Roger O'Donnell

Roger O'Donnell (born 29 October 1955) is an English keyboardist best known for his work with bands; The Cure, Psychedelic Furs, the Thompson Twins and Berlin.

Background

O'Donnell was born into a musical family, next to the piano in his parents' London home according to interviews. Given his birthplace, playing music seem natural from birth and his parents and brother encouraged him in this pursuit. O'Donnell left Art School to pursue a career as a professional musician, with his first paying gig coming in 1976, at Oxford Town Hall backing legendary British pop icon Arthur Brown.

In the early 1980s while with The Thompson Twins, Berlin, and The Psychedelic Furs, O'Donnell was a big fan of synthesisers produced by Sequential Circuits, which produced such classics as the Prophet 5, Prophet T8, and Prophet VS. While on tour with The Psychedelic Furs, O'Donnell set the record for having the most Sequential models onstage at one time.

Tenure with The Cure

O'Donnell first joined The Cure in 1987, replacing Lol Tolhurst on keyboards, after being long time friends with the drummer Boris Williams. He played with The Cure during their Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me tour, though he did not contribute to the album. (He does however appear in the music videos for "Just Like Heaven" and "Hot Hot Hot!!!" and appeared in tour promo art) With O'Donnell on keyboards, this permitted Porl Thompson to focus on guitar fulltime, instead of assisting Tolhurst on keyboards for many of the songs. Some of O'Donnell's performances from this tour can be heard on the delux issue of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me

For the next album Disintegration he was now a fully integrated member of the band, and His songwriting contributions can be heard on the songs "Untitled" and "Fear of Ghosts," which is the B-Side to the hit single "Lovesong." He also features on the live album from this period Entreat.

Following the band's Prayer Tour in 1989, tensions intensified between the band members. O'Donnell left the band temporarily in 1990 due to a difference of opinion with some of the other members.

Even though he co-wrote only one album with the Gallup/Smith/Thompson/Williams lineup, he is considered the keyboardist of the band during that period having been the only member of the band where piano/keyboards were his primary instrument, unlike Lol Tolhurst and Perry Bamonte who moved to keyboards from other instruments, and back again in Perry's case.

O'Donnell rejoined in 1995 and helped record the albums Wild Mood Swings, Bloodflowers, and The Cure. He also appears on the live DVD Trilogy. During this period it is notable that O'Donnell introduced the band to digital recording.

Further friction and exodus

When O'Donnell started working on his solo album The Truth In Me in early 2005, he revealed he had no plans to leave. However, shortly after in May, Robert Smith decided to reconfigure The Cure as a trio, without O'Donnell and Perry Bamonte. Smith fired O'Donnell over email. Since his departure, The Cure have not recruited another keyboardist, and Robert Smith announced that the band would tour (and perhaps record their new album) without keyboards.

Solo work

O'Donnell has his own label "99 Times Out of 10" or "99X/10" for short, and is assisting on Erin Lang's musical works. The Truth In Me, an all-instrumental album was scheduled for release on May 16 2006, following many delays. Additionally, he has provided exposure to young, underground musicians through his label sampler. The sampler was released during the latter half of 2005 and made available through his website.

In April 2006, whilst in discussion with Label and Artist management group Worlds Fair, O'Donnell was offered a record deal with release through their new label Great Society and Warner Brothers distribution and marketing. The album — scheduled for release on October 24, 2006 in the US — is slated for worldwide release in 2007.

Discography

The Cure

Studio albums

• Disintegration (1989)
• Wild Mood Swings (1996)
• Bloodflowers (2000)
• The Cure (2004)

Live albums

• Entreat (1991)
• Trilogy (2003), DVD

Compilations

• Acoustic Hits (2001)

Solo

• Grey Clouds, Red Sky (previously unreleased instrumental solo album recorded in 1994. A remastered, limited edition saw release in early 2005; each copy was autographed by O'Donnell)
• The Truth In Me (2006, solo album)
• Half Truths (2006 iTunes only download of six remixes from The Truth In Me)
• The Truth In Me Review:
• Moog Soundtrack (O'Donnell contributed a song to the film score for 2004's Moog, created exclusively with the Minimoog Voyager).
• Nothing Concrete - 99X/10 Label Sampler (2006)

Credits

O'Donnell is credited as the keyboardist on the following recordings:

• Polystar
• Parade
• Maus
• Tuuli
• Frausdots
• Goddamn Electric Bill

Music video

• O'Donnell appeared in only one official Thompson Twins music video, but it was made quite some time after he had left the group in the summer of 1986. The Thompson Twins became a duo (following the departure of Joe Leeway) had recorded a song for the film Nothing in Common starring Tom Hanks and featuring the last ever performance by Jackie Gleason. The video for the song of the same name as the movie was shot on location in Chicago, with Hanks making a cameo appearance playing drums. O'Donnell appeared playing the keyboards.

External links

• Roger at Pictures of You
• Roger O'Donnell's official website
• 99x Out Of Ten's official website
• Roger's space on MySpace