In 1983, Robert Smith of The Cure walked away from a hit song rather than immediately chasing another one.
In 2026, the artists who get to perform on one of music's biggest stages are whoever Smith says they are.
The story starts with a song that worked a little too well. "The Walk," released in 1983, was something new for The Cure, more electronic, more danceable, easier to get into than anything the band had done previously. It hit No. 12 on the UK Singles chart. Fans absolutely loved it. But, the music industry loved it even more.
That was the problem.
"There was so much pressure around 'The Walk' because it went in the charts and now everyone wants another single," Smith told Rockerilla at the time. "We must resist this temptation. I'm tired of being bound to the same group of people, the same music area."
He meant what he said. The band didn't rush out a follow-up to chase clout. They refused to give the industry what it was asking for. And things fell apart, at least for a while.
Related: 1983 Pop Classic, Almost Thrown in the Trash, Now at the Center of a $2 Million Lawsuit
Guitarist Simon Gallup quit the band after a falling-out with Smith. Smith himself briefly joined Siouxsie and the Banshees, after working with them in 1979. For a while, it genuinely seemed like The Cure might never exist again.
"People don't understand why we split up, since this would be the ideal moment to take advantage of three years of incessant touring," Smith said. "Everyone was saying that our next album would be the definitive one, but we decided to call it quits without reaching our initial goals."
It looked, from the outside, like a band that had thrown away its own momentum.
From Resisting the Industry to Running It
In the end, it turned out to be the complete opposite.
After The Cure put out The Top on their own terms, Gallup came back, the band got back together, and The Head on the Door became one of their most beloved albums. Walking away from the pressure to churn out another hit didn't end The Cure. It made them who they became.
More than 40 years later, that same way of doing things is still shaping what Robert Smith does and who he gives a platform to.
Photo by Pete Still on Getty Images
In 2026, Smith personally put together the Teenage Cancer Trust concert seriesat London's Royal Albert Hall, one of the most famous music venues in the entire world. He took over from Roger Daltrey of The Who, who started the series himself in 2000 and ran it for the past 25 years. Since it began, the series has raised more than £34 ($45.6 USD) million for specialist nurses and support services for young people with cancer across the UK.
"Teenage Cancer Trust does the most fantastic work, and it is a great honour and a real thrill to be asked to put together the 2026 shows at the Royal Albert Hall," Smith said. "I can promise it will be a very memorable week."
The week-long lineup he chose ran from March 23 to 29, and it was unmistakably his: Elbow, Mogwai, Manic Street Preachers, My Bloody Valentine, Garbage, Placebo and Wolf Alice. These were, in Smith's own words, artists who are "either legendary or at the top of their game."
When Daltrey announced the handover, he called Smith "a true musical great" and said finding the right person to take over had been a challenge. "It has been a challenge to find the right person to take them on," he said. "But Robert, a true musical great, is the perfect person for the 2026 concerts."
In 1983, Robert Smith defiantly refused to let the music industry tell him what kind of band The Cure should be. In 2026, he's the one deciding which artists deserve a stage at one of music's most iconic venues.
The man who once said "We must resist" is now the artist setting the standard.
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