Roger O’Donnell, former member of The Cure, wrote a wonderful report of his first collaboration with Robert Smith’s band when they’ve made Disintegration. You can read his memories of that time and also listen his demo of ‘The Other Side’, a song later retitled ‘Fear of Ghosts’ and included as an extra b-side of the single ‘Lovesong’.
“Robert’s wedding was in August of 1988 and we all got together for what was an amazing day and I remember everyone was now getting excited to start the record. I think it was Paul that told me that Robert was really happy to have me in the band and for me to play all the keyboards and allow them to concentrate on guitars. I had no idea at this stage how important the keyboards would end up being on the record and how little guitar there was which was something that really upset Paul but then he was always upset about something”
“The recording didn’t get off to a great start when a heater put in Robert’s room caught fire and destroyed everything in it including all his lyrics. Perry, who was at the time Robert’s personal assistant, made a brave effort to save them but all was lost. Robert had opened the window in his room as he is always hot and likes fresh air, one of the cleaning ladies went in the room and shut the window and thought it was cold so put the heater on! We were at Dinner and somebody smelt smoke, it’s lucky the entire house didn’t burn down as it was very old and all made of wood. So Robert was left with only his memories of the lyrics, I never asked him if he used his original ideas or wether he just started again fresh, I think I would have been devastated.”
Read all here: http://www.rogerodonnell.com/disintegration/
© Roger O’Donnell
THE CURE 