\"The Cure\'s original drummer asks to rejoin band\" headlined The Guardian, but that\'s a little misleading according to Laurence \"Lol\" Tolhurst.\"I have not asked Robert Smith to rejoin the Cure! I have my thing, he has his. I just thought it might be fun to play the old songs together again especially as Michael [Dempsey] and I had a great time playing the \'Three Imaginary Boys\' songs this march in Europe.\"
Laurence \"Lol\" Tolhurst was the band\'s founding drummer, but he was sacked from the group more than twenty years ago because of an alleged drinking problem.
The drummer, who currently plays in the band Levinhurst, has been in contact with Robert Smith about a batch of The Cure reissues, including 1990\'s \'Mixed Up\' remix album and a collection of the band\'s BBC sessions.
After writing and playing on the Cure\'s first four albums, Tolhurst was forced to leave the group \"because he\'s so useless\", Robert Smith said at the time, insisting that Lol\'s drinking had reduced his musical contributions to zero.
In 1991, the drummer sued Smith for royalties, demanding shared ownership of the Cure name. It took three years for the case to wind its way through the courts.
They reconciled in the early 2000s and have been in contact since. Speaking in 2003, the drummer said:
\"I think we both have the idea that there\'s lots of things that we can still do together and I\'m sure that it will happen. It\'s not a question of \'if\', it\'s more a question of \'when\'.\"
