The Cure planning fest in L.A., may not play 'Disintegration' beyond Australia

The Cure are working on a new album, due out this fall, and are also celebrating the 30th anniversary of Disintegration with a series of shows in Sydney, Australia this month, one of which will be livestreamed. They’re also putting together a festival in Los Angeles. As Slicing Up Eyeballs notes, frontman Robert Smith called in to SiriusXM show Debatable to talk with hosts Mark Goodman and Alan Light about Disintegration and more. When asked about The Cure’s appearance at Austin’s ACL Fest in October, Smith said “We’ll be announcing another one later this month, which will be a really special one, actually, because we’re curating it,” Smith said. “So it’s going to be on the West Coast. There’s going to be about 10 other acts, all hand-picked. I just wanted to do something a bit like [2019’s 40th anniversary celebration in] Hyde Park. Something a bit celebratory.”

Smith added that they wouldn’t be playing Disintegration at the festival, though, or how many days it would be. “It’s going to be just a celebratory show with a load of artists who all in their own right deserve to headline festivals.” Smith also said that they tried to stage it in New York, but it was too late in the year and that the outdoor venue they wanted to use fell through. He also walked back, a bit, what he said about the possibility of doing a Disintegration show in NYC. “I don’t really want to dedicate the rest of the year to celebrating something that happened 30 years ago,” Smith said. “I’d much rather celebrate what we’re doing now. So the idea of the global stream of Disintegration was really to give me a bit of an out in case I decided we’re not going to do it again.” Let’s hope he does decide to do it again, though.

As for the new album, title TBA, Smith told the hosts he’s still working on the running order. “I’ve gone through so many different running orders. My favorite running order is so utterly bereft of hope, it’s so morose. I played it to a couple of people whose opinions I value and they just look at me and think it’s so dismal, in a really good way. It’s just relentless. My favorite running order is about 47 minutes of just relentless doom and gloom.”

Stay tuned for details on all the above but you can listen to 37 minutes of doom and gloom via The Cure’s 1981 album, Faith, below.