Why The Cure Really Deserve To Be In The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame – They’re Gents

For something that is just so un-Rock and Roll it’s unbelievable. But it’s enough to make me at least love The Cure even as I hate most of their music. So, yes, they do deserve to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Because, and as I say this is the most un-Rock and Roll thing imaginable, they’re gents. An English meaning which is close to but not the same as the American idea of being a mensch. Vastly, because it’s an English concept of course, more important to be a gent than anything else really.

The Cure are in that Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] The Cure performed five songs last night after being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in New York. Robert Smith and co took to the stage and performed ‘Shake Dog Shake,’ ‘A Forest’, ‘Love Song’, ‘Just Like Heaven’, and ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ following their induction, which was preceded by a moving speech from Nine Inch Nails frontman, Trent Reznor. [/perfectpullquote]

And here’s a bit of that set:

Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up! #thecure #RockAndRollHallOfFame pic.twitter.com/YN1jJGPdqt

— Kyle Carney (@K_RossCarney) 30 March 2019

But the real reason they should be there? Apologies, for this is from memory and thus might not be correct in all details.

Back when they had a fan club in California. OK, maybe a chapter of one but you know the sort of thing. The organiser/secretary of which was an 18 year old High School kid. Who was in a wheelchair. She bought tickets to go to a Cure gig, she wasn’t allowed entry because of that wheelchair. Not safe, you know.

Doom, gloom, and what a bummer, eh?

A little time later it was the High School Prom. Even as we in the UK have adopted it in recent years for us it’s still just an excuse for a good party. In the US it’s a major rite of passage into adulthood. That’s why it’s always the setting for all those High School and on the cusp of adulthood movies and it may even be true that, as those movies have it, more virginities are lost on that one night of young lives than at any other time.

So, school prom, curtain closed, our org/sec still bemoaning the manner in which she couldn’t see the damn band she was the org/sec for because of that !””£$$% wheelchair. Curtain opens to reveal The Cure who have come to play the High School Prom. Because, you know. Full set, no messing.

Now, I’ve heard this story, read it, close to when and where it happened. That doesn’t prove that it really did of course but I am pretty sure it was so. And that’s why The Cure should be in the Hall of Fame. For something so unimaginably not-Rock and Roll as being right and proper gents. And there’s really nothing at all so important as being that, a gent.