The Cure is planning to reform with founding member Laurence Tolhurst for a special series of shows at the Sydney Opera House in Australia as a part of Vivid Live 2011. The band plans to perform its first three albums (Three Imaginary Boys, Seventeen Seconds, Faith) in their entirety on May 31st and June 1st, respectively, which will be filmed for a future DVD set. Joining Tolhurst, vocalist Robert Smith, long-time bassist Simon Gallup, and current drummer Jason Copper will be keyboardist Roger O’Donnell, who has been with the band on and off since the “Kissing Tour” in 1987. Tolhurst was shamefully ousted from The Cure right around the release of Disintegration in 1989 after being credited with “other instrument” in that album’s liner notes. He’d been a punching bag in The Cure for years due to his “one finger” keyboard technique. He later sued Smith for back royalties in the mid-1990’s, further souring their relationship. Having obviously patched things up with Smith, Tolhurst will make his first appearance with the band in over twenty years. The line-up decision for these shows is somewhat odd given that if you’re going to make a special effort to replicate early albums then you should probably use only the personnel that worked on each record. It’d be far more interesting for the die-hard fans who will appreciate this the most to see the original line-up for each of those three records than a hodge-podge assemblage of old and new. Either way, it’s good to see Three Imaginary Boys getting some live love.