The Cure’s Robert Smith on his relationship with football, and why having a curry with Stan Bowles was “the highlight of my life”
The Cure frontman Robert Smith has spoken about his relationship with football, revealing that having a curry with the late Stan Bowles was “the highlight of [his] life”.
Former England and Queens Park Rangers forward Bowles died in February, having been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2015. He was 75 years old.
Bowles played more than 560 games in English football and was capped five times by England. He made 315 appearances for QPR and scored 97 goals for the club, per BBC News.
During a new interview in support of The Cure’s upcoming new album ‘Songs Of A Lost World’, Smith recalled being a longtime QPR supporter before he “fell out of love with football about 10 years ago for lots of silly little reasons”.
He also remembered meeting his childhood hero Bowles, and opened up about his current feelings towards football in general – saying that it has become “very corporate” in recent times.
“Each season becomes more and more predictable or tedious. I don’t support anyone else, I just don’t really bother with football anymore,” Smith explained.
“I met Stan Bowles. He was doing a meet and greet at Rangers the last time I went to a football match. I went out for a curry with him, which was the highlight of my life because he was my idol when I was a kid!”
He continued: “I fell in love with football when it was a completely different thing. It sounds really curmudgeonly, but it was about other stuff: going to football matches in the ‘70s was a bit of a rite of passage and a different experience entirely. The footballers themselves were funnier; they were in the pub before the game at QPR. It was a different world.
“It’s just very corporate. Football is about selling stuff; everything is about sponsorship and betting. It doesn’t move me like it used to. I still watch the Euros and World Cup. I hosted a Euros final night. I watched every game and England stumble into the final. I was the only person drinking Spanish beer and I was the only one smiling at the end!”
Smith went on: “At heart, I am still a football fan because Spain were the best team in the competition. They should have won the competition and I was happy.
“I’ve fallen out of love with international football for the same reason I’ve fallen out of love with a lot of international sport: because you either buy into the idea that ‘it’s my country against your country’, or you don’t. If you do, it’s kind of inherently stupid and flies in the face of everything I believe in!
“If there are members of a national team that have barely even been to the country they’re playing for, then it goes into the absurd!”
Smith was in conversation with Matt Everitt, with the lengthy interview being shared via unlocking The Cure’s ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ website.
Elsewhere in the chat, the frontman revealed that The Cure have another new album in the works that’s “virtually finished”, with a third record in the pipeline too. He also shared his plans for a world tour in 2025 and spoke about the band’s upcoming 50th anniversary.
Additionally, Smith said he thought the group would part ways after their headline performance at Hyde Park in 2018, and called dynamic ticket pricing a “scam” that’s “driven by greed”.
Another part of the interview saw the musician explain the profound coincidence and death behind the cover artwork for ‘Songs Of A Lost World’. Smith also opened up about penning the track ‘I Can Never Say Goodbye’ about his brother’s passing.
The long-awaited new album – which will follow 2008’s ‘4:13 Dream’ – has already been previewed by two singles: ‘Alone’ and ‘A Fragile Thing’.
In a five-star review of ‘Songs Of A Lost World’, NME wrote: “Merciless? Yes, but there’s always enough heart in the darkness and opulence in the sound to hold you and place these songs alongside The Cure’s finest.
“The frontman suggested that another two records may be arriving at some point, but ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ feels sufficient enough for the wait we’ve endured, just for being arguably the most personal album of Smith’s career. Mortality may loom, but there’s colour in the black and flowers on the grave.”
The Cure are set to play a special intimate show at the BBC Radio Theatre in London on October 30 ahead of another small gig at the Troxy in the capital on November 1. Fans will be able to watch the latter date via a free global live-stream.
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