The Cure Announce Retirement Plans

While The Cure are preparing to release a new album, Songs Of A Lost World, next month, the fun doesn’t look like it will last much longer.

It’s coming time to say goodbye to the English rock legends, with singer Robert Smith revealing the band’s plans to disappear after 2029. The band will celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2028, while 2029 coincides with the 50th anniversary of their debut album, Three Imaginary Boys.

Smith shared the revelation in a lengthy interview with Matt Everitt, which you can watch on The Cure’s website. In addition to the sad news, Smith also revealed that he’s planning another The Cure album, a documentary, and a whole lot of touring kicking off next year.

“We were going to play festivals next year, but a couple of weeks ago, I decided that we weren’t going to play anything next summer,” Smith said. “The next time we go out on stage will be autumn next year.”

He added, “But then we’ll probably be playing quite regularly through until the next anniversary — the 2028 anniversary that’s just looming on the horizon.

“The 2018 one, I started to think about in late 2016, thinking, ‘I’ve got a year and a half, it’s easy!’ And I still didn’t manage to get there in time. Now, I’m starting to think, ‘2028, I must get things in order,’ so [that’s] the documentary film and various other things like that.”

Telling Everitt that he turns 70 in 2029, Smith said, “I’m 70 in 2029, and that’s the 50th anniversary of the first Cure album. If I make it that far, that’s it.”

“In the intervening time, I’d like to include playing concerts as part of the overall plan of what we’re going to do,” the singer said. “I’ve loved it; the last ten years of playing shows have been the best ten years of being in the band. It pisses all over the other 30-odd years! It’s been great.”

You can watch some of the interview below.

In another recent interview, this one with The Times of London, Smith voiced his disapproval of dynamic pricing, stating that modern ticket pricing is “driven by greed” and criticising artists who “hide behind management” when receiving criticism about ticket prices.

“I was shocked by how much profit is made,” Smith told the publication. “I thought, ‘We don’t need to make all this money.’ My fights with the label have all been about how we can price things lower. The only reason you’d charge more for a gig is if you were worried that it was the last time you would be able to sell a T-shirt.”

He added, “It was easy to set ticket prices, but you need to be pig-headed. We didn’t allow dynamic pricing because it’s a scam that would disappear if every artist said, ‘I don’t want that!’ But most artists hide behind management. ‘Oh, we didn’t know,’ they say. They all know. If they say they do not, they’re either f***ing stupid or lying. It’s just driven by greed.”

The Cure will play one show in support of Songs Of A Lost World this year: at Troxy in London on the album’s release date (Friday, 1 November). The show will be livestreamed globally.

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