The Cure’s Robert Smith has revealed he has a time window in mind for his band’s retirement. In a lengthy interview with Matt Everitt published on the group’s official website, Smith explained his final plans for The Cure revolve around the respective 50th anniversary celebrations of the group in 2028 and their debut album in 2029.
The final lap will begin with The Cure’s next world tour, which Smith aims to start “autumn next year” after completing the follow-up to their upcoming album, Songs of a Lost World. After that, the band will play “quite regularly” through their 50th anniversary, which they’ll also mark with a previously teased documentary film.
“Seriously, I have to finish the second album,” Smith told Everitt. “We were going to play festivals next year, but a couple weeks ago, I decided that we weren’t going to play anything next summer. The next time we go out on stage will be autumn next year.”
He continued, “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.”
“I’m 70 in 2029, and that’s the 50th anniversary of the first Cure album [Three Imaginary Boys],” Smith said. “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. I’ve loved it; the last 10 years of playing shows have been the best 10 years of being in the band. It pisses all over the other 30-odd years! It’s been great.”
Smith added that the band has felt a sense of “freedom” while touring over the past several years without a new album because they were able to draw from their extensive catalog.
“We’ve turned into a live band that draws on the catalog,” he said. “We can go out and play shows, and we can play two hours of 30 songs and completely different songs each night.”
In a separate interview with The Times of London, Smith commented on the practices of modern ticketing, which he says are “driven by greed.”
Thus far, The Cure have only confirmed one full live performance for 2024: an album release show and livestream event coinciding with the arrival of Songs of a Lost World on November 1st (vinyl and CD pre-orders are ongoing).