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Lol Tolhurst (Levinhurst): Before And After The Cure

Author: Benedetta Skrufff
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Though The Cure are nowadays synonymous with lip-sticked tousled hair frontman Robert Smith, between 1977 and 1989 the goth rock megaband comprised two core members; Smith and his old childhood friend Lol Tolhurst. Teaming up aged 5 in the London dormitory town of Crawley, the pair found their future in the original 70s punk scene of the Sex Pistols and Siouxsie & The Banshees, forming the Cure in '78 with a plan to make one single.

"Punk motivated us a lot because coming from a suburban town so close to London, we had the chance to look at what was happening from the outside and re-create our own version," says Laurence.

"I remember going to see The Stranglers a lot at the time, sometimes when we'd have band rehearsal for The Cure, we'd look at the Melody Maker to find out if The Stranglers were playing and we'd decide to go and see them instead, which would normally turn out to be a far better idea anyway," he recalls, "I think I went to see them 10 or 15 times."

From their early punk origins, The Cure would progress to become one of the world's biggest rock bands, selling tens of millions of albums and helping define the punk sub culture that later became known as Goth. For Lol, though, the journey would ended up becoming even darker than the band's music, as his taste for excess saw him sacked from the band in 1989 then later humiliated in a court case that cost him 1 million pounds.

15 years after his unceremonious sacking, he's now finally fully back in the musical saddle, with his new band Levinhurst, an electronic project he's pursuing with his wife and singer Cindy Levinson and musical collaborator Dayton Borders. Combining retro elements with synth sounds and grooves, the band's debut album Perfect Life fits neatly into the 80s tinged alternative club scene of now, in keeping with Lol's background as an original London punk.

"Punk was an attitude, it was a way of dealing with whatever life throws at you and I still deal with my life in that way, I still have that punk attitude in me," he declares.

"Obviously, my music cannot be classified as such these days because it's not hard and fast, but to me that was never really what made punk. What made punk was a willingness to experiment and to try things for yourself."


Skrufff (Benedetta Skrufff): Starting with the new album Perfect Life: how much does it feel like a genuine new beginning-

Laurence Tolhurst: "I don't know if I could call it a new beginning as such, I guess the right way to describe it would be the beginning of a new journey; a redemptive kind of journey. That's at least what it feels like to me. I've been musically active throughout this past period, but this is the first time in a decade that I've come out into the public eye."

Skrufff: You're just back from a tour, how much has the reaction you've had so far, matched your expectations-

Laurence Tolhurst (Levinhurst): "I actually try not to have expectations because they're disappointments in the making, I just go with whatever is there in front of me. People liked the shows and they showed an interest, which was great. We deliberately kept them fairly low key, to test the ground so to speak, and everybody was into it. It was also cool to play places where I hadn't been before."

Skrufff: How driven are you to achieve success again via Levinhurst-

Laurence Tolhurst (Levinhurst): "The word success always reminds me of that sign on the dressing rooms when you come out of Wimbledon Centre Court. I forgot the exact words but it talks of success and failure being impostors, and to me that's what they are. I take, not necessarily myself, but what I do, very seriously and I work as hard as I possibly can, though my goals have shifted from what they used to be when I started in the music business aged 18 or 19. I prefer to think that I'll do whatever I can, without thinking too much about the end result, because if I do, I'd go crazy."

Skrufff: Back in '78 when you star
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