Robert Smith explains why The Cure play epic three-hour concerts

Robert Smith says The Cure’s epic three-hour concerts are inadvertently inspired by a painfully short David Bowie concert he attended as a teenager in 1976.

To celebrate the release of their new studio album ‘Songs of a Lost World’, The Cure played a sprawling three-hour, 31-song set at The Troxy in London last Friday (1st November) that included the album in its entirety and tracks from their fabled career.

Such epic sets have been the norm for The Cure for decades, and they famously played the final two songs at Coachella in 2009 with the lights off when the power was cut due to a curfew.

In a fresh interview with NPR, Robert Smith was asked if playing such long gigs is ‘rooted in a desire to give the audience a bang for its buck?’

“It primarily stems from a show that I attended in the ‘70s, which is a David Bowie show on the Station to Station tour,” Smith replied.

“A couple of us went up there and it cost a lot of money. In those days, I didn't have any money. We had to get up to town, we bought tickets, we go and have a couple of drinks — the whole thing costs much more than I actually had in my pocket.

“So I was horrified that — although he was great, he was absolutely fantastic — but I think he played for like an hour and that was it. And I was like, ‘What just happened?’ We spent, like, three or four months talking about this and waiting for it, and then it's over. I didn't feel short-changed as much as just really sad. Because I wanted it twice as long. I wanted to hear more songs. It always stuck with me.”

David Bowie’s ‘The Isolar – 1976 Tour’ in support of ‘Station to Station’, often dubbed The Thin White Duke Tour, saw Bowie perform 15-song sets drawing from his early 70s records.

Commenting further on The Cure’s long sets, Smith continued: “If you enjoy doing what you're doing, why don't you play for a bit longer? Because surely the people in front of you are enjoying it.

“I've realized over the years that… we've sometimes played too long, I think, but I think as we’ve grown older as a band, it allows us to explore more songs. It also allows us to create more of an atmosphere, create more of a show.”

In a viral interview last month, Robert Smith hit out at artists – without naming Oasis – who hide behind management when it comes to dynamic pricing at concerts.

“I was shocked by how much profit is made (by ticketing),” Smith said. “I thought, ‘We don’t need to make all this money.’

“My fights with the label have all been about how we can price things lower. The only reason you’d charge more for a gig is if you were worried that it was the last time you would be able to sell a T-shirt.”

He continued: “But if you had the self-belief that you’re still going to be here in a year’s time, you’d want the show to be great so people come back. You don’t want to charge as much as the market will let you. If people save on the tickets, they buy beer or merch. There is goodwill, they will come back next time. It is a self-fulfilling good vibe and I don’t understand why more people don’t do it.”

“It was easy to set ticket prices, but you need to be pig-headed. We didn’t allow dynamic pricing because it’s a scam that would disappear if every artist said, ‘I don’t want that!’ But most artists hide behind management. “Oh, we didn’t know,” they say. They all know. If they say they do not, they’re either f---king stupid or lying. It’s just driven by greed.”

The Cure’s ‘Songs of a Lost World’ was riding high at Number 1 on the midweek album chart on Monday. Its final chart position will be revealed tomorrow.

Check out artists who are going on tour in 2024 and 2025:

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