You might won’t to hold off on making plans for this fall — at least until you hear what Robert Smith has in store for fans of The Cure.
In an interview with SiriusXM (via Slicing Up Eyeballs), Smith revealed plans to curate a festival in Los Angeles later this year. The as-yet-unannounced event will be in the same vein as last year’s 40th anniversary concert at London’s Hyde Park.
“We’ll be announcing another one later this month, which will be a really special one, actually, because we’re curating it,” Smith explained. “So it’s going to be on the West Coast. There’s going to be about 10 other acts, all hand-picked. I just wanted to do something a bit like Hyde Park. Something a bit celebratory.”
Update – May 13th: The Cure’s Pasadena Daydream Festival takes place on August 31st and features Pixies, Deftones, Mogwai, Throwing Muses, and more.
For context, the Hyde Park concert featured Interpol, Slowdive, Ride, Goldfrapp, Editors, The Twilight Sad, and more alongside The Cure. A film chronicling the concert is due out later this year.
Elsewhere in the interview, Smith clarified that he has not yet decided on a US staging of The Cure’s Disintegration 30th anniversary concerts. (Smith had previously said he was planning to do a celebratory US tour.)
“I don’t really want to dedicate the rest of the year to celebrating something that happened 30 years ago,” Smith told SiriusXM. “I’d much rather celebrate what we’re doing now. “I’ve got some ideas of how we could incorporate it into some of the things we might do later in the year.”
(Read: The Cure’s 10 Best Deep Cuts)
While Smith didn’t close the door on the possibility entirely, he said the band’s decision to live stream their Disintegration concert in Australia was so that the entire world could watch it.
“The idea of the global stream of Disintegration was really to give me a bit of an out in case I decided we’re not going to do it again.”
Smith also discussed the status of The Cure’s long-teased new album, which should arrive before Christmas. “My only dilemma at the moment is getting a running order that works,” he explained. “I’ve gone through so many different running orders. My favorite running order is so utterly bereft of hope, it’s so morose. I played it to a couple of people whose opinions I value and they just look at me and think it’s so dismal, in a really good way. It’s just relentless. My favorite running order is about 47 minutes of just relentless doom and gloom.”
Lastly, Smith was asked if he’d ever consider writing a memoir, which led to the relevatation of a different autobiographical project. “At some point, maybe next year, I was going to narrate the story of the band,” Smith remarked. “I don’t really want it to be a memoir. I’d rather it be like my version of what the band is and why it’s done what it’s done, and how it’s done what it’s done. I don’t feel any great rush to do it because I want to include what we do next in it.
“It’s still ongoing, so I’m not in any hurry. I don’t really like memoirs, to be honest, I particularly hate memoirs written by people who are still only halfway through their careers — like I am.”
The Cure 2019 Tour Dates:
05/24 – Sydney, AU @ Sydney Opera House *
05/25 – Sydney, AU @ Sydney Opera House *
05/27 – Sydney, AU @ Sydney Opera House *
05/28 – Sydney, AU @ Sydney Opera House *
05/30 – Sydney, AU @ Sydney Opera House *
06/08 – Dublin, IE @ Malahide Castle
06/09 – Landgraaf, NL @ Pinkpop
06/14 – Nickelsdorf, AT @ Nova Rock Festival
06/16 – Florence, IT @ Firenze Rocks
06/21 – Neuhausen ob eck, DE @ Southside Festival
06/23 – Schessel, DE @ Hurricane Festival
06/24-26 – Zagreb, HR @ INmusic Festival
06/28 – Werchter, BE @ Rock Werchter
06/30 – Pilton, UK @ Glastonbury Music Festival
07/04 – Novi Sad, RS @ Exit Festival
07/06 – Roskilde, DK @ Roskilde Festival
07/11 – Lisbon, PT @ NOS Alive Festival
07/13 – Madrid, ES @ Mad Cool Festival
07/17 – Athens, GR @ Ejekt Festival
07/18-20 – Ostrava, CZ @ Colours of Ostrava
07/22 – Bucharest, RO @ Rock the City Festival
07/25 – Nyon, CH @ Paleo Festival Nyon
07/26-28 – Niigata Prefecture, JP @ Fuji Rock Festival
08/03 – Moscow, RU @ Afisha Picnic
08/07 – Oslo, NO @ Oya Festival
08/09-11 – Gothenburg, SE @ Way Out West
08/09-11 – Helsinki, FI @ Flow Festival
08/16 – Glasgow, UK @ Glasgow Summer Sessions
08/23 – Paris, FR @ Rock en Seine
10/04-06 – Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits
10/11-13 – Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits
* = Disintegration 30th Anniversary Show