Where:Coliseum,2923 Streetsboro Road,Richfield
When:8 p.m. Tuesday
Cost:$18.50
Information:867-8910

'Really?Our office doesn't tell us things like that.'
Robert Smith,singer and songwriter of the Cure,is reacting to some truly
surprising news:that when tickets for his band's show at Giants Stadium in
East Rutherford,N.J.,went on sale last month,30,000 were snapped up on the
first day alone.

'I'm surprised at our popularity,' says Smith.'A couple of years ago,a lot
of people still didn't know who we were.'

The Cure may not yet be a household name (the closest they came was during
a 1987 mini-controversy over their song Killing the Arab,which Smith now
calls 'a waste of time').But like a few of their British techno-pop peers--
New Order and Depeche Mode--the Cure can play huge venues and land albums in
the U.S. top 20 without the benefit of a major hit single.

Critics may scorn this type of dirgelike,heavily synthesized music,but it's
having the last electronic chuckle.

As for the group's ascent into stadium-land (members will play Tuesday at
the Richfield Coliseum),Smith sounds ambivalent. 'It doesn't impress me in
a conventional way.It might be disastrous,or it might be really good.A lot
of people go not to actually see us play,but to meet other people.It's an
event,and we're the background music.'

Yet,Smith sees stadiums as a logical step.

'The stuff on the new album (Disintegration) lends itself well to big,
open-air venues.The music has that sort of big sound to it anyway,so it
goes down quite well.We throw in a few pop songs,and people forget where
they are.'

Those 'pop songs' now go back 12 years.Formed in 1977,the Cure was
originally a dark,spare trio;by the time they temporarily disbanded in
1981,keyboards and synthesizers and more ponderous melodies crept in.

After they reunited in 1982,the music became gloomier and denser,while
never forgetting its pop side.

'Sometimes we play a very 'up' set,and sometimes it's the bleakest hour
imaginable,' Smith says. 'We decide what we're going to play a half-hour
before we go on. Anything that happens that day will contribute to what we
play.'