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The Cure's Simon Gallup

#81
These days, Smith and Gallup are Schecter endorsers, so they use their "artist" models ( electric 6, acoustics, Bass VI, and bass guitar) for the shows, other than when they do the bit where they play three entire albums; for those they seem to mostly use the same instruments used back in the day, or models of same make at least. I believe I noticed RS using a couple Roland Jazz Chorus amps when they were playing "All Cats Are Grey" from what I believe were the "Reflections" series of shows (first three albums) it's ytube and of course Simons P Bass sounds particularly good (Amped backline, not Peavey as I think they were on Peavey amps then)
 
#84
nofrets5 said:
These days, Smith and Gallup are Schecter endorsers, so they use their "artist" models ( electric 6, acoustics, Bass VI, and bass guitar) for the shows, other than when they do the bit where they play three entire albums; for those they seem to mostly use the same instruments used back in the day, or models of same make at least. I believe I noticed RS using a couple Roland Jazz Chorus amps when they were playing "All Cats Are Grey" from what I believe were the "Reflections" series of shows (first three albums) it's ytube and of course Simons P Bass sounds particularly good (Amped backline, not Peavey as I think they were on Peavey amps then)
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I really don't like the Gallup Schecter. I think it looks pretty lame for one. My favorite bassist finally has a signature model and I don't like it... oh well. he should have tried to have them develop a nice semi hollow that looks like a EB=2 but with emg pickups (which is the dick knight) THAT id have been all over.


chuck norriss said:
"A Few Hours After This" great song one of my favorite songs yet a bside from head on the door i think. know that one?
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Yep. I have pretty much all or most bsides and rarities ever put out.

My favorite bside of them is 2 Late. Bside of lovesong. It is criminal that they didn't put it on disintegration. Though I can see why, it would have made it the most uptempo song on the record, im sure they thought it didn't fit wlel enough with the vibe of the album. Still though...a shame. it deserves to be more known.
 
#85
"2 Late" is one of my favourite B-Sides too! I've always liked about The Cure that, more often than not, they wouldn't just put an album track on the flipside. Loads of great extra material there!

By the way, the matching P-Bass Robert is playing in the 'Primary' clips might've actually been Simon's backup bass; The latter can be seen in this following live clip (Yes, it's the infamous "F*** Robert Palmer, f*** Rock'n'Roll!!" version of 'A Forest' :D )

And: Personally, I've always preferred the 'Boys Don't Cry' version of The Cure's debut album to the 'Three Imaginary Boys' one; 'World War', 'Another Day', 'Plastic Passion', 'Boys Don't Cry', 'Jumping Someone Else's Train' are just way better songs than 'So What', 'Meathook', 'It's Not You'. Great cover of Hendrix' 'Foxy Lady', though :)
 
#86
chuck norriss said:
"A Few Hours After This" great song one of my favorite songs yet a bside from head on the door i think. know that one?
Click to expand...
That's the orchestral-sounding one, right? Very cool! Someone posted earlier on in this thread that all Cure songs sound the same after a while; To me personally, this one (along with 'Harold And Joe', 'Sugar Girl', etc.) is proof enough that that's not true.
 
#87
Schecter did build a long-scale EB2/335 bass like the Dick Knight long-scale for him-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E9d9f5yuNM
(check the headstock- it's a Schecter, not an Eccleshall as posted)- I agree this would have made a better sig model than the Ultrabass-type one they put out.

I think the Wish album was mostly done on a Gibson EB2 with an EMG pickup at the bridge, which he used in live shows around 1990-91, hence that trebly, buzzy sound a bit like a stingray.

the black stingray with white scratchplate is Robert Smith's- I reckon he got it after playing with stingray user Steve Severin in the Banshees and The Glove. on RS' demo versions of fascination street and closedown you can hear the stingray sound.
 
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#89
volker said:
"2 Late" is one of my favourite B-Sides too! I've always liked about The Cure that, more often than not, they wouldn't just put an album track on the flipside. Loads of great extra material there!

By the way, the matching P-Bass Robert is playing in the 'Primary' clips might've actually been Simon's backup bass; The latter can be seen in this following live clip (Yes, it's the infamous "F*** Robert Palmer, f*** Rock'n'Roll!!" version of 'A Forest' :D )

And: Personally, I've always preferred the 'Boys Don't Cry' version of The Cure's debut album to the 'Three Imaginary Boys' one; 'World War', 'Another Day', 'Plastic Passion', 'Boys Don't Cry', 'Jumping Someone Else's Train' are just way better songs than 'So What', 'Meathook', 'It's Not You'. Great cover of Hendrix' 'Foxy Lady', though :)
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Play for today is still one of my favorite bassline ever. I played this to death when I was learning to play. im sure it still has the distrinction of beign the bassline I played the most in my life.

And yeah, clearly in the beginnings they didn't like doing videos or going on tv shows. They often looked very reluctant and Smith very often blatantly lied to interviewers or was being sarcastic and the interviewers would often be too clueless to notice... Part of me thinks it's a little hypocritical, In the sense that, well you don't HAVE to do it you know.... But of course they also realized if they didn't, they wouldn't get exposure.

About the schecter, so that's what it was! That just cleared up a mystery. i'd seen this video before, the one that claims an eccleshall, and I was very doubtful but hadn't noticed that it said Schecter. (I remember back in the days I watched Show over and over to try to read the name on the Knight headstock... I knew it wasn't a Gibson but couldn't tell what the hell that was)

And now that I know this..yeah it's criminal they didn't make that the Gallup Model.

and yeah as far as I know, Gallup never played an eccleshall. Who has except Peter Hook in fact?
 
#90
The Mock Turtle Regulator said:
Schecter did build a long-scale EB2/335 bass like the Dick Knight long-scale for him-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E9d9f5yuNM
(check the headstock- it's a Schecter, not an Eccleshall as posted)- I agree this would have made a better sig model than the Ultrabass-type one they put out.

I think the Wish album was mostly done on a Gibson EB2 with an EMG pickup at the bridge, which he used in live shows around 1990-91, hence that trebly, buzzy sound a bit like a stingray.

the black stingray with white scratchplate is Robert Smith's- I reckon he got it after playing with stingray user Steve Severin in the Banshees and The Glove. on RS' demo versions of fascination street and closedown you can hear the stingray sound.
Click to expand...



You don't mean the Dick Knight? you mean an actual EB2 with the EMG pickups like the Knight?


And I didn't realize that about Severin..duh.. yeah it makes even more sense now. I'm glad my theory was right
 
#95
Even though I loved The Cure back in the 80`s(and still do!),I`m ashamed to admit I didn`t know the bassist`s name. Sad,really. Recently doing bit of work on "Lovecats","Lullaby" and "Friday I`m in Love". His lines are killer and appear simple,but...lol
The other fellow smacking the 'dog house' on the "Lovecats" vid,not Simon Gallup then? *BUZZZ* Ashamed x2.
Great band,The Cure!
 
#96
HosMan said:
Even though I loved The Cure back in the 80`s(and still do!),I`m ashamed to admit I didn`t know the bassist`s name. Sad,really. Recently doing bit of work on "Lovecats","Lullaby" and "Friday I`m in Love". His lines are killer and appear simple,but...lol
The other fellow smacking the 'dog house' on the "Lovecats" vid,not Simon Gallup then? *BUZZZ* Ashamed x2.
Great band,The Cure!
Click to expand...


No Phil Thornalley is responsible for the bassline for The Lovecats. Probably his most lasting contribution with the band. He would go on to write the song Torn for Natalie Imbruglia among other things. For all the love i have for Gallup, the other two bassists that have contributed lines to The Cure are great in their own right as i think i mentioned in my first post in this thread. Michael Dempsey on the first record has loads of great lines. And Thornalley didn't have time to contribute much in his short tenure, but if nothing else the lovecats is a great line too. I would hazard to say that both these guys were likely better on a technical level than Gallup....
 
#99
nofrets5 said:
Sinking is standout; thanks for putting that out there, as it's just so...THERE
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Funny i bought a used bass today and the first tune that somehow came to mind to play just to test the electronics was Sinking.


and if im gonna do favorite album favorite line

Album: Disintegration

bassline: Well...very hard to pick one..but i guess i'll go with Play for Today. I also always really liked Charlotte Sometimes. Its better live though. Lovesong is defintiely up there too.


Id say though that probably Fascination Street an Close to me are some of the basslines that made me want to play bass. I always saw them as similar too. They kinda have a similar pattern even if the songs are pretty different.
 
#100
Weird, I was waiting all day to get home from university and post a link to "Sinking" seems to be on everyone's mind today!
As for favourite album and bassline for me...
Album - Disintegration followed by Wish (underrated in my opinion)
Bassline - If I have to pick a Gallup track I'll go with Charlotte Sometimes, otherwise Subway Song gets my vote.
 

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