The Cure FACTS

-Robert Smith used to tell his record company he had a fear of flying – purely so he could cut down on his touring commitments. “For about three years, 1989 to 1992, I kept the pretence that I had this phobia,” recalls The Cure frontman. “We did two American tours sailing over on the QE2, which was very civilized.”

-The Cure first unveiled their iconic look of smeared lipstick and backcombed hair during a very dark period for the band, while touring 1982’s desolate ‘Pornography’ album

-The Cure’s 1989 album ‘Disintegration’ was initially dismissed by their US label Elektra as commercial suicide. Robert Smith recalls: “They thought I was being ‘wilfully obscure’, which was an actual quote from the letter.” The album went on to sell 2.7 million copies, making The Cure a stadium band in the US

-For a brief period in 1989, The Cure could lay claim to being the biggest band in the world. That year they played a sold-out show at Wembley Stadium, followed by a gig at New York’s Giants Stadium in front of 44,000 people

-One of The Cure’s earliest tours, in 1979, was as support to Siouxsie And The Banshees. Robert Smith filled on in guitar for the headline band, an experience that profoundly changed his musical outlook: “It was so different to what we were doing with The Cure. Before that, I’d wanted us to be like the Buzzcocks or Elvis Costello, the punk Beatles. Being a Banshee really changed my attitude to what I was doing

-Robert Smith always vowed that The Cure’s music would never be used in ads. He broke his promise in 2003 when ‘In Between Days’ was licensed for use in a Fiat Punto ad. In 2007 ‘Pictures Of You’ was used in an ad for HP digital cameras.

-During the recording of The Cure’s biggest-selling album, 1989’s ‘Disintegration’, Robert Smith became overwhelmed with dark thoughts, brought on by a combination of depression and heavy LSD use

-A number of films are named after Cure songs, such as ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ (1999) and ‘Just Like Heaven’ (2005).

-Cure frontman Robert Smith voiced himself in the first season of ‘South Park’ at the request of series co-creator Trey Parker, who is a fan of the band. Smith appeared in the episode ‘Mecha-Streisand’, where he fought a giant mechanical Barbra Streisand.

-The Cure became so famous in the early 90s that Robert Smith grew to despise his band’s most popular hits: “For a long time, I didn’t like certain songs because I thought, ‘You’re to blame, you bastard. You made me popular. ‘Friday I’m In Love’ is a perfect example of that.”

BROUGHT TO YOU BY: