Paul Weller has launched a scathing personal attack on The Cure frontman Robert Smith, calling him a “fucking fat cunt”.
The former Jam singer made the foul-mouthed remark during a lengthy interview for next month’s issue of Record Collector magazine, which is a special Paul Weller edition (via Louder Sound).
At one point in the conversation, the interviewer noted how one of the tracks on Noel Gallagher‘s upcoming new album bears a resemblance to The Cure’s classic singe ‘A Forest’ (1980).
Weller, the writer said, then responded to this observation with a mixture of “incredulity and revulsion”.
“Really??!” the singer-songwriter continued. “I can’t fucking stand them. Fucking fat cunt, with his lipstick and all that bollocks. He is my age as well, isn’t he?”
Weller added: “He’s a fucking knob end. I don’t like him. There you go. There’s someone I would work with. I’d fucking slap him, or something.”
The reason behind the musician’s severe dislike for Smith is not clear, though Louder Sound notes how The Jam had inadvertently helped The Cure during the recording of their debut album ‘Three Imaginary Boys’ (1979).
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Back in 1985, Smith mentioned Weller during an interview in which he said that punk wasn’t a political movement: “It later became that, because people wanted it to be seen as a movement.”
He added that people were dissatisfied with listening to “bands like Yes and Genesis“, and instead “wanted to hear something they could dance to”.
“Even people who think they’re socially aware and lend their names to things, like Paul Weller and stuff… I mean it does no good at all, ultimately,” Smith explained. “Because you’d have to be particularly stupid to believe someone like Paul Weller.
“You’d have to be particularly stupid to believe someone like me.”
Both The Jam and The Cure were discovered by the same A&R scout, Chris Parry, who went on to sign The Jam to Polydor in 1977 and The Cure to his own label, Fiction Records, in 1978.
Smith has not yet responded to Weller’s comments.
The Cure are currently out on a European headline tour, where they’ve debuted a range of new tracks: ‘And Nothing Is Forever’, ‘Alone’, ‘Endsong’, ‘I Can Never Say Goodbye’ and ‘A Fragile Thing’.
Speaking at the BandLab NME Awards 2022 in March, Robert Smith exclusively told NME that The Cure’s long-awaited 14th album – the follow-up to 2008’s ‘4:13 Dream’ – will be called ‘Songs Of A Lost World’. “It’s got artwork, it’s got a running order, it’s almost done!” he explained.
The Cure’s UK and Ireland tour is set to kick off in Dublin on December 1 – you can see the full list of dates below, and find any remaining tickets here.
DECEMBER
01 – 3ARENA, Dublin, Ireland
02 – SSE, Belfast, Northern Ireland
04 – OVO HYDRO, Glasgow, Scotland
06 – FIRST DIRECT ARENA, Leeds, England
07 – UTILITA ARENA, Birmingham, England
08 – MOTORPOINT ARENA, Cardiff, Wales
11 – THE SSE ARENA, Wembley, London, England
12 – THE SSE ARENA, Wembley, London, England
13 – THE SSE ARENA, Wembley, London, England