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Laurence Andrew "Lol" Tolhurst (born 3 February 1959) is a founding member and former drummer and keyboardist of British band The Cure. He left The Cure in 1989 and was later involved in the band Presence and his current project Levinhurst, which bears the names of him and his wife, vocalist Cindy Levinson.

Early years

Tolhurst was born in Horley, Surrey, England, the fifth of six children of William and Daphne Tolhurst; he has three brothers (Roger, Nigel, and John) and two sisters (Jane and Barbara): he is also the uncle of Nick Tolhurst, an author on Corporate Social Responsibility and head of the Institute for Corporate Culture Affairs^[1]. His birthday coincided with the day of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper. Tolhurst was five years old when he first met Robert Smith at St. Francis Primary and Junior Schools, and thus began a friendship that would culminate in the formation of The Cure.

The Cure

Tolhurst is one of the co-founders of The Cure, and as a drummer he helped write and record the albums Three Imaginary Boys, Boys Don't Cry, Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Pornography. After the Pornography tour in 1982 Tolhurst assumed keyboard duties.

After The Cure

Following his departure from The Cure, Tolhurst and Gary Biddles—who previously worked with Simon Gallup in Fools Dance—formed the short lived band Presence, which only released one full-length album called Inside. He said several years later that he recorded a second album with this band, but he said it is unlikely that it will ever be released.^[2] In 1994, he sued Robert Smith and Fiction Records over royalties payments, also claiming joint ownership of the name The Cure with Smith. He eventually lost after a long legal battle.^[3] He has worked as a producer for the debut album of And Also the Trees.

In the early 2000s, Tolhurst and his second wife, Cindy Levinson, formed a band called Levinhurst. A few months prior to the release of their debut album, Tolhurst said in an interview that he had reconciled with Robert Smith and that the two of them were friends again.^[4] Shortly afterward, Levinhurst released their debut album, Perfect Life, in 2004. Since then, they have also released an EP called The Grey featuring a cover of The Cure's "All Cats Are Grey" - which he claimed credit for writing lyrically in another interview^[5] - and two other songs. Their second album, House by the Sea, was released in April 2007. Their third album, called Blue Star and featuring original Cure bassist Michael Dempsey, will be released in February 2010. He has also recently composed music for the film "9,000 Needles" .

Discography

→ See The Cure discography
→ See Presence discography
→ See Levinhurst Discography

References

External links

• Levinhurst
• Lol's MySpace
• Interview with Tolhurst at chaindlk.com
• Interview with Tolhurst at freewilliamsburg.com