Simon Gallup, the bassist for The Cure, has parted ways with the band.
It’s a sad day for fans of the English rock band. Gallup took to Facebook to announce the news of his sudden departure from the Grammy Award-nominated group.
“With a slightly heavy heart I am no longer a member of the Cure! Good luck to them all,” Gallup’s post read.
When a commenter asked the bassist if he was leaving for health reasons, Gallup responded with, “I’m ok… just got fed up of betrayal.”
Gallup did not elaborate further.
While his bandmates haven’t explicitly commented on the recent announcement (keyboardist Roger O’Donnell briefly alluded to it on Twitter), frontman Robert Smith expressed his frustration at Gallup’s situation in the band.
In a 2019 interview with pop-culture publication, NME, Smith went on record to say the following:
“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.”
Who EVER said Cure fans dont have a sense of humour! https://t.co/hoZGFgLV6x
— Roger O’Donnell (@RogerODonnellX) August 14, 2021
Gallup first joined The Cure in 1979, where he played bass on each of the albums for the band’s Dark Trilogy. These include Seventeen Seconds (1980), Faith (1981) and Pornography (1982).
Disputes with Smith caused Gallup to leave the band before returning in 1984.
The band hasn’t released any new music since 2008’s 4:13 Dream.
However, when speaking with UK-based publication, The Sunday Times, Smith revealed that there are two new albums in the works, and that they may be the band’s last LPs.
“It’s ten years of life distilled into a couple hours of intense stuff. I can’t think we’ll ever do anything else,” Smith said.
Crossing my fingers that in the morning Simon Gallup will be back in the band and all will be right with the world :( pic.twitter.com/tx6PfWgjEm
— Stu (@stuczu) August 14, 2021
But rest assured Cure fans, Gallup’s departure may not come with any resentment between himself and his bandmates.
In his Sunday Times interview, Smith and Gallup have built a strong friendship over the years despite the turmoil that sometimes came with it.
“When you have friends like … [Gallup], 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 experience, you just don’t want to lose friends like that,” Smith said.
