The Cure's Last Tour

It doesn't matter if we all die...," was the way Robert Smith began one of
the Cure's early,atmospheric songs.This was in the early '80s,during
Britain's post-punk heyday,and the Cure--black clothes,towering shocks of
black hair,black lipstick and eyeshadow--was the band that defined the
times.Its moody music for rainy nights suggested long,black trenchcoats.
"Plainsong," which kicks off the Cure's latest album "Disintegration,"
starts like this: "'I think it's dark and it looks like rain,' you said.
'And the wind is blowing like the end of the world,' you said.'And it's so
cold it's like the cold if you were dead,' and then you smiled for a
second."

It would seem the Cure's calling cards--themes of despair and desolation 
set to whooshing,swirling minor-key melodies--are upon us once again.This 
is after taking,for the most part,a hiatus after the band's 1987 
breakthrough album,"Kiss Me,Kiss Me,Kiss Me," which sold more than two
million copies and boosted them to arena status.They're at Great Woods 
tomorrow and Saturday.It appears Smith,the Cure's singer-songwriter-
guitarist,has,perhaps,hit bottom again.

But no. "I loathe the Morrissey kind of wallowing in despair," Smith says,
referring to the former singer of the moaning Smiths (no relation)."It's
too easy.You have to tone down that side of your character if you're with
other people.I wouldn't expect to have any friends left if I let myself go
and I wouldn't deserve to have.I don't find it very entertaining to be
around somebody who's morose all the time.So,there is a line to be drawn.
In the privacy of your aloneness,you can act however you want.Look,I don't
think I feel any more deeply than anyone else or despair any more than 
anyone else.So I find it,in a way,compromising to try and pretend that I
do."

And,in fact,the members of the Cure--which include guitarist Porl Thompson,
bassist/keyboardist Simon Gallup,keyboardist Roger O'Donnell and drummer
Boris Williams--have acquired a reputation for fairly serious partying...
sometimes leading to fairly serious hangovers."When we go over the top,we
usually do it," says Smith,with a chuckle. "We're either celebrating
something,whether it be life,or just finishing a track."

But the Cure's success has brought some major changes upon the group. For
one thing,it will force the band off the road.This tour,Smith assures,is
the group's last."I find it quite difficult to cope with being as public a
person as I am becoming," he says."It's just that being stared at so much...
I mean I'm not aware of being successful when I'm sitting in my mum and
dad's garden reading a book.But if I'm out on tour and I'm standing on a
stage in front of X thousand people,I begin to wonder what I'm doing.It's a
very natural reaction.It's the same as worrying about flying." (The group
took the QE2 from England to America rather than fly.)

Smith denies reports in the British press that he's suffered a mental
breakdown:"It's natural to feel unnatural if 20,000 people are staring at
you."

Another thing:Smith felt forced to sack his longtime mate,Cure founding
member and keyboardist Lol Tolhurst."We'd grown apart too much to work 
together anymore," Smith says. "It had been building up,or I suppose
breaking down,for two years really and I said if he didn't come around I
couldn't stand it.I wanted there to be a kind of intensity within the group,
try and work ourselves back up to the emotional level we haven't really had
for a few years.He didn't want to be there,didn't accept it.On the
'Disintegration' sessions he sat and watched MTV during most of it.'

On "Disintegration," Smith and company throw a curve at the Cure's more
recent fans,those who know the group primarily through "Kiss Me..." and the
singles collection, "Standing on the Beach." Though hardly one-dimensional,
those discs are weighted toward the Cure's more upbeat pop side.This latest,
more thematic effort represents a reversal,one Smith equates with the stark
and gorgeous "Faith" LP from 1981.The music drifts downward;Smith sings of
betrayal and treachery,nightmares and ghosts,distant memories and tainted
love.

"I've felt materially comfortable for quite a few years now," says Smith,
"but I'm still troubled by the same old things.I'm still fixated by the
same things and I imagine I always will be.The thing is it's easier for me
to cope now,but I felt the need to,I suppose,reiterate those kind of
emotions because we hadn't done anything like that in quite a few years."

Smith says he knows it looks like a lot of the twists and turns the Cure
takes seem planned.He pleads innocent:"When I'm writing stuff,there's never
a rational explanation.I knew I didn't want to make a follow-up to
'Kiss Me.' I knew that a lot of people,particularly people that were going
to make money out of us,were expecting a lot of 'Just Like Heaven's'
together on a very upbeat album.So the obscure and horrible part of me
wanted to disappoint all these people."

"The one thing about 'Disintegration,'" he adds,"is it is superficially a
despairing kind of record,but in fact,a lot of the songs are quite hopeful,
I think." He mentions "Lovesong," "Fascination Street" and "Lullaby." He
points with pride to Tim Pope's "Lullaby" video where a pajama-clad Smith is
attacked by giant spiders."As absurd as anything we've done," he says.
"Completely idiotic."

What's next?Hard to say.The Cure may or may not make another album.Smith 
habitually thinks each Cure album is the last:"I would like to make another
record,but having said that,if we don't it won't upset me." If they do,"I
would hope it would be a big jump away from 'Disintegration.' It would be
stupid for us to get trapped in that downward spiral again."

At any rate,Smith finished recording a solo album last year,composed he
says primarily of songs his bandmates have rejected over the years,but
ones he feels have validity."I drag them up at every demo session and
everyone goes,'No,no,no,too depressing,"' says Smith,having a laugh at his
own expense."They're very sparse,very simple,very downbeat songs,not
really suitable to the group.The problem with the group is that we've
reached a level whereby whatever we do is taken to be what we are.Whereas
if I just do it on my own,it's not really to do with the group."

SIDEBAR VITAL STATS

CONCERTS:Tomorrow and Saturday night at 7:30 in Great Woods Center for the
Performing Arts,Mansfield.Shelleyan Orphan opening.

WHAT TO EXPECT:
A 2 1/2-hour set with songs from each Cure album;a moody first half and a
more upbeat second;the second night's set probably will contain a dozen
different selections.And,Smith says he intends to shave his head on stage
the second night.Smith:"I'm serious." On stage? "Yeah."

A FEW FAVES:"Jumping Someone Else's Train," "Boys Don't Cry," "Let's Go To
Bed," "The Love Cats," "Killing an Arab," "17 Seconds," "M," "Primary,"
"Just Like Heaven," "In Between Days," "Fascination Street."

ROBERT SMITH ON ROBERT SMITH CLONES:
Take One:"It's like a gang uniform.People look a certain way so if they see
somebody else dressed that way they know they can talk to them.When I was
14 and 15,I used to wear my striped black-and-white shirt to show I liked
the Sensational Alex Harvey Band.There's no way I wanted to be Harvey--he
was much too old and ugly."
Take Two: "It is a bit weird when they're obsessed to the point of actually
wanting to look like me...I'd become completely mental if I thought like
that."