Perhaps more so than any other band of their generation, the world of The Cure is culturally resplendent, deeply infused with allusions and illusions, references and echoes (some of them deliberate, others accidental). Their music, videos, artwork — the lyrics and musical genius of Robert Smith — have become some of the most powerful signifiers of contemporary pop culture, from the gothic masterpiece that is 'One Hundred Years' on Pornography, to the `spiderman' of 'Lullaby' on its sister album, Disintegration. The Cure are responsible for pop masterpieces like 'The Lovecats' and 'Boys Don't Cry, yet they have never sold out to commercial imperatives, quite possibly because, as Simon Price says in this monolithic biography of the band, 'The Cure mean something'.

Illustrated with endpapers by long-time Cure artistic collaborator, Andy Vella, Curepedia is an expansive, deeply researched and passionate examination of just what that meaning might be.

The Cure's influence reverberates through genres from Emo to Goth, Industrial and lndie Rock; their fans are legion across continents and generations; and their iconic status as the elder statesmen of Alternative Rock remains undiminished. If anything, Robert Smith is more inspirational, intriguing and mysterious than ever. In Curepedia, Simon Price sifts through the facts, the myths and the tall tales around the band, their recording history and legendary tours, to deliver a uniquely kaleidoscopic portrait of the band through such vital subjects and miscellaneous trivia as 'Hair, '1983', 'Bunny Lake, 'Siouxsie and the Banshees', 'Albert Camus' and of course, 'QPR'.