The Cure’s Robert Smith has shared a cartoon on social media, poking fun at the Coronation of King Charles III.
Created by artist First Dog On The Moon, the cartoon depicts “royal things” preparing for the Coronation, which takes place today (May 6). It also includes a parody pledge that features the line: “All hail the nature arbitrary, of privilege that’s hereditary.”
“The huge cost of this ceremony could buy each British child a pony, yet distracting profligacy must calm the masses, lest we [unleash] the fury of the poor,” it continues. “Let them eat Coronation Quiche.”
Smith shared the cartoon on Twitter, as footage of him criticising the British Monarchy during an interview has gone viral.
— ROBERT SMITH (@RobertSmith) May 5, 2023
Speaking to Telerama.fr in 2012, Smith said: “I fucking hate Royalty. Any kind of hereditary privilege is just wrong. It’s not just anti-democracy, it’s just inherently wrong.
“What upsets me is that some people who I’ve actually admired down the years get offered a reward by the Royal Family, by the hereditary monarchy, and they take it. They become Lord or Sir,” he continued.
“I would honestly cut off my own hands before I [accepted an honour],” he added. “Because how dare they presume that they could give me an honour. I’m much better than them. They’ve never done anything, they’re fucking idiots. I should be King.”
"they've never done anything, they're fucking idiots"
it's going to be a week of total Royal mania for the #Coronation so here is Robert Smith to provide some balance 😌pic.twitter.com/aIfJKNB2Q4
— dave ❄️ 🥕 🧻 (@mrdavemacleod) May 1, 2023
Earlier this week, Nick Cave defended his decision to accept an invite to King Charles’ Coronation, insisting that he is “not a monarchist”.
“What I am also not is so spectacularly incurious about the world and the way it works as to refuse an invitation to what will more than likely be the most important historical event in the UK of our age. Not just the most important, but the strangest, the weirdest,” he wrote on his blog The Red Hand Files.
The Cure meanwhile, who last year completed a lengthy UK and European tour with a string of acclaimed shows at London’s Wembley Arena, are expected to soon announce release details of the long overdue ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ – the group’s first new album since 2008’s ‘4:13 Dream’.
Having long teased the albums – after telling us that two new records were on the way at the NME Awards 2020 – Smith revealed to NME earlier this year that one of them would be “real very soon” and would be called ‘Songs Of A Lost World’. Discussing the themes and character of the long-awaited album, Smith said that it “doesn’t have very much light on it” and that it sounds “more like ‘Disintegration’ than ‘Head On The Door’”.
This month, the band will embark on a North American tour supported by The Twilight Sad. Wishing to keep costs down for fans, The Cure opted out of Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing scheme, which Robert Smith described as “a bit of a scam”, and restricted ticket transfers in states where they were legally allowed to do so. However, some fans attempting to buy tickets reported that Ticketmaster fees, including service fee, facility charge and order processing fee, exceeded the price of actual tickets, which Smith said he was “sickened” by.