How Did The Cure Get Their Name?
Teens and young adults that found themselves in the "goth" or "alternative" stylistic categories in the 1980s and 1990s were most likely fans of the makeup-wearing, wild-haired band, The Cure. With their iconic look and hit songs like "Friday I'm in Love" and "Boys Don't Cry," the band worked its way to the top charts in both the U.K. and the U.S.
The band has seen plenty of members and talented musicians come and go, but originally the group started out with Robert Smith on vocals and guitar, Michael Dempsey on bass, Lol Tolhurst on drums, and Porl Thompson on guitar, per The Cure. In the early days of playing shows around England, the band gained a solid fan base and kept busy with gigs and writing new material. However, they weren't playing under the name that millions of fans across multiple generations know today. It took some time before they would land on the name The Cure.
Robert Smith thought the original band name sounded too American
After performing live around England, and just two years after the initial creation of the band, things were already starting to change. In 1978, guitarist Porl Thompson left the band. The rest of the group performed a mock wake at a show to commemorate the loss of their band member called "Mourning the Departed," according to the book "Never Enough: The Story of the Cure." Thompson was in attendance and watched the show from within the crowd.
That wasn't the only change that was made, though. The band had been going by the name Easy Cure after changing it from Malice. After Thompson's exit from the group, Robert Smith saw an opportunity to make some long-awaited changes to the band, starting with the name. Smith hated the name Easy Cure and claimed that it sounded too American and "too hippyish." They had settled on Easy Cure because the previous name, Malice, reminded Smith too much of Queen, a band he couldn't stand.
This call for change didn't sit well with Lol Tolhurst though, as he was the one who came up with the name Easy Cure after a song he had written with the same name, according to "Never Enough: The Story of the Cure."
Smith changed the band's name even though it upset his bandmate
After a brief conversation that angered his bandmate, Lol Tolhurst, Smith changed the name to "The Cure," which, according to "Never Enough: The Story of the Cure," Smith thought sounded much more "it."
After a while, Michael Dempsey left the band and was replaced with a new bassist, Simon Gallup, along with a keyboard player, Matthieu Hartley, according to The Cure. The revamped band embarked on a world tour in the early 1980s under the new name, but upon the completion of the tour, Hartley left the group as well.
Over the decades, The Cure has experimented with their iconic sound and continued evolving into a legendary alternative group with a loyal fanbase spanning generations. It's difficult to say whether they would have reached the same height of success under the name "Easy Cure," but it's even more difficult to imagine them being called anything other than The Cure.