“Unreal”: The moment David Bowie made Robert Smith’s dream come true
It feels strange, sometimes, to understand how some musicians still feel starstruck when meeting their influences. As people who are often as deeply ingrained in music and culture as those they look up to, the idea that they would feel overwhelmed meeting or performing for their peers feels oddly alien. However, that was precisely how Robert Smith felt when offered a special opportunity to celebrate David Bowie.
There are many ways that you could say Bowie influenced Smith and The Cure, from his abstract mindset to the ways he challenged the boundaries of artistic expression. There was also a darkness to some of Bowie’s music that was mirrored in Smith’s sounds and lyrics, almost like he often played on the deeper, more gritty nuances of the singer’s artistry, whether he intended to or not.
However, there has always been a complexity to Smith’s connection with Bowie, one that impacted both his approach to music and his connection to his audience. For instance, Smith once attended one of Bowie’s live shows when he was 19 and, while most might assume this was a pivotal moment that taught Smith everything he needed to know about being a star, he actually walked away in a haze of disappointment.
Now, it’s worth mentioning that Smith hadn’t taken issue with Bowie or his song choices, or anything relating to the performance, for that matter. In fact, what had actually irked Smith was how short the set was, running at around 42 minutes. In that moment, he vowed never to put his fans in that same position.
“I’d hate not to be able to justify myself to that 19 year old,” Smith told The Times, reflecting on how it changed his mindset about live shows.
Still, Bowie remained a seminal influence on Smith, with the short set incident ultimately feeling like a temporary inconvenience that he got more good out of than bad. So, when Smith was asked to perform for the singer’s 50th birthday party, he was nothing short of elated. After all, not only was Ziggy Stardust the first vinyl record he ever bought, but he was also the first artist “I felt was mine”.
Elsewhere, he reflected on the impact of his music and how he felt when he first got called upon to perform at the special occasion. “I look back at some the things we’ve [The Cure] done and I can see echoes of some of Bowie’s stuff in it,” he said, adding: “I got my dream come true when he invited me to sing with him at his birthday in New York. That was a fantastic night, unreal actually for something like that to happen.”
While it would have been easy to get lost in the excitement and forget to arrive prepared, Smith enjoyed a hazy mixture of both, and even found some time to hit the town with Bowie’s guitarist, Reeves Gabrels. “It was pretty obvious he had done his homework. He was spot on,” Gabrels told Louder, also recalling losing the two days before rehearsals after the pair spontaneously decided to go on a bender (“Apparently, we had a really good time!”)
Nonetheless, the event was a hit, and Smith went away armed with some of his favourite memories ever. As someone who has always seen Bowie as a crucial figure in music, getting the opportunity to celebrate him no doubt made Smith feel a part of something bigger, not just musically but spiritually, too. After all, it’s not every day that he gets to let loose with some of the best and biggest names in music, much less the ‘Starman’ himself.
