�
A: 'The Encyclopedia Britannica', Beethoven's 9 symphonies, mandarin oranges.
�Q: What is your favorite brand and shade of lipstick?
�A: Jane's cosmetics 'reddest'. �
�Q: Have you ever considered going back to school (or have you already)?
�A: One day ... �
�Q: Did you have a favorite T-shirt when you were a child?
�A: Yes - a purple tie-dye granddad that I wore constantly from about 8-11.
� �Q: Do you sing in the shower? If so, what do you like to sing?
�A: I have baths - I rarely sing. �
�Q: When you go out in public, do you wear the makeup and do the hair deal? Do people recognize you without it?
�A: I don't usually look as 'made up' as I do when I go on-stage, but the 'hair deal' (huh?) stays the same. �
�Q: What is the underlying interest in the hockey jerseys? Does it stem from an interest in the sport itself or a fashion preference?
�A: The hockey jerseys are: 1) a fashion preference. 2) a way of saving me having to think about what to wear. 3) a cheap attempt to win over the home crowd. 4) Other ...
Q: What's your favorite hockey team?
�A: I've never seen a live game, but I once met the (Pittsburgh) Penguins, so them I suppose ... although the Las Vegas Thunder have invited me to sing the national anthem, and I love the idea of ice hockey in the desert ... so just maybe I change my team ...
� �Q: How often do you actually set foot in the Fiction Records office in London? (Or has Chris Parry never allowed you to have your own key?)
�A: About once a month ... and no, they wouldn't trust me with a key.
� �Q: I'd like to know where Robert buys his shoes. I haven't seen any of those huge '80s-style sneaks for a long time! Also, how was EuroDisney? Is it as bad as everyone says?
�A: I wear either high-tech magnums or Reebok blacktop's ... Eurodisney is excellent! honestly; 'Space Mountain' there is definitely faster than the Disneyland one ... and you can drink!
� �Q: Have you or anyone else in The Cure ever written computer-format songs, like.mid or .mod?
�A: We used 'cubase score' on a Mac power PC during the recording of 'WMS' (Wild Mood Swings) mainly for tempo, working out and printing string parts, bits of keyboard 'manipulation', and trying out percussion ideas - but it remained a 'peripheral'. Roger writes all his songs on a Mac.
� �Q: I LOVE ROBERT SMITH. WILL YOU MARRY ME PLEASE EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVE MARY? WILL YOU PLEASE STILL MARRY ME? I MIGHT GET TO SEE YOU IN CONCERT IN DALLAS TEXAS AUGUST 21. I WILL DIE IF I GET TO. - DANIELLE BURNS([email protected])
�A: The concert is enough!
�A: Mary gave me the heartchain, and I never take it off ...
�Q: I noticed recently that some of your music is produced by Dave Allen, and also happened to remember that a member of a band I listen to, Shriekback, is Dave Allen. Is this the same guy, or just coincidence? If it is the same guy, how did you get to know him and what's your relationship like?
�A: 'Our' Dave Allen isn't the Shriekback one.
� �Q: Is it a coincidence that the housepage (of The Cure's official web site) is opening on THE 13TH at 10:15 ON A SATURDAY NIGHT? What's the significance?
�A: It was no coincidence!
�A: Pretty average.
� �Q: If you could change anything about The Cure, what would it be?
�A: The name!!
� �Q: There have been so many different lineup changes to The Cure. Do you think that this has been positive or negative to the band's career?
A: The line-up changes (7 'ex-Cures' in 20 years - pretty stable I think!) are usually necessitated by my mood and the music; so they are by nature positive.
� �Q: How do you feel when bands like Soundgarden deem The Cure as one of their major influences?
�A: I'm always flattered when anyone (well almost anyone!) cites The Cure as an influence - doing something is better than doing nothing. �
�Q: Do you like the crowds better in Europe or the U.S.?
�A: They are generally 'louder', more excitable, in the USA, although not having toured anywhere else for four years or more, things might have changed ...
� �Q: What's your stance on bootlegs?
�A: I don't have a problem with bootlegs, but I usually hate 'fake' albums. �
�A: We're discussing lots of possibilities - a 'B-sides' CD, a 'Rarities' ('Carnage Visors', 'Eyemou", 'Lost wishes', Out-takes etc.) CD, my top 10 Cure songs re-interpreted, 'Standing on a Beach' part 2 ('still standing on a beach'?!!), a film, a book, a CD-ROM, shows with old line-ups ... but as to how much of this actually happens - only time will tell.
� �Q: Has Robert thought about doing anything new with The Glove, especially since Siouxsie and the Banshees recently broke up?
�A: Not really - The Glove for me was a moment in time.
� �Q: Are you going to release A: B-sides album for all the people who love them so much and can't get them? A box set anthology of all Cure music to date, including B-sides and officially unreleased material? Previously unreleased material on CD, such as 'Lost Wishes', or other songs that haven't made it to the B-sides? A CD-ROM?
�A: See response to question above
� �Q: Whatever happened to Robert's solo album? The last thing that was heard was that it was completed at the around the same time as Disintegration but was never released. Its working titles were A Dream Of Deception and Wild Mood Swings. Did some of the songs from the solo album become part of the new Cure album?
�A: My solo album was recorded in 1983; If it is ever released, it will be when The Cure has stopped ... �
�A: Astronaut. �
�Q: What is your favorite memory from childhood?
�A: Sitting in the chestnut tree in our garden at home in Horley, looking out through the leaves into a perfect blue sky, dreaming ...
� �Q: What 5 words best describe you?
�A: Inquisitive. Thoughtful. Stupid. Wishful. Alien.
� �Q: Are you really, truly depressed? If yeah ... how do you go on?
�A: "I am the dead man walking with a smile on my face ..."
� �Q: During the Pornography era, did you ever attempt suicide?
�A: Looking back - in a strange way, yes; but I don't really think that anyone who attempts suicide in truth can fail: there are too many high buildings ...
� �Q: What would you do if a die-hard fan said that they would run up to you in a pink jock strap on stage during a concert in order to prove his or her love for you?
�A: I'd rather have flowers. �
�A: 'A Forest' is based on a incident that happened to me in my early teens ...
� �Q: Do any/some/most/all of your songs have any kind of meaning? Or do you just sit down and write words on a page and it's done with??? I've been really curious about this for a long, long time. The Cure's lyrics are so poetic and diverse, I often enjoy lying in bed before I go to sleep and reading the lyrics from any chosen album. I find that it helps to put my mind at rest and conjure up some fascinating images that send me into dreamland much easier. Also, do you write the lyrics first or the music?
�A: All of the songs mean something, although in varying degrees. They are usually created separately - I have a bag full of words, and when one of us comes up with a good piece of music, I look in the bag to see if anything there will fit. If nothing does, I sit down and try to put down on paper what the music makes me feel; very rarely will a piece of writing inspire a piece of music.
� �Q: Who are the women mentioned in "Club America," "Strange Attraction," and "The 13th?"
�A: Some things stay secret!
� �Q: One Hundred Years and Siamese Twins are pretty enigmatic songs. Do they have autobiographic meaning? For example, what do the lyrics 'push a blade into my hand and slowly up the stairs and into the room is it always like this' mean?
�A: Yes, they are both autobiographical. see 5e).
� �Q: What do you sing in the song "Harold and Joe" before the line "and I spit them right out". The line goes.."and if I swallow (something) then I spit them right out" ... it's bugging me. :) Thanks.
�A: I can't remember and I haven't got it with me ... sorry!
� �Q: Which of your songs refer to your wife?
�A: 'Lovesong' and quite a few others ... �
�A: I haven't really had that 'early Cure sound' for years; I think the only safe way to get it is with a Fender Jazzmaster and a Roland JC120! on 'WMS'. I mainly used a Gibson Chet Atkins special edition through boss pedals into an ampeg VL503 combo, a Vox AC30 or a Marshall Bluesbreaker combo. On-stage I'm mainly using a Gretsch Tennessee Rose through boss pedals and a jen crybaby wah into 2 ampeg vl503 combos, one 'clean', one 'driven'. My fender 6-string bass still goes through boss pedals into an old Peavey musician 100 piggyback - as it has done for about 15 years!!!
�A: Boris left to record and play with his girlfriend's group 'The Piggle'.
� �Q: Why did Porl Thompson and Boris Williams have really leave the line-up. I think they were both incredibly talented musicians and am wondering if it was their's or Robert's choice for them to leave, and (of course) why? I will be very disappointed to not see them on the tour.
�A: Porl left to paint and play with 'Page and Plant'. We still see both of them.
�A: I have honestly really liked all of them! (although if I lived in America, I would probably want to be by the sea in New England or Oregon!) �
�Q: Hello, I was wondering if The Cure are ever planning to play: Alaska? Arkansas? Massachusetts? and playing at Great Woods (Robert said something relative to that idea at the Worcester Centrum show, and I'd hate to look forward to another great show if it's not going to happen.) The ninth largest city in the U.S., San Antonio, Texas? (Granted this is the Tejano (German/Mexican flavored border music) capital of the world, but there are enough fans here I'm sure to make a show of it. Is it going to take another petition like the one we last sent you from Australia to get you out here again this tour?) Tucson, Arizona?
�A: Alaska/Kansas/San Antonio/Tucson - not on this tour. Great Woods is happening on September 12th. �
�Q: Is The Cure coming back to Toronto to do their own show instead of an expensive venue like Edenfest?
�A: We're in Toronto at the Varsity arena on September 9th.
� �Q: North Carolina? My friends from France told me that The Cure might play several special gigs next year for their 20th year anniversary. The most interesting is that there should meet and play with all (even former) members of the band. Except Lol, probably.
�A: No North Carolina either this tour ... sorry.
� �Q: I want to know from Robert if The Cure are going to play some of their fantastic B-Sides-songs during this tour? And if not, why not? I think that most Cure fans are longing to hear these songs (EITHER they don't know older B-Sides at all OR they just have not heard them yet on any concert or concert-recording [you know what i mean :-)]
�A: We currently know 71 songs, and we're playing for close to 3 hours a night - and we're still not doing any B-sides!!! What do we leave out? Or should we play for longer? (Not!) It's impossible ...
� �Q: What does Robert think about playing at smaller venues (up to one or two thousand people) rather than at the huge ones? There are lots of small venues with a fantastic atmosphere (and they could come to towns they have never been to)!
�A: There has been an interesting mix of venues on this tour so far - and although I really like the theatre shows for their intimacy and intensity, I think an arena show with the whole 'production' up is still my favorite Cure experience ...
� �Q: Would the Cure ever consider playing a small venue (less then 1,000 fans) in the USA again?
�A: Not on this tour.
� �Q: As a Cure fan, I am curious as to why Numb has not been played thus far on the tour. Will it be played at all?
�A: We've now started playing it!
� �Q: Robert, at the end of a 2 1/2- to 3-hour performance are you totally exhausted? It seems like performing for that length of time would require tons of energy. I'm curious if you're left feeling exhilarated or exhausted?
�A: I am usually left feeling both exhilarated and exhausted!
� �Q: What do the band members wives do while they are on tour?
�A: Mine cries ...
�A: 'WMS' was influenced by all of this and more ... I think this is actually a pretty impossible question ... everything that goes on around us makes some difference, however small ...
�Q: How did you come up with the name 'Mint Car'?
�A: Only Simon knows, and he won't tell me! (It was the original title of his demo, and although it doesn't figure in the words, I like it!)
�A: "We cannot put off living until we are ready." - Jose Ortega Y. Gasset.
� �Sorry it took so long!
�Thanks,
� �Love Robert X.