The Cure’s Robert Smith on his relationship with football, and why having a curry with Stan Bowles was “the highlight of my life”

nme.com:

The Cure frontman Robert Smith has spoken about his relationship with football, revealing that having a curry with the late Stan Bowles was “the highlight of [his] life”.Former England and Queens Park Rangers forward Bowles died in February, having been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2015.

He was 75 years old.Bowles played more than 560 games in English football and was capped five times by England. He made 315 appearances for QPR and scored 97 goals for the club, per BBC News.During a new interview in support of The Cure’s upcoming new album ‘Songs Of A Lost World’, Smith recalled being a longtime QPR supporter before he “fell out of love with football about 10 years ago for lots of silly little reasons”.He also remembered meeting his childhood hero Bowles, and opened up about his current feelings towards football in general – saying that it has become “very corporate” in recent times.“Each season becomes more and more predictable or tedious.

I don’t support anyone else, I just don’t really bother with football anymore,” Smith explained.“I met Stan Bowles. He was doing a meet and greet at Rangers the last time I went to a football match.

I went out for a curry with him, which was the highlight of my life because he was my idol when I was a kid!”He continued: “I fell in love with football when it was a completely different thing.