Robert Smith Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Images have been released of 13 people police wish to speak to after violence broke out at FC United of Manchester's stadium. Officers are investigating disorder which followed the club's recent league match against Workington at Broadhurst Park, in Moston.

Billie Eilish, Robert Smith, Stevie Wonder and Nicki Minaj are just a handful of artists who have signed an open letter warning against the “predatory” use of artificial intelligence (AI) in music.Yesterday (April 2), non-profit organization Artist Rights Alliance issued an open letter titled ‘Stop devaluing music’ about the rise of AI in music, signed by over 200 prominent names in the music industry. Read the full letter here.Through the letter, the artist-run nonprofit organization asks that developers, technology companies, and platforms and digital music services “pledge that they will not develop or deploy AI music-generation technology, content, or tools that undermine or replace the human artistry of songwriters and artists or deny us fair compensation for our work.”The letter states: “Make no mistake: we believe that, when used responsibly, AI has enormous potential to advance human creativity and in a manner that enables the development and growth of new and exciting experiences for music fans everywhere.”“Unfortunately, some platforms and developers are employing AI to sabotage creativity and undermine artists, songwriters, musicians and rightsholders.

Chaka Khan’s Meltdown Festival, which is taking place in June this year. The annual contemporary music festival is set to take place between June 14 and June 23 and the Southbank Centre confirmed in January that Khan would be curating this year’s edition. Khan herself will be playing two shows at the festival, including a greatest hits set on the opening night at the Royal Festival Hall, and a performance of her 2004 album ‘ClassiKhan’ on the closing night, where she will be joined by the Black-led Nu Civilisation Orchestra.

The Cure have today (February 9) announced a 30th anniversary reissue of their classic live album, ‘Paris’.The re-release will feature two previously unreleased, recently discovered tracks and a two LP set will be available on black vinyl for the first time in 30 years. The project was remastered by Robert Smith and Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios.The album will be released on March 22 and you can pre-order here.

A ‘selfish bully’ smeared ketchup and oil over the walls of his ex-partner in a ‘vengeful’ attack. Kashif Khan, 39, sent various threatening messages to the woman before smashing up her flat in Ashton.

Ride have spoken to NME about their defiant new album ‘Interplay’ and shared new single ‘Peace Sign’. Check it out below along with our interview with frontman Mark Gardener and guitarist Andy Bell.The Oxford shoegazers’ first record in five years is due for release on March 29 and marks a period of triumph over adversity for the band as they battled through both COVID and a messy legal battle.

Damon Albarn joined Beck in a live cover of Gorillaz’ ‘The Valley Of The Pagans’ during Beck’s Primavera Sound set in Buenos Aires on Sunday (November 26). “This is a song we wrote together during COVID times,” said Beck, as Albarn walked onstageto thunderous applause, which gave way to a spontaneous, prolonged crowd chant.

The Cure drummer Lol Tolhurst has spoken to NME about exploring the origins of goth for his new book, how his former band were part of the genre all along, and how the likes of David Bowie, Joy Division and Nine Inch Nails shaped the scene.In his far-reaching new book, Goth: A History, Tolhurst explores the music, literature and art that shaped the genre, as well as the band he co-founded with Robert Smith in 1977. “Despite our passionate insistence that The Cure was not a goth group,” Tolhurst writes in the book, “The Cure was very much a goth group.”Speaking to NME from his home in LA, the musician laughed off The Cure’s insistence not to be termed a goth band.

††† (Crosses), the side-project of Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and multi-instrumentalist and producer Shaun Lopez, have shared two new songs from their upcoming album.On October 13, the duo will release new album ‘Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete.’, which was announced this summer with first single ‘Invisible Hand’, and will feature guest appearances from The Cure’s Robert Smith and Run The Jewels’ El-P.Ahead of the release of the album, the pair have shared two new tracks, and you can listen to ‘Light As A Feather’ and ‘Ghost Ride’ below.The new album follows recent EP ‘PERMANENT.RADIANT‘, a one-off double A-side of ‘Initiation’/’Protection’ and a George Michael cover.Discussing its creation, Moreno said in a statement: “When we started working on ‘Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete.’, there was so much more light coming in my life, for numerous reasons.“There’s a lot more optimism. Even the darker themes are more romanticised and not coming from a place of despair.”Speaking to NME last year about the future of the project, Moreno said: “To use Deftones as an analogy: when we did our first record, we were just trying to figure out what the hell we were doing, ‘Around The Fur’ was us getting some confidence and success with that, then when we made ‘White Pony’ that was us saying, ‘We can do anything now’.“People liked what we did and we had the freedom to expand.

††† (Crosses), the side-project of Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and multi-instrumentalist and producer Shaun Lopez, have announced a new album titled ‘Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete.’.The album follows recent EP ‘PERMANENT.RADIANT‘, a one-off double A-side of ‘Initiation’/’Protection’ and a George Michael cover.The new album, due out on October 13 via Warner, features The Cure’s Robert Smith and Run The Jewels’ El-P.Discussing its creation, Moreno said in a statement: “When we started working on ‘Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete.’, there was so much more light coming in my life, for numerous reasons.“There’s a lot more optimism. Even the darker themes are more romanticised and not coming from a place of despair.”Watch the video for new single ‘Invisible Hand’ and see the artwork and tracklist for ‘Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete.’ below.1. ‘Pleasure’ 2. ‘Invisible Hand’ 3. ‘Found’ 4. ‘Light As A Feather’ ‘Pulseplagg’ ‘Runner’ ‘Big Youth’ (feat. El-P) ‘End Youth’ (Reprise) ‘Last Rites’ ‘Ghost Ride’ ‘Grace’ ‘Eraser’ ‘Natural Selection’ ‘Girls Float † Boys Cry’ (feat. Robert Smith) ‘Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete.’Speaking to NME last year about the future of the project, Moreno said: “To use Deftones as an analogy: when we did our first record, we were just trying to figure out what the hell we were doing, ‘Around The Fur’ was us getting some confidence and success with that, then when we made ‘White Pony’ that was us saying, ‘We can do anything now’.“People liked what we did and we had the freedom to expand.

The Cure have broken records with their latest tour, despite frontman Robert Smith’s fight to lower the price of tickets.The records were broken with the band’s latest Shows Of A Lost World live shows in the US and Canada earlier this spring, which soon became their highest-grossing tour, and their best attendance in the region.As reported by Billboard, the tour – which consisted of 35 dates and kicked off in May – grossed $37.5million (£29million) and sold over 547,000 tickets. The final date took place in Miami, Florida earlier this month.It also reported that the most attended and highest-earning shows on the North American leg was the band’s three-night residency at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.

Olivia Rodrigo has spoken about going to watch Depeche Mode and The Cure with her father.During a new interview with Vogue, the 20-year-old singer opened up about how her dad was “introducing [her] to all the bands he went to see when he was my age”.The publication was speaking to Rodrigo as she browsed the shelves of A-1 Records in New York’s East Village. After pulling out an album by The Cure, she said: “I’m going to see them in two weeks with my dad.”It was then noted that Rodrigo and her father had been to watch Depeche Mode together a few weeks prior.The synth-pop duo – comprising Dave Gahan and Martin Gore – are currently out on their ‘Memento Mori’ world tour in support of their 15th album of the same name.

Chvrches have paid tribute to the “world’s greatest goth” – The Cure’s Robert Smith during their set at Glastonbury Festival today (June 23).Performing on the Other Stage, the band paid tribute to Smith before performing ‘How Not To Drown‘, which they released together in 2021.After a performance by lead singer Lauren Mayberry, the band said of Smith: “Wherever you are, that one was for fucking Robert Smith.”They went on to call him “the legend, the world’s greatest goth,” before joking, “Susie [Cave] might have something to say about that,” in reference to Nick Cave. Mayberry then joked “don’t ignite old feuds”.Elsewhere in the set, Mayberry was forced to handle a wardrobe malfunction.

Border Force guards have smashed a plot by a computer science student to smuggle more than £40,000 worth of counterfeit postage stamps into Britain.

Robert Smith serenaded his wife Mary Poole with ‘Plainsong’ while performing with The Cure recently.The tender moment, which took place during the band’s May 24 concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, was filmed and shared on Twitter by concertgoer Frank. In the video, Smith can be seen turning his back to the crowd in order to sing to Poole, who was standing offstage.Frank wrote on Twitter: “I happen to be at probably the best if not the only angle you could have seen this.

Noel Gallagher has spoken to NME about his love of The Cure, and how Robert Smith came to remix his recent single ‘Pretty Boy’.Back in March, Gallagher shared Smith’s “spacey remix” of the Johnny Marr-featuring single, taken from his acclaimed new album with The High Flying Birds, ‘Council Skies‘. Now in a new interview with NME’s In Conversation series, the former Oasis guitarist and songwriter has discussed how they came to collaborate.Gallagher explained: “Because the song [‘Pretty Boy’] sounds like The Cure I was like, ‘Does Robert Smith do remixes?’ I got hold of his email, the first line was, ‘Hi Robert, it’s Noel Gallagher’.

Thin Lizzy, The Cure, Pulp, Led Zeppelin, New Order, Nova Twins, Robbie Williams, Sam Ryder, Steve Winwood, The 1975 and others.The auction will raise money for The BRIT Trust, the charity that promotes education and wellbeing through music and the creative arts by supporting causes that include the BRIT School and Nordoff and Robbins.

Ellise Shafer The first words sang by Robert Smith at the Cure’s Hollywood Bowl show in L.A. on Tuesday night — “This is the end/ Of every song that we sing” — set a reflective tone for the rest of the famed goth rock band’s performance as attendees were taken through its 45-year history. The two-hour and 45-minute set kicked off with “Alone,” an unreleased track from the Cure’s long-awaited 14th album, “Songs of a Lost World.” Judging from the several new songs the band played, including the world premiere of refashioned ’90s demo “Another (Happy) Birthday,” the Cure’s forthcoming project sees Smith grappling heavily with mortality and the loss that comes with growing older. But the music itself showed no signs of aging: Smith’s voice is as velvety smooth and strong as ever, drummer Jason Cooper didn’t miss a beat and bassist Simon Gallup provided a powerful backbone for the rest of the band’s lush instrumentals.

The Cure debuted a new song called ‘Another Happy Birthday’ during their first show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles yesterday (May 23).The band are performing three nights at the venue as part of their North American tour, which kicked off earlier this month, with the next two shows scheduled for today (May 24) and tomorrow (May 25).The plaintive new track opens with an extended instrumental section and mournful piano before frontman Robert Smith sings: “It’s harder to hold on / With every passing year / As the memories fade / You slowly disappear.”“And your birthday is the worst day / I’m singing to a ghost / Happy birthday / I forget how it goes,” he goes on. Watch the performance below.It’s possible the new song dates all the way back to 1997, with Smith having mentioned the track name in an interview with MTV at the time, which he described as “unlike anything the Cure have done before.

The Cure have finally begun their tour of North America – their first in seven years – with a career-spanning setlist that features several rarities, new tunes and fan favourites.The first show of the tour, which took place on Wednesday (May 10) in New Orleans, saw Robert Smith and co. perform a whopping 29 songs, complete with not one but two encore sets.The Cure’s expansive setlist featured two rarities – ‘A Thousand Hours’ and ‘Six Different Ways’, both of which were last performed in 1987.

The Cure’s Robert Smith has shared a cartoon on social media, poking fun at the Coronation of King Charles III.Created by artist First Dog On The Moon, the cartoon depicts “royal things” preparing for the Coronation, which takes place today (May 6). It also includes a parody pledge that features the line: ​​“All hail the nature arbitrary, of privilege that’s hereditary.”“The huge cost of this ceremony could buy each British child a pony, yet distracting profligacy must calm the masses, lest we [unleash] the fury of the poor,” it continues.

The Cure‘s upcoming North American tour.Wishing to keep costs down for fans, the band opted out of Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing scheme, which Robert Smith described as “a bit of a scam”, and restricted ticket transfers in states where they were legally allowed to do so. However, some fans attempting to buy tickets reported that Ticketmaster fees, including service fee, facility charge and order processing fee, exceeded the price of actual tickets, which Smith said he was “sickened” by.Smith was later able to convince the ticketing giant to issue small reimbursements to verified ticket buyers to compensate for “unduly high” fees.

CHVRCHES, Coldplay, Michael Stipe, Bring Me The Horizon and Do Nothing.The record was released to celebrate yesterday’s Earth Day (April 22) and is available to download via Bandcamp for £25, though tracks are also available to purchase individually. A vinyl version is also available to pre-order.All proceeds from the sale will go to EarthPercent Grant, which gives funding support to organisations working on the frontlines of climate action.Founded in 2021 by Brian Eno, EarthPercent aims “to offer simple and innovative ways for businesses and artists to donate to the most impactful organisations addressing the climate emergency”.Included in the compilation are an acoustic version of Bring Me The Horizon’s ‘Strangers’, a live version of CHVRCHES’ collab with The Cure’s Robert Smith recorded at Brixton Academy and a live take of Coldplay and H.E.R.

The Anchoress, aka Catherine Anne Davies, has spoken to NME about her new single – a cover of New Order’s ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ – as well as her new album and upcoming Spring tour.Davies has shared a number of covers over the past year as part of ‘Bandcamp Friday’ – with her rendition of New Order’s 1986 the latest in a line of indie classics. She recently received kudos from collaborators Manic Street Preachers for her take on ‘This Is Yesterday’.“Whenever I’ve done covers, the criteria has always been: is this a great song, and is there something new or different I can bring to it?” Davies told NME, having already covered songs by the likes of The Cure, Depeche Mode and Blur.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Over the past few weeks it’s been mortifying, amusing and ultimately inspiring to witness the almost real-time reactions of the Cure’s founder/frontman Robert Smith to the hell-on-earth that is the concert-ticket purchasing process — and roll up his sleeves and do something about it. While high prices, availability issues and a bevy of vaguely defined “service fees” could be expected for such box-office record-breakers as Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen, Smith was as surprised as anyone to see the prices on his group’s “Lost World” tour, its first for several years. While the group had managed to avoid such controversial policies as platinum packages and variable pricing, Smith was appalled to see hefty service fees added to the cost of “Verified Fan” tickets, which are intended to protect fans by keeping tickets out of the hands of scalpers, for the tour.

The Cure have added a handful of new dates to their upcoming tour of North America, bringing their two-month itinerary up to a total of 34 shows.The four new gigs comes as those previously announced in San Diego, Montreal and Atlanta sold out with unprecedented speed; they’ll play second shows in those respective cities on Sunday May 21, Saturday June 17 and Wednesday June 28. The band have also added a night in Portland – where they’ll play at the Moda Centre on Wednesday May 31 – with frontman Robert Smith describing that gig as “an ‘experiment’ to see whether non-transferable tickets are enough protection”. Unlike other dates on the tour, that show will not require a ‘Verified Fan’ code from Ticketmaster to access the public sale. FOURTH EXTRA SHOW WILL BE 31ST MAY PORTLAND MODA CENTER – AS AN ‘EXPERIMENT’ TO SEE WHETHER NON-TRANSFERABLE TICKETS ARE ENOUGH PROTECTION, TICKET PURCHASE WILL NOT REQUIRE TM VF #ShowsOfALostWorld2023 4/5— ROBERT SMITH (@RobertSmith) April 5, 2023In other tweets announcing the shows, Smith – who recently expressed his frustration at Ticketmaster’s methods of operating – noted that fans who’d been issued ‘Verified Fan’ codes, but were unsuccessful in purchasing tickets, would have the “first option” to grab seats at these upcoming shows.

The Cure‘s Robert Smith has confirmed the band have cancelled 7,000 tickets found on secondary resale websites in a bid to tackle touts.As part of the on-sale process for their forthcoming North American tour, the frontman opted out of Ticketmaster’s “platinum” and “dynamically priced” ticket options, and restricted ticket transfers in markets where he was legally allowed to do so in places like New York, Illinois, and Colorado, which have all enacted legislation protecting resellers.Following the band’s move to do this, Smith tonight (March 31) announced: “Approx 7k tickets across approx 2200 orders have been cancelled. These are tickets acquired with fake accounts / listed on secondary resale sites.”‘IHBT’ #? “Approx 7k tickets across approx 2200 orders have been cancelled.

Thania Garcia The Cure‘s Robert Smith continues his long-drawn-out battle against the many monetary hurdles of the ticketing world — this time, he’s taking on secondary resale websites. Just a few weeks ago, Smith was able to secure several refunds from Ticketmaster for fans looking to catch the British band on their forthcoming “Lost World” tour. Now, Smith says they’ve managed to cancel 7,000 scalped tickets and further announced a plan to donate the original fees to the charity Amnesty International. Meanwhile, tickets will be resold to fans. When the tour — the band’s first North American trek in seven years — was first announced on March 9, the Cure opted out of Ticketmaster’s “platinum” and “dynamically priced” ticket options, both of which have infamously been the cause of a massive uptick in ticket prices.

Robert Smith has asked Ticketmaster to explain why tickets in its promised face value ticket exchange are “weird” and “over priced”.The Cure singer and guitarist has taken the ticketing platform to task in recent weeks over its “unduly high” service fees for tickets to his band’s upcoming North American tour. Some fans claimed that Ticketmaster fees, including service fee, facility charge and order processing fee, exceeded the price of the actual tickets.Earlier this month Smith said that he was “sickened” by high Ticketmaster fees after the platform had vowed to the band to keep prices affordable for their fans.Now, some fans have claimed that tickets marked as face value are selling beyond the price of a standard ticket, and Smith has responded to what’s been alleged.

Neil Young has weighed in with his views on the recent controversies around Ticketmaster fees and secondary ticketing, saying that “concert touring is broken”.Writing on his website, Young proclaims: “It’s over. The old days are gone.

Liam Gallagher has taken to social media to praise the latest single by his “mean-spirited” brother, Noel.Earlier today, Noel Gallagher released the melancholic new track ‘Dead To the World’. The song is the latest single to be taken from his upcoming High Flying Birds album, ‘Council Skies’, which is due for release on June 2.Now, Liam Gallagher has taken to social media to share his thoughts on the new release – labelling his brother as “mean-spirited”, but celebrating the track as “beautiful”.“How can such a mean spirited little man write such a beautiful song,” he wrote.

Noel Gallagher has shared a new single called ‘Dead To The World’ – you can listen to it below.The song serves as the latest preview of the High Flying Birds‘ fourth studio album ‘Council Skies’, which comes out on June 2 via Sour Mash (pre-order here).“It has this film noir vibe,” Gallagher said of the track in a statement. “It’s not like anything else I’ve ever done before.

Neil Young has weighed in on the current state of touring following Ticketmaster’s latest controversy with The Cure.Last week, tickets to The Cure’s North American tour went on sale but was soon mired in controversy after it was brought to light that the ticketing platform had added “unduly high” add-ons and fees to tickets against the band’s wishes.Now, Neil Young has offered his thoughts on touring and Ticketmaster, writing on his website: “It’s over. The old days are gone.

Ticketmaster has agreed to partially refund ticketing fees paid by Cure fans who bought tickets for the band’s upcoming US tour through the Live Nation company’s Verified Fan platform. This follows a backlash after some fans were charged fees in excess of the face value of the tickets.“Ticketmaster have agreed with us that many of the fees being charged are unduly high”, tweeted Cure frontman Robert Smith last night.

Smith tweeted Wednesday.The ticket prices, which started at $20 and reached hundreds of dollars, later doubled in price thanks to the company’s fees.A fan bought 4 tickets priced at $20 each but paid a final sum of $172 due to a service fee of $46, a $40 facility charge, and a $5 processing fee.So @thecure and @RobertSmith wanted to keep ticket prices at a reasonable level for fans on their upcoming North American tour dates. Of course @Ticketmaster absolutely rinsed them with ridiculous extra chargeswtf even is a service fee or a facility charge or processing fee?? pic.twitter.com/jsgspXnifjThe rocker noted that while artists cannot “limit” the fees, the debacle has left him seething.“To be very clear: The artist has no way to limit them.

After several days filled with complaints about excessive fees on the $20 tickets to see The Cure – including complaints from its frontman Robert Smith – a report indicates Ticketmaster will give back some of its fees.