Smith was also asked to comment about a variety of legendary musicians which led to a discussion about Ian Curtis and Joy Division. Smith called Curtis "inspirational" and elaborated:
"In 1980 we did a thing in London at the Marquee Club...we picked the four bands we wanted to play with us, and Joy Division were one of those bands...I heard Unknown Pleasures on the radio on John Peel, and they were just fantastic. They were the best thing I'd seen--not ever, because I'd seen Bowie and the Stones--but they were of that generation of bands which is my generation of bands they were so powerful...that was our best show that year, I think, we went on after them and we had to really we had to try hard to match what they did...it's a shame about Ian Curtis...it's like Jimi Hendrix or Kurt Cobain...people that good come around far too infrequently."
Smith said some additional things about Joy Division/New Order in regards to the untoward comments Peter Hook made about the Cure in his biography Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division:
"Although the Cure and New Order...we come from the same age and everything but Peter Hook always had a real big problem with us because our bassist Simon Gallup was so much better looking and the better bass player...I think Peter was so jealous he could never get over it and he stopped the rest of them from being friendly...
"...we've bumped into them over the years, and since he's left, we've played with New Order a few times in the last summer and it's so nice to be able to chat with them, you know, to talk with them because I've always loved New Order I think they're one of the best bands - they also have a fantastic back catalog and they like us, it's so nice to say to Bernard [Sumner] "I like your band" and he says "I like yours as well" and...it's taken an awful long time to say hello again to them. They're a good example of a band that gets better as they get older. They were fantastic when we played with them last year and we're playing again with them this year at a couple of festivals."
Stream the full interview below:
The Cure are heading to North America this summer. So far two festival appearances have been announced, and they're both taking place the same weekend. The Cure play the Osheaga festival in Montreal and Lollapalooza in Chicago August 2nd through the 4th. So far the day lineups for each festival hasn't been announced but Lollapalooza will reveal that information on April 1st. Lollapalooza three day passes sold out, however single day passes go on sale April 3rd. For more info on Lollapalooza visit the official site. Tickets for Osheaga are available here. By the way, New Order will also be playing Osheaga and Lollapalooza, but it's unknown at this time whether they'll play the same day as the Cure.
Published on March 30th, 2013 @ 10:17 AM