Includes scans of LPs, cassettes, CDs, promos, imports, limited editions and adverts.  Also includes track listings, catalogue numbers, release dates, chart positions, credits, liner notes and reviews.

Robert Smith of The Cure first encountered Steven Severin of Siouxsie & The Banshees when they both pitched up at the bar of the YMCA in London's Tottenham Court Road during a Throbbing Gristle gig on 3 August 1979.

"I was wearing sunglasses and a very distinctive green check shirt" remembers Smith, "I thought I looked pretty hip and happening.  Severin came over to me and whispered in my ear, 'Charlie Caroli I presume?'  That made me laugh!  We got talking and by the end of the night had agreed The Cure should play with the Banshees on their forthcoming tour."

During the course of this tour, which included Robert's stint as emergency Banshees' guitarist, the pair discovered mutual interests in music, literature, cinema and more, and so began an enduring friendship that led in the spring of 1983 to work on their now infamous joint project The Glove.

"We had first talked seriously about doing something together in late 1980 when Robert was working on Faith," remembers Severin.  "At that time Robert was completely in The Cure and I was of course in the Banshees, so a collaboration couldn't really have worked.  We had to wait.  When it finally happened it seemed to the outside world like 'the other half of the Banshees' side projects, even though we'd planned it all long before The Creatures stuff!"

Named after the evil animated glove in The Beatles' film Yellow Submarine, Robert and Steve's psychedelic project was originally conceived as a few weird singles to be aimed at the Japanese market, with hopes of bigger things to follow.

Having booked Britannia Row Studios in London, in part because of its historic connections with Pink Floyd, Severin and Smith suddenly had their rainbow-hued feathers ruffled by Chris Parry, head of The Cure's label Fiction Records, who reminded the pair that Fiction's contract with Smith specifically precluded him from singing on anything except Cure records.

Perry's concern was that Smith had been taking too much time out from The Cure.  He had already toured twice as The Banshees guitarist and, reasoned Parry, if he enjoyed doing The Glove, he might abandon The Cure altogether.  Parry's fears were far from unfounded because Smith had been somewhat dissatisfied with The Cure ever since the acrimonious departure of bassist Simon Gallup nine months earlier.

Smith and Parry now locked horns.  "It was a real struggle," explains Smith. "As I was insisting on my right to sing on something other than The Cure.  The irony of it of course was that I didn't have a clue as to what I was actually going to record as we didn't have any songs!"

At the eleventh hour a deal was thrashed out green-lighting Robert to sing on two tracks of The Glove project, which had now assumed the dimensions of a full-blown album.

"So now we needed a vocalist for the rest of the album," points out Smith. "And after a few very trippy auditions we decided on Jeanette Landray, girlfriend of the Banshees' drummer Budgie."  A member of Zoo, the Top Of The Pops dance troupe, Landray had never sung before.

Severin remembers the sessions as, "Pretty insane.  There was an ongoing 'happening' in Britannia Row.  Marc Almond's band would be there.  The Associates, John McGeoch.  It was like a mainline train station.  We recorded from 6pm to 6am.  Then Robert and I would go back to my flat and watch video nasties!"

But even the video nasties - Bad Timing, Videodrome, The Evil Dead etc - formed part of The Glove's master plan.  The idea was that by drowning themselves in acid and junk culture the pair would produce the kind of mental disorientation essential to the creation of genuinely psychedelic music.

Another technique involved the use of exotic instruments.  "We thought that if we stuck to the instruments we had always played we would end up soundi9ng like a cross between The Cure and the Banshees," explains Severin.  "Instead, we experimented and came up with new ways of working."

Landray, meanwhile was realising that as The Glove was very much Robert and Steve's project, her contributions were going to be limited.  "I had a strange role - involved, but not with any say in the way things turned out... almost like a session musician really."

Readily acknowledging that Jeanette had been thrust into an awkward position, Smith admits that he found it disconcerting to hear someone else singing songs he had demo'd with himself in mind.  "I remember Jeanette being a bit unsure as to how to sing certain songs... but she was very determined and very patient... which she had to be, as I'm pretty sure that my advice was at best cryptic!"

After just ten days in Britannia Row, this disparate trio had produced fifteen tracks to varying degrees of completion.  A body of work so considerable that when time ran out, they were obliged to finish the album with sessions in three further studios, Morgan, Trident and The Garden.

"I'm not sure what I was expecting," reflects Smith.  "But whatever it was it turned out very different!"

The public had its first tantalising taste of exactly how different it was on 12 August 1983, with the release of the single Like An Animal, a compellingly odd tale of a crazed tower block resident who drops heavy objects on passing pedestrians.

The album, named Blue Sunshine after a cult movie featuring an imaginary brand of LSD that causes users to become homicidal maniacs, was unleashed on 18 November.

"There was just a beautiful telepathy on these sessions," Severin laughs.  "Beyond the obvious glee factor and the music itself, the thing I love about it is finally being able to put a label on all the weirdly stylish and unhinged things that run around inside my head... I can now just see something and say to myself 'That is so Glove'."

"For me, Blue Sunshine will always be a very special album," Smith smiles.  "All those weird, dreamy sounds... the koto, the sitar, the dulcimer... the curious strings... the Roland drum machine being beaten down by Andy's relentless drums... singing songs that stayed in a drawer for 23 years... all very strange, and a great souvenir of a long, hot, psychedelic winter... twisting round and round and round and round and round and round with love!"

This deluxe edition of Blue Sunshine contains all Robert's original vocal demos.  Now for the first time ever it is possible to imagine how this glove could have been worn.

...Another essential bonus disc accompanies Blue Sunshine, the one-off album Smith made as The Glove in 1983 with his Banshees pal, Steven Severin, while The Cure were on ice.  The original is a dreamy psychedelic pop record - the Cocteau Twins covering The Beatles  - sung by dancer Jeanette Landray, the then-girlfriend of Banshees drummer Budgie.  At the time, a clause in The Cure's contract prevented Smith from singing on all but two of the tracks.  But now the whole album is presented with Smith's vocals, revealing what's essentially the great 'lost' Cure album recorded during his creative peak.  Slipped in at the end is 'Holiday 80', a lovely drum-machine and synth miniature.

Piers Martin

Despite Steve Severin and Robert Smith's pedigree as musicians, The Glove's disappointing "Like An Animal" single had left expectations for this album at a pretty low level. I was wrong. After a couple of plays the jangly guitar, staccato rhythms and generally very strange sounds on this album begin to worm their way into the very heart of you.

On first hearing I yawned, but now I can't stop playing it. It's not that you can call it a particularly enjoyable experience either - at the risk of sounding clichéd - it's something to "experience"

Titles like "Punish Me With Kisses" indicate much of the feel of "Blue Sunshine" with images of blood, masks of grotesque makeup, of illicit tumbles between dirty sheets. Somehow though they escape the dread label "pretentious" probably because the music is so ADDICTIVE. Just listen to the seductive keyboard sound on "A Blues In Drag" or the Eastern influenced "Orgy". After a couple pf plays it really is beautiful - in a perverse sort of way.  It's really very strange. 

Eleanor Levy

More press...

One mile in the air that's where she lives
Her body looks so thin and pink and small
Dropping eggs from nervous shaking hands
And swallowing her fingers as they fall
Two people dance on the edge
Three of us push them away
There's nowhere to go we're all in this
But nothing can hurt us at all

Fight her all you want you'll never win
Couldn't we just once leave her in bed
Let the dry air cut her happy throat
Hide her heart and lose her happy head

First I was a murderer than I was a saint
Now I live on stolen time twist and I run like paint
Like an animal
Tuesday in the sun nothing could be worse
Not now not ever not anymore...

Like a looking glass girl
In a miniature world
Saw you dance like dice
And tumble to the floor
Like a looking glass girl
In a miniature world
Whirl your Disney arms
And jump the merry-go-round
The umbrella man is shouting
We shake his paper hands
There's mirrors down beneath our feet so
Let's skate down the street
The casino man is laughing
He wears a shivering hat
We peel away like tinsel
Stick like splinters to the world

Like a looking glass girl
In a miniature world
She saw you dressed in rags
In-and-out of a jack-in-the-box
Because she's a looking glass girl
In a miniature world
Whirl your see-saw arms
And ride the Catherine Wheel

(foot, foot)

Run around the chairs in your Sunday dress
It's the best thing money can buy
Or leave me on the stairs with my feet in the air
I think that I'm jazzy like Christ
One more cigarette and the car burns slow
Burning like the body waiting at home
Throw out your teeth and call all your friends
Someone coughing took away my breath
Inches of glass all shiny and new
Screaming laughing fucks me to death
One more boy full of writhing white mice
Rolls over again in a London disguise
The blood bath woman in a room number one
Sex-eye make up tonight
She just woke up tonight
She just woke up today
To do as she's told
Do you want to touch her?

Here comes the book
The book of rules
If you play this game
You won't stay the same
You can win your golden teeth
Be a spinning top
Use a riding crop

Mr. Alphabet says
"Smile like a weasel
As I cover you...
Cover you in treacle"

We all know impatience is a sin..
So do as you're told to do
It's so rewarding to...
And you could win the tin man's heart
Be a chiming clock
Lie on the chopping block

Mr. Alphabet says
"Give me all your money
Just to cover you
Cover you in honey"

Don't be afraid
There's no marmalade
Don't be afraid
I wouldn't even dream of it!

Instrumental

Your morning smile of torture holds me in it's grip
You trace the taste of yesterday the bruise upon my lip
You touch my eyes and hypnotize and slip inside my heart
I wait for this forever but we always fall apart
You want to hold me closer
And secretly entice
You take the size of shadowed men
And punish me with kisses every night 

This espionage is sweeter now
Now that we're alone
But I meet your eyes and then despise
All we call our own

I write my name in lipstick on the mirror as I leave
To stay would be too dangerous
To break the make believe...

Someone's evil laugh shoots down my back
Shapeless and ageing we start to run
Through the tangle of your broken words
This cheap impulse falls so dry in the maze.
I burn down turn...
You turn my skin around wishing my eyes could look down On me... 

Stairs fall like jewels as we near the door
You fold through my neck & arms like crystal
So black, so black with charm & breath
We turn to face the dying sun... 

This green city rains down on me
This green city rains down

A disease is under my fingernails
It stains me like a tattoo
Back on the rack
Aching with time
Your face is familiar
From another crime 

And we could swim, we could swim
My little fishes and me

Overgrown senses prickle & spark
The flesh is in the palm of my hand
Back on the rack
Love under will
Your face is familiar
From another kill

A tongue explodes into my mouth
A taste of coma & tears
Back on the rack
My shape of rage
Your face is familiar
From another familiar rage 

And we could swim....

Move inside my daydream
Like fingers in a glove
Twisting round and round and round
Round and round and round with love!
The meeker sleeker circle girls
Dressed in docile white
Spinning on a hill
They follow the Dracula kite
The first idea flew thin
And uninvited from the sky
I reached out my hands
And held the knife of ice
Very thin red water flowed
Underneath my skin
I turned their eyes blue children
The perfect murder
Wait until the darkest
Coldest summer nights
That's when it starts
But if you blink you'll miss the fan
You'll miss their pretty hearts

Instrumental

Your body grows more beautiful
With every move you make
Your body grows more beautiful
With every bite I take
You won't believe I love you
It's too stupid for words
So I lick your trembling lips
And use your hands to feed the birds

I laid with you for hours
Staring at your face
I laid with you for hours
Remembering your taste
And when the morning came
It spattered us in light
I think I left you sleeping there
I think I left you sleeping

Mouth to mouth I asked you to stay
Mouth to mouth but you're slipping away

Down seven stairs and first on the left
Arch your back and hold your breath
A million fat girls and a million fat men
Couldn't put me back together again

Instrumental

Instrumental

Instrumental