āHis band may have been falling apart around him, but in one crucial aspect, Ā Robert Smith was a lucky man. Over the past three years and three Cure albums Ā heād suffered a very public meltdown and done his best to alienate his audience, Ā his friends and his bandmates. But the one constant in his life was Mary Poole, his long-time girlfriend. Even when heād sunk lower than he thought possible, with The Ā Cure having crashed and burned at the end of a period Smith described as āmore Ā like a rugby tour than a Cure tourā, Poole stood by her man. Smith was smart Ā enough to recognise her remarkable, unswerving faith in him and acknowledge Ā how much she helped him keep his head together.
āI was quite out of sync, a bit disturbed,ā Smith said of his hard times in the early Eighties. āI knew then that Mary was the girl for me, because she stuck by me. Ā But everyone I know reaches a point where they throw out their arms and go Ā berserk for a while ā otherwise you never know what your limits are. I was just trying to find mine.āā
āMary means so incomprehensibly much to me. I actually donāt think she has ever realized how dependant Iāve been of her during all these years weāve been together. Sheās always been the one that has saved me when I have been the most self-destructive, sheās always been the one that has caught me when I have been so very close to fall apart completely, and if she would have disappeared ā I am sorry, I know that Iām falling into my irritating miserable image by saying it ā then I would have killed myself.ā
- Did you take the picture of Mary on the cover of āPictures Of Youā? Where and when was it taken?
- Yes - on holiday in Scotland in 1981 i thinkā¦
- If you could go back and repeat something you have done in the past, what would it be?
- My first dance with Mary.
(Another of Smithās early music heroes was David Bowie. He and his lifelong Ā partner, Mary Poole, would share their first dance to the accompaniment of Ā Bowieās āLife On Marsā.)
āSheās fab. My best friend. Sheās got black hair and very striking looks. In fact she looks like Betty Boop. When Iām with her I just sit back and watch ā I donāt have to perform any more.ā
āMary is even weirder then me - she often disguises herself as a witch and goes out to scare people. She is the perfect woman for someone like me.ā
āAt the time, Smith had also started work on a musical sketch called āLovesongā, a song that had a noticeably different mood to the rest of his new material. It was a gentle strum in the midst of some genuine fire and brimstone. For Robert Smith it Ā was a first ā and the title said it all. āItās an open show of emotion,ā he admitted.
āItās not trying to be clever. Itās taken me 10 years to reach the point where I felt Ā comfortable singing a very straightforward love song. In the past, Iāve always felt a Ā last-minute need to disguise the sentiment.ā Ā What Smith was actually writing was a gift to Mary Poole ā a wedding gift. āI Ā couldnāt think of what to give her,ā said Smith, āso I wrote her that song ā cheap Ā and cheerful. She would have preferred diamonds, I think, but she might look back Ā and be glad that I gave her that.ā Finally, after 15 years together, they were married Ā in Worth Abbey on August 13, with much of The Cure along for the party. Simon Gallup was best man, while Smith played DJ for much of the night-long party that followed their nuptials.ā
- What was your favorite wedding present? Who gave it to you?
- A platinum heart from Mary.
- Do you and Mary have nick-names for each other? If so, what are they?
- I call her āmā. She calls me anything she wants; it changes depending on what time it isā¦
