Robert Smith (musician) - School Bands: 1972-1976

School Bands: 1972-1976

Robert Smith has said that his first band when he was fourteen consisted of "my brother, some of his friends and my younger sister . It was called The Crawley Goat Band – brilliant!" However, while The Crawley Goat Band may have been Smith's first regular group, he would have been just thirteen when he and his Notre Dame schoolmates gave their first one-off performance together as The Obelisk; an early incarnation of what would eventually become The Cure. The Obelisk featured Robert Smith (still playing piano at this point), alongside Marc Ceccagno (lead guitar), Michael Dempsey (guitar), Alan Hill (bass) and Laurence "Lol" Tolhurst (percussion) and, according to The Cure's official biography Ten Imaginary Years, gave their only performance at a school function in April 1972. Jeff Apter, however, dates the performance to April 1973, which is at variance with Smith and his bandmates having already left Notre Dame Middle School by this time.

During the latter part of 1972, the nucleus of Smith, Ceccagno, Dempsey and Tolhurst had gone on to secondary school together at St. Wilfrid's Comprehensive, where they and their friends continued playing music together. Smith said that they were known simply as "the group" "because it was the only one at school so we didn't need a name." Dempsey, who eventually moved from guitar to bassist for "the group", said that another name they toyed with was the Brat's Club - a reference to Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust. Smith said that "the group" eventually became Malice - "sort of a sub-metal punk group - with Michael Dempsey, Laurence and two other blokes." According to the band's Ten Imaginary Years biography, between January and December 1976, the shifting line-up for Malice featured several "other blokes", with founding guitarist Marc Ceccagno being replaced by Porl Thompson, an early drummer known only as "Graham" replaced by Lol Tolhurst, and "Graham's brother" replaced by vocalist Martin Creasy.

By 1977, Malice had become the Easy Cure.