Robert Smith has said that he loathed Three Imaginary Boys, even whilst the band were recording the album, and thought of Seventeen Seconds as the first Cure album. The period between the debut and Seventeen Seconds is when he took control of the group from their manager, Chris Parry, who had both produced the debut (instructing them to record everything they’d written) and came up with the idea for the sleeve. There was plenty of change going on during this time. Unknown Pleasures came out a month after Three imaginary Boys. Smith was listening to Bowie’s Low. The band toured with Siouxsie and the Banshees in late ’79 and Smith ended up on guitar for them. Post-punk was… More