The Cure - Faith

 

Info
Artist: The Cure
Album: Faith
Year: 1981
Label: Fiction Records
Design: Andy Vella, Porl Thompson (Parched Art)

Parched Art

"When I was a student in Worthing, I had a chance encounter with Porl Thompson from The Cure. We met on a train and eventually went on to form Parched Art together. You know when you’re young, and you hide in a den? Well, that’s what the beginning of our creative relationship was like. Robert Smith then saw my photographs and asked if I wanted to work on the cover of the album Faith and the single Primary."

Andy Vella (designer, co-founders of Parched Art)

"I was at art college and I didn’t like The Cure’s sleeves and I said as much to Robert, adding, of course, that I thought me and my friend Undy could do much better. So he gave us the chance and we went crazy. This was Parched Art. I forgot all about college and threw myself into it. As with all the later sleeves, I waited for the music to be finished before starting work and I used to go to a lot of their recording sessions and rehearsals to impregnate myself with a piece."

Porl Thompson (co-founders of Parched Art; The Cure, guitar)

Primary (Single)

This was the first cover done by Parched Art for the Cure.

Album cover

"The first thing anyone sees is the cover, like a book. This is part of the album's appeal, and reflects the music and image of the band. We spend a lot of time at the studio with the band to soak up the atmosphere to get a feeling of what is being put across on the album."

Porl Thompson, Andy Vella

"The ghostly image we used on the cover of Faith came from a solarised photograph taken at Bolton Abbey"

Andy Vella

“When I was a kid, I used to play beside it on my holidays. It’s hundreds of years old and the way it is on the cover, is the exact image I’d retained of it. It’s one of my oldest memories.”

Robert Smith

Carnage Visors

The 27 minute instrumental piece "Carnage Visors" originally is available only on the cassette version of Faith. 

Conceived as the soundtrack to the film of the same name, directed by bassist Simon Gallup’s brother, Ric Gallup and was screened at the beginning of shows in place of a support band on the 1981 Picture Tour, and featured animation of several dolls in different positions and stances.