Toni Halliday and Dean Garcia were introduced to each other by fellow musician Dave Stewart of Eurythmics; Garcia had played bass guitar as part of Eurythmics’ live band in 1983–84 and on two of their studio albums; while Halliday was signed to Stewart’s Anxious Records label as a solo artist. The pair formed an ill-fated group named State of Play in the mid-1980s before parting ways, embarking on a no less ill-fated solo career (Halliday) and further stints as a backing musician (Garcia), and then reuniting for a more long-term partnership in Curve.

Curve released three acclaimed and increasingly successful EPs throughout 1991 on Stewart’s label Anxious Records, and made an impact on the UK album charts in 1992 with their debut Anxious LP Doppelgänger. The group also toured extensively during this period, with Halliday and Garcia being supported on stage by two additional guitarists (Debbie Smith, later of Echobelly, and Alex Mitchell) and a drummer (Steve Monti, formerly of Ian Dury and the Blockheads). Highlights of Curve’s live career included a performance at the 1992 Glastonbury Festival, and a package tour of the United States with The Jesus and Mary Chain and Spiritualized.

Curve’s second LP, the harder-edged Cuckoo (1993), did not repeat the UK Top 20 success of the band’s debut. That fact, and the stressfulness of the tour in support of the record, may have contributed to Halliday and Garcia’s decision, in 1994, to disband the group. Curve returned to the music business in 1996 with the EP Pink Girl With the Blues; the following year, they released “Chinese Burn”, the first single to be taken from their third all-new album Come Clean (1998). That LP, a set of songs displaying a more pronounced influence of electronic music than earlier releases, was met with a certain amount of acclaim and commercial success, which encouraged the group to continue their recording career.

The follow-up to Come Clean was an internet-only collection titled Open Day at the Hate Fest; it was quickly followed by the all-new Gift (both 2001). During this period, Curve were almost as prolific as during their first three years, releasing another web-only, LP-length collection (The New Adventures of Curve) in 2002, and various download-only tracks via their official website. A 2-CD retrospective entitled The Way of Curve summarised the group’s output in 2004, before Halliday announced, in early 2005, that she had left Curve for good.