June -1984 Hit Krant (Netherlands)*  (Translation below)
"The Cure’s Robert Smith: “I’m starting to feel like living again.”


The Cure’s Robert Smith: “I’m starting to feel like living again.”

 With the album “The Top” The Cure has made a new start after a confusing period of inactivity. The outside has stayed the same but Robert has changed right enough. Simple and light pop-tunes? “Nothing against that!” says Smith.

 Forgot the newspaper

After a strongly variated and powerful sold-out performance Robert Smith is a bit surprised about the enthusiastic reactions from the predominantly very young audience. Obviously, the Cure is on the right track again. The almost-classic ones, mainly from the albums “Three Imaginary Boys” and “Seventeen Seconds” are played strongly and also the new songs from “The Top” make a strong impression. Smith is also less arrogant than the used to be and he obviously enjoys the live-work. “The Caterpillar” and “Wailing Wall” are the high-flyers.

After the concert Smith steps into the dressing room with the big hair, untidy sticked lipstick and a long crucifix around his neck. He makes a friendly impression, in contrast to earlier meetings which were soporofic jobs for every interviewer.

“Want another beer?” is the first thing he says. I already have a question for him: what he thinks about the bygone non-Cure period? Robert Smith: “Two years of searching and doubting. I was sick of the long tours and I found that the quality of my songs became worse. A rockgroup becomes like a cave quite easily. I hid myself from the outside world. I hadn’t read a single newspaper for about five years. I didn’t care about where or when wars were going on. I didn’t talk to anyone, didn’t even want to discuss. Forget it. But now I start to feel like living again.”

Your lyrics are sometimes very personal, like “The Top”, the title-song of your new album.

“Actually, I don’t find it easy to talk about that...”

Just do it.

“In the first sentence I sing the pathetic ‘I don’t care’, the slogan we all wrote on the walls a few years ago. But I immediately start to relativize that because I indeed don’t dare to suppose it’s like that. I’ve become less afraid of concerning about the world, meeting new people or loving someone, maybe.”

So we talk to someone who has understood the message of Simple Minds and U2?

“Don’t push The Cure in the group of U2, Simple Minds and Big Country, because I don’t want to be anything to do with that. I used to love Simple Minds but I think that not much has stayed of their honest and original means. And I think the arrogant Demagoguery of U2 is disgusting. The only group the Cure feels a bit related to is Echo and the Bunnymen. They’ve been going their own self-willed way, just like us. They don’t try to reach the top or score a hit-single. But I’m sure they’ll stay in the music scene for a longer time than U2. Their musical things are more interesting.”

 Aggressive Hooligan

From the well-known Cure line-up Smith-Gallup-Tolhurst only Smith and Tolhurst stayed in the band. Why did drummer (bassist) Simon Gallup had to leave?

“Because he became useless. He considered me as the leader of the Cure, the man who made the big decisions, and delivered the material of the songs. A role which isn’t made for me. Besides, Simon became aggressive. He walked around like the aggressive hooligan. But of course, Lol stayed. We used to go to school together and he’s like the only real friend I want around all the time. We are the creative core of The Cure, the other boys work on temporary basis. Because I don’t want a group anymore. Call it a bunch of people. Who like each other.”

You toured with The Banshees for a while and made the album “Blue Sunshine” with Steve Severin. Have you learned anything from that period?

“Absolutely. I always thought Siouxsie was nice and when I didn’t like to be in The Cure anymore I liked to hang around with them. It has also been a good way to hide my insecurity. I wanted to be in a band without any obligations. ‘Blue Sunshine’ is a weird album, indeed. With very strange moods and weird lyrics which match the dialogs in a horror film the most. But without ‘Blue Sunshine’ I couldn’t have made ‘The Top’, so that’s a positive result anyway.”

We agree with you, Robert.

 “The Cure Bon” (The yellow part)
From Robert we got ten beautiful t-shirts (with the “The Top” logo) and ten program-books in which a beautiful poster is printed. Robert wants you to answer a question to win one of these prizes. The question is:

How does Robert keep his hairdo in shape?
a)       To put wallpaper-glue in his hair every day
b)       To wash it with coca-cola every Saturday
c)       To scrub it in with water with sugar

 THANKS to: JO for the TRANSLATION.