


Smith began taking classical guitar lessons from the age of nine with a student of John Williams, who he said was "a really excellent guitarist". Smith said, " was a piano prodigy, so sibling rivalry made me take up guitar because she couldn't get her fingers around the neck." He told Chris Heath of Smash Hits that from about 1966 (when Smith turned seven years old) his brother Richard, who is 13 years older, taught him "a few basic chords" on guitar. He and his younger sister Janet received piano lessons as children. He later attended Notre Dame Middle School from 1970 to 1972, and St Wilfrid's Comprehensive School from 1972 to 1977. When he was six, his family moved to Crawley, where he attended St Francis' Junior School. When he was three years old, his family moved to Horley, where he attended St Francis' Primary School. Raised as a Catholic, he later became an atheist. He came from a musical family his father sang, and his mother played the piano. Robert James Smith was born in Blackpool on 21 April 1959, the third of four children of Rita Mary (née Emmott) and James Alexander Smith.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Cure in 2019, and in its 2023 issue of the list, he was ranked the 157th greatest singer of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. Smith is known for his guitar-playing style, distinctive voice, and fashion sense, with the latter-a pale complexion, smeared red lipstick, black eye-liner, a dishevelled nest of wiry black hair, and all-black clothes-being highly influential on the goth subculture that rose to prominence in the 1980s.

He was also the lead guitarist for the band Siouxsie and the Banshees from 1982 to 1984, and was part of the short-lived group The Glove in 1983. He is the lead singer, guitarist, primary songwriter, and only continuous member of the rock band The Cure, which he co-founded in 1978. “Medley: Narcissus / Gloomy Sunday / Vision” (11:46)ĭ4.Robert James Smith (born 21 April 1959) is an English musician. Torment and Toreros is a double album by English cabaret/art-pop project Marc and the Mambas, produced by frontman Marc Almond and released in 1983 on Some Bizzare.Ĭ4.
