The Cure bassist Simon Gallup announces departure from band: ‘Got fed up of betrayal’

Post from the musician’s Facebook page says he is leaving ‘with a slightly heavy heart’

The Cure’s longtime bassist Simon Gallup appears to have announced he is quitting the band after more than 40 years.

In the early hours of Sunday 15 August, a post was made from Gallup’s Facebook page that read: “With a slightly heavy heart I am no longer a member of The Cure! Good luck to them all...”

Asked if he was OK, Gallup apparently responded: “I’m OK... just got fed up of betrayal.”

Gallup first joined The Cure in 1979 after performing in frontman Robert Smith’s side project, Cult Hero. He temporarily left in 1982 after an altercation with Smith while on the Pornography tour, rejoining in 1984.

After Smith, Gallup was the band’s longest-serving member.

The Independent has contacted The Cure’s representative for comment.

Inductees Reeves Gabrels, Simon Gallup, Robert Smith, Roger O’Donnell and Jason Cooper of The Cure attend the 2019 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony at Barclays Center in 2019 (Getty Images For The Rock and Ro)

Smith addressed his sometimes fraught relationship with Gallup in an interview with NME in 2019.

“For me, the heart of the live band has always been Simon, and he’s always been my best friend,” he said. “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.”

Smith added: “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. When you have friends like that, particularly for that long, it would take something really extraordinary for that friendship to break.”

The Cure were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. In a recent interview with The Sunday Times, Smith said the band’s next album could be their last, as he was struggling to write lyrics for the new material.