Robert Smith took over Iggy Pop's show on the BBC this evening in celebration of today's kickoff of the Meltdown Festival in London. Smith was on air for two hours playing selections from the bands headlining the festival, including Mogwai, Mono, Alcest, My Bloody Valentine, Nine Inch Nails, and more. Smith did a fantastic job as a DJ -- his passion for the music he played was evident, and though he mostly kept his comments short, he had a few fun stories:
Smith revealed he was "entranced" by Suzanne Vega's first album and asked her to play with The Cure back in the day. She declined.
After playing the Manic Street Preachers, he described them as being "snotty" when they first started out, but said they can back it up with memorable songs. So memorable he has to listen to nursery rhymes to get the songs out of his head.
Smith paid tribute to Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit, who were scheduled to play Meltdown prior to the tragic suicide of Hutchison. Smith called the loss "heartbreaking for all real music lovers everywhere. The world lost a genuinely great artist, but his genius songs live on."
The show ended on a high note: Smith told the audience that he was out of time, but had one last song to play and quipped "I hope the final headliner plays this at Meltdown on June 24th" then played The Cure's "The Same Deep Water As You."
Stream the stellar two hour show over at BBC Radio 6 Music.
Published June 15th, 2018