#Phil Thornalley

[a-night-like--this]

The Cure, shot in Paris in 1983

[ubiq80]

The Cure. 1983 Andy Anderson, Phil Thornalley, Lol Tolhurst and Robert Smith

[halonumber]

The Cure - The Caterpillar (1984) dir. Tim Pope

[thisnoise]

Your name like ice into my heart.

[stuckinhoneyhoney]

i love you robert smith i love you simon gallup i love you lol tolhurst i love you porl thompson i love you boris williams i love you michael dempsey i love you matthieu hartley i love you andy anderson i love you phil thornalley i love you roger o’donnell i love you perry bamonte i love you jason cooper i love you reeves gabrels

[mychameleondays]

The Cure: Concert

Fiction/Metronome 823 682-1 ME, 19??

Originally released: October 16, 1984

[sunset-supergirl]

Happy birthday Phil Thornalley

[mymelodic-chapel]

Strawberry Switchblade- Strawberry Switchblade (Synthpop) Released: April 5, 1985 [Korova Records] Producer(s): David Motion, Phil Thornalley

[classicrockblog1]

Philip Thornalley (born 5 January 1960) is an English #songwriter-#producer who has worked in the #music industry since 1978. He is perhaps best known for co-writing (with Scott Cutler and Anne Preven) the Ednaswap song “Torn” (made famous by Natalie Imbruglia’s cover version, which he also produced) and the number one hits “Mama Do”, “Boys and Girls” and “Cry Me Out” for Pixie Lott. He also produced The Cure’s 1982 album Pornographyand was later their bass player for eighteen months.

Thornalley became the producer for The Cureon their fourth album, Pornography.[2] After Simon Gallup parted ways with the band in 1982, he was The Cure’s bassist for eighteen months. He produced their 1983 single The Love Cats and their first live album, Concert. However, he quit to resume working as a songwriter and producer.[3]

He was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical in 1984 for Into the Gap by the Thompson Twins and released his only solo album (Swamp).[1] in 1988.

https://youtu.be/x83wluZqM2g

[c-40]

A-T-4 107 Prefab Sprout

'Songs Written out of Necessity' or Swoon is the debut album by Prefab Sprout. Like many debut albums some of the songs had been written years before they were recorded in 1983. Swoon was produced by David Brewis of the Kane Gang, the album caught the attention of Thomas Dolby who quickly started working with them on the songs that would become Prefab Sprout's second album Steve McQueen. Swoon and its singles Don't Sing and Couldn't Bear To Be Special are released in the first half of 1984 but before the year is out When Love Breaks Down, the lead single from Steve McQueen is also released, it's the only track on Steve McQueen not produced with Thomas Dolby

Swoon is Prefab Sprout's least consistent album, Paddy McAloon says it's too wordy. I find it difficult to pick a few songs from the album they are all good, so to start I'm going to pick a song that didn't make it onto Swoon and I'll finish with When Love Breaks Down which is post-Swoon

Donna Summer an early song, part of Prefabs Sprout's live set by 1980 that was put on both the b-side of the 12" single versions of Couldn't Bear To Be Special and When Love Breaks Down. Session drummer Graham Lant plays on Swoon but he doesn't stay, they use several drummers around this time, it's David Ruffy of The Ruts who plays on this track

Cue Fanfare one of the standout tracks from Swoon

When Love Breaks Down produced by Phil Thornalley who was playing bass for The Cure at the time and would go on to join Johnny Hates Jazz. I can't find the 1984 single mix so here's the album version that was remixed by Thomas Dolby

[tournevole]

Lis Sørensen - Brændt (Official Music Video)

Torn » a été écrit par Scott Cutler, Anne Preven et Phil Thornalley, enregistré pour la première fois en 1993 en danois par la chanteuse danoise Lis Sørensen

[a-night-like--this]

The Cure photographer Paul Cox: “Robert Smith is a normal bloke – but he has a presence”

Cox tells us about his new photo book 'The Cure "Stills"', years of working with the band, and recent correspondence with Smith

By Andrew Trendell | 6th January 2023

The Cure's Robert Smith shot by Paul Cox

Photographer Paul Cox, who has released a new book of his images of The Cure, has spoken to NME about his experience of working with the band and his correspondence with frontman Robert Smith over the years.

The Cure, who recently completed a lengthy UK and European tour with a string of acclaimed shows at London’s Wembley Arena, are expected to release the long overdue ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ – the group’s first new album since 2008’s ‘4:13 Dream’.

To give patient fans something to digest in the mean time, Cox recently released The Cure “Stills” – a book documenting his long visual relationship with the band since he first started shooting them for a magazine session back in 1980, before soon taking photos of them during a Top Of The Pops performance. Their shoots together would often start in the early afternoon and go on until the early hours of the morning.

The Cure on ‘Top Of The Pops’ in 1980, shot by Paul Cox

“I was quite young, and they came across a little bit intimidating – but interesting; and that was always the thing,” Cox told NME about their first meeting. “You get a little bit of a vibe off people. From that one little session I just kept pestering them and got to shoot them more and more.”

Cox continued: “Robert is a very down to earth person – a normal bloke – but he has a presence when he walks into a room. He knows what he wants and nothing is going to stand in the way of how he presents himself. He won’t do interviews for the sake of it, he won’t do pictures for the sake of it; there always has to be a reason and he’ll put his all into it.

“Working with him over the years, he always puts a lot of effort in. That’s not him trying overly hard but just knowing what needs to be done and projecting himself in a certain way. He’s just great to photograph and a real character.”

The Cure’s Robert Smith shot by Paul Cox

Despite Smith’s image as one of rock’s most iconic figures, Cox doubled down on his reputation as “a normal bloke”.

“I’ve always wondered what it would be like inside Robert Smith’s house, but I think it would be fairly normal!” he said. “I can imagine him putting a shelf up. He’ll do things himself. When we were doing the book, I first asked his permission out of courtesy, then he ended up curating it. It took so bloody long because of various things happening and people dying and whatnot. It took five years to do this book when it could have taken six months.

“Anyway, while we were putting the book together he was actually moving house at one point. He didn’t get people in to do it for him. At one point he told me, ‘Oh, this is the 10th trip I’ve done in a van!’”

The Cure, shot by Paul Cox

As for what his photographs reveal about the band, Cox said that The Cure “haven’t changed at all really”.

“You see their fashion changing slightly like when they went for the suits for a bit in the ‘80s, but generally Robert Smith in particular hasn’t changed at all – the big hair, the red lips, the eyeliner, his commitment. How many bands have survived as long as them? Not many.

“The members dip in and out, but I would imagine that [Smith] is really hard work to work with, but he’s just so driven.”

Cox went on to say that he “didn’t know” if he’d ever work with The Cure again, or if the band would be likely to do many more photo shoots.

“In the kindest way, they don’t need to promote themselves pictorially,” Cox argued. “They are what they are and can get by with a little drawing. Photography and what photos are used for have changed and now taking new photos is kind of unnecessary most of the time.”

The Cure, shot by Paul Cox

Smith has repeatedly teased the band’s upcoming record to NME as a dark, “merciless, relentless” piece, inspired by a period of great loss following the passing of several family members, and in a similar spirit to their 1989 gothic art-rock masterpiece ‘Disintegration’.

Quizzed on if he had any inside knowledge on ‘Songs Of A Lost World’, Cox replied: “No, not at all! Haven’t they been working on a couple of albums? I know one was supposed to come out back in the autumn, but I can understand why it didn’t. Sometimes you won’t hear from him for three months at a time, then he’ll come back with shitloads all at once! A lot of personal things have happened in his life over the last few years, and he just puts his priorities in the right place.”

The Cure “Stills” by Paul Cox is out now. Visit here for more information.

The Cure “Stills” – by Paul Cox

Speaking about the book in a statement, Smith said: “The ‘look’ of the various incarnations of The Cure, through many different periods, is inextricably linked to Paul’s pictures; his vision, expertise and patience played a huge part in portraying us, not just as we wanted to be, but as we really were.

“An excellent photographer, and an excellent man… and a very good job he wasn’t put off by the very weird job that was The Cure on top of the pops in 1980!”

[weaversweek]

3 "Torn" - Natalie Imbruglia

writers Scott Cutler, Anne Preven, Phil Thornalley

"Every 90s kid comes of age three times: Eighteenth birthday. Twenty-first birthday. The day they find out Natalie Imbruglia's version of Torn is a cover."

ELF POINTS (11 points)

Part of the UncoolTwo50 project, marking the best singles from 1977-99.

If a song is recorded, and nobody ever hears it, can it be covered?

Written for Anne Preven and her band Ednaswap, and recorded by local stars Trine Rein and Lis Sørensen, "Torn" is indelibly associated with Natalie Imbruglia.

The song was co-written with Cutler and Thornalley, who'd already contributed most of the songs for Johnny Hates Jazz's first (and last) album. Thornalley had previously produced the Thompson Twins, XTC, The Cure, and Duran Duran. Anne Preven wrote the lyric, which might explain why it has faint echoes of Poplish, the international language of hit music.

Scott Cutler is to blame for the tense, fretful sound. Thornalley explained, "I feel Scott would have scientifically manipulated the entry to the chorus so it resolves on the major note of the scale – teasing the notes in the bars before to draw out the tension. The ear wants the melody to land on the pleasing A of F major, but is held back by singing the B flat till the last beat." One semi-tone down, till the very end.

Ednaswap were active in 1992, and performed "Torn" live with a grunge sound. It takes a leap to imagine the familiar words to a scuzzy background, and at a much slower tempo, but I reckon it works. Poul Bruun, an A&R man, absolutely loved the tune, and was responsible for the Scandinavian covers. And then Natalie Imbruglia got hold of the song.

Thornalley again. "We worked hard, recording and re-recording her vocal for days, trying to find the best expression from her voice. If she sings out too much, pushes too hard, then her beautiful breathy tone is lost. We would try out phrases with added blue notes to try to capture the lyrical mood. So not a one-take wonder, a studied and contrived performance. I guess her skills as an actor helped with the patience needed to put up with my demands."

Unlike Trine and Lis, Natalie captures the bittersweet heartbreak at the centre of "Torn"; it's a vocal to compare with Lisa Loeb (qv). This relationship is gone, finished, kaput, over. And it hurts like anything, and Natalie absolutely conveys this emotion with every little quiver of the voice.

She's helped by the arrangement, trimming the instrumental break from 20 bars to 8. With of-the-time backing beats from Zero 7, and background singing from Katrina Leskevich of The Waves, "Torn" was very much the cool thing. And it fell into the paths paved by Alanis Morissette (qv), Sheryl Crow, and many more.

Championed by Richard "Dogsby" Park, "Torn" went straight into high rotation at BLOB in Birmingham, Crapital FM, Crackly Atlantic 252, Virgin Quarter Past Twelve, Soft Rock 100.7 Heart FM - and eventually, grudgingly, to One! Efff! Emm! Sold a million copies by the end of the year, another quarter-mill in '98. Radio loved it, and continues to love it - "Torn" was the most played record on radio in 1998, and around number 150 for 1999, in the top 30 for the 2000s decade, number 42 for the entire 2010s, and still gets 1250 spins a week - of my top 50, only Rick Astley gets more.

What's the enduring appeal? Mostly, that Natalie conveys the emotion like the high-quality actor she is. It's an awesome song, which works in many styles. Natalie absolutely nails the vocal mood she wants, helped by those little changes to the orchestration. And the video, with Jeremy Sheffield and a fixed camera, an apartment being furnished and dismantled, that hoodie, and Natalie's angry dance in the final guitar-wah.

Natalie Imbruglia continued to make music - "Big mistake" from Left of the Middle would probably be in my 50 if I didn't limit it to one single per album. Although 2001's White Lilies Island was a bit undercooked, "Shiver" from Counting Down the Days is another top-drawer performance. More albums have followed in the last few years, and I wouldn't be too surprised to hear Natalie got the big New Year's Gig on BBC1 some year.

If I'd written this list in 1999, "Torn" would be on it, a great song that spoke to a lot of people. A quarter-century later, "Torn" is still on my list, still one of the first names down. Deserves the Eleven Points! and third place.

Also… "The reflex" from Duran Duran made number 55; "You take me up" from Thompson Twins, "Lullaby" from The Cure were longlisted; XTC and Johnny Hates Jazz were passed. Katrina and the Waves had "Walking on sunshine" and "That's the way" in the longlist, where we find Sheryl Crow for "Run baby run".

[capsulas]

Torn Provided to YouTube by SONY BMG Catalog Torn · Natalie Imbruglia Beautiful Love Songs ℗ 1997 Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited Released on: 2006-01-28 Producer: Phil Thornalley Composer, Lyricist: Thornalley Mixing Engineer: Nigel Godrich Composer, Lyricist: Scott Cutler Composer, Lyricist: Anne Previn Auto-generated by YouTube. via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsaEqn1Czfc

[mymelodic-chapel]

Orange Juice- The Orange Juice (Jangle Pop, Indie Pop, Post-Punk) Released: November 1984 [Polydor Records] Producer(s): Dennis Bovell, Will Gosling, Phil Thornalley