ABOUT LIQUEUR
Liqueur band
(left to right)
Daz (Simon Gallup) – Bass guitar
Chris (Robert Smith) – vocals/guitar/6 string bass/acoustic guitar
Mark (Boris Williams/Jason Cooper)- Drums/Percussion
Gary (Porl Thompson/Reeves Gabrels ) – guitar/6 string bass/keyboards
Si (Roger O’Donnell / Perry Bamonte) – synthesizers/guitar/tambourine
a biography..
The idea of forming a Cure tribute band was first ‘jokingly’ discussed over more than a few beers in the summer of 2006. The original idea was to be a food & drink-based tribute band, given The Cure’s reputation as enthusiastic drinkers and lovers of a good curry!
Hours of fun ensued ‘fooding up’ Cure songs and albums, including such gems as Piemary, A Forest Gateaux, Quiche me Quiche Me Quiche Me and Seventeen Seconds (can you see what we did there?). However once sober, it was decided that a more ‘traditional’ tribute route should be taken if we ever wanted to play to an audience without getting food thrown at us! However, the throwaway name, Liqueur, seemed to stick.
Original Liqueur members, Mark (drums), Daz (bass) and Chris (Guitar/Vocals) were seasoned veterans of the Norfolk music scene and had previously all played together in a mid 90’s Britpop band, Betty Ford. Although not intentional (sic), we were often referred to as a Blur tribute band, thus making the transition to another tribute band relatively straightforward.
At the beginning of 2007, The Three Imaginary Boys began rehearsals in earnest with their first gig taking place on a cliff top somewhere in North Norfolk in August of the same year. The following year, Gary was added to the band on guitar and keyboards. The new 4-piece Liqueur debuting at The Brickmakers, Norwich in December 2008.
From this point onwards Liqueur have gigged all over the UK regularly, the reception we receive from our audiences is always fantastic and we have made many friends on our travels, many of whom now travel the country to watch us play. Comments such as, ‘You sound more like The Cure than The Cure!’ Or ‘I’m more excited about seeing Liqueur than seeing The Cure!’ are not a rare occurrence.
In 2012, Liqueur introduced Dave into the fold on keyboards and occasional guitar, however family commitments (and a love of techno) made his tenure somewhat short-lived and he was replaced by Si in 2013, thus giving Liqueur its current ‘classic’ 5 piece line-up.
What makes Liqueur special is the fact that we all like The Cure; we’ve been fans since we were kids (I would calculate the accumulative fan years we hold but I don’t have enough fingers, and hailing from Norfolk, that’s really saying something!). Reproducing the songs is the easy part, we want to look, sound, eat and drink The Cure, therefore we try to use the same equipment as the band wherever we can (thank you eBay and Barclaycard!) and the look and feel of our gigs is very important to us.
When we play a gig….we are The Cure and we want you to feel like you are watching The Cure.
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