~ Meeting the Cure ~

~ My Story ~

  A lot of people ask me what it was like to meet Robert.  It was surreal.  Meeting your idol is a daunting experience, but one I will always treasure.  If anyone else would like to email me and tell me their experience of meeting Robert or any member of the Cure, I will post it up here so others can read about it.

   I met Robert in July of 2002, at the Hyde Park concert in London.  I had flown there from the U.S. just to see them.  Through a very lucky set of circumstances, I was admitted backstage after the show.  There were two backstage areas, a general area for just about everyone, and then a more restricted area.  The pass I had did not allow me into the more restricted area.  Robert did not hang out in the general area at all, although the other members of the Cure did.  I got to meet Roger, Jason, and Simon....Perry was on his cell phone every time I saw him and I wasn't able to talk to him.  I really wanted to meet Robert, but someone informed me that he never came out to the general backstage area, and I wouldn't meet him there.  Fortunately, I knew someone with a pass to the more restricted area.  Late into the evening, she went back there and told Robert I wanted to meet him.  I waited by the entrance, and eventually a guard came out and pointed at me and said I was to follow him.  I walked into the Inner Sanctum, and there I saw Robert across the grass, maybe 50 feet from me.  He was standing under a light, just outside of a mobile dressing room, talking to a young couple.  My friend stood next to him and whispered something in his ear as I walked toward him.  It was a floating moment, I was walking on clouds, it all seemed like a dream....kind of like walking down the aisle at your wedding.  I wanted it to last, yet I couldn't wait to get there.  I realized that I had my hand over my mouth, and tears in my eyes.  There was a party happening all around me, yet I didn't see or hear it.  I was about to meet ROBERT SMITH.  Robert, who I had loved and adored and dreamed of for years.  My friend held out her arm in my direction, presenting me to Robert as I arrived.  He held out his hand, and I reached out and took it.  He saw right away the look on my face of....amazement?  fear?  awe?  I don't know exactly how I looked, but he saw my stunned face and took my hand in both of his and looked quite sympathetic and understanding about it.  He said, "It's nice to meet you."  I can't remember what exactly I said back to him, I was too shocked to think.  I was lost in those stormy blue eyes.  But, I knew I would be in this state, I had planned for it!  I had brought with me a little 1" pinback button that I had gotten in the 1970's with the logo of the movie "The Wicker Man" on it.  I had brought it to break the ice with Robert, because he lists that movie as one of his favorites on his page at thecure.com.  So, after the first hello, I said "I have something for you,"  and reached into my pocket and gave him the pin.  He held the pin and looked at it.  Then, he put it really, really close up to his eyes and squinted at it, and said, "So what does this signify then?"  I had a moment of mortification...he didn't recognize it!  My brilliant plan to impress Robert Smith with my intimate knowledge of cult films was a failure!  I said, "It's from the movie the Wicker Man...."   Suddenly the couple that Robert had been talking to go completely nuts.  "The Wicker Man!?!"  They were so excited!  The girl turns to me and says, "We planned our whole honeymoon around the Wicker Man!  We went every place it was filmed!"  I couldn't believe it.  At this point I realize that it's Stuart from Mogwai and his wife!  So we all start talking about the Wicker Man, and Robert turns to me and says, "I'm old enough to remember this movie from the first time around!"  Ahem, so am I.  We all talk about the girl with the big ass who dances naked in the movie.  Robert says, "I think they hired her for her butt!"  Stuart's wife and I keep talking about the Wicker Man, and meanwhile, Robert starts telling Stuart how much he enjoyed the Mogwai set.  Stuart says how incredibly fun it was for him to open for the Cure.  Then his wife said, "He was smiling onstage like I've never seen him smile!  I was watching him play and I thought, he's never smiled like that for ME, not even at our wedding!"  But I could tell she was very proud of Stuart and they were very happy.  We talked for a while about their wedding then.  She had wanted Stuart to wear a kilt for their wedding, but he didn't want to.  He said, "You don't wear a kilt except for a really special occasion!"  And I said, "But what's more special than your wedding?"  And he said, "But we got married in Canada."  I thought that was pretty funny.  Then Robert mentioned that his father's father came from Scotland.  My friend asked him if he ever wore a kilt when he visited Scotland, and Robert replied, "I'm not that kind of tourist."  So then Robert gets really into Stuart, just asking him loads of questions and complimenting him.  I was chatting with his wife about this and that.  While Robert was engrossed in his conversation with Stuart, my friend started examining his clothes.  She pulled at Robert's jacket to see the label (Racing Green black hoodie), pulling on his trousers to see his boots better (the boots were all old and the buckles broken).  I was appalled.  I said to Stuart's wife, "She's TOUCHING the man!"  It was too much.  But the weirdest part was that Robert had no reaction whatsoever.  He just stood there talking to Stuart and acting like nothing was happening!  Odd.  After a while, Robert pulled out a pack of Gitanes cigarettes and shared them.  I said,  "Hey, I thought you had stopped smoking!"  He got all mock-defensive and said "I haven't smoked all year!"  Yeah right!  But you sure had them with you tonight!  I still can't believe I smoked one of Robert's cigarettes.  After about 20 minutes, Stuart and his wife said their goodbyes.  She even hugged me and told me how nice it was to meet me.  After they left, Robert actually apologized to me!  He said, "I don't mean to be rude and not talk to you,  but I really admire him.  I hope you don't think I was ignoring you."  My friend said, "Hey, he's famous."  Robert said, "No, no - that's not it."  So I said, "It shows that you're a music fan too.  I think it's cool."   Robert smiled shyly and looked down.  Then he turned away to get another beer ~ Bud of all things, these giant cans of Budweiser.  I wish I had a picture of it.  He offered me one but I was too high already just from meeting him, I couldn't imagine making an idiot of myself and getting drunk.  Someone poked his head out of the dressing room then,  and said something to him that I didn't hear.  Robert said to him, "I can't.  You know Mary's family is here and I haven't even talked to them yet."  I felt it was just about time to let him go....and then Simon walked up to tell Robert that he was leaving.  They embraced and .....kissed!  Just a quick peck.  Then more goodbyes.  Then another quick kiss!  Still more goodbyes, and then they hugged a bit longer, and Simon kissed Robert on the neck!  It was EPIC.  If I'd only had a camera....So then we all sort of broke apart...Robert went one way, Simon another, and I realized I was standing next to Frank Bell, Cult Hero himself ~ but that's another story.  :D

Here is the only picture from the night I met Robert.

Me, my friend, Margaret (Robert's sister), Robert, Rita (Robert's mother).

I was so upset I had sweated all day and looked terrible to meet Robert!  Bah.

~ Lauren's Story ~

My perfect cure experience.....

I had just turned 15 years old, and for my present, my mum decided she was going to escort me to Germany to see my all time favourite band live. After a crazy trip down to London at midnight, and a flight at something stupid like 6am, I was finally in Germany, and on my way for what was about to become, the best day of my life. After meeting many of my friends, and going out and returning to the hotel, it became apparent that there was something going on in the hotel opposite from ours…After a short investigation, it turned out that The Cure were staying in the hotel over the road from ours. After waiting for what seemed like forever, they finally came out of the hotel, to find about 10 fans waiting to see them [a couple of whom I didn’t know at the time, but are now some of my closest Cure friends…Nige! Tom! *mwah!*] I had managed to get away from the main crowd of people and was hiding away from Robert, Perry and Simon who were out in the crowd, now signing things and having pictures taken.

All of a sudden, I felt someone grab on my arm [it turned out to be one of my good Cure friends who I’d made this amazing journey with] and she dragged me over to Robert, and asked him if he would mind having a picture taken with me. By this point in time, I was in floods of tears and was probably scaring poor Robert to death [sorry about that Robert!] but he so kindly said yes, and I had two pictures taken with my all time hero. After the photos were taken, in all honesty, I thought I was about to pass out. So another friend came to my rescue, and held me up while giving me a fantastic hug! [Thank you Hugh!]

After all of this excitement, we made our way to the gig…And what a gig!!! Hamburg was the best Cure gig I have been to, and I will never forget it! Least of all the opening song…Want. A couple of weeks before the gig, I had e-mailed a certain member of the band, asking if that song would be played…And there it was, the opening song. I knew from that moment on I was going to be experiencing something special.

Thank you to The Cure for being so amazing!

Y from

Lauren x