Perry Bamonte, guitarist and keyboardist for the Cure, has died. He was 65.
The band announced on its website on Dec. 26 that Bamonte died “after a short illness at home over Christmas.”
“Quiet, intense, intuitive constant and hugely creative, ‘Teddy’ was a warm hearted and vital part of the Cure story,” the band said.
The London-born Bamonte began touring with the Cure as a guitar tech and assistant in 1984, then joined the band full-time in 1990. He performed over 400 shows with the group and recorded on the albums “Wish,” “Wild Mood Swings,” “Bloodflowers,” “Acoustic Hits” and “The Cure.”
Bamonte parted ways with the Cure after 14 years, later performing with the group Love Amongst Ruin. He returned to the Cure in 2022 for “another 90 shows, some of the best in the band’s history,” the group said, including the Nov. 1, 2024, London show documented on the concert film “The Show of a Lost World.”
As a member of the Cure, Bamonte was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. The band is still scheduled for a run of European festivals and headline shows in 2026.
“Our thoughts and condolences are with all his family,” the group said. “He will be missed.”
My name is Jon Halperin. I booked and managed Chain Reaction from 2000 to 2006. It started by accident while I was running a one-person record label. I went to the club to see the band Melee perform and the prior talent buyer for the club had just quit that day. I told owner Tim Hill I’d do it (having only booked three shows ever at a coffee shop). We slept on it, and I was hired the next day.
I joined Ron Martinez (of Final Conflict). He was booking the punk and hardcore shows. I booked the indie, ska, emo, screamo and pop punk stuff. We made a great team. Best work-wife ever.
Story time. My friend Ikey Owens (RIP) hit me up and told me that he and the guys from At the Drive In were going to be starting a new band. I’d booked Defacto (their dub project) before, and we agreed to throw them on a show and just bill it as “Defacto.” There were maybe 200 people there to see the first show for a band that would soon be known as the Mars Volta.
That wasn’t out of the ordinary. Chain Reaction had many artists grace that stage that went on to bigger things: Death Cab for Cutie, Avenged Sevenfold, Maroon 5, Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco, Taking Back Sunday, Pierce the Veil, My Morning Jacket. The list goes on and on.
Jon Halperin, who booked Chain Reaction from 2000 to 2006, stands in front of the club during its heyday.
(From Jon Halperin)
I used to make a deal with the kids. Buy a ticket to “X” show, and if you didn’t like the band, I’d refund you. I never had to. I knew my audience and they trusted my curation of the room. … It was by the kids, for the kids, except I was 30 at the time. I had to think like a teenager. My friend Brian once called me “Peter Pan.”
Halfway through my reign, social media became a thing. There was Friendster and a bit later MySpace. YouTube stated just a few years after. But those first few years of me at the venue, it was word of mouth. It was paper fliers dropped off at coffee shops and record stores. It was the flier in the venue window. It was Mean Street Magazine and Skratch Magazine.
I’d tease the press when they wanted to review a show. If you don’t show up with a pen and paper, you aren’t getting in (sorry, Kelli).
Most music industry went to the Los Angeles show, but smart industry came to us. Countless acts got signed following their shows. You’d often see the band meeting with a label in the parking lot near their tour van.
It was a dry room when I was there. No booze or weed whatsoever. We made only one exception to the weed rule. An artist in a band with Crohn’s disease who traveled with a nurse. Not saying bands didn’t drink backstage, on stage, in their vans (we rarely had buses), but what we didn’t see didn’t happen.
Touche Amoré performing at Chain Reaction in 2010.
(Joe Calixto)
We were often referred to as the “CBGB’s of the West,” and for a lot of bands, locals and touring acts alike, we were just that. We were the epicenter. There were other venues of course, but for some reason, we were the venue to play. Showcase Theater in Corona was edging toward its demise. Koo’s Cafe in Santa Ana was done. Back Alley in Fullerton wasn’t active. Galaxy Theater [in Santa Ana] was still, well, the Galaxy. There was no House of Blues Anaheim. Bands would drive a thousand miles to play one show at Chain Reaction. We were where the local bands started as first of four on a bill and would be headlining us within a year. We were their jumping-off point. We were where the kids came out. The real fans, many of whom started bands themselves.
Thankfully, there are other smaller venues out there today fostering the all-ages scene: Programme Skate in Fullerton, the Locker Room at Garden AMP [in Garden Grove], Toxic Toast in Long Beach, the Haven Pomona, but it’s just not the same. It was a moment in time. A time that will be forgotten in a few decades, but for today, my social media is being inundated with memories of a room that was a second home for thousands of kids.
Zero regrets. It was the best and worst times of my life. Working a day gig and then heading to the venue nearly every day of the week was rough. Relationships and friendships were hard, being that I couldn’t go out at night. I couldn’t get a pet. I was constantly tired. But I wouldn’t trade those six years for the world.
The singer of the band lights up a cigarette and smoke drifts into the theater. Ditto for the pungent aroma of marijuana when a few band members share a joint. “Stereophonic,” which is playing at the Hollywood Pantages through Jan. 2, isn’t biographical, but it sure feels close.
The authenticity springs in part from the quality of the songs being recorded by the fictional band on stage, which were written by Will Butler, a multi-instrumentalist and former member of the Grammy Award-winning band Arcade Fire.
“Stereophonic,” which holds the record for the most Tony nominations of all time for a play, unfolds over the course of a single year as a rock band on the cusp of megastardom struggles to record its second album as the first reaches No. 1 on the charts. While the pressure to produce a hit builds, the band falls apart. For proof of the formula’s resilience, look no further than the success of VH1’s “Behind the Music” series, which plumbed the depths of dozens of rock ’n’ roll train wrecks.
“We really tried to just make something real,” Butler said during an interview in the small, cluttered green room at Amoeba Music before he joined the cast of the show for a brief in-store performance. “This is three hours of what it’s like to make a record.”
Is it ever. There is something inherently combustible about being in a band. (Full disclosure: I played in a semi-popular indie band for a decade, which imploded with huge amounts of drama right on cue. I know at least a dozen other groups that have unraveled in similar fashion.) Despite, or rather because of, Arcade Fire’s massive popularity, Butler knows the crash-and-burn nature of being in a band. He joined Arcade Fire after one of its original members quit in the middle of an encore following a fight with the lead singer — Butler’s older brother, Win Butler.
Will Butler left Arcade Fire at the end of 2021, saying at the time that the decision came about organically. “There was no acute reason beyond that I’ve changed — and the band has changed — over the last almost 20 years. Time for new things,” he wrote on social media.
Will Butler performs at Amoeba Music with Claire DeJean and the stars of the Broadway tour of “Stereophonic,” which follows the rise of a struggling 1970s rock band.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
“Stereophonic” was one of those new things, and Butler has brought his understanding of volatile band dynamics to bear in his work on the show, as well as his thoughts on the fragile, ephemeral nature of recording in a studio.
“There’s a little booth, and you go into the booth and you lose your mind,” Butler said of the experience of laying down a track. “And you exit the booth and you’re just a boring human.”
The boring — and boorish — parts of that humanity are on display in “Stereophonic,” where there is more control room conflict than actual music making. This also feels true to form. Romances blossom and bottom out in spectacular fashion. Drugs are consumed in copious amounts — particularly cocaine. This is 1976, after all. The long-suffering recording engineer reaches his breaking point after becoming totally fed up with the band’s self-absorbed, self-destructive behavior.
Human beings weren’t meant to create art in this particular kind of pressure cooker. Until they do. There is a moment in the making of every great song when each musician becomes part of the whole during the act of recording, and the band’s genius is temporarily realized. The song can’t be made by any one member — it can only come from the spontaneous transcendence of the group.
This moment happens in “Stereophonic” after a truly frustrating number of stops and starts, when the group plays a song so beautifully that the theater erupts in effusive applause. This is why the band stays together despite its constant feuding — and why the audience has come.
“We really tried to just make something real,” Will Butler said of “Stereophonic.” “This is three hours of what it’s like to make a record.”
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
“The music in this show has to crack open the world because it’s so much talking and it’s so much sitting around,” Butler said. “And then when they play music, you have to instantly realize why they’re together.”
Butler first met playwright David Adjmi and heard his idea for the show in 2014. Butler was intrigued, but had to wait for the script before he could work on the music in earnest. The songs needed to fit into the script like puzzle pieces, Butler said. Sometimes he needed to write a whole song and other times he needed to focus on composing the first 30 seconds of a song — which would be heard on repeat.
“And then we cast it, and now the music exists in a different way,” Butler said, noting that the music changes with every new cast. A cast — like a band — has its own particular strengths and weaknesses. No rhythm section is ever the same. You know John Bonham’s tom fills when you hear them, just as you can immediately recognize the sound of Ringo Starr’s hi-hats.
None of the actors in the national tour cast of “Stereophonic” — except for the drummer — are trained musicians.
(Julieta Cervantes)
The whole process of constructing “Stereophonic” as a play is very meta — with Butler producing the band that is in turn producing itself onstage in the studio. During the course of the show, one of the songs is actually recorded live and played back from the control room. It is slightly different each time, in ways both meaningful and incidental. Just like in real life.
The in-store performance at Amoeba, however, is wildly different from what happens onstage at the Pantages. The cast members are not — with the exception of the drummer — trained musicians, and stripped of the confidence that comes with costumes and a set, they appear somewhat vulnerable in the process.
This is in stark contrast to Butler, who displays all the verve and conviction of a bona fide rock star. The cast will do the same across the street later that night. For the moment, however, Butler is showing them just how it’s done.
SIMON Cowell could be locked in another copyright row after it emerged a group of British rockers also share the same name as his newly formed group.
Tattooed Scottish band December Tenth told the music mogul to get his lawyers to call them over the name dispute.
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December 10 are Simon Cowell’s shiny new pop bandCredit: instagram/december10Scottish rockers December Tenth aren’t happy about the similarity to their monikerCredit: Instagram
The seven-piece group – which conissits of Nicolas Alves, 16, Cruz Lee-Ojo, 19, Hendrik Christoffersen, 19, John Fadare, 17, Josh Olliver, 17, Danny Bretherton, 16, and Seán Hayden, 19 – released their new music earlier this week.
But they have an unexpected rivalry in the form of the Glasgow-based metallers, who are named after the date their pen pal was executed on death row.
They have challenged Simon after he and Netflix announced the new boy band with a very similar name to their group.
In a post on social media the lead singer of the band said: “It came to light over the last few days that Simon Cowell, Netflix and Universal Music, are involved in a new boy band that share, to some extent, our name December Tenth.
“Now if anyone in Simon’s team, Universal or Netflix, would like to get in touch with ourselves and our legal team they can do so.
“I would like to point out, the hundreds of new followers we have over the last few days are most welcome, but I’m not entirely sure they are all genuine.”
The band, who formed in 2020, have also been swamped with messages with confused boy band fans who mistakenly followed them online.
He added: “Our social media accounts have blew up and we had no idea why. It turns out that Simon Cowell has released a new Netflix show, called “December 10”.
“We are now being inundated with well wishes from fans of the show thinking we are that band.”
It’s not the first time Simon has faced issues over a pop group’s name.
In 2011 X Factor was forced to change their girl band Rhythmix to Little Mix after a disabled children’s charity in Brighton with the same name threatened them with legal action.
Simon hopes his new group can have similar success to One DirectionCredit: Getty
Exiled punk band says its members are proud to be branded ‘extremists’ and hits back at Putin as an ‘aging sociopath’.
A Moscow district court has designated Russian punk protest band Pussy Riot as an extremist organisation, according to the state TASS news agency.
The exiled group’s lawyer, Leonid Solovyov, told TASS that Monday’s court ruling was made in response to claims brought by the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office and that the band plans to appeal. According to TASS, the case was heard in a closed session at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
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The court said that it had upheld prosecution submissions “to recognise the punk band Pussy Riot as an extremist organisation and ban its activities on the territory of the Russian Federation”, the AFP news agency reports.
An official Pussy Riot social media account shared a statement, responding defiantly to the ruling, saying the band’s members, who have lived in exile for years, were “freer than those who try to silence us”.
“We can say what I think about putin — that he is an aging sociopath spreading his venom around the world like cancer,” the statement said.
“In today’s Russia, telling the truth is extremism. So be it – we’re proud extremists, then.”
The group’s designation will make it easier for the authorities to go after the band’s supporters in Russia or people who have worked with them in the past.
“This court order is designed to erase the very existence of Pussy Riot from the minds of Russians,” the band said. “Owning a balaclava, having our song on your computer, or liking one of our posts could lead to prison time.”
According to TASS, earlier reports said that the Prosecutor General’s Office had brought the case over Pussy Riot’s previous actions, including at Christ the Saviour Cathedral in February 2012, and the World Cup Final in Moscow in 2018.
Today Russian court designated Pussy Riot as an extremist organization.
And yet, we’re freer than those who try to silence us. We can say what I think about putin — that he is an aging sociopath spreading his venom around the world like cancer. In today’s Russia, telling the… pic.twitter.com/ymz3BbApTo
The band’s members have already served sentences for the 2012 protest at the cathedral in Moscow, where they played what they called a punk prayer, “Mother of God, Cast Putin Out!”
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, who were jailed for two years on hooliganism charges over the cathedral protest, were released as part of a 2013 amnesty, which extended to some 26,000 people facing prosecution from Russian authorities, including 30 Greenpeace crew members.
In September, a Russian court handed jail terms to five people linked with Pussy Riot – Maria Alyokhina, Taso Pletner, Olga Borisova, Diana Burkot and Alina Petrova – after finding them guilty of spreading “false information” about the Russian military, news outlet Mediazona reported. All have said the charges against them are politically motivated.
Mediazona was founded by Alyokhina alongside fellow band member Tolokonnikova.
The news outlet says that it is continuing to maintain a verified list of Russian military deaths in Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
“We have confirmed 153,000 names, each supported by evidence, context, and documentation,” Mediazona said on Monday.
The six-part series followed Simon through auditions and recording studio bootcamp as he selected seven boys for the group.
The second run will pick up where it left off and show December 10 heading to Nashville to record new music, prepare for launch and take their first steps towards fame.
Simon Cowell: The Next Act has dominated the top three on Netflix since its launch last Wednesday.
A source said: “There was a quiet hope that a show about finding a boyband would be as popular now as it was back in the days of The X Factor, but everyone has been thrilled by the reception because of course the whole world of entertainment has totally changed since then.
But there’s been another big character behind The Next Act’s success with viewers – the newly-minted Mrs Cowell.
Fans have loved seeing Lauren Silverman’s personality shine as part of the fly-on-the-wall scenes at home with Simon and their son Eric.
The source added: “The whole show has been a real boost for the whole family really, Simon is back doing what he loves and he’s been happy to reveal a little more about who he really is behind closed doors.
“Production firm Box To Box are back shooting the content for series two and it’s hoped Netflix will be on board to stream the next chapter of The Next Act.”
It comes after Simon told The Sun last week that he’s confident the boys will be a success.
Simon revealed December 10 had chosen the name themselves because it was the release date of the documentary
Iris eyes easy life
Iris Law, the daughter of Sadie Frost and Jude Law, reclining on a sofa for a shoot for Los Angeles-based fashion brand CasablancaCredit: Casablanca/Corentin Leroux
No wonder top model Iris Law is enjoying a lie down after a stellar year on the catwalk.
She has walked in Victoria’s Secret’s fashion show and fronted campaigns for Marc Jacobs, Knwls and Zara.
But Iris, the daughter of Sadie Frost and Jude Law, isn’t just taking it easy, she was reclining on the sofa for a shoot for Los Angeles-based fashion brand Casablanca.
She is one of the most in-demand women in fashion, so I’m sure we will see a lot more of her in 2026.
Thor-t I’d be actor
Chris Hemsworth says he became ‘obsessed’ with acting from a young age, admitting the dream became an escapism long before he realised how tough the reality would beCredit: Getty
THOR superhero Chris Hemsworth became “obsessed” with being an actor at a young age.
On the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast he said: “Once I locked into the idea that I was going to become an actor, it was an absolute obsession.
“There was no doubt that was what I was going to do. There was a naivety about the reality of how difficult that was going to be.
“But I guess it was sort of an escapism.”
Christina Aguilera’s brand new single Someday At Christmas was recorded at the Eiffel TowerCredit: Supplied
If you’re bored of the same old festive tunes, check out Christina Aguilera’s brand new festive album Christmas In Paris.
It was created in the French capital this year and celebrates the 25th anniversary of her album My Kind Of Christmas.
Lead single Someday At Christmas was recorded at the Eiffel Tower and the album is out now.
Judi hero Jagger rolls up
Dame Judi Dench meets Sir Mick JaggerCredit: PA
With a stellar acting career and a little black book packed with some of the biggest names in showbiz, it’s amazing to see Dame Judi Dench still gets starstruck.
Her friend Gyles Brandreth organised for Sir Mick Jagger to come on stage to surprise her as she was interviewed about her career, inset, at London’s Sondheim Theatre.
The former Bond actress was stunned by her idol’s appearance.
Sharing snaps of the moment online, Gyles said: “I’ve been working in the theatre for nearly 60 years and I’ve never known a moment quite like it.
“As a surprise, I invited Sir Mick Jagger on to the stage. Dame Judi Dench told me it was her dream to meet him.
“He was amazing: she was overwhelmed. Yesss.”
He added of the legendary Rolling Stones frontman: “He kindly made her dream come true. What a night.”
Huge congratulations to Essex lad Sam King who has just completed 79 marathons in 79 days for brain injury charity Headway UK.
I told you about Sam’s challenge last month after one of his pals got in touch to tell me about his feat.
And after adding five extra marathons on to his challenge, Sam has now set a new world record for the most consecutive ultramarathons run by a male – completing 79 in 79 days.
Sam took on the challenge to raise money for Headway UK, after they supported his mum when she suffered a life-changing bleed on her brain.
He’s now just short of his £74,000 fundraisingtarget so if you want to get involved and donate, check out his Instagram @fatboysking.
Madge ‘n Guy reunite for Rocco
MADONNA and Guy Ritchie put aside their differences for the sake of their son Rocco.
The former couple, who were last pictured together in 2008 – when they divorced – were proud as punch to support Rocco’s art exhibition in London.
