A forest of questions: take our quiz on the Cure!

The Cure pictured in 1984. (L-r) Phil Thornalley, Porl Thompson, Robert Smith, Andy Anderson and Lol Tolhurst. Photograph: Fin Costello/Redferns

It is a wonderful week for those of us with a gothic persuasion. Not only is it Halloween on Thursday, but on Friday we’ll be in love as the Cure unveil their first new album for 16 years – Songs of a Lost World. Why not whet your appetite with our fiendishly difficult quiz about one of the most consistently brilliant British bands? There are no prizes, it is just for fun, but if you do score badly then the spiderman is having you for dinner tonight …

Take the quiz!

1. Before being reissued on the Fiction label that would be the band's home for many years, which small indie label initially released the Cure's debut single in December 1978?

   1. Zoo

   2. Small Wonder

   3. Some Bizarre

   4. Ugly Child

2. The Cure were originally known as Malice, and then had another name before they settled on the Cure. What was it?

   1. Stupid Cure

   2. Vague Cure

   3. Only Cure

   4. Easy Cure

3. In which video are the band stuck in a wardrobe that eventually cheerfully plummets off the edge of a cliff?

   1. Never Enough

   2. Close To Me

   3. High

   4. Just Like Heaven

4. Which of these household appliances is NOT on the album cover of Three Imaginary Boys

   1. Ironing board

   2. Upright lamp

   3. Fridge

   4. Vacuum cleaner

5. The Entreat live album featured live versions of tracks from Disintegration. Where was it recorded?

   1. SECC Glasgow

   2. Wembley Arena

   3. Birmingham NEC

   4. Oxford Apollo

6. Simon Gallup usually has the flag of which football team on his bass amp during shows?

   1. Oxford United

   2. Southend United

   3. Reading

   4. Queens Park Rangers

7. On the Faith LP, the song The Drowning Man tells of the death of Fuchsia, inspired by events in which series of books?

   1. The Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett

   2. The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula Le Guin

   3. The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis

   4. The Gormenghast novels by Mervyn Peake

8. Which track did the Cure contribute to the soundtrack of the movie The Crow – the good one, not the recent remake …

   1. Big Empty

   2. Burn

   3. Snakedriver

   4. It Can't Rain All the Time

9. Which guitarist, who worked with David Bowie, features on the new Cure album?

   1. Reeves Gabrels

   2. Adrian Belew

   3. Carlos Alomar

   4. Robert Fripp

10. What are the backwards voices doing at the beginning of the title track of the Cure's fourth album, Pornography

    1. It is some lines of dialogue from a BBC production of King Lear run backwards

    2. It is an excerpt from a political speech by then-chancellor Geoffrey Howe run backwards

    3. It is a BBC Two television continuity announcement run backwards

    4. It is a vox pop from a local TV news segment, with someone complaining about the local council, run backwards

11. Robert Smith and Siouxsie and the Banshees' Steven Severin collaborated on a 1983 album under which name?

    1. The Punch

    2. The Fist

    3. The Glove

    4. The Hand

12. Robert Smith wrote Lovesong as a wedding present for his wife. What is her name?

    1. Claire

    2. Sam

    3. Niki

    4. Mary

13. Which of these animals has NOT been in the title of a song by the Cure?

    1. Cats

    2. Dog

    3. Caterpillar

    4. Cockatoos

    5. Spider

    6. Snake

    7. Fish

    8. Piggy

    9. Birds

14. In 2014 The Cure played a 30th anniversary show for The Top at Hammersmith Odeon, where they had played a show on its original tour. They recreated the original 1984 bill by adding which support band?

    1. Dead Can Dance

    2. Gene Loves Jezebel

    3. And Also the Trees

    4. Eyeless in Gaza

15. Robert Smith has said that the opening track on Songs of a Lost World, Alone, was inspired by which poem?

    1. Dregs by Ernest Dowson

    2. Hyperion by John Keats

    3. New Hampshire by Robert Frost

    4. The Thorn by William Wordsworth

16. When did the album Wish come out?

    1. 1990

    2. 1991

    3. 1992

    4. 1993

17. What was the b-side of Charlotte Sometimes in the UK?

    1. Another Journey by Train

    2. Descent

    3. Pillbox Tales

    4. Splintered in Her Head

18. The Cure have songs called Birdmad Girl and Sugar Girl, but which of these is also a Cure song with girl in the title?

    1. The Girl in the Fireplace

    2. The Perfect Girl

    3. The Girl With the Stars in Her Hair

    4. The Only Girl

19. Lengthy instrumental Carnage Visors, the soundtrack to a short film by Ric Gallup, was included as a bonus track on the UK cassette release of which album?

    1. 17 Seconds

    2. Faith

    3. Pornography

    4. The Top

20. And finally, we all know that on Friday Robert Smith is in love. But which of these weekday features of its lyrics is the odd one out? You might have to sing the song all the way through in your head to work it out, but we know you know all the words …

    1. Grey

    2. Break my heart

    3. I don't care about you

    4. Heart attack

    5. Stay in bed

Solutions

1:B - The Walthamstow-based label first issued Killing an Arab while Fiction got their distribution deal sorted, 2:D - They were known as Easy Cure for a period between 1977 and 1978, 3:B - Directed by Tim Pope, Robert Smith has described the filming of it as 12 of the worst hours of his life, 4:A - The other three items appear on the album, which had art direction from Bill Smith, 5:B - The Cure played three nights there on the Prayer tour. The CD was initially only available in the UK as part of a special offer if you bought two Cure CDs at HMV, but later received a full commercial release, 6:C - Of course it is Reading, how could it be anybody else?, 7:D - Played by Neve McIntosh in the BBC TV adaptation, Fuchsia slips and accidentally drowns while contemplating ending her life, 8:B - Despite not being a single or on an album, it has regularly featured in the Cure's lengthy setlists ever since, 9:A - They first met when Gabrels was music director of Bowie's 50th Birthday Concert in New York in 1997. Gabrels has now been in the band since 2012, 10:C - It is Robin Witting announcing the channel's closedown, and saying, among other things: "If you're still up and about and want a bit more entertainment, a reminder that our colleagues over on BBC Radio are still on the airwaves on Radio Two", 11:C - Their Blue Sunshine album was the fruit of the project, 12:D - They met when they were 14, and married in 1988, and are still together. Awwwwwwww, 13:E - Lullaby might be about a spider, but it doesn't feature in the title unlike the animals in The Love Cats, Shake Dog Shake, The Caterpillar, Like Cockatoos, The Snakepit, Bananafishbones, Piggy in the Mirror and Where the Birds Always Sing, 14:C - Formed in 1979 in Inkberrow, Worcestershire by two sets of brothers, the band have enjoyed a long association with the Cure, 15:A - In interviews Smith has said he had a nagging feeling: "I already knew what the opening line should be … I remembered the poem, Dregs, by the English poet, Ernest Dowson, and it was in that moment that I knew the song and album were real", 16:C - It was three years after Disintegration, 17:D - Five minutes of drums with the occasional bit of screaming and four lines of lyrics, and an absolute joy when it was performed live at the Royal Albert Hall in 2011 at the Reflections show. The UK 12" of Charlotte Sometimes added a 10-minute version of Faith, 18:B - It was on the Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me album, 19:B - The film was sometimes shown as the support act when the Cure were promoting the album, 20:C - All the other things are associated with Tuesday in lines of the song, but it is "Thursday I don't care about you"

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun – just a few days now to wait for Songs of a Lost World!