Robert Smith (musician)
| Robert Smith | |
|---|---|
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Robert Smith playing live with the Cure at Roskilde Festival 2012
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Robert James Smith |
| Born |
21 April 1959 Blackpool, Lancashire, UK |
| Origin | Crawley, West Sussex, UK |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, singer-songwriter, producer |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1972–present |
| Labels | Fiction, Geffen, Universal, Hansa, Polydor |
| Associated acts | The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Glove, Easy Cure, Crystal Castles, Malice, 65daysofstatic, the Twilight Sad, Blink-182, Cult Hero |
| Website | thecure.com |
| Notable instruments | |
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Schecter UltraCure Signature Fender Jazzmaster Fender Telecaster Fender Bass VI |
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Robert James Smith (born 21 April 1959) is an English singer, songwriter and musician. He is the lead singer, guitarist, lyricist and principal songwriter of the rock band the Cure. He is the band's only constant member since its formation in 1976. He also played guitar in the band Siouxsie and the Banshees. Smith is a multi-instrumentalist, known for his unique stage look and distinctive voice.
Smith was born in the Lancashire town of Blackpool and is the third of four children born to James Alexander and Rita Mary (née Emmott) Smith. Smith came from a musical family – his father sang and his mother played the piano.
Raised Catholic, he later became an atheist. When he was three years old, in December 1962 his family moved to Horley, Surrey, where he later attended St Francis Primary School, before the family moved to Crawley, West Sussex, in March 1966, where Smith attended St Francis Junior School. He later attended Notre Dame Middle School (1970–72) and St Wilfrid's Comprehensive School, Crawley (1972–77).
Both Robert and his younger sister Janet had piano lessons; Smith said that Janet "was a piano prodigy, so sibling rivalry made me take up guitar because she couldn't get her fingers around the neck." He told Chris Heath of Smash Hits magazine that from about 1966 (when Smith turned seven years old) his brother Richard (thirteen years Robert's senior) taught him "a few basic chords" on guitar. Smith began taking classical guitar lessons from the age of nine, "with a student of John Williams, a really excellent guitarist ... I learned a lot, but got to the point where I was losing the sense of fun. I wish I'd stuck with it." Smith has said his guitar tutor was "horrified" by his playing. Robert consequently gave up formal tuition and began teaching himself to play by ear, listening to his older brother's record collection.
Smith was thirteen or fourteen when he became more serious about rock music and "started to play and learn frenetically". Up until December 1972 he did not have a guitar of his own, and had been borrowing his brother's for some time, "so he gave me his guitar for Christmas. But I'd commandeered it anyway – so whether he was officially giving it to me at Christmas or not, I was going to have it!" One rock biographer (Jeff Apter) maintains that the guitar Smith received for Christmas of 1972 was from his parents, and equates this item with Smith's notorious Woolworth's 'Top 20' guitar, later used on many of the Cure's earliest recordings. Smith was quoted in several earlier sources as saying he purchased the Top 20 himself for £20, in 1978.
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