On this day (October 29) in 1955, Roger O’Donnell was born in East London, England. Best known for his nearly four-decade tenure with post-punk icons The Cure, the keyboardist has also toured with Berlin and The Psychedelic Furs in addition to a vibrant solo career. Today, we’re highlighting the musical contributions of Roger O’Donnell in honor of his 71st birthday.
About Roger O’Donnell
The youngest of four children in a family that heavily prioritized the arts, Roger O’Donnell has claimed he was born beside the piano in his parents’ East London living room.
Transfixed by jazz fusion, funk, and progressive rock as a teenager, O’Donnell picked up a part-time job to help pay for his first electric piano. After a brief stint in art school, he landed his first professional gig in 1976 backing up the flamboyant British prog-rocker Arthur Brown.
In 1983, friend and future Cure bandmate Boris Williams recommended O’Donnell for a touring gig with the Thompson Twins. He spent two years on the road with the English pop band before leaving for a similar position with the Psychedelic Furs.
During the 1980s, O’Donnell began a lengthy association with the American synethesizer production company Sequential Circuits. While performing with the Psychedelic Furs, he set a record for having the most Sequential models onstage at one time.
With The Cure
By 1987, Boris Williams had been the Cure’s drummer for three years. More than a decade after its formation, the post-punk outfit was gaining commercial traction with the release of their ninth studio album, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. But their sound was still missing something vital — a real keyboard player. Williams suggested his old friend, Roger O’Donnell.
“They said, ‘We need a keyboard player for five weeks in America, do you want to do it?’” O’Donnell recalled in a 2023 interview. “I was in a band, The Psychedelic Furs, at the time. We had a tour and an album coming out. The thought of playing with my old friend Boris, I thought I’d like to do that. But I needed the money, I was a working musician. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to give all that up for five weeks. They (The Cure) sent me a cassette of the album. I put it in, and within 30 seconds I was like, I’m gonna do it.”
Released in May 1989, Disintegration marked O’Donnell’s first full-length project with the Cure.
While the album was born from frontman Robert Smith’s frustration with his pop-star status, it ironically became their highest-charting release to date, debuting at No. 3 in the United Kingdom and yielding three top 30 singles in “Lullaby”, “Lovesong”, and “Pictures of You”.
O’Donnell left the band for the first time in 1990, self-releasing a solo album before rejoining in 1995. He played on the Cure’s next three albums before Smith decided to trim the band down to a trio in 2006.
[RELATED: The Cure’s Roger O’Donnell in Recovery From “Rare and Aggressive” Blood Cancer]
O’Donnell released several more solo albums before reuniting with the Cure for good in 2011.
Featured image by Per Ole Hagen/Redferns
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