In a statement made online on Saturday, The Cure bassist Simon Gallup announced that he was leaving the legendary goth-rock band after nearly 40 years. Gallup joined the group in 1979 until he quit in 1982 and then returned in 1984. 

“With a slightly heavy heart I am no longer a member of the Cure! Good luck to them all,” said Gallup on his Facebook page. When asked by a fan if it was for health reasons, Gallup replied, “I’m ok… just got fed up of betrayal.” The band has not yet released any kind of statement about the departure. 

Through Gallup and his bandmates had rough patches over the years, in a 2019 NME interview, Smith talked about Gallup’s importance to The Cure.

“For me, the heart of the live band has always been Simon, and he’s always been my best friend. It’s weird that over the years and the decades he’s often been overlooked. He doesn’t do interviews, he isn’t really out there and he doesn’t play the role of a foil to me in public, and yet he’s absolutely vital to what we do,” Smith said.

“We’ve had some difficult periods over the years but we’ve managed to maintain a very strong friendship that grew out of that shared experience from when we were teens. When you have friends like that, particularly for that long, it would take something really extraordinary for that friendship to break.”