Talk:Robert Smith (musician)

message: Remember this article stating that he was Atheist??And now it says he's Roman Catholic? So should we place him into Converts to Roman Catholicism?? unsigned
: It says he was raised as a Roman Catholic. That doesn't mean he still is nut-meg 18:09, 20 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Religion??

message: Why did he deny being goth? He's failed me. I have no more faith in him...erg...He's now teaming up with Ashlee Simpson-brained...No longer can I stand him...
Because Goth did not exist in the 80's .. Goth is a new term for something old.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2002:D5DB:996E:0:223:32FF:FE9E:A326 (talk) 21:12, 25 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  God...Why? Robert why? 

message: This discography is basically just the Cure's. It could be made more complete (e.g. blue sunshine, blink 182 self-titled, the relevant siouxie albums, the albums he's recently produced) or simply dropped.
Jon Dowland 17:13, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I am going to get rid of it.  This is The Cure's discography, not Smith's. 66.61.143.204 21:50, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  discography 

message: I've rved an edit which contained the following sentence only:
: He also appeared on an episode of South Park, in which he battled an evil Barbra Streisand.
I did this because it was tacked onto the end of the para regarding John Peel. The page should be kept in some kind of chronological order. According to List_of_South_Park_episodes#Season_1:_1997-1998, that south park episode was aired in February 18, 1998, so this sentence belongs before the Peel one (and perhaps others).
I haven't stuck the sentence back into the article as I think it could also be expressed better (E.g. Barbara spelt correctly)
-- Jon Dowland 15:43, 24 July 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  south park appearance 

message: Really?!?! I remember back in the 80s he says "If Morrissey says to not eat meat, I'm gonna eat meat because I hate Morrissey!" Could someone please give a source to his vegetarianism, thanks.  
Not sure how much we can read into that quote, all of the Smiths hate Morrisey.
Well, here's an interview from 1984 where (a third of the way down) he says he hasn't eaten red meat for a year: http://www.musicfanclubs.org/cure/press/I28.html Other than that much, there's not much else that my web searches reveal, so either he's changed his mind or just doesn't talk about it much. --Stuart mcmillen 15:08, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Vegetarian? 

message: Rumor? --Psycho78m 23:00, 17 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Gay? 

message: I would have to say the recently uploaded picture looks strange to me. I wouldn't call it a characteristic picture of RS from his heyday or from now. May I suggest a change? Folkor 06:22, 16 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Picture 

message: I removed the statement and Category regarding Clinical Depression.
There is no basis in fact in the Article. No reference to when and by whom this diagnosis was made.
:Michael David 15:48, 18 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Clinical Depression? 

message: I added his cowriter/vocalist collab with JunkieXL for "Perfect Blue Sky."  
I suggest changing the classification of the Blank and Jones version of "A Forest" from a "remix" to a "cover."  While the distinction between the two is often blurred these days, "A Forest" is an entirely new recording by B&J featuring new vox by Smith.  Since it contains no parts from the original recording, it's probably better termed a "cover."
--Nulldevice 19:24, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Collaborations 

message: as far as i know robert has never been credited with playing drums or horns of any sort and i have all there albums.Curefreak 11:04, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: According to the "Ten Imaginary Years" biography, he borrowed Lol Tolhurst's drumkit on which he wrote and demoed the original drum parts for some of the songs on "Pornography" before teaching them to Tolhurst (so perhaps he may actually be drumming on some of the bonus tracks featured on the deluxe edition?), and subsequently played drums during live encores on 1982's "Fourteen Explicit Moments" tour. From memory, I think there may be other references to him playing drums on occasion in the TIY bio as well, although I don't have a copy to hand to quote which page numbers for reference. Perhaps someone else can add a reference to the article? No so sure about horns though. Te Irirangi (talk) 04:11, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  musical credits 

message: spirtuality?
it says he has written many songs about "spirituality", especially in the aptly-titled album Faith.
robert smith is an avowed aethist his songs about "faith" usually come from a questioning or antagonistic viewpoint in my opinion.
so saying hes written songs about "spirituality" would lead non informed people to think that they are a christian rock band especially with a name like "the cure" or expose that viewpoint in some of there lyrics wich is very far from the truth.
i want to edit that but im not sure what i should say
or put in there to correct it if someone can offer me some advice on how to change it i would love it cause its really bugging me :\ Curefreak 11:16, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Nobody is going to confuse The Cure with a Christian band. Also "spirituality" is not exclusively Christian. nut-meg 18:11, 20 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: spirituality?

message: isnt there a better or more recent picture to be used? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Farquad92 (talk • contribs) 17:23, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  picture 

message: It is not about death! omg i had to fix that! its about heartbreak. 
"yesterday i got so scared
i shivered like a child
yesterday away from you
it froze me deep inside
come back come back
don't walk away
come back come back
come back today
come back come back
why can't you see?
come back come back
come back to me
and i know i was wrong
when i said it was true
that it couldn't be me and be her
inbetween without you
without you"
Point made
(SexyLui 00:38, 16 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  In between days the song

message: Why is there mention of the Ashlee Simpson collaboration rumor in this article?  Its inclusion in the Collaborations section is misleading and irrelevant. Zwanzig 22:12, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ashlee Simpson Collaboration? 

message: ..."The Walk" although he has admitted he was trying to emulate New Order's hit record of the time; Blue Monday, but it became "The Walk".
Where is the source for this alleged admission?  I don't recall ever having seen Robert Smith admit to emulating "Blue Monday"; rather, to my best recollection I have seen articles where the similarities between the two songs have been labeled purely coincidental by both parties (New Order and The Cure).  I'd like to see this statement either sourced or removed.  Thoughts?  
P.S. Whether it goes or stays, I'd say this statement could use some grammar cleanup.  :)  
P.P.S. I'd do it myself, but I'm a Wiki-noob and am still learning the protocol. :) Zwanzig 22:29, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Blue Monday 

message: Why, when I type in "Fat Bob" in the search panel, am I redirected to this page?  Is it a known nickname of his?  If so, shouldn't it be mentioned in the text? 86.133.247.48 (talk) 22:15, 1 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: The page used to contain a sentence akin to "He is known affectionetly and jokingly as "Fat Bob" amoung his fans and peers", but I don't see why it was deleted, and why it is still a redirection. --A Chain Of Flowers (talk) 19:20, 15 February 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Fat Bob

message: :Image:NME RobertSmith.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
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BetacommandBot (talk) 23:26, 2 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Fair use rationale for Image:NME RobertSmith.jpg

message: Changed the section 'Stage persona and image' adding Smith not liking the 'Goth' label.  I added a link to the quote.  I also added 'unwittingly' in front of 'popularize the "goth" style of dress'.  Smith had no idea he was starting or 'popularizing' some kind of movement.  Also if he finds the label 'pitiful' I would think he wasn't wanting to be a part of it.  In my opinion...like it or not...he is a part of goth.--Mickeyp2814 (talk) 20:19, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: GOTH or NOT

message: As soon as you're able to find a reference supporting Robert Smith being married, can you find out if he has any children if it's not asking too much? Mr. Brain (talk) 04:53, 9 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Robert Smith being married...with children? 

message: does he not play cello as well?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.78.44.231 (talk) 08:23, 1 August 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm going to remove "cello" for now until one of us manages to find a good reference verifying that he does in fact play cello. Te Irirangi (talk) 01:42, 1 November 2012 (UTC)
replies: text:  I removed cello for now just because it doesn't seem to be verifiable - it's quite possible that he has indeed "played" (or at least made a noise with) a cello at some point, so we can always add it again if need be. I also added organ (which he played a lot in early demo recordings for Easy Cure and The Cure) and sitar (see above). I've re-organised the order in which instruments are listed, based loosely on how frequently or prominently he has played those instruments (or perhaps more accurately, how frequently he is noted as a player of them) over the course of his musical career... for instance, he's played 6-string bass quite prominently on most of The Cure's albums since Faith (1981) and also on his guest contributions to other artists such as Cranes, and (if you read magazines aimed at musicians, official Fender press releases and other "gear head" boffin-type material) is actually one of the most famous players of the Fender Bass VI (a unique form of 6-string bass). Whereas, so far as I know, his use of violin is comparatively limited ("The Caterpillar" is the only example that springs to mind?), and it would certainly be inaccurate to suggest that he was a "violinist" as such. Ditto drums, harmonica etc - they're instruments he's occasionally experimented with and made use of, but not instruments he's necessarily an especially adept or noted player of, so it seems to make sense to prioritise those instruments that he's more notable for... yes/no? Convoluted explanation, sorry. Te Irirangi (talk) 02:19, 1 November 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  instruments 

message: I've started making some edits to this article, which I'll make on an incremental basis so that they can be easily reverted if any issues should arise. I'll post about each edit as I go. I'm a fairly irregular contributor to Wikipedia, so would naturally welcome any feedback, comments, criticism and/or debate from more experienced users who might like to help improve my contributions.
1. The first edit I've made is to the "Early years and personal life" section, which had some issues with "citations needed". In the process of adding the needed citations concerning Smith's early childhood and education, I also expanded and restructured some parts of the first paragraph. However, I have tried to retain the pre-existing information so that it does not conflict with others' contributions, and instead (hopefully) enhance them. 
2. I also encountered an "edit conflict" while editing the final sentence of this section - another user (not logged in) changed the sentence commencing "Smith now resides in Aldwick..." to say that he and wife Mary now reside in London. The pre-existing reference to Aldwick had already been marked as needing a citation, which I added, whereas the conflicting edit to "London" also contained no citation. I changed this back to "Aldwick, West Sussex" and again provided the citation. As of August 2012, Mr. Smith had told Italian magazine "XL" that he and Mary reside in Aldwick. 
3. In my next edit, unless presented with a good reason not to, I will remove the sentence commencing with "He was an accomplished student who attained high marks...". This is marked as needing citation, but the statement is at conflict with the available reliable sources. Smith was in fact expelled from St. Wilfrid's, but was allowed back to complete his "O" Levels and "A" Levels. If memory serves, I understand that he did achieve high marks in English and perhaps one or two other subjects, but was otherwise not a particularly distinguished student, in the orthodox sense. I hope to replace the existing sentence to reflect that, provided I can source the needed citations. Te Irirangi (talk) 09:04, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
replies: text:  Dear User:Te Irirangi, I hope you are well. Thanks for your recent edits. I can see you have significant knowledge of Smith's early (ie, pre-Cure) years. I am nonetheless of the opinion that your edits have added so much detail about those early years that the period now seems out of proportion within the overall article. I don't want to begin thinning it out myself, because you have been careful to write well and provide sources and I don't therefore want to touch your edits, but I hope you might consider bringing the article back into proportion. Perhaps you and other editors may disagree with me. Thanks again and best wishes, George Custer's Sabre (talk) 06:38, 2 October 2012 (UTC)
replies: text:  Thanks very much for the feedback George Custer's Sabre. I agree that it is currently out of proportion. That's partly because I've been working more-or-less in chronological order, so have begun "at the beginning" and simply haven't yet made very many contributions to the later areas. In order to bring it back into balance, do you think it would be preferable to A: trim the existing material about Smith's early career, or B: expand the material focusing on the rest of his career? Also, if it is to be scaled down, which parts in particular do you think might be more disposable than others? I would be interested to know what you and any other editors might think. Thanks again for your helpful critique. --Te Irirangi (talk) 09:23, 3 October 2012 (UTC)
replies: text:  Dear Te Irirangi, it's my pleasure. To be honest, you have made such a terrific job with the early years that I strongly prefer your Option B: expanding the material focusing on the rest of Smith's career. That would create better balance and provide us all with a truly first-rate bio page. I suspect other editors will agree (and I hope they will say so). You are doing a great job. Thanks so much. Regards, George Custer's Sabre (talk) 09:33, 3 October 2012 (UTC)
replies: text:  Cool, thanks GCS. I hope other editors will agree too, as I've already drafted quite a lot of material about RS's various musical projects and collaborations subsequent to forming The Cure. So far, what I've managed to draft focuses on most major periods of his musical career up to about 2007, but I still have some work to do on getting it to a similar standard as the material about his earlier musical development, and it would also require a bit of a major rewrite of the existing content for the "Collaborations" and "Guest Appearances" sections. I've also been a bit wary of rewriting the whole article at the expense of all other editors' contributions. Perhaps if I start posting draft material for discussion/feedback and joint editing here on the talk page, before adding to the main article? --Te Irirangi (talk) 10:50, 3 October 2012 (UTC)

text:  Ok, I've made a start on trying to balance this article out a bit by first making some simple restructuring edits to some of the existing sections. For instance, as both Smith's relationship with Mary Poole and also his Musical Influences are not subjects limited to his early family life, but subjects/influences that run concurrent throughout his life and career, I've moved those sections accordingly. At some point the section about Mary can probably be shifted further down the article, so as to place greater emphasis on other aspects of his musical career. I also moved the "School bands" section so that it is separate from his early family life and academic record, following on from the latter, and then moved "Role in The Cure" up so that it follows directly on from his earlier "pre-Cure" bands. I'm hoping that this doesn't mess too much with the chronology that I'd already established with the way it was set out before, but if so, let me know and I'll see if I can't tidy it up a bit. --Te Irirangi (talk) 16:41, 3 October 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Some recent edits (September 2012) 

message: I did a big overhaul, as previously discussed on this page, so as to expand the whole article on Robert Smith's career down to the present day and make it more balanced (previously it focused on his formative years and early career). This has also involved restructuring some sections, including edits to my previous contributions to improve my citations/references etc. I have also restructured the sections previously headed "Guest appearances", "Collaborations" and "Cultural references". The reason I edited these was because there was no distinction between guest appearances on TV shows and guest appearances in a musical context, and they were increasingly beginning to overlap. Guest appearances on TV also tended to overlap somewhat with "Cultural references" (for instance, Smith is both parodied in the Mary Whitehouse Experience but also makes a guest appearance on the show; and the South Park episode in which Smith voices his own cartoon caricature arguably also qualifies as a mix of "Cultural reference" and guest appearance), so I re-organised these three sections into two: "Musical projects outside The Cure" (which includes both musical collaborations and guest appearances), and "Pop culture: references, portrayals and appearances" (which includes both "cultural references" in TV, film, literature etc, and cameo/guest appearances on TV shows). 
The "Role in The Cure" section is possibly too detailed, and also unfinished (it tends to stop dead immediately after 1984's "The Top"). I was part way through putting that section together, and noticed a lot of finnickity edit wars over minor points, so figured I'd post my contributions now in the hopes of creating something more substantive for us to collaborate on editing together. Te Irirangi (talk) 20:39, 31 October 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  More recent edits: November 2012 

message: 21 April 1959 is most reliable DOB, see MTV 1997, EW 2009. Less reliable are the NNDB and IMdB entries. Also per Ten Imaginary Years as mentioned in above. Dl2000 (talk) 14:53, 7 September 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: DOB check

message: Someone put him in a voice actor category. What roles has he voice-acted? Ranze (talk) 11:00, 16 February 2015 (UTC)
thread_title: Voice acting

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title: Assessment comment

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: This article should include more info on these two albums in Smith's music career section, especially the latter, given that it's one of The Cure's most praised albums yet (if not, the most), and is a featured article here on Wikipedia. Josharaujo1115 (talk) 02:56, 20 November 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Little mention of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me and Disintegration 

message: Not enough pictures in this article. Many of us would like to see how he looked when he started out in his first band at the age of 14, together with his brother Richard, younger sister Janet, and some of his friends. I would like to see that picture as well as a separate picture of Robert Smith at age 14. That would set the stage as a starting point of his career. I wish somebody would go out and retrieve these pictures and include them in this article.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.140.162.81 (talk) 02:02, 21 March 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Need to show an earlier picture of Robert Smith