ONCE upon a time there was a little girl called Toni, who dreamt of nothing else but going to the ball. Not just any ball, mind. This was a Modern Miss, a spikey-topped Cinders who certainly wasn't interested in going home at midnight or trying on soppy glass slippers to impress some fop in knickerbockers who looked like Rupert Everett. Toni wanted to go to the biggest, baddest, craziest ball of all. The Ball Of Fame, rock 'n' roll fame to be precise. Later, much later, Toni would bite the tops off Corona bottles in front of amazed journalists and snarl, "It certainly wasn't what I expected", but back then she was simply worried because her carriage had failed to show up. Realising, with a sinking heart, that the only famous Under-13 around had buck teeth and the surname Zavaroni. Toni resigned herself to waiting for puberty, warning her mother of her impending stardom and departure. The long awaited 16th birthday arrived. Now Toni was grown up and free at last to... frankly make a complete hash of things for a few years.

It began promisingly enough. A stint as a Johnny Rotten impersonator in the interestingly named band Incest got her face on TV. Toni also managed to let the world know that she had an unrestrained and deeply unfashionable regard for the Tourists, in particular La Lennox. Dave Stewart heard of this and bought Toni a large bag of chips in gratitude, neither of them realising at the time that their destinies were as irrevocably entwined as Stewart's eyebrows.

Eventually, backstage at a Eurythmics concert, Toni met Dean - a picky session musician who'd become part of the band for a while. A platonic love was born. Dean wasn't Toni's idea of a Prince Charming and he didn't fancy her much either, so both parties were relieved and delighted when he settled down into the role of Buttons. Confidante, collaborator and motivator, Dean was the man Toni had been waiting to escort her to the ball all her life.

Asked later by a journalist with distinct tabloid inclinations whether the close working relationship that exists between co-songwriters is similar to a love affair, Toni would ash all over Dean's knee, astonished.

"He's the Other Half... the special person I need around to be able to function creatively. We're very close, we share everything and we're quite warm and cuddly... but that's it."

Dean would then close the subject quietly and authoratively.

"It's a brotherly, sisterly thing. Nothing more."

The two formed State of Play, by their own admission a "shit", "awful", techno crazed Propoganda-ish band and for the next year did little else but mope around their studio accepting expensive computer equipment from their besotted record company. Bored and unproductive, they passed the time doodling on the computer screens and consuming vast quantities of magic mushrooms, rendered edible by Toni's own special recipe.

"Toast them in a Breville with cheese. That way you can't taste them. We had hundreds that way. The pressure was so manic we just decided 'Fuck it' and got permanently bombed..."

The band split owing copious amounts of money to the - by now - baffled record company. More poignantly, both Dean and Toni came down with a bad case of cabin fever and desired little else but the immediate and painful demise of each other. Dean decamped to Spain where he mastered the phrase "I don't really hate Toni" in several strange tongues and Toni stayed behind to become Toni Halliday, solo artiste. An unqualified lack of success soon brought it home to her that as well as not possessing a solo mentality, she'd been a bit daft to stick with a surname that reminded plebs of their annual vacation and music lovers of a far superior Blues singer.

There followed for our heroine a brief stint as the most obnoxious waitress in London. Still firm in her belief that one day the music industry would treat her with the respect she deserved, Toni didn't take her job as seriously as she could have done. Chiefly remembered by customers as the charmer who'd think nothing of knee-capping your firstborn if the tip didn't suffice, rumour has it she was sacked after an incident, involving a tray of food and a bunched-up carpet, left a family of rich American tourists with soup on their bifocals. Laughing, unrepentant, remorselessly insane, Toni did what every self-respecting skint resting artiste has done since time immemorial. She lived off her boyfriend. Then Dean returned from Spain with nowhere to stay and asked to sleep in her coal-bucket.

It wasn't long before mutual respect and revitalised creativity dominated their days. It was ironic really. With nothing to lose, Dean and Toni found themselves in the happy position of gaining everything. This time around there was no expensive studio equipment or interfering fatcats to dampen the creative spark. Inspired by each other, and the ferociously intense live scene bubbling up around them, they formed Curve, later recording their first two EP's in Toni's basement with only a couple of sewer rats for company. Dave Stewart, who had sat in on Toni's abortive solo attempt, was primarily impressed by their reunion but when he realised that they were serious, stable and - if their music was anything to go by - more focused than ever before, he signed them to his Anxious label.

The world and its dog-on-a-string went wild. Toni had suddenly become a devastating Singing Head, ferociously adept at ramming blood-hot spiritual and emotional issues onto cold, contemporary skewers. Neither could Dean be dismissed as the Ordinary Joe that Toni needed to hold her up when the critical hurricane blew too fierce. His ear for melodies and dour countenance were an integral part of Curve's appeal. Together, they made Curve a maypole they could run around, cling to... even dance upon if they so wished. Even now it's still early days, but their enthusiasm is catching, not least because it's so fragile, so human, so gloriously hopeful...

You may be querying the need for all this potted history, this need to get everything they've been through out in the open. The point is there will always be those who will point and snicker unpleasantly. To some a band like Curve have far too unwieldy and chequered a past to pass for a hot new indie combo. Neither have Curve done themselves many favours in that direction, often coming across in interviews as defensive and evasive. About as nostalgic, in fact, as a Nazi War Criminal asked to reminisce about Nuremberg. To me their past wasn't worrying but the lack of backbone was. When the day of judgment arrived I approached Curve with trepidation, only to be pleasantly surprised by their frank and humorous attitude.

Session Musician... Heavily financed Pop-Funk band... Solo Artiste... and now Indie. Between you, you've covered most bases in the music industry. Would it be fair to say that you've spent some time making your mind up?

Toni:  "Yeah, I suppose you could say... we're fucking slow."

Is it any real surprise to you that people distrust your motives now?

"No. Obviously people are going to have their own opinions about what we do and why we do it, but I think as long as Dean and I keep centred that's what's ultimately important."

Why is Curve your chosen way to express yourself now?

"Because it got down to this fundamental thing. We were sick of listening to other people's opinions. We decided we were going to do what we wanted to do. We both got to the stage where we thought F**K IT! F**k the whole thing! We've gone through all this shit, we've learnt all this stuff and now it's time for us...

But why the indie route? Was it the case that after all that time and money pumped into your previous projects people just didn't trust you any more and the Indie route was the only way open to you?

Dean:  "No, no, no... that didn't come into it. We just wanted to work with each other again without interference, without outside influences diluting what we were doing."

How does it feel to have squandered at least two major chances?

Toni:  "I don't think they have been squandered because now I realise that they were wrong for us and it didn't matter at all."

At the time were you confident everything was going fine?

Toni:  "Not really. Now we both feel totally at home with what we're doing. Then we might have touched on it occasionally and realised how we should be feeling all the time but it wasn't the same."

Were you motivated by greed? Instant Fame at any price?

"Not at all."

Do you feel embarrassed about your pasts at all?

"No. If we had had some ulterior motives for doing what we did then maybe I would be sat here now racked with embarrassment and guilt but... ultimately I had a good time, and it was a very long time ago.

In certain interviews you've seemed pretty po-faced about it all.

Toni:  "I just thought it was totally irrelevant."

It's not really, is it? You've said yourself that without those experiences you'd never have formed Curve.

"Yeah, but that's how we've developed as people. It's not relevant as far as the music is concerned. In the end how we develop, how we learn from our experiences, belongs to us."

You don't think these questions should be asked?

"Yes, these questions can be asked and I've never NOT answered them... but, Barbara, you should see how these people approach it. They're wankers, they're aggressive. I wouldn't normally talk to them if I was sat on a foreign beach and they were the only British people there"

Have you lost your innocence, your freshness along the way?

Dean:  "No, I still feel completely fresh. This band allows me to tap into things I've always dreamed about. We're not restricted in any way. We can do anything we want to do which is brilliant."

Do you think you were bullied before?

"Definitely, yes. We were too young, especially Toni. We let them get to us..."

Has your definition of success changed at all?

Toni:  "Yes. In my eyes the minute we made our first record for Curve and got it out on vinyl we were a success because we'd achieved it all on our own."

So you'd say your ambitions have got smaller rather than bigger?

"In some ways, yes. When I was 21 I wanted to do everything. I wanted to do it all. Now we've both come to realise that the only thing that really matters is that we can carry on writing."

Are you interested in glamour?

"YEAH! Fantasy, glamour... the lot. Music should be about things like that. It's fucking brilliant as far as I'm concerned. If there's no sex or glamour or mystery involved in it, then it's shit. It's gotta be..."

Is this how you think when you write your lyrics?

"Lyrically, I'm interested in intensity. Degrees of intensity. Everyone knows that there's black and there's white, but I'm interested in how many shades there are in between. It's all mood, atmosphere and intensity orientated for me... as a musician and a fan. I like lyrics to paint a picture, so that you can find yourself in their songs instead of just finding them all the time."

You've often been billed as a mysterious person?

"Well, I'm quite a private person... quite an inward person."

Isn't this somewhat at odds with your chosen profession?

"Yes, it is. When we did that tour a little while ago I had to psyche myself up to go onstage."

Dean:  "You always feel sick, always."

Why do it then?

Toni:  "Because we're sick. You have to be. Part of it is that to do it at all you have to be an exhibitionist so that makes you feel sick in yourself."

What would make you split?

"Nothing at the moment... but when Curve do split up I personally know that I won't carry on doing music. This is the only thing I've ever wanted to do and once you hit on something this good it's such a major release you know you couldn't find it anywhere else. Besides, it's always best to know when you've had your time, when it's time to take a backseat and let others have a go... after all, we're not Fleetwood Mac."

Is your love for music obsessive, a vocational thing?

"Yes, definitely... once you realise that you've got a real gut feeling for it you get goosebumps. I can't explain it..."

Dean:  "It's definitely the best feeling in the world."

Do you suffer for your art?

Toni:  "Specific areas suffer. There's so much intensity around what you do. Basically, you have to be insane to work the hours and put in the time and effort we do... for instance what do I say to my boyfriend when I go away on tour next year... 'See you in six months'?"

Do you subscribe to the theory that tortured artistes have a hotline to their souls more stable types don't?

Toni:  "In a way. It's not easy to write songs when you feel quite happy. When we were on tour I got completely fucked up. I was having double JD's for breakfast! I was bored, I was depressed, I started analysing every single aspect of my life and inevitably hating everything about it... but in that state I managed to write a lot of lyrics. I suppose I can have extremes of happiness too, but when I'm stable and contented I don't feel extreme at all... and you have to feel something to make your mind work."

What's the biggest misconception about Curve?

Dean:  "That we're fabricated and shallow. I think that's really unfair. It's not true at all."

Toni:  "Well... maybe we shouldn't wipe off the shallow... but fabricated is just ridiculous. I still feel so uncynical about things, so 'up' it's really refreshing. I'm doing what I've always wanted to do now which is make people feel things, being able to communicate and touch people."

A revelation! I'd heard you have a nasty streak?

"I suppose I do get some enjoyment out of it... I just like twisting the knife basically. And if the knife is already in there I will probably be the first person in the queue to twist it some more. It's nothing that serious. I just niggle at people. There are times where I feel that I'd like to be cruel, I need to be cruel so l am and I do it with great enthusiasm..."

What makes you especially angry?

"Intolerance. I'm a lot of things, but I'm not intolerant with people. The sort of stuff that makes me mad is trivial stuff like unpaid phone bills and the Iike... but with Curve I've noticed that people tend to be intolerant and dismissive and act like wankers at the very first opportunity."

Could you have made the music you're making now back then?

Dean:  "No. I don't think we had the confidence or the room to move ideas about before. Like we've said it's all a development thing. We can afford to look back on all that has happened to us and laugh because all that made us the people we are today... doing what we want to do for the first time in our lives... and that is a brilliant feeling,"

So there you have it. Curve: Idealists or charlatans? The decision is yours, but the smart money is on the former. Perhaps it's time to suspend belief and extend your listening time. Bend to it.

(article nicked from 'Siren', 1991)