The Cure’s Robert Smith once duked it out with Morrissey in the pages of the music press – until he signed off the row in a classy way.
The Smiths and The Cure were two of the most important acts in UK music during the 80s, with each taking the post-punk lineage in different directions. Alas, the mutual singers didn’t quite get on – in fact, they professed to hate one another.
Arguing spitefully in the music press, the regular barbs made for addictive reading. Morrissey labelled Robert Smith a “whingebag”, with Robert Smith responding: “Morrissey’s so depressing if he doesn’t (off) himself soon, I probably will…”
The tit-for-tat insults continued, until Robert Smith at one point said: “If Morrissey says not to eat meat, then I’m going to eat meat; that’s how much I hate Morrissey.”
The row fizzled out, with Morrissey writing in an online statement back in 2019:
“Oh, I never make my regrets small … if I can help it. Oh. Umm. Robert Smith. I said some terrible things about him 35 years ago … but I didn’t mean them … I was just being very Grange Hill. It’s great when you can blame everything on Tourette’s syndrome.”
The Cure’s Robert Smith had the final word. Speaking to The Sunday Times in 2021, he called it an “imaginary feud” before pointing out that music press readers needed “a soap opera”.
