The 61-year-old musician shared the news via a public post on his Facebook account on 14th August 2021, within the post Gallup expresses his feelings of sadness whilst wishing the remaining members luck.

Replying to a comment left by a Facebook friend, Gallup replied with the cryptic message “Im ok Vicky ..just got fed up of betrayal.”

This is not Gallup’s first departure from The Cure, the bassist previously left the group in 1982 during the band’s Pornography Tour. It was reported that his initial departure was due to various events, but the most prominent incident cited occurred after a concert at Hall Tivoli in France. After the live performance on 27th May 1982, an alleged physical incident between Gallup and Smith took place at a nightclub in Strasbourg, it is alleged that they entered a fistfight, reportedly due to an argument concerning a bar tab. A second incident occurred after the initial confrontation within a concert in Belgium in which led to Gallup’s official departure. Within the performance, Garry Biddles, roadie and friend of Gallup, began to sing an improvised song and belted out ‘The Cure Is Dead’, after this event Gallup would form a new band with Biddles called Fools Dance in 1983.

In 1984 Gallup returned to The Cure after Smith had asked the bassist to re-enter the group and Gallup accepted the offer. Since Gallup’s return, the two have remained on good terms, with Smith’s 1998 wedding, Gallup was even the lead singer’s best man. Gallup briefly departed the group again in 1992 during their Wish Tour, however, the bassist did not officially leave the band as the musician’s departure was due to an illness.He was hospitalised after the tour due to pleurisy.

The iconic group’s long-term band member has been a part of the ‘Friday I’m In Love’ performers since 1979. Upon initially joining the group Gallup was recruited to replace former bassist Michael Dempsey. The bassist also worked with The Cure’s lead singer Robert Smith within the singer’s side project Cult Hero; the duo joined forces in 1979 on the project. Gallup and Smith have had a long-standing musical and personal relationship, before joining The Cure Gallup was part of the group The Magazine Spies, sometimes known as Magspies, whilst working on his side project with Gallup, Smith also produced recordings by Gallup’s previous group.

The Cure has famously had several line-up changes over the years, Gallup has remained the second longest-running member of the band. In 2019 Smith had given an interview to NME concerning his relationship and friendship with Gallup. Within the interview, Smith was asked who the most dangerous combination within the group was, to which Smith answered, “Without question, me and Simon.”

During the interview, Smith also gave further insight into the pair’s relationship. “For me, the heart of the live band has always been Simon, and he’s always been my best friend, 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. 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. You’ve done so much together, you’ve so much shared experience, you just don’t want to lose friends like that.”

In other news, during June 2021 Smith had spoken with The Sunday Times regarding the group’s new material and next album. In the interview, Smith alludes to the next album being the group’s final release and also describes their new music, “The new Cure stuff is very emotional,”

The livestream event was broadcasted by the Cosmic Shambles Network. The entirety of the livestreams’ donations will be split equally between charities Doctors Without Borders, Turn2Us, Mind and Kings Place Music Foundation. 

Established in France in 1971, Doctors Without Borders is an international humanitarian non-governmental organisation that executes charitable projects in conflict zones and countries affected by endemic diseases. Turn2Us fights UK poverty through donating financial hardship funds.

Mind is a British programme that reaches out to individuals suffering with mental health problems, meanwhile the Kings Place Music Foundation partners with music and arts organisations around the UK to deliver learning and participation activities to the local community.

Although the event took place last night, fans are still able to donate to the Nine Lessons and Carols For Curious People Crowdfunder page. More information about this can be found here. 

Hosted by Robin Ince, Smith performed the songs M, Play for Today and In Your House for the charity livestream. M, Play for Today and In Your House are all taken from The Cures’ second studio album, Seventeen Seconds, which came out back in 1980. 

A socially distanced performance, of course, Smith sits alone and barefoot in what looks like his home studio. Accompanied only by his drum machine, the Just Like Heaven hitmaker’s heavenly croon fills the studio as it would for an intimate Cure gig. Smith’s mesmerising performance was also shared to YouTube, the video in question obtaining over 13,000 views. 

Meanwhile, The Cure have stood up and shown support for the struggling live music industry in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Taking part in the #ILoveLive campaign, Smith donated his beloved black UltraCure guitar.

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A post shared by The Cure (@thecure)

The Cure announced their participation in the #ILoveLive campaign via a post to Instagram. Sharing a photograph of Smith playing the legendary guitar, The Cure wrote in a length caption: “Robert is giving away his schecter ‘fibonacci sequence’ black UltraCure guitar – played at every show in 2016 – to benefit UK music.” Fans were clearly happy with the news, as the post received over 49,000 likes. 

Fans can enter the prize draw by following a link in the bio of The Cures’ official Instagram page. The #ILoveLive prize draw will take place tonight.

Back in September, Smith revealed that he had dedicated most of 2020 to “finishing off” a brand new album with The Cure, along with a solo record. When chatting to NME, Smith divulged that the band had been plugging hard on “two new albums and an hour of noise.” Hopefully, The Cure won’t keep us waiting too long for their next masterpieces!

After teasing the psychedelic cover art on Twitter yesterday and nothing else, fans were ecstatic when Gorillaz dropped both Strange Timez and its episodic companion video on YouTube today. 

Beginning with the virtual band gliding through space toward a giant Robert Smith superimposed onto the Moon, and ending with Gorillaz falling through a wormhole and a huge message reading “BE THE CHANGE”, Gorillaz never fail to impress the world with their visuals, as weird and wacky as their music.

Garnering a whopping 342,000 views on YouTube in just 3 hours, Strange Timez is already a hit amongst Gorillaz’ gargantuan fanbase. Strange Timez was directed by Gorillaz co-creator and animator Jamie Hewlett, and can be watched in full here. 

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Song Machine Season OneSTRANGE TIMEZDead Butterflies ft. @therealkano @roxani_arias @mikewillmadeit Out October 23 Pre-order nowgorillaz.com

A post shared by Gorillaz (@gorillaz) on Sep 9, 2020 at 10:52am PDT

Along with the release of Strange Timez, Gorillaz also revealed the full diverse tracklist for the upcoming Song Machine today. Featuring collaborations with the likes of Octavian, Kano, St. Vincent, Sir Elton John, and of course, Robert Smith, Song Machine is set for release on October 23rd. 

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Song Machine Season OneSTRANGE TIMEZOut October 23 Pre-order nowgorillaz.com

A post shared by Gorillaz (@gorillaz) on Sep 9, 2020 at 10:32am PDT

Gorillaz creator Damon Albarn and Robert Smith spoke to BBC Radio 6 today about how eerie track Strange Timez came to be. Keeping a social distance, the pair revealed that “we did this tune via email!” Smith concurred, adding that “I loved it! I thought it was excellent. I felt ripples in the force and I thought, ‘I better get this done.’”

Strange Timez is out now.

The full tracklist to Sound Machine can be found below:

1. Strange Timez (ft. Robert Smith)
2. The Valley of The Pagans (ft. Beck)
3. The Lost Chord (ft. Leee John)
4. Pac-Man (ft. ScHoolboy Q)
5. Chalk Tablet Towers (ft. St Vincent)
6. The Pink Phantom (ft. Elton John and 6LACK)
7. Aries (ft. Peter Hook and Georgia)
8. Friday 13th (ft. Octavian)
9. Dead Butterflies (ft. Kano and Roxani Arias)
10. Désolé (ft. Fatoumata Diawara) (Extended Version)
11. Momentary Bliss (ft. slowthai and Slaves)

Deluxe
1. Strange Timez (ft. Robert Smith)
2. The Valley of The Pagans (ft. Beck)
3. The Lost Chord (ft. Leee John)
4. Pac-Man (ft. ScHoolboy Q)
5. Chalk Tablet Towers (ft. St Vincent)
6. The Pink Phantom (ft. Elton John and 6LACK)
7. Aries (feat. Peter Hook and Georgia)
8. Friday 13th (ft. Octavian)
9. Dead Butterflies (ft. Kano and Roxani Arias)
10. Désolé (ft. Fatoumata Diawara) (Extended Version)
11. Momentary Bliss (ft. slowthai and Slaves)
12. Opium (ft. EARTHGANG)
13. Simplicity (ft. Joan As Police Woman)
14. Severed Head (ft. Goldlink and Unknown Mortal Orchestra)
15. With Love To An Ex (ft. Moonchild Sanelly)
16. MLS (feat. JPEGMAFIA and CHAI)
17. How Far? (ft. Tony Allen and Skepta)

Strange Timez is out now.