h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I picked up a copy of 'Disintegration' in, ooh, 1988? Whenever it came out, anyway. I wasn't a fan of The Cure at that point, but I remembered 'Inbetween Days' as being a cheerful little ditty, and I thought 'Lullaby' had a certain quirky charm about it. So I purchased my copy of Disintegration, expecting eight cheery if slightly left of centre pop tunes, and two crappy ballads that bands seem so determined to put on albums.

Oh, and how wrong I was.

By the time I was really into that album, I was seeing a girl I was crazy about who worked as a dancer at night (a real dancer, nothing sleazy!) and was a student during the day. I was crazy about her, and I think it was the first time I was in love. I think, I'm not sure. Anyway, I couldn't see her as much as I wanted to, and it really bugged me. I happened to put 'Disintegration' on one night when I was miserable about not being able to see her yet again, and that was the last night of normalcy in my life for about eighteen months.

I was hooked on it. It was worse than a narcotic. Looking back now, I don't honestly know I coped with working (I was a computer programmer at that time, just high level stuff, but I really needed a clear head for debugging) and not being able to see the girl I was crazy about. I know it sounds like a cliche, but I would come home and go straight to my room and put the tape on. I felt like I was putting a mask on for everyone else, that I couldn't be myself because no-one could ever understand. My depression got a lot worse before it got better.

Now, every time I hear that The Cure are putting a new album out, I panic that if I buy it, the same thing will happen. I have an addictive personality - I get hooked on things easily (The Cure, sleeping tablets and trifle being the worst three) and I'm very impressionable. So imagine how I feel when I open last months FHM and discover that they have an new LP scheduled for this spring - Bloodflowers, I think it's called.

That's how I got addicted to them. What's your story?

You have a good story. I don't really have a story as such I'm afraid. It's just that when I'm down I get into a very cynical frame of mind, and anything up-beat has the opposite effect on me. I find the need to tune into something that matches my mood, and it somehow helps lift me out of it. Fortunately, I don't get addicted to things very easily. These days I tend to gravitate towards Jan Garbarek rather than The Cure. Melancholia as an antidote for Melancholy.

Have you ever visited us as the Freedom From Faith Foundation?

http://www.h2g2.com/A254314

I don't know whether our various ideas and theories will meet with your approval, but I'm fairly sure that the standard of debate will.