Laurence Tolhurst
Laurence "Lol" Tolhurst (born Laurence Andrew Tolhurst on
3 February,
1959 in
Horley,
Surrey,
England) is a founding member and former
drummer/
keyboardist for the
UK goth rock band,
The Cure.
At the time of the band's founding, he played drums, and as a drummer he helped record the albums
Three Imaginary Boys,
Boys Don't Cry,
Seventeen Seconds,
Faith and
Pornography. His most innovative drumming can be heard on the songs "
Jumping Someone Else's Train" off
Boys Don't Cry and "
The Hanging Garden" off
Pornography. After the 'Pornography' tour in 1982, however, Lol assumed keyboard duties. Throughout 1986 and 1987, Tolhurst became a victim of excessive alcohol and drug use, often making him unable to perform, and this led to having
Psychedelic Furs keyboardist
Roger O'Donnell frequently filling his place. In early
1989, the rest of the band decided that they had enough, and fired Tolhurst because he was hardly contributing anything by this point. This paved the way for O'Donnell to permanently fill in the empty slot.
Following his departure from
The Cure, Lol and
Gary Biddles - who previously worked with
Simon Gallup in
Fools Dance - formed the short lived band
Presence. In 1994, he sued
Robert Smith and
Fiction Records over royalties payments, also claiming joint ownership of the name
The Cure with Smith. He eventually lost after a long legal battle. In the early 2000's, he and his wife Cindy Levinson formed the band
Levinhurst.
Lol's contributions to every
Cure album following
Pornography may be questionable due to his destructive habits as well as the fact that other band members were also credited for playing the keyboard (although it should be noted that that was also the case with
Roger O'Donnell whom most fans consider
the keyboardist of
The Cure). Nevertheless, many fans still love Lol because he was involved in the band's early years, which some say were the best in its history so far.
*Even though Lol did not contribute to the album
Disintegration whatsoever (according to Robert Smith), he is credited as playing 'other instruments' in the liner notes.
*The main reason for Tolhurst's switch to keyboards was because he couldn't play the drums for "
Let's Go to Bed". He attempted to record a decent drum track for about three days, which cost a small fortune in studio time. In the end, they wound up hiring a session drummer,
Steve Goulding, to do the job.
*Rumor has it that the song "Shiver and Shake" off
Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me is based upon the other band members' frustration with Lol as he became increasingly unreliable due to drinking and drug abuse.
*He appears in the music video for
311's cover of
Lovesong.
*He was born the same day as the plane crash that killed
Buddy Holly,
Richie Valens, and
The Big Bopper.
*Somewhat ironic is the fact that Lol went on to work with
Gary Biddles who once insulted him during a concert. Biddles is famous, or infamous rather, for stirring up trouble when he got on stage during a concert and started singing, "Smith's a wanker, Tolhurst's a wanker, only Simon is worth anything in this band."
*
Wikicure.com: All the synths played by Lol during The Cure period - Very soon in English.
