For The Cure,Adulation And It's Discontents The Band Isn't Seeking New Fans,It's Leader Insists.But Suddenley It Is About To Play In Arenas Once Reserved For Rock Superstars.

by Tom Moon (Philadelphia Inquirer-8/22/89)

According to Robert Smith,if you haven't gotten the Cure by now,you
probably never will.

"The reason we're playing concerts in America isn't to sell records,"
the singer-songwriter said by phone from London last week,a day before
he was to set sail on the Queen Elizabeth 2 for the Cure's American
tour,which will reach the Spectrum tomorrow.

"Everybody who was interested in us,they've already bought the record.
We're not establishing anything.We have a set identity,which helps if
you're trying to get personal emotions across....We're not looking to
convert anybody."

Smith sounds smug,and with good reason.The group,whose current tour,he
says,will be its last-"an evening of entertainment,a thank-you" is
winning converts whether Smith wants them or not.One of Europe's favorite
Angst bands,the Cure has spread from the college underground into the big
leagues of the U.S. record industry.

The evidence:The group's 1987 double album Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me stayed
on the Billboard album charts for an entire year,eventually selling two
million copies worldwide.Disintegration,available since May,has already
eclipsed Kiss Me's U.S. sales. Not known primarily as a singles band,the
Cure hit the top 40 with "Fascination Street," from Disintegration,and a
second single,"Love  Song," is No. 46 on the Billboard charts after just
two weeks.All this without consistent radio play,or (until recently)
regular video exposure.

At a time when British bands jump at the chance to parade for the American
media,and the distinction between manufactured sensation and true talent is
often blurred,members of the Cure are music-first stars-guarded,reluctant to
talk,enigmatic.And Smith,the slightly gloomy visionary whose songs of hope
and hopelessness are at the Cure's dark heart,is the reason why.

His songs are disenchanting,bracing portraits of a shadowy world in which
alienation rules.His lyrics are strings of non sequiturs that lead to
unexpected meanings.The art-rock synthesizer song "Prayers for Rain," for
example,has Smith singing the words "You strangle me,entangle me,in
hopelessness,and prayers for rain" and somehow divining meaning from them.

Smith is not easy to figure out:At different times during the phone
conversation,he lamented the necessity of playing big venues-in the New
York market,for example,the band will appear at Giants Stadium in East
Rutherford,N.J. But Smith also rejoiced in the fact that a self-managed
band could actually pull off a stadium show.

The irony doesn't escape him:Until now,stadium shows were reserved for
mainstream superstars,the Springsteens and the U2s.Suddenly a band that has
never seen the top 10 singles chart is huge,its base of support enough to
warrant vast halls.

Smith said the move to bigger arenas was for practical reasons:"Because
we refuse to fly,this tour has very finite start and stop points.We can't
play two or three nights in one city.It's that simple."
Alternately surprised and frightened by their success,members of the
contemplative Cure-one of the most ill-suited candidates for rock stardom
yet thrust into the on-deck circle-are trying to cope.

'I CANNOT COPE'

The five-piece band has discovered that even cult status comes with strings
attached. "I still like playing music with other people," Smith said."But
it's reached such a level of adulation and hysteria that I cannot cope with
it.I am not prepared to compromise just to become famous.

"It was never our intention to become big at this.The whole point was to
enjoy what we were doing at the time.Most bands that reach our position
have a retinue of people trying to keep them propped up so that the money
keeps rolling in.We don't have that."

Smith freely acknowledges that he's not a natural performer.He wants to
make music,but doesn't want to be chained to the piano.He believes the band
will continue-having the Cure do film scores is something that intrigues him
-and may even play live.A whole tour,however,is out of the question.
Still,Smith sounds proud as he talks about the group's 2 1/2 to 3-hour
nightly sessions rehearsing for the Prayer Tour.In addition to preparing all
the music from Disintegration,the band has worked up some 55 songs-three
shows' worth-to cover its history.After all,since its recorded debut in
1979,the Cure has released seven albums-three since Head on the Door,the
1985 album that solidified the group's lineup.

"We wanted to be able to adapt to what audiences want," Smith said of the
tour's blueprint. "It's a major difficulty to find enough commonality in an
audience of 10,000.We'll do,like,a half-hour of thrash,and about two hours
of the atmospheric,doomy sort of music that we've been making lately."

'BE PREPARED TO LISTEN'

But there's a tricky part:Such music usually plays better in smaller,more
intimate places.Smith says he was genuinely surprised by the response on
European tour stops. "It's not self-flattery to say this music requires a
lot of the audience.You have to be prepared to listen-this is not a
clap-along show.It takes a long time to build.We've been able to pull off
the really intimate,intense stuff so far.People are keeping attention,which
I think is very unusual."
Smith has called earlier tours the band's last,and admits that even now his
bandmates believe he's speaking tongue in cheek when he says things like,
"Well,this is the last time in Paris." But this time,he says,he means it.
No crying wolf.

For that reason,Smith says,the band is taking extra steps on the tour to
make contact with its audiences.In a bit of technological showmanship sure
to become a concert staple,the band is taking requests,recorded by roving
video camera,before the show.Smith and his bandmates view the video just
before taking the stage.

"I guess it's one way to smash down the barrier between the stage and the
crowd.It's the only realistic way to have contact with people,them telling
us what they'd like to see.And you find yourself visualizing those people
when you go on stage."



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