Perry Archangelo Bamonte has died at the age of 65. This was announced by The Cure on their own website, in which they paid tribute to the guitarist and keyboardist: “It is with enormous sadness that we confirm the death of our great friend and bandmate, who died after a short illness at home.”
Although he was not a founding member of the British group, he was a “vital part of The Cure’s history”, described by the band as a “calm, intense, intuitive, constant and extremely creative” person. Bamonte’s story begins with his little brother, Daryl, road manager, occasional keyboardist for Depeche Mode and who introduces him to the world of music.
Perry joined The Cure’s touring team in 1984 thanks to his brother, who began working with the band in the early 1980s. Bamonte acted as Robert Smith’s personal assistant and technician until 1989, and with the departure of keyboardist Roger O’Donnell in 1990 he became a full-time member of the band. “He played guitar, six-string bass and keyboard on ‘Wish’, ‘Wild Mood Swings’, ‘Bloodflowers’, ‘Acoustic Hits’ and ‘The Cure’, doing more than 400 concerts over 14 years,” the band says.
Bamonte began as a keyboardist, but ended up being the group’s lead guitarist with the departure of Porl Thompson until 2005, the year in which Robert Smith turned The Cure into a trio with Simon Gallup and Jason Cooper. His history with the band did not come to an end, rejoining in 2022 to play another 90 concerts as part of the ‘Shows of the Lost World’ tour, “some of the best in the band’s history.”
