Tenure With The Cure
O'Donnell first joined The Cure in 1987, replacing Lol Tolhurst on keyboards, after being longtime friends with drummer Boris Williams. He played with The Cure during their Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me tour, though he did not contribute to the album. (He does however appear in the music videos for "Just Like Heaven" and "Hot Hot Hot!!!" and appeared in tour promo art.) With O'Donnell on keyboards, Porl Thompson was able to focus on guitar full time, instead of assisting Tolhurst on keyboards for many of the songs. Some of O'Donnell's performances from this tour can be heard on the deluxe edition of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me.
For the next album Disintegration, O'Donnell became a fully integrated member of the band, and his songwriting contributions can be heard on the songs "Untitled" and "Fear of Ghosts," which is the B-Side to the hit single "Lovesong." He is also featured on the live album from this period, Entreat. Following The Cure's Prayer Tour in 1989, O'Donnell left the band temporarily in 1990 due to a difference of opinion with some of the other members.
During the Cure's period of greatest success, O'Donnell was the band's only member to play piano and keyboards as his primary instrument. Previous keyboardist Lol Tolhurst also played drums for a time and subsequent keyboardist Perry Bamonte later switched to guitar. O'Donnell rejoined The Cure in 1995 and appeared on the albums Wild Mood Swings, Bloodflowers, and The Cure. He also appears on the live DVD Trilogy. During this period it is notable that O'Donnell introduced the band to digital recording.
When O'Donnell started working on his solo album The Truth In Me in early 2005, he stated that he had no plans to leave The Cure. However, later in that year Robert Smith decided to reconfigure The Cure as a trio, without O'Donnell or Perry Bamonte. O'Donnell would later confirm that the rumour of him being fired by E-mail was false, and if The Cure hadn't been reduced to a trio he would have left regardless to concentrate on solo material.
In May 2011, O'Donnell and Laurence Tolhurst reunited with The Cure to perform the band's first three albums - Three Imaginary Boys, Seventeen Seconds, and Faith - in their entirety at the Sydney Opera House in Australia. The set also included a number of B-sides and singles played during the encore.
On September 11 O'Donnell announced on his Facebook page that he had rejoined The Cure.
Read more about this topic: Roger O'Donnell
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