What Is With Robert Smith's Hair And Makeup

It's World Goth Day and Robert Smith is wearing make-upwards for the offset time in xviii months. 'I don't exit similar this,' notes the singer, songwriter and only constant member of The Cure. 'I couldn't even find my make-up yesterday to come upwardly here.'

'Upward here' is London – brought up in Westward Sussex, Smith has lived quietly on the south coast for years now. More specifically, 'upwardly here' is a office room high up in the Royal Festival Hall. Smith has dug out his lippy and driven up to boondocks today because he's the latest musical demigod to curate the Southbank Centre's annual Meltdown festival, a job that'south previously fallen to David Bowie, John Peel, Patti Smith, MIA and Smith'due south '80s nemesis, Morrissey.

Robert Smith is famous for 3 things: wearing make-upwards, having large hair, and writing and singing some of the loveliest songs in the English language. His festival line-upwards includes Placebo, Ix Inch Nails, Deftones and My Bloody Valentine. It's a who's who of what he's described every bit 'alternative popular music': a generation inspired and influenced by The Cure's dreamy, spiky pop. After all, who'd decline an invitation from the guy who wrote 'Boys Don't Cry'?

Meltdown is why Smith is doing press: this is just his second interview in the last five years. Non that he'south reticent. In fact, he'due south a talker – voluble, combative, nostalgic, even occasionally blokey – despite being worn out afterward a (relatively) early start. 'These aren't my hours,' he warns. 'I normally go to bed between five and six in the morning and become upward betwixt one and 2.'

I'd half-hoped he'd evidence up in a white tracksuit and aviators, but no: apart from the vocalism, you lot'd struggle to selection him out of a line-upward of Robert Smith lookalikes (of which there are many). Lipstick? Cheque. Eyeliner? Cheque. Massive nest of frazzled black hair, slightly greying? Oh yes. Big black overshirt, silver earring, crystal bracelets, center pendant... basically, it's a very Robert Smith outfit. Some call him The Gothfather. Not that he'southward having any of it.

Y'all've had a rocky relationship with the word 'goth'. Does it accept anything to do with y'all?
'Not really! We got stuck with information technology at a sure time when goths start started. I was playing guitar with Siouxsie And The Banshees, so I had to play the part. Goth was like pantomime to me. I never really took the whole culture thing seriously.'

But y'all're a goth icon! You've spent the last 35-plus years wearing blackness outfits and brand-upwards!
'It's only a theatrical thing. It's part of the ritual of going on phase. Also there is the prosaic reason: I accept ill-defined features and naturally pale skin. I mean, non at the moment, because  I unfortunately fell asleep in the lord's day yesterday – very united nations-goth.'

What about all your fans who do identify as goths?
'Every goth I've ever met has been very nice, you lot know? As a subculture, I think it's full of wonderful people. Merely I take never liked what's classified equally goth music.'

If y'all went to a proper goth club, yous definitely wouldn't hear 'The Love Cats'.
'No. When it first started upward, I used to go to [seminal goth gild] The Batcave with Steven Severin [co-founder of the Banshees and Smith's bandmate in side projection The Glove]. But I merely went a scattering of times, mainly because the bar was open till two in the morning.'

Y'all lived in London dorsum and so, right?
'Yeah, I lived in Maida Vale for a few years in the '80s. I was young enough to enjoy information technology, but I equated London with a detail lifestyle, which wasn't a very good for you lifestyle. When I wasn't touring I needed somewhere that was very placidity and sort of retirement home-y. I got married in 1988 and moved to the s coast, and I'thousand still there. There are certain aspects of London I miss: the late-nighttime stuff, the cultural side of living in a big, international metropolis. Merely I'm not moving back!'

Does beingness in the city mean y'all become approached more than by fans?
'I kind of look it when I exit. Living where I practice, I've got out of the habit of beingness on my
guard, because I've become part of the article of furniture. But sometimes if I desire to go and encounter something and exist function of the audience, it becomes difficult. I went to the London Dungeon with 1 of the younger ones [Smith's nephews and nieces] and I became part of the amusement. They sort of drew me into the evidence.'

Let's talk about Meltdown. Have y'all been to Meltdown shows equally a fan before?
'I came to see Bowie when he put on his Meltdown [in 2002]. I saw all his [Meltdown] shows, actually. And I saw Tricky one year. I think the curator was… Oh, I'yard terrible. Reggae gars, wears a tinfoil hat.'

Lee 'Scratch' Perry?
'Yes! I saw Catchy at that festival. Information technology was one of the weirdest backstages I've ever been to in my life – you could cut through the smoke with a pocketknife. So yeah, I've been to a few over the years, and it's an honour to be able to put it together.'

Does it feel weird doing something like this solo, not as The Cure?
'I've never washed anything this public where information technology's simply me. It wasn't how I intended information technology at all – information technology was going to exist The Cure's Meltdown. But this big Hyde Park bear witness came upward at the same time and they were very iffy near exclusivity, then it became my Meltdown. It'due south actually a adept thing, because it would accept been utterly impractical to have a five-slice curating a festival. Nosotros can't even hold what to listen to on a tour bus.'

A lot of the bands y'all've picked are from the aforementioned sort of era and genre. Was that deliberate?
'I wasn't trying to exist everything to everyone. I listen to loads of stuff, and none of it's suitable for Meltdown – if I started to bring it all in, it'd exist a right hotch-potch. So I limited it to bands that were actually great live bands. I've e'er been fatigued to more emotional music, and they all wear their hearts on their sleeve.'

They're major acts also.
'I went on Wikipedia and looked at everyone else's line-ups and thought: Right, I'll merely aim ridiculously high. And so my first invitation was to The Rolling Stones. They knocked me back,
but my adjacent shortlist of acts all said yes, which I was incredibly honoured by.'

You announced Frightened Rabbit for the line-up a month before the tragic death of their frontman Scott Hutchison. How did that brand you feel?
'It's atrocious. They were one of the bands that I was really, really looking forward to seeing. I've been listening to them for ten years. I've never met him, but I feel I know him because of his voice.'

I've heard that y'all want to picket every single ring at the festival. Is that possible?
'Theoretically it's possible. I'm non sure if it's physically or mentally possible, but I intend to attempt. How I volition feel by day six, I'm not sure.'

And what are you planning for your own prove: Curætion 25?
'The show that I'yard constructing for the final nighttime is utterly different to anything we've done for a long time. There was something on the website saying the audition is encouraged to stand. I was similar, hold on! I'm putting together a show that is utterly morose! Hyde Park's a big festival vibe, Meltdown's going to exist 2 hours of doom and gloom. Nosotros probably won't be playing the large singles.'

Did you expect to yet be playing shows at all, at nearly lx?
'No. If I had e'er been intent on being the number one band in the world and was still relentlessly banging my head confronting that detail wall, I would hopefully be dead – and if non, I would just be a moron. The process was what I enjoyed: to be an artist, if I want to exist poncy about it. Everything The Cure'south ever washed is purely selfish. I've merely got i life, and I should really be doing stuff that brings me satisfaction. Anyway, i twenty-four hour period my hair will all autumn out and I won't expect gothic any more. And so merely look for that.'

Robert Smith's Meltdown is at the Southbank Centre. Fri Jun fifteen-Jun 24.

Source: https://www.timeout.com/music/robert-smith-one-day-my-hair-will-fall-out-and-i-wont-look-gothic-any-more

Posted by: henleymoures.blogspot.com

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