Rome – Goth rockers The Cure are enjoying an unexpected revival, but frontman Robert Smith isn’t letting it go to his head.
“It’s very flattering,” Smith told Reuters Television late on Thursday after performing at the MTV Europe Music Awards, his first MTV event in 15 years. “But I’m not stupid enough to think it’s an Indian summer.
“We realize that this upsurge in media attention is almost entirely due to very good young bands picking up on The Cure,” added Smith, who wore his trademark red lipstick and heavy eyeliner under an unruly mop of hair.
When asked whether his fans should expect a new album on the back of the renewed popularity, Smith said: “Even when we were at our commercial peak in the late 1980s and early 1990s it didn’t ever influence what I did.”
After more than a decade of virtual obscurity, The Cure has reappeared on the international music stage amid praise from new alternative bands.
On Thursday night The Cure played for some 200,000 fans who turned out for a concert also featuring pop star Anastacia in front of Rome’s Colosseum before showing up at the MTV awards on the outskirts of town.
But Smith said The Cure always avoided taking the main road to success.
“The reasons why we do what we do have always been the same and they’re not really aspirational. It’s never been something I wanted in order to get somewhere.”