WHEN CURVE appeared at the beginning of this year, they were instantly judged a phenomenon. Sounding something like Deborah Harry fronting the Mary Chain, the group's debut EP, "Blindfold", was awarded The Single Of The Week in these pages a full six weeks before its official release. "Blindfold" was staggeringly, some said suspiciously, timely. Seamlessly welding vicious guitar hooks, fat funky bass, a cracked Cocteau vocal and a snapping rapper, it outrode Ride and was bloodier than the Valentines. Curve were, as one critic put it, "ideological perfection come true", or, as another said, "too good to be true".

Implicit in both these statements was the thinly-veiled criticism that Curve lacked authenticity. Revelations delivered as light-hearted confessions by the group's two main protagonists, vocalist Toni Halliday and bassist and fellow-songwriter Dean Garcia, seemed to confirm this. Toni and Dean had spent years on the periphery of the music business, first as Eurythmics' session musicians, then in the truly dreadful electro-funk band, State Of Play. Toni herself was living with Curve producer and legendary Mary Chain mixer, Alan Moulder. All of this was greeted jubilantly by Curve's detractors.

Toni and Dean countered by saying that, while it was true that they'd spent some time expensively messing about and getting nowhere, they were now doing exactly what they felt and that their honesty was paying off. The success of their second EP, "Frozen", a huge indie hit that went Top 40 in the Nationals, appeared to bear this out. It was, however, their strength as a live band that, ultimately, swayed even their most vociferous critics. Steve Sutherland, who'd begun the year dismissing the group as a cynical, soul-less invention, saw them playing alongside Ride at the Thames Valley Festival and became their unlikeliest convert. He later celebrated them and their third EP, "Cherry" in a front-cover feature that concluded "Curve contrived? No fear."

The "Cherry" EP, though achieving a comparatively modest chart position, duly outsold their two previous efforts and boasted their best song to date, the truly unpleasant "Die Like A Dog".

Their album, presently being mixed and due for release at the end of February, looks set to become one of biggest indie hits of 1992. Like it or not, Curve are here to stay.

(article nicked from 'Melody Maker', 21/28 December 1991)