Pearl Thompson is an English musician and artist. Thompson is best known as a member of the English alternative rock band The Cure from 1983-1993 and 2005-2011, during which he was credited as Porl Thompson and played mainly guitar with occasional keyboards and saxophone. After leaving the Cure he has focused on a successful career as a visual artist.
Thompson performing with The Cure in Sweden in 2007
The Cure are an English rock band formed in 1978 in Crawley, West Sussex. Throughout numerous lineup changes since the band's formation, guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter Robert Smith has remained the only constant member, though bassist Simon Gallup has been present for all but about three years of the band's history. Their debut album, Three Imaginary Boys (1979), along with several early singles, placed the band at the forefront of the emerging post-punk and new wave movements that had sprung up in the United Kingdom. Beginning with their second album, Seventeen Seconds (1980), the band adopted a new, increasingly dark and tormented style, which, together with Smith's stage look, had a strong influence on the emerging genre of gothic rock as well as the subculture that eventually formed around the genre.
The Cure performing in August 2007. From left to right: Jason Cooper (on drums), Porl Thompson, Robert Smith, and Simon Gallup
Steven Severin, Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie with whom Robert Smith played inside Siouxsie and the Banshees as guitarist, in 1979, then from 1982 to 1984.
Smith in 1985
The Cure in concert in 2004. From left to right: Robert Smith, Jason Cooper, and Simon Gallup