NEWS
Robert Smith: 'We obviously have experienced quite a lot of obsessive fan behaviour down the years'
20 December 2024
Upon sitting down with Annie and Nick, Robert reveals his dissatisfaction with The Cure’s album 4:13 Dream and wishes he hadn’t listened to their label, who made him put out an album format he didn’t love
“If I'm really honest I was trying to make an album in 2008 which was a double album and it was really odd, it had all kinds of stuff on it, instrumental stuff - and I was pressured into reducing it all down into a single album, that was too long and it didn’t work. And I have never felt happy about it. I bristle a little bit about it, 'cause at some point, before I fall over, I'm determined… there are 13 songs from those sessions that never got released. It was a double album and the whole idea of 4:13 Dream, was that it was like a fever dream and as it turned out, it wasn't. It was nowhere near what I wanted it to be. And I learnt a lesson, and maybe that's why we didn't make another album for such a long time! I was so sickened by the process of like whereby we were commodified, and it really did upset me a lot.”
Robert elaborates on how last year he stood up to ticketing websites re excessive fees and how he was upset that more artists haven’t support him publicly
“I was upset because I [planned] the whole tour and based it on how much money I thought the shows were worth and what the tickets were worth and what we'd earn out of it and what we'd pay the crew, everything to do with it. And I wanted a $25 ticket, which for a three-hour show and a support, is good value for money. And I thought a younger audience will be encouraged to come and see The Cure, [an audience] who might not otherwise come and see us if the tickets are $50 or $75.
“They were subsidised in my mind by the tickets at the front, who are for rich people who can afford $175 for the first three rows. The problem was that I was told repeatedly you can't sell a ticket for $25 and I realised the reason behind it was that I'm setting the bar very low. I got a lot of calls from other managers of bands, weirdly enough, because we don't have a manager, so they have to talk to me, saying ‘you're really making us look bad, you're making us look greedy!’ Like yeah there's a reason for that, 'cause you are greedy! [laughter] You're charging too much for your merchandise. I know how much profit you're making, all these things.
“Eventually, 'cause it's literally just me doing it, I got worn down to the point where I kind of came to this blanket agreement with [Ticketmaster] saying, like, you know, unless the fees are extraordinary, like the examples they gave me were like $10, $15, and if it goes towards the building upkeep, paying for staff, the car park, you know, I can understand that. And what they considered extraordinary was obviously not what I consider to be. And sure enough, when the tickets went on sale, a $25 ticket suddenly cost like $51.75. And I was outraged by it! I felt like I'd been tricked by them. So, I just went a bit crackers, really.
“Yeah, I don't know why I managed to get them to reimburse people. But I realised they have shareholders and they're beholden to them. They have to make as much money as possible.. blah blah blah. It's the system - I hate the system itself! I understand all this but all I can control is our shows. It's us playing the stage. It's me that's taking the hit. And in the end we played to more people and made more money out of the shows than we've ever done in our entire career. So, I was proven to be right on every single level.
“Ticketmaster, they aren't going to change how they do it though. They just chalked that one down to ‘we lost that particular skirmish’. I was slightly upset [though] because very, very few artists actually stood up and said this is right. Live Nation and Ticketmaster and other organisations that are pretty much monopolistic, wield a lot of power and artists are scared to speak out. I'm at the tail end of what I'm doing, so I really don't care.”
Annie: “But also you're in a position where you can, where you will be listened to.”
Robert: “Yes, but there are many other artists who are in a much better position than I am to actually speak out as well. But very few of them do. Lower down on the scale, a lot of people got in touch and said like, it's so nice to hear you saying something. But why is no one else saying anything?”
Robert talks about the viral clip of him responding bluntly to an overzealous reporter at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019
“I felt bad about that, actually...If I'm honest, I didn't realise that I was being filmed. So, that’s probably why…we had just come from quite a serious conversation in our dressing room about what we were doing there. And this wave of enthusiasm was just like… [laughter].”
Robert discusses having multiple iPods, all loaded up with different genres and moods of music. They have labels on the back so that he can see which one is which in the dark
“So if I want to listen to stuff and I'm sort of like, maybe I've had a couple of beers and I think, so I've got such a catalogue of music that means something to me from an age when, you know, like whether it be like, so '70s disco, let's say, like Donna Summer or Chic or Sister Sledge, all that kind of stuff. If I'm getting into that kind of like headspace where I'm thinking...like ‘help me up!’ [then] it will be that. I've got iPods for different kind of… I've got loads and loads of different iPods that have got like stickers on them and stuff like that. So I know in the dark which one's gonna play which [genre of music].”
Robert gives his opinion on Chappell Roan calling out fans
“It's a tricky one because it's a complicated subject. I think what you're doing as an artist - you want people to feel like they think they're engaging with you, but it is a modern world phenomenon that there is a sense of entitlement that didn't used to be there amongst fans when we started out. It was kind of enough that we did what we did and that people didn't really expect much. I didn't as a consumer -I didn't expect something more. It was enough to kind of to see Alex Harvey or to see David Bowie. I didn't expect to like hang out with them or to really to get to know them whereas now it seems almost like that is part of the deal and as The Cure became more popular I mean we obviously have experienced quite a lot of obsessive fan behaviour down the years and it can feel quite threatening you know honestly if you have people sleeping outside your front door or like, it can get very weird and it never bothered me as much as it bothered people around me. But when it comes to your front door, it's like, and people are there, and they feel like they're somehow, that the cosmos has fated them to, you know, and you're like, you're dealing with people who perhaps aren't quite, you know, right a lot of the time.”
Annie: “Or who are vulnerable in their own way.”
Robert: “Yeah. And so you think like, well, how do you respond to this? Because it's impossible, really, you can't be trained to respond. And I think that if you're elevated to a position of celebrity or success over a reasonably fast period of time, it's more difficult to deal with things because you have no, I mean, you've got no grounding in how to deal with like the lower level. It took us years and years and years of like touring and going around the world and doing stuff until by the time we got started to properly famous, I kind of knew how to respond. I'd already developed that as part of who I was. But being famous, and if you're not enjoying what you're doing, I can't imagine many worse ways of living, 'cause it's horrible being gawked at all the time, like prodded and poked and people expecting more of you all the time. It’s a very strange thing.”
“If I'm really honest I was trying to make an album in 2008 which was a double album and it was really odd, it had all kinds of stuff on it, instrumental stuff - and I was pressured into reducing it all down into a single album, that was too long and it didn’t work. And I have never felt happy about it. I bristle a little bit about it, 'cause at some point, before I fall over, I'm determined… there are 13 songs from those sessions that never got released. It was a double album and the whole idea of 4:13 Dream, was that it was like a fever dream and as it turned out, it wasn't. It was nowhere near what I wanted it to be. And I learnt a lesson, and maybe that's why we didn't make another album for such a long time! I was so sickened by the process of like whereby we were commodified, and it really did upset me a lot.”
Robert elaborates on how last year he stood up to ticketing websites re excessive fees and how he was upset that more artists haven’t support him publicly
“I was upset because I [planned] the whole tour and based it on how much money I thought the shows were worth and what the tickets were worth and what we'd earn out of it and what we'd pay the crew, everything to do with it. And I wanted a $25 ticket, which for a three-hour show and a support, is good value for money. And I thought a younger audience will be encouraged to come and see The Cure, [an audience] who might not otherwise come and see us if the tickets are $50 or $75.
“They were subsidised in my mind by the tickets at the front, who are for rich people who can afford $175 for the first three rows. The problem was that I was told repeatedly you can't sell a ticket for $25 and I realised the reason behind it was that I'm setting the bar very low. I got a lot of calls from other managers of bands, weirdly enough, because we don't have a manager, so they have to talk to me, saying ‘you're really making us look bad, you're making us look greedy!’ Like yeah there's a reason for that, 'cause you are greedy! [laughter] You're charging too much for your merchandise. I know how much profit you're making, all these things.
“Eventually, 'cause it's literally just me doing it, I got worn down to the point where I kind of came to this blanket agreement with [Ticketmaster] saying, like, you know, unless the fees are extraordinary, like the examples they gave me were like $10, $15, and if it goes towards the building upkeep, paying for staff, the car park, you know, I can understand that. And what they considered extraordinary was obviously not what I consider to be. And sure enough, when the tickets went on sale, a $25 ticket suddenly cost like $51.75. And I was outraged by it! I felt like I'd been tricked by them. So, I just went a bit crackers, really.
“Yeah, I don't know why I managed to get them to reimburse people. But I realised they have shareholders and they're beholden to them. They have to make as much money as possible.. blah blah blah. It's the system - I hate the system itself! I understand all this but all I can control is our shows. It's us playing the stage. It's me that's taking the hit. And in the end we played to more people and made more money out of the shows than we've ever done in our entire career. So, I was proven to be right on every single level.
“Ticketmaster, they aren't going to change how they do it though. They just chalked that one down to ‘we lost that particular skirmish’. I was slightly upset [though] because very, very few artists actually stood up and said this is right. Live Nation and Ticketmaster and other organisations that are pretty much monopolistic, wield a lot of power and artists are scared to speak out. I'm at the tail end of what I'm doing, so I really don't care.”
Annie: “But also you're in a position where you can, where you will be listened to.”
Robert: “Yes, but there are many other artists who are in a much better position than I am to actually speak out as well. But very few of them do. Lower down on the scale, a lot of people got in touch and said like, it's so nice to hear you saying something. But why is no one else saying anything?”
Robert talks about the viral clip of him responding bluntly to an overzealous reporter at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019
“I felt bad about that, actually...If I'm honest, I didn't realise that I was being filmed. So, that’s probably why…we had just come from quite a serious conversation in our dressing room about what we were doing there. And this wave of enthusiasm was just like… [laughter].”
Robert discusses having multiple iPods, all loaded up with different genres and moods of music. They have labels on the back so that he can see which one is which in the dark
“So if I want to listen to stuff and I'm sort of like, maybe I've had a couple of beers and I think, so I've got such a catalogue of music that means something to me from an age when, you know, like whether it be like, so '70s disco, let's say, like Donna Summer or Chic or Sister Sledge, all that kind of stuff. If I'm getting into that kind of like headspace where I'm thinking...like ‘help me up!’ [then] it will be that. I've got iPods for different kind of… I've got loads and loads of different iPods that have got like stickers on them and stuff like that. So I know in the dark which one's gonna play which [genre of music].”
Robert gives his opinion on Chappell Roan calling out fans
“It's a tricky one because it's a complicated subject. I think what you're doing as an artist - you want people to feel like they think they're engaging with you, but it is a modern world phenomenon that there is a sense of entitlement that didn't used to be there amongst fans when we started out. It was kind of enough that we did what we did and that people didn't really expect much. I didn't as a consumer -I didn't expect something more. It was enough to kind of to see Alex Harvey or to see David Bowie. I didn't expect to like hang out with them or to really to get to know them whereas now it seems almost like that is part of the deal and as The Cure became more popular I mean we obviously have experienced quite a lot of obsessive fan behaviour down the years and it can feel quite threatening you know honestly if you have people sleeping outside your front door or like, it can get very weird and it never bothered me as much as it bothered people around me. But when it comes to your front door, it's like, and people are there, and they feel like they're somehow, that the cosmos has fated them to, you know, and you're like, you're dealing with people who perhaps aren't quite, you know, right a lot of the time.”
Annie: “Or who are vulnerable in their own way.”
Robert: “Yeah. And so you think like, well, how do you respond to this? Because it's impossible, really, you can't be trained to respond. And I think that if you're elevated to a position of celebrity or success over a reasonably fast period of time, it's more difficult to deal with things because you have no, I mean, you've got no grounding in how to deal with like the lower level. It took us years and years and years of like touring and going around the world and doing stuff until by the time we got started to properly famous, I kind of knew how to respond. I'd already developed that as part of who I was. But being famous, and if you're not enjoying what you're doing, I can't imagine many worse ways of living, 'cause it's horrible being gawked at all the time, like prodded and poked and people expecting more of you all the time. It’s a very strange thing.”
