The Cure’s Robert Smith called into the SiriusXM program “Debatable” on Friday to announce that he is curating a festival in the Los Angeles area later this year that will feature performances by the Cure and ten other bands. Smith also curated last year’s Meltdown festival in London.
“We’ll be announcing another one later this month, which will be a really special one, actually, because we’re curating it,” Smith told hosts Mark Goodman and Alan Light. “So it’s going to be on the West Coast. There’s going to be about ten other acts, all hand-picked. I just wanted to do something a bit like [last summer’s 40th anniversary concert at London’s] Hyde Park. Something a bit celebratory.”
“It isn’t going to be a Disintegration show, I’ll be very clear about that. It’s going to be just a celebratory show with a load of artists who all in their own right deserve to headline festivals.”
The Cure is set to perform Disintegration at five concerts in Sydney later this month. One of the shows will be livestreamed. “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,” Smith said.
He added that it is unlikely they’ll continue playing Disintegration shows: “I’ve got some ideas of how we could incorporate it into some of the things we might do later in the year…so if we end up playing a Disintegration show, we’ll end up playing a Disintegreation show at some point, somewhere. But if we don’t, it doesn’t matter. Just watch the livestream.”
Smith also mentioned that the new Cure album should be out before Christmas, although he still needs to record vocals and one more song. Apparently, the album includes two ten-minute songs. The band plan to tour America next year, but Smith wants to “do something with new songs” and “bring a new show to America rather than do something nostalgic.”
Also this year, Smith is hoping to release two concert films of the Cure’s 40th anniversary performance in Hyde Park and their Meltdown Festival.
This article originally appeared on Stereogum.
