10 Things You Never Knew About The Cure

We explore the forests of Robert Smith's mind

Lovecat, Spiderman and six-string bass-wielding icon. We explore the forests of The Cure frontman Robert Smith’s mind ahead of their headline performance at Bestival on 10th September 2011.

1. During the making of the chart-topping ‘Wish’ album, producer Dave Allen took apart Smith’s trademark six-string axe to figure out the cause of its unusual and influential tone. Turns out the vintage Fender had been wired wrong from the day it entered the Goth lord’s possession. It remains uncorrected.

2. Not known to be one to keep to rigid plans, the demise of The Cure has been incorrectly predicted by its front man on a number of occasions. 1989’s opus ‘Disintegration’ was going to be the end, then 2000’s ‘swansong’ ‘Bloodflowers’, followed by 2002’s ‘Trilogy’ concerts. The show goes on.

3. While making their self-titled effort, nu-metal guru Ross Robinson’s controversial recording techniques didn’t go down too well with the rest of the band. All live takes, Robinson took to trying to hit bassist Simon Gallup’s strings mid song. “There were a few times he nearly got a headstock to the jaw,” Gallup admitted.

4. The smeared lippy has been a standard of Smith’s look since 1981. His favoured lipstick is MAC Ruby Woo, a fetching blood red that doesn’t run under the heat of the stage lights. Ever the perfectionist he always applies his own make-up, because he loathes other people touching his face.

5. 1983 was a busy year for the then twenty-four-year-old. Handling guitar duties for Siouxsie And The Banshees in the day, Smith would then work on The Cure’s ‘Top’ album in the evening then side-project The Glove throughout the night fuelled by various hallucinogens. A blood poisoning diagnosis soon followed.

6. A man stabbed himself repeatedly in the chest and stomach with a hunting knife in what police said appeared to be an attempt to impress a girl during The Cure’s first performance in LA, July 1986. While not actually a fan the incident elevated the group’s gloomy image in the press.

7. Smith has remained the only founding member of the The Cure in its more than three-decade history. Implementing a ‘revolving door policy’ while remaining the boss, the group has gone through seven line-up changes, mostly at Robert’s insistence.

8. Robert appears in the first series of hit show South Park defeating an evil Barbara Streisand in a giant robot battle and thus saving the world from her tyranny. His many nephews and nieces were far more impressed with his inclusion in a cartoon then being a world famous rock star.

9. The band’s first appearance on Top Of The Pops, a mimed rendition of ‘A Forest’, was made even more unrealistic due to the huge bandage on Smith’s thumb while performing, the result of a drunken attempt at trying to change a tyre on their first American tour.

10. “If Morrissey says don’t eat meat, then I’m going to eat meat, because I hate Morrissey” was Smith’s line when he found himself on the receiving end of Morrissey’s lashing wit during an interview. The minor Blur/Oasis style has cooled down somewhat in recent years with Moz describing Robert as ‘a nice man’.

Replay’s Road Trip To Bestival

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