Robert Smith names the year he says was The Cure’s “it”

Robert Smith has suggested that The Cure could call it a day in just a few years as they prepare to release their new album, Songs of a lost world.

The English singer appeared in a rare, long-form filmed interview with the BBC’s Matt Everitt, in which he spoke about his songwriting process, his fascination with mortality and how he almost ended The Cure in 2018.

In the conversation, which is available in full on the band’s official website, Smith said he predicted the band would play regularly in support of their new music starting in the fall of 2025, while looking ahead to their upcoming anniversary in 2029.

“I’m 70 years old in 2029,” he said, “and that’s the 50th anniversary of the Cure’s first album. [1979’s Three Imaginary Boys]and that’s it. That’s really it – if I get that far – that’s it.”

He continued: “In the meantime, I would like us to include playing shows as part of the overall plan of what we will do. Because I loved it, the last 10 years of playing shows were the best 10 years in the band… it pissed off all the other 30 years, it’s been great.”

In 2019, the rock band headlined the British Summer Time festival in Hyde Park, London, receiving rave reviews and a rapturous reception from fans as they celebrated their 40th anniversary.

The setlist, consisting of 29 songs, featured favorites like “Just Like Heaven” and consecutive renditions of “Friday I’m in Love” and “Close to Me”.

In a five-star review, The Independent called it the “perfect ensemble” and noted how Smith seemed delighted with the reception and joked about the sweltering July heat at odds with his gothic attire: “It’s taking all my energy not to dissolve,” he said.

Later, playing the opening bars of “Friday I’m in Love,” he commented, “If you asked me what I thought I’d be doing in 40 years, I couldn’t have said this was it. ”

“I thought it would be the Hyde Park show, I thought it would be the end of The Cure,” Smith, 65, revealed in an interview with Everitt.

“I started thinking… I didn’t plan it, but I had a sneaky feeling that this would be it. And it was just because it was such a great day and such a great response and I really liked it – we suddenly got a flood of offers to headline all the major European festivals. Glastonbury came [calling]. And I thought, maybe this isn’t the right time to stop.”

He clarified: “I wasn’t stopping because I thought, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore,’ I just thought it would be a good time to stop and this allows me a few years where I’m still able to do something else, go and do it. [that].

“I wasn’t that bothered, oddly enough, because I had agreed for everything to end in 2018. So, I’ve had a very different view of everything since then. And practically everyone [who] died, who meant something to me, died before 2019, [so] I felt, ‘I have to make the most of this.'”

Everitt suggested that Smith could have received the sense of freedom that comes with breaking up a band, without actually breaking up.

Smith agreed, pointing to the band’s string of festival appearances in 2019, which was also when he began working on what would become material for the new album, their first in 16 years.

It also marked the band’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which saw them reunite with guitarist and keyboardist Perry Bamonte. He joined the band on tour in 2022: “Since then, it’s like another version of The Cure has come out and played,” said Smith.

“It’s a strange feeling that we’re evolving and changing… gradually turning into something else, all the time. I’m looking forward to it.

Songs from a lost world, The Cure’s new album, scheduled for release on November 1, 2024.