Simon Gallup, The Cure’s bassist and second longest-serving member, has announced his departure from the band.
In a brief statement posted to his personal Facebook page on Saturday, Gallup wrote, “With a slightly heavy heart I am no longer a member of the Cure! Good luck to them all …”
Responding to a comment on the post, Gallup added, “Im ok Vicky ..just got fed up of betrayal.”
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Gallup first joined The Cure in 1979 after working with frontman Robert Smith on his side-project Cult Hero. Gallup temporarily left The Cure in 1982, only to rejoin two years later, and he’s remained a consistent part of the band’s lineup ever since.
Smith previously described Gallup as his “best friend,” and said that if Gallup ever left the band “it wouldn’t be called The Cure.”
“For me, the heart of the live band has always been Simon, and he’s always been my best friend,” Smith said in a 2019 interview with NME. “It’s weird that over the years and the decades he’s often been overlooked. He doesn’t do interviews, he isn’t really out there and he doesn’t play the role of a foil to me in public, and yet he’s absolutely vital to what we do.”
“We’ve had some difficult periods over the years but we’ve managed to maintain a very strong friendship that grew out of that shared experience from when we were teens,” Smith added. “When you have friends like that, particularly for that long, it would take something really extraordinary for that friendship to break.”
As of publication, neither Smith nor The Cure have addressed Gallups’ departure. Consequence has reached out to representatives of the band for comment.
The Cure are expected to release a new album this year, which Smith has described as “so dark” and “incredibly intense.” The band’s last album, 4:13 Dream, was released in 2008.
