The Cure Bassist Simon Gallup Says He Will Exit Band

Simon Gallup will no longer be a part of The Cure, he recently announced. Gallup had been with the band for 40 years.

Gallup made this development public through a Facebook post made on Saturday, August 14. “With a slightly heavy heart I am no longer a member of the Cure! Good luck to them all,” read the post. “I’m ok…just got fed up of betrayal,” said Gallup, responding to a comment asking about his wellbeing. He did not give further detail about the betrayal he was referring to.

The Cure is an English Alternative rock band. Some of the band’s hits include Pictures of You, A Forest and Boys Don’t Cry.  Gallup, who is now 61 years old, first joined the group in 1979. He served as the group’s bassist on 11 of the 13 albums they released. Gallup and The Cure became members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019.

This is not the first exit from The Cure for Gallup. He left the band in 1982 after an ensuing argument with Robert Smith, the lead guitarist and singer of the group. This only lasted until 1984, when Gallup returned to the group after reaching a truce with Smith. He also took a short break from music 1992 to deal with health issues.

Gallup addressed the rough patches that the group had experienced in the past during an interview with NME. “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,” Gallup stated. “When you have friends like that, particularly for that long, it would take something really extraordinary for that friendship to break. You’ve done so much together, you’ve so much shared experience, you just don’t want to lose friends like that.”

The Cure has not made an official statement regarding Gallup’s departure as of yet.