Роберт Смит (музыкант)

Эта статья об английском музыканте из группы The Cure. Чтобы узнать о других музыкантах, см. Роберт Смит § Музыка .

Роберт Смит
Смит выступает в июне 2012 года.
Справочная информация
Рожденный	(1959-04-21) 21 April 1959 Блэкпул , Англия
Origin	Crawley, England
Genres	Gothic rock post-punk new wave alternative rock
Occupation(s)	Musician singer songwriter record producer
Instruments	Vocals guitar bass keyboards
Years active	1972–present
Member of	The Cure
Formerly of	Siouxsie and the Banshees the Glove
Website	thecure.com

Роберт Джеймс Смит (родился 21 апреля 1959 г.) - английский музыкант, певец, автор песен, продюсер, а также соучредитель, ведущий вокалист, гитарист, основной автор песен и единственный постоянный участник . британской пост-панк- рок-группы Cure в 1978 году. Его уникальный стиль игры на гитаре, характерный певческий голос и чувство моды, часто бледный цвет лица, размазанная красная помада, черная подводка для глаз, неопрятные жесткие черные волосы и полностью черная одежда оказала большое влияние на готическую субкультуру , которая приобрела известность в 1980-х годах.

Другая работа Смита включает в себя игру на соло-гитаре в составе группы Siouxsie and the Banshees с 1982 по 1984 год, а также роль соучредителя недолговечной группы The Glove в 1983 году. Он был введен в Зал славы рок-н-ролла как участник Cure в 2019 году, а журнал Rolling Stone поставил его на 157-е место среди величайших певцов всех времен в 2023 году.

Early life

Smith was born in Blackpool on 21 April 1959, the third of four children of Rita Mary (née Emmott) and James Alexander Smith. He came from a musical family, as his father sang and his mother played the piano. Raised as a Catholic, he later became an atheist. When he was three years old, his family moved to Horley, where he attended St Francis' Primary School. When he was six, his family moved to Crawley, where he attended St. Francis' Junior School. He later attended Notre Dame Middle School from 1970 to 1972, and St Wilfrid's Comprehensive School from 1972 to 1977. He and his younger sister Janet received piano lessons as children. He later quipped, "[Janet] was a piano prodigy, so sibling rivalry made me take up guitar because she couldn't get her fingers around the neck." He told Smash Hits that, from about 1966 when he turned seven years old, his older brother Richard taught him "a few basic chords" on guitar.

Smith began taking classical guitar lessons from the age of nine with a student of guitarist John Williams, whom he called a "really excellent guitarist". However, he said, "I learned a lot, but got to the point where I was losing the sense of fun. I wish I'd stuck with it." He has said his guitar tutor was "horrified" by his playing. He gave up formal tuition and began teaching himself to play by ear, listening to his older brother's record collection. He was 13 or 14 when he became more serious about rock music and "started to play and learn frenetically". Up until December 1972, he did not have a guitar of his own and had been borrowing his brother's, so his brother gave him the guitar for Christmas. Smith said of this gift, "I'd commandeered it anyway—so whether he was officially giving it to me at Christmas or not, I was going to have it!" Rock biographer Jeff Apter maintains that the guitar Smith received for Christmas of 1972 was from his parents, and equates this item with Smith's notorious Woolworths "Top 20" guitar that was later used on many of the Cure's earliest recordings. Smith was quoted in several earlier sources as saying he purchased the guitar himself for £20 in 1978.

Smith described Notre Dame Middle School as "a very free-thinking establishment" with an experimental approach, a freedom he claims to have abused. On one occasion, he said that he wore a black velvet dress to school and kept it on all day: "The teachers just thought, 'Oh, it's a phase he's going through, he's got some personality crisis, let's help him through it.'" He said "four other kids" beat him up after school, although Apter notes that Smith has given several conflicting versions of the story. Apter also reports that Smith put in just enough effort at Notre Dame to pass tests, and quotes Smith as saying, "If you were crafty enough, you could convince the teachers you were special; I did virtually nothing for three years." St Wilfrid's was reportedly stricter than Notre Dame. In the summer of 1975, Smith and his school bandmates took their O Levels, but only he and Michael Dempsey stayed on to attend sixth form at St Wilfrid's from 1976 to 1977.

Smith has said that he was expelled from St Wilfrid's as an "undesirable influence" after his band Malice's second live performance shortly before Christmas in 1976, which took place at the school and allegedly caused a riot: "I got taken back [in 1977] but they never acknowledged that I was there [...] I did three A levels—failed biology miserably, scraped through French, and got a 'B' in English. Then I spent eight or nine months on social security until they stopped my money, so I thought, 'Now's the time to make a demo and see what people think.'" According to Cure biographers Dave Bowler and Bryan Dray, the school expelled ex-Malice co-founder Marc Ceccagno along with Smith, whose new band Amulet played the December school show. Smith has given conflicting accounts of his alleged expulsion, elsewhere saying that he was merely suspended and that it was because he did not get along with the school headmaster, and on another occasion saying he was suspended because his "attitude towards religion was considered wrong".

Music career

School bands: 1972–1976

Smith has said that his first band when he was 14 consisted of himself, his brother Richard, their younger sister Janet, and some of Richard's friends. He remarked, "It was called the Crawley Goat Band – brilliant!" However, while the Crawley Goat Band may have been Smith's first regular group, he would have been just 13 when he and his Notre Dame schoolmates gave their first one-off performance together as the Obelisk, an early incarnation of what would eventually become the Cure. The Obelisk featured Smith (still playing piano at this point) alongside Marc Ceccagno (lead guitar), Michael Dempsey (guitar), Alan Hill (bass), and Laurence "Lol" Tolhurst (percussion) and, according to the Cure's official biography Ten Imaginary Years, gave their only performance at a school function in April 1972. Jeff Apter, however, dates the performance to April 1973, which is at variance with Smith and his bandmates having already left Notre Dame Middle School by this time.

During the latter part of 1972, the nucleus of Smith, Ceccagno, Dempsey and Tolhurst had gone on to secondary school together at St Wilfrid's Comprehensive, where they and their friends continued playing music together. Smith said that they were known simply as "The Group" "because it was the only one at school so we didn't need a name." Dempsey, who eventually moved from guitar to bassist for the Group, said that another name they toyed with was the Brat's Club – a reference to Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust. Smith said that "the group" eventually became Malice, "sort of a sub-metal punk group -with Michael Dempsey, Laurence and two other blokes." According to the band's Ten Imaginary Years biography, between January and December 1976, the shifting line-up for Malice featured several "other blokes", with founding guitarist Marc Ceccagno being replaced by Porl Thompson, an early drummer known only as "Graham" replaced by Lol Tolhurst, and "Graham's brother" replaced by vocalist Martin Creasy. By 1977, Malice had become Easy Cure.

The Cure: 1976–present

Main article: The Cure

As singer and frontman

Smith did not intend to become the lead vocalist of the Cure. Bowler and Dray note that the Obelisk had "featured Dempsey and Ceccagno as guitarists and him [Robert] on piano as very much a background player." As the Group gradually became Malice and began regular rehearsals in January 1976, Smith was still one of several floating members. Of their first "proper" rehearsal at St Edwards Church, Smith said:

I think it all came about because Marc Ceccagno wanted to be a guitar hero. Michael had a bass, I had got hold of a guitar and our first drummer, Graham, had a drum kit. His brother had an amp and a mic, so he sang.

By December 1976, Graham's brother had been replaced by vocalist Martin Creasy, a journalist with The Crawley Observer, whose brief tenure with the group was a live débâcle according to those involved. By January 1977 Malice had changed their name to Easy Cure, partly to distance themselves from these earlier shows. Both drummer Lol Tolhurst and bassist Mick Dempsey are also noted as having performed vocals with the group in the early years. Tolhurst also sang on a cover of "Wild Thing" at Malice's early shows, and Dempsey sang backing vocals on songs like "Killing An Arab", and even recorded lead vocals on one track on the Cure's debut album, their cover of Hendrix's "Foxy Lady". During March 1977, a vocalist named Gary X came and went, and was replaced by Peter O'Toole, described as "a demon footballer and Bowie fan" who made his singing debut in April. O'Toole remained Easy Cure's steady front man for several months while the group played the local pub circuit, "building up an enormous local following", and was even the singer on the home demo tapes that landed them their first recording contract with Hansa Records.

However, by the time Easy Cure entered London's Sound And Vision Studio to record for Hansa in October 1977, O'Toole had left to work on a Kibbutz in Israel. Smith then fell into the vocalist role by default, since no better replacement appeared. He told Musician magazine in 1989:

When we started, and were playing in pubs, I wasn't the singer ... I was the drunk rhythm guitarist who wrote all these weird songs. We went through about five different singers – they were fucking useless, basically. I always ended up thinking, 'I could do better than this.' ... I mean, I hated my voice, but I didn't hate it more than I hated everyone else's voice ... So I thought, 'If I can get away with that, I can be the singer.' I've worked on that basis ever since.

As principal songwriter

Smith was also not the sole songwriter or lyricist in the group during their early years; the band name Easy Cure came from a song penned by Lol Tolhurst, while Grinding Halt began as a Tolhurst lyric that Smith shortened to the first half of each line. Easy Cure condensed its name to the Cure shortly afterwards. During 1978–79, Smith composed and recorded demo versions of some of the Cure's definitive early songs on his sister Janet's Hammond organ with a built-in tape recorder, including "10:15 Saturday Night".

By the time the NME interviewed the band in October 1979 during their tour with Siouxsie and the Banshees, Smith was acknowledged as the principal writer of "almost all of the Cure's songs and lyrics", and stated that he was uncomfortable playing and singing songs that weren't his own. Following his return from the Banshees' tour, Smith also composed most of the music for the album Seventeen Seconds using the Hammond, a drum machine and his trademark Top 20 Woolworth's guitar, during a home demo session in his parents' basement. Most of the lyrics had been written in one night in Newcastle. Michael Dempsey, discussing his own departure from the group at this time, later remarked:

Robert's new songs were more of a personal statement – entirely personal to him – and I couldn't make that statement on his behalf.

Although Smith wrote most of the lyrics for Seventeen Seconds, many were also rewritten by the group during the recording of the album itself. Dempsey's replacement Simon Gallup described the collective writing process to Sounds in 1980:

When we play new songs live Robert ad libs [vocals] a lot until he gets the feel of it. Then when we record it if it's still not right it means everyone sitting around Chris Parry's (their manager's) kitchen all night scrawling sheets and sheets of paper – for "At Night" we got really desperate and finished up at six in the morning with Lol standing on the table pressing his head against the ceiling because he thought that might help.

Lol Tolhurst later stated that he, Gallup and Smith all wrote lyrics for the Cure's early albums, and that the group dynamic only changed after their 1982 album Pornography:

Generally as Robert had to sing the words he chose which ones he sang but they were from all of us. He kept a big box of words to which I contributed from time to time (Simon too) and he would use them all for songs.

Tolhurst claimed to have written the lyrics for "All Cats Are Grey" from the 1981 album Faith, which he later re-recorded with his own project, Levinhurst. In contrast to Tolhurst's recollection of their songwriting as a group effort until after Pornography, in 1982 Smith claimed to have written "90 per cent of the Pornography album", and that he therefore couldn't leave the Cure, because it wouldn't be the Cure without him.

For their first four albums (Three Imaginary Boys, Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Pornography), all members of the group had received equal songwriting credits. With Simon Gallup's departure reducing the group to a duo, and Tolhurst quitting drums to start taking keyboard lessons, from July 1982 until Gallup's return in February 1985, according to Smith, much of the writing and recording process within the Cure effectively became a solo effort. Nonetheless, Tolhurst was credited as co-writer of five of the eight songs featured on 1983's singles and b-sides collection Japanese Whispers (including "Let's Go to Bed" and "The Walk"), while "The Love Cats", "Lament" and "The Dream" were credited to Smith only. Of 1984's The Top, Smith would say it was "the solo album I never made", having played nearly all instruments himself except for drums (by Andy Anderson), with Porl Thompson contributing saxophone to one song ("Give Me It"), and Tolhurst contributing keyboards to 3 of the album's 10 songs.

In 1985, the band had success with The Head on the Door, with Smith as the sole songwriter. The line-up also included Gallup, Tolhurst, Thompson and Boris Williams. In 1987, the double album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, with singles "Just Like Heaven" and "Hot, Hot, Hot!" was released to increasing popularity for the band in the US. From that time and on subsequent records, the writing was made by the whole band but still with Smith as the main composer and arranger.

Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Glove, and collaborations

Smith, Severin, and Siouxsie on tour: 1979

Main article: Siouxsie and the Banshees

Robert Smith met Steven Severin of Siouxsie and the Banshees at a Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire gig at the London YMCA on 3 August 1979. Both the Banshees and the Cure had been signed to Polydor and its imprint Fiction, respectively, by Chris Parry, and Smith was already a fan of the Banshees. The pair hit it off, and Severin invited Smith to accompany the Banshees on a UK tour in support of their second album Join Hands. The two bands embarked on the tour later in August, and meanwhile in September Banshees singer Siouxsie Sioux contributed backing vocals to "I'm Cold", the B-side to the Cure's next single "Jumping Someone Else's Train" (released in November), A few dates into the Join Hands tour, however, Banshees' guitarist John McKay and drummer Kenny Morris quit the band hours before they were due to go on stage in Aberdeen, placing the tour in limbo. Determined not to let the tour end, Smith volunteered to replace McKay temporarily on condition that the Cure remained the opening act, while ex-Slits drummer Budgie joined on drums. The tour resumed on 18 September, with Smith playing in both bands each night. At the tour's end, Smith returned full-time to the Cure.

Severin has attributed Smith's transition from a reticent figure to a more enigmatic front person to Smith's early experiences playing with Siouxsie and the Banshees:

I think he learnt how to be a front person, just by standing next to Siouxsie for a couple of months every night. I think he completely changed his persona on stage because of that; he came out of his shell. I think that he learnt how to be a bit more flamboyant, and how it was okay, and I think he saw how, y'know... how should I put it... Siouxsie's more "diva" moments were kind of acceptable because they were the front person, and I think he learnt how to get away with stuff. And just a bit about stagecraft, and how to use the audience a bit more. Because if you look at early clips of their performances you can see he's sort of much more shy and retiring than he becomes a bit later on, and of course, his whole look changes as well.

Cult Hero and Dance Fools Dance label: 1979–1980

Smith meanwhile conceived the Cult Hero side-project to collaborate with bassist Simon Gallup of the Magspies, recorded at Morgan Studios in October 1979. With some leftover time in the studio from the Cult Hero sessions, Smith also produced recordings by the Magspies and a young vocal and percussion duo the Obtainers (described by Steve Sutherland of Melody Maker as "two 11-year olds banging on pots and pans"), for the fledgling independent label Dance Fools Dance co-founded by Robert Smith and Ric Gallup, elder brother of Simon. The Cult Hero single was released on the Fiction Records label in December 1979, while the Magspies/Obtainers split single appeared on Dance Fools Dance the following year.

The Stranglers and Associates: April 1980

On 3 and 4 April 1980 at the Rainbow Theatre in London, Robert Smith and Matthieu Hartley (also of the Magspies, Cult Hero and by this time, the Cure) were among the many guest members of a unique line-up of the Stranglers to play two protest concerts for Hugh Cornwell, who had been imprisoned on drugs charges in late 1979. Joy Division were also one of the support bands on the second night. Recordings from the event were later released as The Stranglers and Friends – Live in Concert in 1995. Also during April, Smith provided backing vocals for the Associates' debut album The Affectionate Punch, released in August 1980. At the time, the Associates were also signed to Fiction Records, and had been joined in late 1979 by former Cure bassist Michael Dempsey. The Associates' front man Billy Mackenzie was a friend of Smith's for more than 20 years, and the Cure song, "Cut Here" (from 2001's Greatest Hits album), was written in response to Mackenzie's suicide in 1997. As Smith told Jam! Showbiz following the release of "Greatest Hits":

I kept passing on the opportunity to sit down and have a drink with him, have a chat ... I was very regretful. I had never used the words. I wrote them down to get it out of my system ... It is nice to sing a song that meant something, and to think it is going to be a single is a good thing. Strangely enough, it turned out to be the record company's favourite one (of the new songs).

And Also the Trees: 1981–1982

Main article: And Also the Trees

During 1981, the Cure received a home demo tape from And Also the Trees and immediately became friends. Front-man Simon Huw Jones later told Abstract Magazine that the Cure were AATT's "biggest fans, the first people who came up to us and said 'we think you're great'" and that the two groups were mutually influenced by one another. The group joined the Cure in support of the Eight Appearances tour of Scotland and Northern England during November and December 1981, together with 1313, featuring Steve Severin and Lydia Lunch, and the following year Robert Smith together with Cure/Banshees co-producer Mike Hedges co-produced And Also the Trees' 1982 cassette release From Under the Hill. Smith was initially to have also produced the band's debut single "The Secret Sea", but instead Lol Tolhurst stepped in as producer between 1982–84, both for the band's first two singles, and for their self-titled debut album. Smith would again collaborate with And Also the Trees in 1991.

Post-Pornography projects: 1982

In the wake of the Cure's Fourteen Explicit Moments tour, which culminated in the departure of Simon Gallup and the temporary dissolution of the Cure, in June 1982, Smith began collaborating with Severin of Siouxsie and the Banshees again. Although released under the name of the Cure, the only personnel to perform on the original Flexipop single release of "Lament" in August 1982 were Smith and Severin, and soon afterwards, Smith admitted that the Cure as a band now existed in name only. That August, Smith briefly resurrected the Dance Fools Dance label to record and release the single "Frame One" by Crawley gothic/post-punk outfit Animation. In September, Smith with Tolhurst (now on keyboards) and session drummer Steve Goulding went into the studio to record a "blatant pop single" at the instigation of Fiction Records manager Chris Parry. Smith was reportedly so unhappy with the resultant track "Let's Go to Bed" that he attempted to have the single released under the name of Recur, feeling that the single let Cure fans down. During October, Smith and Severin also recorded early demos for what would become the Glove's "Punish Me With Kisses" single, at Mike Hedges' studio "The Playground".

Smith also returned to touring as a live guitarist with Siouxsie and the Banshees from November, following the collapse of then-Banshee John McGeoch from nervous exhaustion one week before the band were due to go on tour. His return to guitar duties with the group prompted Smith to remark:

Once a Banshee, always a Banshee.

He later said that he was "fed up" and "really disillusioned" with the pressures of playing in the Cure, and that "the Banshees thing came along and I thought it would be a really good escape". Journalist/biographer Jo-Ann Greene noted that Smith's replacement of McGeoch "left a bad taste in many people's mouths, as [McGeoch] was informed of his sacking only a week after his recovery from a brief spell of clinical depression".

The Venomettes and Marc and the Mambas: 1983

Returning to England from the Banshees' tour of Australia, New Zealand, and Japan in January 1983, Smith was approached the following month by Nicholas Dixon, a young choreographer with the Royal Ballet, to score a choreographed adaptation of Les Enfants Terribles. To test the idea, Smith and Severin recorded a reworking of the Cure's "Siamese Twins", with Tolhurst on drums, and Anne Stephenson and Virginia Hewes (later known as Ginni Ball) of the Venomettes on violins, which was performed on BBC Two's music programme Riverside in March 1983, featuring two dancers choreographed by Dixon. Despite a positive critical reception, however, neither Dixon nor Smith were happy with the results, and the Les Enfants Terribles project was shelved indefinitely.

Smith and Severin meanwhile co-wrote the music to Marc and the Mambas' song "Torment", which appeared on the album Torment and Toreros. Between March and June 1983, Smith recorded with the Glove and (ostensibly) the Cure; prompting him to remark: "I need a holiday ... I keep making plans to go every week, but every week I'm in another group."

The Glove: 1983

Main article: The Glove

Smith and Severin had first discussed collaborating on an external side-project in 1981, although their respective commitments to the Cure and the Banshees had previously left no time for the project. From May 1983, however, with the Cure on hold and Siouxsie and Budgie working together as the Creatures, recording of the Glove's album Blue Sunshine began in earnest. Budgie's then girlfriend Jeanette Landray, formerly a dancer with Zoo, was recruited to perform vocals, while Andy Anderson from Brilliant was brought in to play drums. The Venomettes with Martin McCarrick were hired to perform strings in studio. The Glove took its name from the "murder mitten" from the Beatles' animated feature Yellow Submarine, while the album title came from a B-movie by the same name about a potent strain of LSD that caused people to lose their hair and turn into homicidal maniacs many years after their first trip. Severin said of the project:

Obviously there was an interest in psychedelia. We didn't have any set idea of what we wanted to do. After a few pointless discussions we just went in and started writing songs, and eventually honed in on shared interests, one of which happened to be late 60's garbage, but nothing hippy-dippy. The problem for us was how can we get Barbarella onto a record sleeve and not be seen as idiots.

Smith described the creation of the album by saying:

I thought it was a real attack on the senses when we were doing it. We were virtually coming out of the studio at six in the morning, coming back here and watching all these really mental films and then going to sleep and having really demented dreams and then, as soon as we woke up at four in the afternoon, we'd go virtually straight back into the studio, so, it was a bit like a mental assault course towards the end ... I mean, God, we must have watched about 600 videos at the time!

As well as Barbarella, Yellow Submarine and the eponymous Blue Sunshine, films cited as having fuelled the project included The Brood, Evil Dead, The Helicopter Spies and Inferno. Retrospectively, the Melody Maker's Steve Sutherland described the Glove as "a manic psychedelic pastiche".

Member of the Banshees, single with Tim Pope: 1983–1984

The Glove's Blue Sunshine album and its lead single "Like an Animal" were both released in August 1983, followed by the Siouxsie and the Banshees' single "Dear Prudence" (a cover of the Beatles' song) in September, all on the Banshees' own label Wonderland Records. Smith officially became a member of the Banshees. According to the Banshees' authorised biography, "Dear Prudence" had been recorded at Smith's insistence to document his time with the group, and it became their biggest UK hit, reaching number 3 on the Singles Chart.

Shortly before the group's scheduled Royal Albert Hall concerts in September and October 1983, Siouxsie and the Banshees were also invited to participate in an episode of Channel 4's television series "Play at Home", which they agreed to in order to take advantage of having the upcoming concerts filmed. Smith had previously suggested to Severin that "the Banshees shouldn't be doing tours, they should be doing something really ambitious like The Wizard of Oz on stage", and Severin decided to adapt this idea for the "Play at Home" episode, substituting the Wizard of Oz concept with Alice in Wonderland to tie the theme with the Banshees' Wonderland recording label. The result was a 45-minute television programme featuring performances from Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Glove and the Creatures, in which all four members of the Banshees appeared in a recreation of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party dressed as Alice, while each individual member scripted their own solo character performance and monologue. Musical interludes included the Glove performing "A Blues in Drag", the Creatures playing "Weathercade" and the whole band performing "Circle". The programme (which did not air on television until the following year) concluded with live footage of Siouxsie and the Banshees playing "Voodoo Dolly" and "Helter Skelter" live at the Royal Albert Hall. Meanwhile, both the Glove's second single, "Punish Me with Kisses", and the Banshees' live double album and companion video, Nocturne from the Royal Albert Hall shows, appeared in November. In March 1984, the next Banshees single to feature Smith on guitar and keyboards, "Swimming Horses" was released; Smith co-composed the new material with them. This was followed by "Dazzle" in May, and finally the album Hyæna in June – Smith having left the Banshees the month prior to release, citing health issues due to his overloaded schedule.

Meanwhile, in between commitments to the Cure, the Glove and the Banshees, Smith also found time to perform on Tim Pope's Syd Barrett-inspired "I Want To Be A Tree" single. Pope at the time was the regular director of promotional videos for the Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Marc Almond, among others, but was taken aback when his fame on American MTV as a video director began to rival that of the bands he worked for. He described the project as "a real piss-take of what was going on in America", prompted by people referring to "Tim Pope Videos", and said that he "felt really strongly that they were not Tim Pope videos, they were Cure videos or Siouxsie videos or whatever". Over the 1983 Christmas holidays, Pope and a friend, Charles Gray, recorded what Pope described as "this really stupid song" that they had co-written years earlier as teenagers. Pope made an accompanying video for his showreel, asking several of the artists he worked with (The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Soft Cell, Talk Talk, the Style Council, Paul Young and Freur) to "come along and slag me off on the showreel". He then played the artists the song, while filming their reactions to it. The Old Grey Whistle Test screened the video, which Pope says resulted in several record deals being offered. The song was re-recorded with Robert Smith playing most instruments in January 1984, produced by Chris Parry, and was released on Fiction Records (with a new video) in June.

Remixes, Cranes, Pirate Ships, And Also the Trees: 1989–1993

Robert Smith with the Cure during the 1989 Prayer Tour.

With the completion of the Blue Sunshine project and his departure from Siouxsie and the Banshees, by 1984 Robert Smith had returned to recording and touring with the Cure as his full-time primary band. Between 1985 and 1996, his musical outings beyond the Cure were comparatively rare, with notable exceptions including remix work for And Also the Trees and Cranes. During 1989, Smith and producer Mark Saunders remixed 7 and 12 versions of the song "The Pear Tree", by And Also the Trees. The "Round Mix" of the song also appeared on the band's album Farewell to the Shade in 1989, followed by a US-only release of The Pear Tree EP the following year. In December that year while mixing the Cure's live album Entreat, he also recorded a solo cover version of Wendy Waldman's "Pirate Ships", originally intended for Rubáiyát: Elektra's 40th Anniversary; a compilation album celebrating the history of the Cure's US label Elektra Records. Instead, however, the full band line-up of the Cure recorded "Hello, I Love You" by the Doors for Elektra, and "Pirate Ships" did not see official CD release until Disintegration's "Deluxe Edition" reissue in 2010.

In 1992, Smith invited Cranes to support the Cure live on the Wish Tour. For one of the French dates of the tour (Stade Couvert Régional, Liévin, 15 November 1992), Cranes' vocalist Alison Shaw was ill and the group had to revise their entire set, with Robert Smith replacing Alison's vocal melodies on 6-string bass, and joined by the Cure's guitarist Porl Thompson. Cranes wrote most of their next album (1993's Forever) while on the Wish Tour, and the album's title was partly influenced by touring with the Cure. In 1993, Smith and Bryan "Chuck" New remixed the extended 12" version of Cranes' single "Jewel" from the album; Smith again contributing his trademark Fender Bass VI sound and additional guitars to the remixed track. The single gave Cranes their first Top 30 single in Britain and Norway, and also became their biggest commercial breakthrough in the US.

Bowie, Reeves Gabrels, Mark Plati, and COGASM: 1994–1999

From 1993, Smith's primary musical engagement was the recording of The Cure's album Wild Mood Swings, released in 1996 and followed by the Swing Tour, concluding in early 1997. He was meanwhile invited to perform at David Bowie's 50th Birthday concert at Madison Square Garden (9 January 1997), where he duetted with Bowie on "The Last Thing You Should Do" and "Quicksand". Here Smith met Bowie's guitarist Reeves Gabrels and co-producer Mark Plati, leading to their collaboration on the single "Wrong Number". Although released under the name of the Cure, "Wrong Number" was one of several "one-off" studio projects recorded during this period by Robert Smith either performing solo, or with guest musicians from outside the full-time line-up of the Cure. Earlier versions of the song had already been recorded by the band, but Plati and Smith completely reconstructed the track, built around a sampled drum loop by Cure drummer Jason Cooper. Smith and Plati added keyboards, effects and new vocals, while Gabrels laid down "a gazillion guitar tracks".

In February 1998, Robert again collaborated with Reeves Gabrels in the studio, co-writing, singing and playing on the song "Yesterday's Gone" (eventually finding its way to CD release in 2000). The following month, Smith was again recording solo between RAK and Outside studios, assisted this time by co-producer Paul Corkett, whose production credits included Nick Cave, Björk, Placebo, Tori Amos and Suede. These sessions produced "More Than This" (not to be confused with the Roxy Music song) for The X-Files: The Album, and a cover of Depeche Mode's "World in My Eyes" for the tribute album For the Masses. Again, both were released under the name of the Cure, but were essentially Robert Smith solo recordings. Having made a guest appearance on an episode of South Park earlier in the year, Smith again collaborated with Trey Parker under the name COGASM, featuring Reeves Gabrels and Jason Cooper, releasing the track "A Sign from God" for the film Orgazmo. Smith's contribution to "Yesterday's Gone" appeared on Gabrels' solo album Ulysses (Della Notte) released in 1999 via Internet and in 2000 on CD by E-magine Music.

More collaborations: 2003–2007

In 2002, as Exclaim! magazine's Cam Lindsay later observed, the Cure became "the band to namedrop as a musical influence, sparking rejuvenation for their career. Artists such as Deftones, Mogwai, Tricky and Thursday praise the band and stress their influence, while others like Hot Hot Heat and the Rapture receive constant comparisons". From 2003–2004 a steady succession of guest vocal performances were released with other recording artists "feat. Robert Smith". Smith wrote the words and sang "Perfect Blue Sky (feat. Robert Smith)" for Dutch electronic music producer Junkie XL's album Radio JXL: A Broadcast from the Computer Hell Cabin, released in June 2003; "All of This (feat. Robert Smith)" for Blink-182's self-titled album released in November, and "Believe (feat. Robert Smith)" on veteran Bowie guitarist Earl Slick's Zig Zag album, released 9 December 2003. Slick meanwhile contributed guitars to the Mark Plati mix of "A Forest" featured on the Join the Dots box-set on 27 January 2004. Although issued under the moniker of the Cure, the "Mark Plati mix" was in fact an entirely new recording resulting from the studio collaborations between Slick, Plati and Smith. Smith had also recorded vocals for another completely new version of "A Forest" during 2003, this time billed as a cover version by the German electronic duo "Blank & Jones (feat. Robert Smith)". Released in September 2003, the single reached number 14 in the German Top100 Singles charts, and three separate remixes later appeared on the 2004 album Monument; "A Forest" being described by AllMusic's Rick Anderson as "the centerpiece of the album".

January 2004 also saw the single release of Junior Jack's "Da Hype (feat. Robert Smith)", which also appeared on the Belgium-based Italian house music producer's album Trust It in March. During the same month, an exclusive re-recording of the Cure's "Pictures of You", remixed by Australian electronic musician/producer Paul Mac and released under the banner "Robert Smith – Pictures of You (Paulmac mix)", featured in the soundtrack to the Australian "rave culture" film One Perfect Day. "Truth Is (Featuring – Robert Smith)" appeared on former Nine Inch Nails drummer and co-founder Chris Vrenna's second Tweaker album 2 a.m. Wakeup Call, released 20 April 2004. In 2004, on 17 September at Old Billingsgate Market in London, Smith joined Blink-182 live onstage to perform "All of This" during the MTV Icon tribute to the Cure. On 21 October, Robert stood in as one of three guest presenters for John Peel on BBC Radio 1, just days before Peel's death. Near the end of the year, Robert Smith made two guest appearances live at Wembley Arena; first joining Placebo on 5 November on their song "Without You I'm Nothing" and the Cure's "Boys Don't Cry", followed by Blink-182 on 6 December to perform "All of This" and again, "Boys Don't Cry".

In June 2005, Smith appeared on Smashing Pumpkins/Zwan front man Billy Corgan's solo debut TheFutureEmbrace, sharing vocal duties during the refrain for Corgan's cover of the Bee Gees song "To Love Somebody". In November 2006, Robert appeared on UK trance and trip hop act Faithless's album To All New Arrivals, on the track "Spiders, Crocodiles & Kryptonite", featuring prominent samples of the Cure's "Lullaby", for which Smith recorded a new performance of the original vocal. Another guest vocal on Paul Hartnoll of Orbital's song "Please" was released as a single and appeared on The Ideal Condition in May 2007. Placebo's Steve Hewitt meanwhile announced plans to launch a solo dance/drum'n'bass-influenced album under the working title of Ancient B to feature Smith singing some tracks, and bassist Jon Thorne of Lamb.

More guest vocals, plus solo cover versions: 2010–2021

From 2010–2012, as well as continuing to collaborate with other artists as a guest performer, many cover versions were released by Robert Smith performing solo. Unlike his previous solo covers (such as "Pirate Ships" and "World in My Eyes"), these were officially released under the name of Robert Smith, rather than the Cure. In 2010, he contributed a cover of "Very Good Advice" from the 1951 film adaptation of Alice in Wonderland to the album Almost Alice; a companion release to Tim Burton's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, while "Pirate Ships" from 1989 also saw release on CD for the first time. Further guest vocalist/lyricist collaborations "feat. Robert Smith" during 2010 included the single "J'aurai tout essayé" (a reworking of Smith and Earl Slick's "Believe") by French Canadian rock singer, guitarist and fellow Bowie/Mark Plati/Earl Slick collaborator Anik Jean and the single version of Crystal Castles' "Not in Love", a cover of Platinum Blonde's "song of the same name", released on Fiction Records, 6 December 2010. In June 2011, electronic dance act the Japanese Popstars from Northern Ireland released their album Controlling Your Allegiance in the UK, including the track "Take Forever (Ft. Robert Smith)", and the following month, a solo cover version of "Small Hours" by British singer-songwriter and guitarist John Martyn (1948–2009) was released on the tribute album Johnny Boy Would Love This. On 25 October 2011, instrumental rock band 65daysofstatic released the track "Come to Me" featuring Robert Smith as a free download, coinciding with the release of their album We Were Exploding Anyway. In 2012 Robert again recorded a solo cover version for a Tim Burton project; this time covering Frank Sinatra's 1957 hit song "Witchcraft" for Frankenweenie Unleashed!, a 14-track collection of songs "inspired by" the filmmaker's stop-motion film, Frankenweenie, released on 25 September 2012.

In 2015, Smith contributed vocals to the song "Please" from the album 8:58, a project by Paul Hartnoll. The track is in fact a reworking of the track of the same name from the Ideal Condition, which he also contributed vocals for. On 15 June 2015, the Twilight Sad released a single featuring Smith covering "There's a Girl in the Corner", originally from the Twilight Sad's album Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave. In 2015, Smith also contributed vocals to "In All Worlds", a single from Eat Static's album Dead Planet.

In September 2020, Smith appeared on the Gorillaz' song "Strange Timez" from their Song Machine series and also appeared in the song's animated music video.

In December 2020, Smith took part in two live stream charity events, including The Cosmic Shambles Network's "Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People" 24-hour charity live stream, 12 December 2020. Smith played three songs from the Seventeen Seconds album: "In Your House", "M" and "Play for Today". On 22 December 2020, Smith played three songs from the Faith album, "The Holy Hour", "The Funeral Party", and "The Drowning Man", for the live stream the annual Second City 24-hour improvisation charity event for "Letters to Santa"

In June 2021, Smith appeared on the Chvrches song "How Not To Drown" from their album Screen Violence.

Musical influences

Smith has credited his older siblings Richard and Margaret with exposing him to rock music such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones when he was six years old. He has said that his early songwriting "was influenced by early Beatles – the sense of a three-minute guitar-pop song", and early in his career the Cure's second single "Boys Don't Cry" was compared by British music paper Record Mirror to "John Lennon at 12 or 13". His parents encouraged their children's musical development, as he told French magazine Les Inrockuptibles: "My parents were lending us their stuff; my mum made me listen to a lot of classical music to enable me to have a larger vision of music." When Smith was eight years old in 1967, Richard played him "Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix, who became hugely influential. Of this period, he went on to say, "My brother was also crazy about Captain Beefheart, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, so much so that when I was 7 or 8, to the despair of my parents, I became some kinda little devil fed on psychedelic rock."

Smith was 10 years old in 1969 when he first heard Nick Drake's album Five Leaves Left: "Nick Drake's on the other side of the coin to Jimi Hendrix. He was very quiet and withdrawn ... I think also that because he had an untimely death like Jimi Hendrix, he was never able to compromise his early work. He was never able to put a foot wrong. It's a morbid romanticism, but there is something attractive about that." It was not long afterwards that Robert Smith attended his first rock concert: Jimi Hendrix at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. At the age of 13 in 1972, Smith first saw David Bowie on television, performing "Starman" on Top of the Pops. He recalled, "Every person in Britain who saw that performance, it's stuck with them. It's like Kennedy being shot for another generation. You just remember that night watching David Bowie on TV. It really was a formative, seminal experience." Smith said that the first LP he ever purchased with his pocket money was The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. According to Apter, Bowie also paved the way for Smith's love of glam rock bands such as Slade, the Sweet, and T. Rex, and during the same period, he also became a fan of Roxy Music. His parents maintained their supportive attitude: "My mum and dad were encouraging us to talk [about] the records we liked. I remember staggering talks about Slade and Gary Glitter."

Smith said that he was 15 when he first heard Alex Harvey, and that the Sensational Alex Harvey Band was the first and only group he ever really followed. He said, "[Harvey] was probably my only real idol. I travelled around the country to see them. [...] People talk about Iggy Pop as the original punk but certainly in Britain the forerunner of the punk movement was Alex Harvey. [...] I remembered the power of that live performance and I've tried to have that in my mind since I started up my own group." He soon became influenced by the emergence of the UK punk scene of 1977 and has cited the Sex Pistols, the Stranglers, Elvis Costello and the Buzzcocks as important influences on his own music from this period. He described the release of "Anarchy in the UK" by the Sex Pistols as "the last time something major happened to me and changed me [...] it was the best summer of my life. I remember listening to 'Anarchy' for the very first time at a party and thinking, 'This is it!' You knew straight away, you either loved it or hated it, and it polarised an entire nation for that summer." Elsewhere, Smith said that the Stranglers were his favourite punk band and that Costello "was a cut above the whole lot of them" in terms of lyrics and song crafting.

Smith was influenced by Siouxsie and the Banshees' "wall of noise" and the Buzzcocks' melodies, and aspired to combine the two. He said, "The two groups that I aspired to be like were [Siouxsie and] the Banshees and the Buzzcocks. I really liked the Buzzcocks' melodies, while the great thing about the Banshees was that they had this great wall of noise, which I'd never heard before. My ambition was to marry the two." Ian Birch of Melody Maker recognised the Banshees' influence on Smith's band early on, comparing the Cure's 1978 debut single "Killing An Arab" favourably to Siouxsie's "Hong Kong Garden" (released a few months earlier). Speaking of his stint of playing guitar with Siouxsie and the Banshees in 1979, Smith said, "It allowed me to experiment. I inherited an approach from John [McKay] which was just to have everything full up. [...] It was phased/flanged distortion noise." From that time, Siouxsie and the Banshees "were a massive influence on me". He said, "They were the group who led me towards doing Pornography. They drew something out of me."

Along with the Banshees, early Cure gigs from 1978–1979 supporting other post-punk bands such as Wire and Joy Division also influenced Smith's shift in musical direction from the Cure's 1979 album Three Imaginary Boys to 1980's second album Seventeen Seconds. Playing support for Wire (at Kent University in October 1978) gave Smith the idea "to follow a different course, to hold out against the punk wave [...] Wire pointed out another direction to me". When asked what were his five favorite guitar tracks, Smith listed "Purple Haze" by Hendrix, "Hanging Around" by Hugh Cornwell of the Stranglers, "Head Cut" by John McGeoch of Siouxsie and the Banshees, "White Riot" by Mick Jones/Joe Strummer of the Clash and "White Light/White Heat" by Lou Reed of the Velvet Underground.

Stage persona and image

Smith didn't have any peculiar look, outfit and haircut in the late 1970s when the Cure arrived on the music scene. He started to backcomb his short hair in the years 1980-1983. Smith began sporting his trademark physical appearance of a pale complexion, smeared red lipstick, black eye-liner, a dishevelled nest of wiry long black hair, all-black clothes, and brothel creeper shoes or trainers in 1984, after being the guitarist of Siouxsie and the Banshees for 18 months and borrowing Siouxsie's lipstick. Around the same time the goth subculture took off. However, he denies any credit for this trend and claims it is a coincidence that the styles are similar, stating that he wore makeup since he was young and stating that "it's so pitiful when 'goth' is still tagged onto the name The Cure". The sombre mood of early albums, combined with Smith's on-stage persona, cemented the band's gothic image. Although considered a goth icon, Smith claimed he never connected with the label, stating that his aesthetic was a "theatrical" custom.

In 1986, Smith famously altered his image by appearing on-stage and in press photos sporting short spiky hair and bright polo shirts, which can be seen in The Cure in Orange. His new look made the headlines. He soon returned to his usual style.

Musicianship

Smith in October 1985

Songwriting

In an interview in 2000, Smith said that "there is one particular kind of music, an atmospheric type of music, that I enjoy making with The Cure. I enjoy it a lot more than any other kind of sound". When Smith was asked about the 'sound' of his songwriting, Smith said that he did not "think there is such a thing as a typical Cure sound. I think there are various Cure sounds from different periods and different line-ups."

Guitar playing

Smith is considered to be one of the most influential and underrated guitarists of the 20th century. In a 1992 interview with Guitar Player magazine, Smith shared insights from his first guitar lessons—undertaken at the age of 9 years—and his guitar-playing style, as well as his habit of purposely detuning the high "E" (first) string on his guitars. Of his first lessons, Smith stated:

I started on classical guitar, actually. I had lessons from age nine with a student of John Williams, a really excellent guitarist. [...] I learned a lot, but got to the point where I was losing the sense of fun. I wish I'd stuck with it. I still read music, but it takes me too long to work through a piece.

Smith also described his detuning process: "I don't know what it adds, but the guitar just doesn't sound quite right to me normally. In the studio, I often defy the tuners, particularly with keyboard overdubs. I even change the speed of the tape to detune some parts. I think a lot of players presented with the same guitar and told to tune it themselves would come up with something drastically different. And the way you play [the guitar] affects the perceived tuning. If Porl [Thompson] and I tune together and play the same thing, but he plays hard and I play soft, it will sound completely off."

Speaking about Wish in 1992, Smith also offered the following input on how detuned instruments played a significant role in the album, and the challenges of capturing the sound live. "A lot of things on our record Wish that sound like heavy chorusing are actually just detuned instruments. The only drawback to that is onstage it's very confusing sometimes, especially with lots of phasing effects going on. It turns into this overwhelming pulsing sound, and you can't hear anything."

While recording the Cure's debut album, Three Imaginary Boys, in 1978, Smith was using a Woolworth's Top 20 electric guitar, and he was advised by Chris Parry to use a better instrument. Smith bought a Fender Jazzmaster, having recently seen Elvis Costello playing one on Top of the Pops. However, he then decided to have the Top 20 pickup installed in the Jazzmaster, giving it a third pickup. Smith explained this guitar customization in 1992: "The third pickup [in the Fender Jazzmaster] is from a Woolworth's Top 20 guitar, my very first electric. I took it in to record our first album, along with a little WEM combo amp. [Manager/producer] Chris Parry, who was paying for the record, said," you can't use that!" We went out and bought a Fender Jazzmaster, and I immediately had the Top 20 pickup installed in it, which really upset Chris. I played the entire Three Imaginary Boys album through a Top 20 pickup. It's a brilliant guitar, though I actually bought it because of how it looked."

Smith's guitar work was first heard on the first Cure single "Killing An Arab", which was released in December 1978, where Smith performed an intricate Middle Eastern sounding descending and ascending guitar riff to accompany the song, as well as the B-side "10:15 Saturday Night", where Smith played a heavily-distorted 'tremolo bar' solo. Smith would soon expand on his guitar style further with the Cure's second album, Seventeen Seconds, notably on the single "A Forest", where Smith played an extended solo-outro on his Jazzmaster, as well as the single "Play For Today", where Smith demonstrated an intricate use of harmonics.

With every Cure album release onward, Smith would incorporate a number of different guitars and sounds into the Cure's repertoire with stylistic versatility and craftsmanship over the course of 30 years. Notably, starting with The Top, in 1984, Smith started incorporating Spanish acoustic guitars (notably on the songs "Birdmad Girl", and "The Caterpillar"), and from the mid-80s onward Smith included more acoustic guitar instrumentation on later Cure songs such as "The Blood", as well as notable singles such as "In Between Days", "Just Like Heaven", and "Friday I'm In Love". On the 1987 release Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Smith showcased a diverse style of guitar playing across the 17-track album. Notably on the opening track "The Kiss" where Smith played an extended Wah-wah pedal introductory solo that opened the LP, as well as the single "Hot Hot Hot!!!" where Smith included an intricate funk playing style that intersected with Porl Thompson's guitar lines. Another ingredient of Smith's guitar sound is the Fender VI. It proved to be a staple of the Cure's sound during the early 80's on Cure albums such as Faith, was used as the main instrument on the Carnage Visors instrumental soundtrack that the band recorded that same year, and was later played by Smith extensively on the 1989 release Disintegration. Smith shared the following input of his use of the Fender VI:

I added the six-string bass on the Faith album. I think [producer] Mike Hedges stole it. I'm not sure from whom, but he said they'd never miss it. He worked with a lot of big-name artists and he felt it was his duty as a socialist to relieve them of some of their worldly possessions. So he gave me that at the end of Seventeen Seconds. I actually wrote "Primary" on it and incorporated it into a few other things.

He wrote several songs on bass. He commented during an interview for Making Music in 1987: "A lot of the songs that we've done over the years I've written on the bass. I think I've been influenced by listening to [Steven] Severin play really, strumming bass chords. I was given the six-string bass... and as soon as I got that I thought — ah, unusual sound, and I translated that back on to guitar".

Smith started incorporating more distortion and feedback sounds and textures on albums such as Wish where Smith predominantly played a Gibson Chet Atkins as well.

Speaking to The Hit, Smith gave a frank assessment of his approach to guitar playing, and musicianship in general. "I'm not technically a good player but at least I don't sound like anyone else. For me the idea of being a musician has nothing to do with technical ability, but I suppose you have to have a certain amount to be able to put ideas into music. I think it's important to get past the stage of being comfortable with an instrument. You need the capacity to learn – most people tend to stay at the same level, which [I think] is boring to listen to."

В популярной культуре

Ранние ссылки на телевидение и фильмы

Ранняя отсылка к The Cure в « поп-культуре » встречается в одиннадцатом эпизоде BBC2 ​​анархического альтернативного комедийного сериала «Молодые» 1984 года. В сериале регулярно появлялись эпизодические выступления британских рок- и поп-групп того периода, таких как Motorhead. , Проклятые и Безумие . Как следует из названия эпизода « Больной », все четверо главных героев (Вивиан, Рик, Нил и Майк) больны, что побуждает Вивяна отправить Майка в аптеку за лекарством. Нил замечает: «Надеюсь, Майк поспешит вернуться с лекарством!» на что Вивиан отвечает: «Нет, Нил, Нил, на этой неделе это безумие». Затем группа Madness исполняет музыкальную эпизодическую роль. Рок-биографы Боулер и Дрей отмечают, что растущий общественный интерес к «Лекарству» в Америке в середине-конце 1980-х годов стал для сценаристов телевидения и кино «стандартным обозначением смешанных детей» - в Стива Мартина фильме «Родительство» плакат с изображением Роберта в спальне используется, чтобы подчеркнуть это. тот момент, что «этот подросток растерян и несчастен»».

Эдвард руки-ножницы и влияние на Тима Бертона (1988–2012)

Основная статья: Тим Бертон

В 1988 году в интервью журналу Spin со Смитом сообщалось, что «режиссер « Большого приключения Пи-Ви » (то есть Тим Бертон ) попросил Смита сняться в фильме. Клавишник The Cure Роджер О'Доннелл с тех пор рассказал, что во время записи альбома Disintegration (1988–89) Бертон обратился к группе с просьбой предоставить саундтрек к фильму 1990 года «Эдвард руки-ножницы» и даже отправил им сценарий.

В статье 1991 года, в которой обсуждались источники вдохновения внешности главного героя фильма, Entertainment Weekly (со ссылкой на Бертона и художника по костюмам Коллин Этвуд ) сообщило, что «прическа персонажа в стиле ретро и его склонность к коже явно напоминают панков, таких как Роберт Смит из The Cure». Бертон — самопровозглашенный поклонник The Cure. и его стиль одежды сравнивают со стилем Смита. В 1996 году Смит подтвердил французскому журналу Télérama , что Бертон обращался к Cure по поводу ряда совместных проектов и регулярно поддерживал связь с группой по поводу каждого из своих последних кинопроектов, но до сих пор они всегда были слишком заняты либо гастролями, либо концертами. запись, чтобы внести свой вклад. Бертон попросил Смита написать саундтрек к фильму «Сонная лощина» (1999), но Смит сказал, что «они настолько откладывали это, что я увлекся [альбомом The Cure] Bloodflowers и отложил его в сторону». В 2009 году Бертон вручил Смиту премию Shockwaves NME Godlike Genius Award , заявив, что, когда он был «прикован к столу» и находился в «чертовской депрессии» во время работы молодым аниматором в Disney , «эта музыка была единственным, что меня спасло. Я просто хочу поблагодарить вас за то, что вы меня вдохновили». Вскоре после церемонии награждения Бертон снова подтвердил BBC 6 Music свое давнее восхищение группой Cure и свое желание сотрудничать с ними. Смит сказал, что вручение Бертоном награды Godlike Genius «делает все это еще более особенным». С тех пор Смит написал музыку для фильмов Бертона «Почти Алиса» и «Франкенвини на свободе!». альбомные проекты ( см. → гостевой вокал + сольные кавер-версии ).

Песочный человек (1989–1996)

Основная статья: Мечта (персонаж)

Нил Гейман , автор и создатель комиксов Vertigo Comics « Песочный человек » (1989–1996), частично основал внешний вид своего главного героя на внешности Смита. Другие иллюстраторы персонажа на протяжении всего сериала также пользовались влиянием других популярных музыкантов; Сэм Кит , например, описывает свою интерпретацию персонажа Песочного человека как версию « Дэвида Боуи / парня из лекарства» и говорит, что образ персонажа Роберта Смита «действительно активно защищался» Гейманом и DC Comics. редактор Карен Бергер . Майк Дрингенберг , с другой стороны, сравнил «Песочного человека» Кита с Роном Вудом и Китом Ричардсом из « Роллинг Стоунз» и утверждает, что «моя версия… больше походила на Питера Мерфи или Роберта Смита». И наоборот, Келли Джонс , иллюстрировавший « Страну грез» и «Сезон туманов» (тома 3 и 4 в серии), сказал, что «просто ненавидел Лекарство» и, таким образом, основал свою собственную версию персонажа на угловатых жестах и ​​чертах лица Баухауза. Вместо этого фронтмен Питер Мерфи . Гейман сказал, что ранние концептуальные наброски персонажа Ли Болча и Дэйва Маккина черпали влияние из образа Боуи Аладдина Сане и Боно из U2 . Также известно, что плакаты о лекарствах «вкрадываются на задний план некоторых историй о песчаных людях», и Смит сказал фанатам, что ему льстило упоминание Геймана, и он считает « Песочного человека » «блестящим сериалом».

Ворона (1989–1994)

Основная статья: Ворона

Тексты Смита, а также стихи Joy Division из Яна Кертиса широко цитировались и упоминались в Джеймса О'Барра серии комиксов «Ворона» » Геймана , которая, как и «Песочный человек , также впервые появилась на полках магазинов в 1989 году. The Crow посвятил целую страницу переизданию текста песни Cure " The Hanging Garden ", а О'Барр рассказал, что много слушал ранние альбомы Cure. такие как «Семнадцать секунд» и «Вера», пока он писал рассказ. О'Барр, однако, преуменьшил влияние Роберта Смита на внешний вид главного героя Эрика Дрейвена , заявив, что «идея о том, что этот образ был вдохновлен им, на самом деле преувеличена» и что визуальный аспект персонажа в большей степени обязан Питеру Мерфи и Игги Попу . Смит сказал, что песня «Burn», вклад The ​​Cure в экранизации 1994 года к саундтрек , была намеренно написана и исполнена в стиле «Висячий сад».

Другие отсылки к комиксам и фанфикам

Рассказы Гарта Энниса « Muzak Killer» для комиксов AD 2000 года 1991 года также содержат визуальные отсылки в виде персонажей, напоминающих Роберта Смита. и опять же, сам Смит является самопровозглашенным поклонником 2000 года нашей эры . Revolutionary Comics выпустила биографический комикс о Cure в 1991 году как выпуск № 30 серии Rock n Roll Comics , а в следующем году Personality Comics выпустила свою собственную биографию Cure в форме Music Comics 4: The Cure . Ян Ширли, автор книги « Может ли рок-н-ролл спасти мир?: Иллюстрированная история музыки и комиксов» , считает, что тот факт, «что The Cure породили два биографических комикса... просто показывает влияние, которое Роберт Смит и его готический шик оказали на Америка в 1990-е годы». В 1980-х годах японский музыкальный журнал 8-beat Gag опубликовал серию карикатур на западных художников художника манги Ацуко Сима; У Роберта Смита было собственное издание, и он был изображен на обложке. готических ужасов и фэнтези Писатель Поппи З. Брайт в своем романе о вампирах « Потерянные души» (1992) использует плакат Роберта Смита на стене спальни в качестве сексуального реквизита во время гомоэротической встречи между двумя его персонажами, Лейном и Ничто. Колин Рафф из New York Press описал «восторженную оценку Поппи З. Брайт рта Роберта Смита в ее (sic) изображении вымышленного минета» как «пример неудачной привычки многих писателей-фантастов (особенно с 1980-х годов) ссылаться на поп-звезды и их тексты с неироническим [ sic ] почтением, в результате чего получается проза, столь же рефлексивная, как вуайеристская журналистика, плохое порно и наклейки на бамперы».

Телевизионные пародии и камеи: 1990–1993 гг.

В телевизионных комедийных программах начала 1990-х годов Смит иногда становился объектом высмеивания . В программе MTV «Полчаса комедии» (1990–1991) был показан пародийный эпизод « Этот старый дом» , в котором пародия на персонажа Смита эпохи дезинтеграции просит строительных подрядчиков оставить его дом в полуразрушенном состоянии, чтобы сохранить ощущение « упадок городов ». «Опыт Мэри Уайтхаус» (1992) высмеивал попытки Смита использовать более легкую поп-музыку, чтобы «показать свою более счастливую сторону», представив серию скетчей, в которых Смит (которого играет Роб Ньюман ) исполняет новые комедийные песни « Смеющийся полицейский », « Свяжи меня, кенгуру, спорт », « Эрни », «Crash Bang Wallop», тема детской программы «Play Away » и песня солдат Первой мировой войны «Китайцы». сухарики в твоей заднице» пародийная версия патриотического гимна « Правь, Британия! ». Ньюман изобразил Смита, печально оплакивающего текст на фоне мрачного депрессивного рока в стиле Cure. Еще один постоянный персонаж сериала, Эдвард Коландерхэндс , появляется в одном из эпизодов как член аудитории Cure.

Другой набросок « Опыта Мэри Уайтхаус» вращался вокруг «Рэя: человека, страдающего саркастическим тоном голоса», также изображенного Ньюманом и представленного в стиле истории болезни . Ключевой фразой Рэя было: «О нет, какая личная катастрофа». В заключительном эпизоде ​​​​сериала Рэю дарят копию пластинки Cure's Disintegration LP, и он настолько потрясен, что больше не может говорить саркастическим тоном и спонтанно начинает говорить по-фламандски . В заключительной сцене Рэй случайно встречается с настоящим Робертом Смитом в эпизодической роли, который бьет Рэя кулаком по лицу и заявляет: «О нет, какая личная катастрофа». Роба Ньюмана и Дэвида Бэддиела В живом комедийном видео « История сегодня » (1992) также присутствует персонаж Ньюмана Роберт Смит, поющий детские песни « Голова, плечи, колени и пальцы ног » и « Я маленький чайник ». Позже Смит сыграл еще одну эпизодическую роль в спин-оффе комедийного дуэта «Ньюман и Бэддиел по частям» (1993). В сцене, где Дэвид Баддиел фантазирует о своих собственных похоронах, Смит появляется на могиле и говорит: «Я никогда не был таким несчастным. Я всегда предпочитал его другому», прежде чем провести конгу скорбящих в праздничных шляпах вокруг кладбища.

Карьерные девушки (1997)

В фильме Майка Ли 1997 года « Карьерные девушки» показано воссоединение двух женщин, которые раньше жили в квартире и любили The Cure, будучи подростками в 1980-х годах, и повсюду присутствует музыка и образы группы. Ли пригласил Смита на премьеру, которую Смит описал как «один из самых странных дней в моей жизни… В фильме есть один момент, когда они видят постер « The 13th », первого сингла с последнего альбома . и она говорит своей подруге: «Они все еще выпускают пластинки?» И я подумал, что это действительно несправедливо: «Неизменный человек в меняющемся мире».

Южный парк: Меха-Стрейзанд (1998)

В 1998 году Смит озвучил свою анимационную версию в « Меха-Стрейзанд », эпизоде ​​Южного парка , в котором он сражается с « Меха -Барброй Стрейзанд » в «битве Годзиллы против Мотры ». это полностью разрушает город Саус Парк. Стрейзанд изображается как «расчетливая, эгоцентричная, эгоистичная стерва», которая хочет завоевать мир с помощью древнего артефакта, случайно обнаруженного Эриком Картманом , известного как «Алмаз Пантеоса». После того, как кинокритик Леонард Малтин и актер Сидни Пуатье превращаются в существ кайдзю (по мотивам Ультрачеловека и Гамеры соответственно), чтобы сразиться с Меха-Стрейзанд, но в конечном итоге не могут победить зверя, входит Роберт Смит, уверенный, что сможет победить Меха-Стрейзанд с помощью помощь мальчиков. Чтобы сразиться с Меха-Стрейзанд, мальчики помогают Смиту превратиться в «Смитру», которая обладает способностью «удара робота», и в конечном итоге побеждает монстра, взяв его за хвост и швырнув в космос. Он предлагает « рошамбо » Картману вернуть его рацию и тут же бьет Картмана ногой в пах, заставляя его уронить рацию. В конце эпизода, когда Смит уходит на закат, Кайл Брофловски кричит: « Disintegration — лучший альбом на свете!» и Картман добавляет: «Роберт Смит надирает задницы!» На сегодняшний день он один из немногих знаменитостей, которых в сериале изображают в целом позитивно.

На тот момент этот эпизод принес «Южному парку» самые высокие на сегодняшний день рейтинги - около 3 208 000 зрителей; около 40 000 человек более чем смотрели программу ABC на канале Prime Time Live . Дебютный показ Comedy Central в феврале 1998 года стал первым случаем, когда кабельная станция обошла одну из телевизионных сетей «большой тройки» во время просмотра в прайм-тайм. и футболки с надписью «Robert Smith Kicks Ass», как сообщается, вскоре после этого «стали популярным среди фанатов Cure». Смит позже описал влияние этого эпизода на своих племянниц и племянников Q журналу : «Нахождение в Южном парке оказало огромное влияние на их жизнь. Теперь, когда я персонаж мультфильма, я полностью принят в их мир». Он рассказал бельгийскому журналу Humo :

Когда мои племянники увидели это, они поклонились мне, но [продолжали] спрашивать: «Что такое распад, дядя Боб?» Я просто ответил, что это было то, что я сделал давным-давно. До сих пор забавно, что все, что я делаю – путешествую, переживаю столько всего, устраиваю интересные встречи, записываю хорошо продаваемые пластинки – ничего для них не значит, в то время как с момента моего появления в Южном Парке я для них бессмертен и знаменит… Ублюдки.

В интервью Placebo из Брайану Молко для Les Inrockuptibles журнала «Южного парка» Смит сказал, что создатели Трей Паркер и Мэтт Стоун прислали ему сценарий, но намеренно оставили некоторые части пустыми, «чтобы сохранить сюрприз». Он сказал: «Они не хотели, чтобы кто-нибудь знал, они хотели шокировать. Когда я увидел себя, я нашел это сюрреалистичным». В другом интервью, организованном Entertainment Weekly , Смит сказал Fall Out Boy басисту Питу Венцу , что « Disintegration — лучший альбом всех времен!» эта сцена была одним из его «величайших моментов в жизни». и описал процесс:

Я не спал всю ночь, зашел на эту радиостанцию ​​и записал свои слова по телефонной линии. Я понятия не имел, о чем идет речь. Один из них на другом конце линии направлял меня и говорил: «Пожалуйста, говорите больше как Роберт Смит. Давай!» Примерно через шесть месяцев я увидел это и был совершенно потрясен тем, что они с ним сделали.

Могучий Буш: Нанагеддон (2004)

В 2004 году в эпизоде ​​сюрреалистического комедийного сериала BBC The Mighty Boosh «Нанагеддон» (серия 2, серия 11) персонаж Винса Нуара предлагает Говарду Муну возможность провести вечер с двумя девушками- готами при условии, что он одевается как гот . Винс достает банку «Готского сока», описанного как «самый мощный лак для волос, известный человечеству, сделанный из слез Роберта Смита». В том же эпизоде ​​Мун поет « The Love Cats » поверх титров. В тот же вечер, когда Тим Бертон вручил Смиту премию «Божественный гений» на церемонии вручения наград Shockwaves NME Awards , «Могучий Буш» также получил награду в номинации «Лучшая телевизионная комедия». На вопрос NME.com за кулисами после церемонии, есть ли какие-либо планы по поводу новых камео поп-звезд в «Могучем Буше » соавтор сериала и партнер по фильму Ноэль Филдинг ответил: «Мы пытаемся заполучить Роберта Смита для участия в фильме». фильм – я хочу, чтобы он был моим дядей. Это было бы здорово!»

Это должно быть то место (2011)

Внешний вид Шайенн (которую играет Шон Пенн ), главного героя фильма режиссера Паоло Соррентино 2011 года «Это должно быть то место », вдохновлен внешностью Смита.

Личная жизнь

Свадьба

13 августа 1988 года в аббатстве Уорт . Смит женился на Мэри Терезе Пул (родилась 3 октября 1958 года), с которой познакомился на уроках драмы в школе Святого Уилфрида, когда ему было 14 лет. У них нет детей. Смит сказал, что он против рождения детей, поскольку он не только возражает против рождения, но и отказывается навязывать жизнь другому человеку . Смит добавляет, что он также «не чувствует себя достаточно ответственным, чтобы родить ребенка на свет». У Смита и Пула 25 племянниц и племянниц.

Позже Смит рассказал, что в начале своей музыкальной карьеры Мэри не всегда разделяла его уверенность и видение будущего Cure, что было важным мотивирующим фактором в его обеспечении успеха группы. сообщила Газета Daily Express , что Мэри раньше была моделью и работала медсестрой с умственно отсталыми детьми; однако, когда в середине 1980-х Cure стали более финансово успешными, Мэри бросила свою основную работу, чтобы паре не приходилось проводить так много времени врозь.

Смит рассказал The Face , что однажды он оставил включенную видеокамеру у себя дома, «и через пару часов забываешь, что она включена, и я был в ужасе от того количества чуши, которую мы говорим друг другу. Это все равно, что слушать сумасшедших людей». ... Я чувствую себя более естественно в компании психически неуравновешенных людей, потому что ты всегда более настороже, гадая, что они собираются делать дальше...». Он утверждал, что Мэри «раньше одевалась ведьмой, чтобы пугать маленьких детей», что она иногда наряжалась Робертом Смитом в пижаме и что он никогда не мог отводить людей домой, «потому что я никогда не знаю, кто откроет дверь». .

Пока The Cure записывали альбом Wish в Шиптон-Мэнор , Оксфордшир , между 1991 и 1992 годами, среди предметов, прикреплённых к стене, была «Безумная диаграмма поместья Мэри», в которой были перечислены семнадцать членов персонала и жителей поместья (включая The Cure и их окружение). ) «в порядке нестабильности». Мэри заняла второе место после женщины по имени Луиза, которая работала на кухне. «Мы все проголосовали, - сказал Смит, - и у нас была церемония награждения. Это было очень трогательно».

Семья

Смит - третий из четырех братьев и сестер, и он сказал, что его мать Рита «не должна была родить меня», что стало причиной значительной разницы в возрасте между ним и двумя его старшими братьями и сестрами. «И как только они заполучили меня, им не понравилась идея иметь единственного ребенка, поэтому у них появилась моя сестра. И это хорошо, потому что я бы ненавидел отсутствие младшей сестры». Он назвал свою младшую сестру Джанет «вундеркиндом фортепиано». и «семейный музыкальный гений», но сказала, что она слишком застенчива, чтобы самой стать исполнительницей. Помимо участия в Crawley Goat Band примерно с 1973 года, Джанет играла на клавишных в составе Cult Hero в 1979 году, а их старшая сестра Маргарет внесла в проект бэк-вокал. Джанет вместе с тогдашней подругой Саймона Гэллапа Кэрол (обе одетые как школьницы) и реальными школьниками «The Obtainers» пели бэк-вокал на живом выступлении Cult Heroes в Marquee Club на разогреве у Passions в марте 1980 года.

Собственная дизайнерская компания The Cure Parched Art создала обложку альбома The Head on the Door группы Cure , используя обработанную фотографию Джанет Смит, сделанную гитаристом Cure и художником по обложкам альбомов Порлом Томпсоном . Джанет знала Томпсона с детства. и пара начала встречаться еще в начале пребывания Томпсона на посту ведущего гитариста Malice and the Easy Cure. В середине 1980-х Джанет отказалась от профессиональной карьеры пианистки, чтобы проводить больше времени с Porl and the Cure. и пара поженилась в марте 1988 года, в результате чего Роберт Смит и Томпсон стали зятьями, пока пара не развелась в 2000 году. Джанет также приписывают то, что она научила гитарного техника Роберта Перри Бамонте игре на фортепиано, пока группа записывала Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me , до того, как Бамонте присоединился к группе в качестве клавишника в 1990 году. По словам Бамонте: «С терпением святого она провела месяц, обучая меня азам игры на фортепиано. До этого я ничего не знал».

Во время концерта на Tauron Arena в Кракове 20 октября 2022 года The Cure представили песню «I Can Never Say Goodbye», посвященную недавно умершему брату Смита Ричарду.

Просмотры

Смит говорит, что ему, как правило, некомфортно давать интервью и беседовать с незнакомцами, и он не выражает ни интереса, ни желания участвовать ни в том, ни в другом. Было показано, что у него типично британское сухое чувство юмора , о чем свидетельствует видео его введения в Зал славы рок-н-ролла 2019 года , которое стало вирусным из-за его невозмутимой реакции на взволнованного американского интервьюера. Он присутствует во многих социальных сетях, но использует их исключительно для того, чтобы делиться объявлениями, связанными с Cure, и не давать людям подписываться на фейковые аккаунты.

Смит назвал себя « либеральным парнем», которому «некомфортно с политизированными музыкантами». Во время турне в 2012 и 2013 годах он носил на своей гитаре лозунг «граждане, а не подданные». и открыто выразил свое презрение к британской королевской семье , сетуя на то, что музыканты, которых он уважает, принимали почести , заявив, что он предпочел бы «отрубить [своим] собственные руки». В интервью журналу Rolling Stone в 2019 году он сказал о своих политических взглядах: «Я всегда придерживался того, что можно было бы считать социалистической точкой зрения на мир [...] Я думаю, что правоцентристы всегда неправы, и это так же политично, как и Я появляюсь на публике».

Дискография

С лекарством

Основная статья: Дискография The Cure

С культовым героем

• Сингл " Я культовый герой " (1979)

С перчаткой

• Голубое солнце (1983)

С Сиукси и Банши

• Ноктюрн (1983)
• Гиена (1984)

Как сольный исполнитель

• "Very Good Advice" (2010) Сэмми Фэйна и Боба Хиллиарда кавер из альбома "Почти Алиса"
• "Small Hours" (2011) Джона Мартина кавер Johnny Boy Will Love This из трибьют-альбома
• " Колдовство " (2012), Сай Коулмана и Кэролин Ли кавер из фильма "Франкенвини на свободе!"
• "C Moon" (2014) кавер Wings , бонус от The Art of McCartney
• "Там девушка в углу" (2015), кавер The Twilight Sad , из сплит-сингла

Сотрудничество

Выпускать	Год	Соавтор	Комментарий
Ласковый пунш	1980	Партнеры	Бэк-вокал в песнях "The Affectionate Punch" и "Even Dogs in the Wild".
"Yeh Yeh Yeh" и "Lifeblood" (сплит-сингл)		Сороки/Добытчики	Продюсер
«Кадр первый» (сингл)	1982	Анимация	Продюсер
Из-под холма	1982	А еще Деревья	Сопродюсер
Мучения и Торерос	1983	Марк и мамбы	Смит написал песню «Torment» в соавторстве с Марком Алмондом и Стивом Северином.
Сингл "Я хочу быть деревом"	1984	Тим Поуп
Грушевое дерево EP	1989	А еще Деревья	Смит и Марк Сондерс были сопродюсерами ремиксов; один из которых также появляется на некоторых компакт-дисках альбома to the Shade Farewell .
Сингл "Жемчужина"	1993	Журавли	Смит сделал ремиксы и сыграл на синглах.
Душители и друзья - концерт на концерте	1995	Душители	Гитара в песнях «Get a Grip» и «Hangingaround». Записано в 1979 году.
Сингл "Знак от Бога"	1998	КОГАЗМ	Из к фильму "Оргазмо" саундтрека
Улисс (Ночной)	2000	Ривз Гэбрелс	Вокал и другие инструменты в треке "Yesterday's Gone".
Радио JXL: трансляция из компьютерного ада	2003	наркоман XL	Вокал на треке "Perfect Blue Sky"
Блинк-182		Блинк-182	Вокал на треке "All of This"
Зигзаг		Эрл Слик	Вокал на треке «Believe»
Памятник	2004	Бланк и Джонс	Вокал в кавер-версии песни " A Forest ", ранее выпущенной как сингл в 2003 году.
Доверься этому		Джуниор Джек	Вокал в треке "Da Hype", ранее выпущенном как сингл в 2003 году.
2 часа ночи, звонок для пробуждения		Твикер	Вокал на треке "Truth Is"
БудущееОбъятия	2005	Билли Корган	Бэк-вокал в кавер-версии песни " To Love Somebody ".
Всем новым поступлениям	2006	Неверный	Вокал на треке "Spiders, Crocodiles & Kryptonite"
Идеальное состояние	2007	Пол Хартнолл	Вокал на треке "Please", ранее выпущенном как сингл.
MTV Unplugged: Корн		Корн	Вокал на треке "Make Me Bad/In Between Days"
Мы все равно взорвались	2010	65daysofstatic	Вокал на треке «Come To Me»
Сингл «Я бы попробовал все»		Аник Жан	Вокальный дуэт
"Не влюблен Сингл "		Хрустальные замки	Вокал
Контролируйте свою преданность	2011	Японские поп-звезды	Вокал на треке "Take Forever"
Сингл "It Never Was the Same"	2015	Сумеречная грусть	Вокал в кавер-версии песни There's a Girl in the Corner.
Song Machine, первый сезон: Strange Timez	2020	Гориллаз	Вокал, гитара, клавишные, бас-гитара и музыкальная шкатулка включены в трек " Strange Timez ", ранее выпущенный как сингл.
Экранное насилие	2021	церкви	Вокальный дуэт на тему «Как не утонуть»
Спокойной ночи, Боже, благослови, Я люблю тебя, Удали.	2023	Кресты	Присутствует вокал в песне "Girls Float † Boys Cry".

Внешние ссылки

• Роберт Смит в Pictures of You
• Роберта Смита Дискография на Discogs
• Роберт Смит на IMDb
• Роберт Смит в Британском институте кино