Michael Dempsey
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| Michael Dempsey | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Michael Stephen Dempsey |
| Born | November 29, 1958 |
| Origin | Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia |
| Genre(s) | Punk rock, post punk, gothic rock, alternative rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | Bass guitar, guitar, keyboards |
| Years active | 1972–present |
| Associated acts | The Cure The Associates The Lotus Eaters Presence Levinhurst Malice Easy Cure |
| Website | http://www.mdmmedia.com/ |
Michael Dempsey (born 29 November 1958) is a bassist from England, who has performed as a member of several post-punk and new wave bands including The Cure and the Associates. Although best known as the original bassist for The Cure, he has played bass for longer, and appeared on more releases from both the Associates and The Lotus Eaters.
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[edit] History
[edit] Early years
Michael Dempsey was born on November 29, 1958 in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now known as Harare, Zimbabwe); the son of Nancy and William. He moved to Salfords in Surrey, England in 1961, and attended Salfords County School (1963–1970).
He then went to Notre Dame Middle School between 1970 and 1972, where he met Robert Smith, Marc Ceccagno and Lol Tolhurst. Here they first played music together as The Obelisk in December of 1972, giving an end of year performance for their classmates. Although he is ordinarily known as a bass guitar player, Dempsey played guitar for The Obelisk's only known live performance, whereas one Alan Hill played bass.
He later attended Saint Wilfrid's Catholic Comprehensive School (1972–1976), and Crawley College from 1976 to 1978.
In January of 1976 Michael Dempsey became a co-founding member of Malice, along with Robert Smith, Marc Ceccagno, and others. The band also later featured Laurence Tolhurst, and Porl Thompson. They played only a few live shows in December of that same year.
[edit] Easy Cure and The Cure 1977–1979
In 1977 Dempsey, Tolhurst, Smith and Thompson formed Easy Cure, who became known as The Cure following Porl Thompson's departure in April 1978. Michael Dempsey appeared as bassist on The Cure's singles "Killing an Arab" (1978) and "Boys Don't Cry" (1979) and on the 1979 album Three Imaginary Boys. Other than frontman Robert Smith, Dempsey had the distinction of being the only other member of The Cure (besides Simon Gallup on the unreleased Violin Song demo) to sing lead vocals. He sang the cover version of the Jimi Hendrix song "Foxy Lady", which appears on Three Imaginary Boys. He made his final live performance as a member of The Cure on October 15, 1979 at London's Hammersmith Odeon on the last night of The Cure's tour in support of Siouxsie and the Banshees. In November of that year, however, the singles "Jumping Someone Else's Train" by The Cure and "I'm a Cult Hero" / "I Dig You" by Cure side-project Cult Hero were also released with Michael Dempsey performing bass and keyboards, respectively. The Cure's Three Imaginary Boys album and singles from 1978–1979 featuring Dempsey were later repackaged for the US market as the Boys Don't Cry album in 1980, and he appears on the band's early Peel Sessions between 1978 and 1979 as well.
[edit] Post-Cure
In 1986 Michael made another appearance with The Cure in the music video for a new version of Boys Don't Cry. In 2004 the Deluxe Edition of Three Imaginary Boys was issued featuring a second disc of rare and previously unreleased material recorded between 1977 and 1979, which again feature Dempsey on bass. He also appears on some tracks on the Deluxe Edition of Seventeen Seconds.
Michael Dempsey has also collaborated often with Laurence Tolhurst in particular, and several other ex-members of The Cure and related projects down to the present time. See also Association with Lol Tolhurst (below).
[edit] Associates 1979–1983
Upon leaving The Cure he became the bassist for Scotland's Associates, who (like The Cure) were signed to Fiction Records. He had already performed with the Associates prior to leaving The Cure, but made his debut as their new fulltime bassist on November 16, 1979 at Eric's Club in Liverpool; the first night of the Future Pastimes Tour; a "Fiction Records Package" tour featuring The Cure, The Passions and the Associates. He remained the Associates' bassist from 1979 to 1983, appearing on the albums The Affectionate Punch (1980), Fourth Drawer Down (1981) and Sulk (1982) along with a number of singles between 1980 and 1983. He also performed with the group on a series of radio sessions recorded for Radio 1's John Peel and David Jensen shows, which were later released in 2003 as the album Radio 1 Sessions Volume 1; 1981-83 on Strange Fruit Records.
[edit] Post-Associates
The original group disbanded in 1983 following the departure of co-founder Alan Rankine, however frontman Billy MacKenzie continued to work under the name of Associates with various collaborators, including Michael Dempsey at times. Dempsey has also continued to collaborate with Alan Rankine. His replacement on bass during the second phase of the Associates was Roberto Soave, who has since appeared in several bands also featuring members of The Cure including Shelleyan Orphan, The Cure (as a live stand-in for Simon Gallup), Presence and Babacar.
After Billy MacKenzie's death in 1997 Michael Dempsey was responsible for remastering and reissuing much of the band's early material as part of the V2 Records project; collaborating with Billy MacKenzie's estate to ensure that his legacy was preserved. Michael has since then been responsible for making available archival Associates materials such as rare tracks and other media via his own company mdmmedia.com
[edit] Roxy Music 1982
One of Michael's most notable but often overlooked appearances was for the legendary British band Roxy Music in the 1982 video for one of their biggest UK and American hit singles -Avalon - as the bass player. He also toured with the band to promote the album by the same name.
[edit] The Lotus Eaters 1983–1985
In 1983 Michael Dempsey became the bassist for Liverpool's then-recently formed new wave band The Lotus Eaters, replacing original bassist Phil Lucking. They signed to Arista Records and released their debut single The First Picture Of You in June 1983 (reaching #15 in the UK charts), followed by the singles You Don't Need Someone New (August '83) and Set Me Apart (1984). The 1984 debut album No Sense Of Sin followed with the single Out On Your Own, and finally the It Hurts single in early 1985. Both Dempsey and founding member Jerry Kelly (now known as Jem Kelly) left the group in 1985; co-founder Peter Coyle continued under The Lotus Eaters name for a short time live with replacement members whilst Kelly went on to reform his earlier band The Wild Swans.
[edit] Post-Lotus Eaters
In 1998 The Lotus Eaters released a compilation of Radio 1 sessions recorded between 1982 and 1983 and live material from 1984 First Picture Of You - BBC Sessions which also features Michael Dempsey on bass. Founding members Peter Coyle and Jem Kelly later reformed The Lotus Eaters in 2000 and released the album Silentspace, with a second album recorded and awaiting release in 2007, however Michael Dempsey was no longer a member.
Kelly did however state in a 2002 interview that "Michael Dempsey and I are working on an album and looking for French female singers. Do you know any? It’s inspired by cinemas and film music – music to make the spirit soar and get you thinking of scripts for Art house movies"[1]
In a 2004 interview with the French Cure fansite A Pink Dream Michael also said that he had at one time been a collaborator on a project called 'Act', which he described as "a spin-off from Propaganda and The Lotus Eaters from Liverpool".[2]
[edit] Association with Lol Tolhurst
In 1990 Michael Dempsey, Lol Tolhurst and Gary Biddles (of Fools Dance) were recording demos together with a view to forming a new band following Lol's departure from The Cure.[3] With the addition of keyboardist Chris Youdell (of Then Jericho) and drummer Alan Burgess the band emerged in 1991 as Presence with the singles In Wonder and All I See. Dempsey received co-writing credit for Amazed; a b-side from All I See, but took a background role as a session bassist and did not appear in the band's photos or press. Porl Thompson also made guest appearances on guitar for some of these recordings, but by 1992 both Dempsey and Thompson were officially replaced by bassist Roberto Soave (formerly of Associates and Shelleyan Orphan) and guitarist Rob Steen respectively. Dempsey also received co-writing credits for another two tracks on the 1993 debut album Inside.
In 2004 Michael said that he still worked regularly with Tolhurst and that he had some contact with Porl Thompson, but had not spoken to Robert Smith in many years.[4] Tolhurst is also one of the artists associated with Dempsey's music and media publishing company MDM Media and its affiliate company BDM Music (see below).
In 2007 Dempsey also remixed Tolhurst's post-Presence project Levinhurst, contributing the Imaginary Boy Mix of the track Never Going To Dream Again to Levinhurst's The Grey EP (see article) released in February 2007. In April Lol said that Michael had recently helped remix tracks from Levinhurst's new album House By the Sea (released 17 April 2007).[5] Lol also confirmed on the official Levinhurst website that Dempsey was going to be involved on their third album. [6]
[edit] MDM Media
Since the 1990s Michael Dempsey has also gone on to work in audio digital restoration, remastering, licensing, media content consultancy and original soundtracks for film, television and other media. His clients have included Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and V2 Records and he has his own company MDM Media specialising in these areas. He is also part of an affiliate company called BDM Music whose other writers include Lol Tolhurst, Alan Rankine and many other musicians, composers and producers that Dempsey has worked with over the years. He is currently the drummer for a small band in perth, Western Australia called Blinded by Silence
[edit] Discography
[edit] The Cure
- Three Imaginary Boys (1979)
- Boys Don't Cry (1980)
[edit] The Associates
[edit] The Lotus Eaters
- No Sense Of Sin (1984)[10]
[edit] Presence
- Inside (1993)
[edit] References
- ^ Lotus Eaters : Interview with Jem Kelly by Anthony Strutt, Penny Black Music magazine, 22 February 2002.
- ^ Interview with Michael Dempsey in A Pink Dream fansite, 21 October 2004
- ^ Robert Smith Interview in Cure News official fanclub newsletter, Issue #9, April 1990
- ^ Interview with Michael Dempsey in A Pink Dream fansite, 21 October 2004
- ^ Interview to Lol Tolhurst, April 2007
- ^ "Lol on Third Album, June 2008
- ^ Affectionate Punch
- ^ 4th Drawer
- ^ Sulk
- ^ Sin Sense
