tour of festivals in 2019, Gallup was absent for their appearance at Japan's Fuji Rock festival, because of a "serious personal situation". His son Eden Gallup, who plays with his own band Violet Vendetta, stood in for his father.

The same issue arose again at The Cure's final live show to date, which took place at Austin City Limits Festival on 12 October 2019; Eden Gallup once again stood in on bass.