You’ve memorized every lyric to ‘Disintegration’ and own all the B-sides but did you know these 5 surprising facts about The Cure? Some might even shock the truest fans.
1Robert Smith almost became an English teacher… but hated public speaking
Before The Cure took off, Robert Smith seriously considered a teaching career. He even received a grant to continue his studies, but the thought of standing in front of a classroom filled him with dread. The irony? He later performed on stage in front of thousands of fans.
2The band once got banned from a studio… for stealing orange juice.
During the recording of Pornography (1982), The Cure was going through a phase of extreme tension. At one point, they raided another band’s studio supplies including a crate of orange juice. The fallout? A feud with the sound engineer and a temporary ban. Ironically, the album went on to become one of their darkest and most iconic works.
3They Almost Represented the UK at Eurovision (And It Was a Serious Consideration).
In the 1980s, a mischievous producer floated The Cure’s name as a potential UK entry for Eurovision, hoping to pull off a “post-punk publicity stunt.” The idea briefly made the rounds at the BBC before being dismissed as “too depressing for Europe.
4The iconic riff from “A Forest” came from a keyboard mistake.
The hypnotic melody of “A Forest” was born by accident: during rehearsal, their keyboardist at the time played in the wrong key. Robert Smith found this “mistake” more haunting than the original part and insisted on rewriting the entire song around that dissonance.
5Robert Smith still sleeps with a stuffed animal given to him by a fan in 1981.
During a concert in Manchester, a fan tossed a handmade plush raccoon onto the stage. Touched by the gesture, Smith kept it and for years, it secretly traveled with him on tour, tucked inside his suitcase. According to close friends, the raggedy little raccoon still sits on his nightstand today: a quiet talisman against nightmares.
