Formed in 1976 by school friends Robert Smith, Lol Tolhurst and Michael Dempsey, The Cure was one of the first post-punk bands to inject pure pop back into post-Pistols rock. Throughout a career filled with paradox and evolution, endless personnel changes, and side-projects including stints with Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Glove, iconic frontman Robert Smith has remained alive to changes in the music scene. Now, in their third decade, they remain relevant and connected, when many of their contemporaries are reduced to nostalgia packages and worse. This full-length, extensively researched biography of the band, and of Smith - one of rock's most enduring figures - is the most up-to-date telling of a never-ending story; it also analyses in depth the 'goth' subculture and its relationship with The Cure.