Simon Gallup

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Simon Johnathon Gallup is an English musician born on June 1, 1960 in Duxhurst, England, who has been a member of the British post-punk band The Cure.

1 Early Years
2 Involvement in The Cure
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] Early Years

Simon is the youngest of six children born to Bob and Peg Gallup. His siblings are Stuart, David, Duncan, Monica, and Ric. Ric Gallup helped to make the Cure video Carnage Visors.

Simon has been married twice. His first wife Carol Thompson is the younger sister of Porl Thompson. They had two children named Lily and Eden before they were divorced sometime around the end of the Wish Tour in 1992. Since then, Simon has remarried to Sarah ______ and had a third child named Evangeline. Initially, Gallup was the bass player for a punk band called Lockjaw.

[edit] Involvement in The Cure

Simon first joined The Cure in 1979, replacing Michael Dempsey on bass guitar. He also has been credited for occasionally playing the keyboard and singing lead vocals for a demo for "Violin Song." Simon first performed on the Cure albums that make up "The Dark Trilogy": Seventeen Seconds, Faith, and Pornography.

During the 14 Explicit Moments Tour in 1982, a series of incidents prompted Simon to leave The Cure. The first incident occurred when Simon got into a fight with Robert Smith at a nightclub. The second - and perhaps more infamous - incident occurred two weeks later during the final concert of the tour at L'Ancienne Belgique in Brussels. The band decided to play "Forever" but this time they changed instruments around; Simon played guitar, Lol Tolhurst played bass, Robert Smith played the drums, and Gary Biddles - a part-time roadie and friend of Gallup's - did vocals. As soon as he got on stage, Biddles started singing, "Smith is a wanker, Tolhurst is a wanker, only Simon is worth anything in the band! The Cure is dead!" Smith got angry and threw his drumsticks at Biddles' head, and yelled "F--- off!"

After that incident, Gallup left the band and started another with Biddles called Fools Dance. When asked why he left The Cure, he said, "It's just basically that Robert and I are both really arrogant bastards, and it got to such an extreme. I suppose you just can't have two egocentrics in a band, and Robert was sort of 'the main man.'" (See Fools Dance Tour Program)

However, in 1985, Smith asked Simon to come back to The Cure, an offer which Gallup accepted. Since then, the two of them have remained on good terms. In fact, Simon served as the best man at Smith's wedding in 1988.

Simon is the second longest serving member of The Cure, which has led to him being referred to as Robert Smith's right-hand man. He performed on every album except Three Imaginary Boys/Boys Don't Cry, Japanese Whispers, The Top, and Concert. He has garnered a fan base over the years because of his long stint with the Cure.