The Cure’s Robert Smith has added more bands to his curation of the Meltdown Festival this summer and has announced that he is writing new music, and plans to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disintegration next year.
Following the unveiling of the initial lineup of the 25th edition of Meltdown last month—featuring My Bloody Valentine, Nine Inch Nails, Placebo, The Psychedelic Furs, Alcest, and more, Smith announced today the addition of bands such as And Also The Trees, Kælan Mikla, The Soft Moon, I Like Trains, The KVB, Tropic Of Cancer, Moon Duo, and more.
See the full list of bands below:
This morning Smith also broke radio silence to give a rare Matt Everitt on BBC 6 Music, where he mentioned that he got in touch with all the bands personally, some of them he knew, and some he had never spoken to before, but all said yes save for The Rolling Stones.
Smith added that he himself would be performing on the closing Sunday of the festival with a selection of collaborators called CURÆTION-25—an exclusive two-hour show at Royal Festival Hall.
“The Meltdown thing, I think its going to be a little bit more…weird,” said Smith.
“It will be me and four other people that I know really well, and some others, playing “primarily Cure songs” or “interpretations of Cure songs” in “different configurations of people on stage,” he said, adding that “it will allow me to explore songs some of the songs that we don’t play a lot, or at all, and add in some kind of different instrumentation.”
This certainly would not be anything relatively that weird for The Cure, who used to improvise a free form song titled “Forever” during encores, often enlisting a collaboration on stage with the touring band, or any other artists that happened to be nearby.
Smith also went on to say that he felt that he wanted to leave room this year to work on a new album for release in 2019, the 40th anniversary of the band’s debut LP Three Imaginary Boys, stating that “If we didn’t do anything new this year, we would never do anything new again”, going on to say that if a new album does not come out in 2019 “That’s it, I don’t think The Cure will do another album”.
Smith noted that the process of curation has “reinvigorated his creativity and made him want to do something new”.
“I’ve listened to more new music in the last six months than probably I have the last six years,” said Smith. “I’ve suddenly fallen in love with the idea of writing new songs, so it’s had a really good effect on me.”
Regarding the recording of new material “I booked some time to do some demos next month,” Smith went on to say, cautioning that “In a dream world we’ll be playing a new song at both shows, but I won’t tempt fate…”
Listen to the full interview below.
Smith also revealed that The Cure are already setting up more shows for 2019, and that they were also considering celebrating the anniversary of the band’s 1989 masterpiece Disintegration.
Meanwhile Robert Smith also noted in the interview that the 40th anniversary celebration is based off of when the band dropped the “Easy” part of their name, and just became “The Cure”, performing as a three piece at The Rocket in Crawley on July 9th, 1978.
Smith admitted he has a very “scratchy” cassette recording of that gig in his collection, which he has plans to release soon.
Schedule for Meltdown:
Friday 15 June
PSYCHEDELIC FURS + The Church – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
65DAYSOFSTATIC + Tropic of Cancer – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall
JOYCUT + Indian Queens – 7:30pm Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room
CONCRETE LATES: KIASMOS (DJ SET) – 11pm–2am, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall foyer
Saturday 16 June
PLACEBO + Kælan Mikla – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
THE NOTWIST + Drahla – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall
JAMBINAL + Tropic of Cancer – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room
CONCRETES LATES: VESSELS (Live & DJ Set) – 11pm–2am, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall foyer
Sunday 17 June
THE LIBERTINES + Yonaka – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
ALCEST + Emma Ruth Rundle – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall
LOOP + Planning For Burial – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room
Monday 18 June
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE + Fear of Men 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT + Jambinai – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall
EMMA RUTH RUNDLE + Planning For Burial – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room
Tuesday 19 June
MANIC STREET PREACHERS + The Anchoress – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
FRIGHTENED RABBIT + Pumarosa – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall
VEX RED + Douglas Dare – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room
Wednesday 20 June
DEFTONES + pg.lost – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
LOW + Jo Quail – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall
MOON DUO + Hilary Woods – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room
LIMINAL – 11pm–2am, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall foyer
Thursday 21 June
MOGWAI + Kathryn Joseph – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
KRISTIN HERSH + Matt Holubowski – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall
PG.LOST + Thought Forms – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room
LIMINAL – 11pm–2am, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall foyer
Friday 22 June
NINE INCH NAILS + Black Moth Super Rainbow – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
MONO + Jo Quail – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall
THE JOY FORMIDABLE + Kidsmoke – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room
LIMINAL – 11pm–2am, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall foyer
Saturday 23 June
MY BLOODY VALENTINE + The Soft Moon – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
SUZANNE VEGA + James Walsh – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall
AND ALSO THE TREES + A Dead Forest Index – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room
CONCRETE LATES: EAT STATIC (DJ Set) – 11pm–2am, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall foyer
Sunday 24 June
CURÆTION-25 + The Twilight Sad – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
MAYBESHEWILL + I Like Trains – 7:30pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall
THE SOFT MOON + The KVB – 6pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room
