Robert Smith has been revealed as the next guest curator of Teenage Cancer Trust’s annual concert series at the Royal Albert Hall.

The Cure’s frontman has long been a supporter of the charity series, having previously performed two classic shows in 2014 and in 2006. He was also heavily involved in the TCT’s UNSEEN campaign during lockdown – helping the charity raise funds for those struggling during that period.

Smith is no stranger to curating events, having assembled the line-up for the 2018 edition of Meltdown Festival, which was held at the Southbank Centre and saw performances from Mogwai, The Psychedelic Furs, The Church and Nine Inch Nails.

He will personally curate the 2026 edition of Teenage Cancer Trust after series founder Roger Daltry stepped back.

Speaking about the new role, Smith said: “Teenage Cancer Trust does the most fantastic work, and it is a great honour – and a real thrill – to be asked to curate the 2026 shows at the Royal Albert Hall. I can promise it will be a very memorable week!”

Daltry, who will continue as a Teenage Cancer Trust honorary patron, has fundraised and advocated for the Trust – the only UK charity dedicated to providing specialised nursing care and support for young people with cancer – for nearly a quarter of a century.

“With The Cure’s long and outstanding support for Teenage Cancer Trust, Robert appreciates the vital work this charity does”

Since launching the series at the historic London venue in 2000, Daltrey has persuaded superstars such as Paul McCartney, Oasis, Muse, Florence + The Machine, Ed Sheeran, The Cure, Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay and Take That, to perform unique, one night only gigs to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust, generating more than £32 million from ticket sales in the process.

“It has not been easy to find the right curator for the week of concerts in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hall, but it’s with great excitement that I can announce that Robert Smith has signed up for 2026,” comments Daltry.

“With The Cure’s long and outstanding support for Teenage Cancer Trust, Robert appreciates the vital work this charity does. The concerts have become an essential fixture in the music calendar, featuring some of the world’s greatest artists. It has been a challenge to find the right person to take them on – but Robert, a true musical great, is the perfect curator for the 2026 concerts.”

This year’s Teenage Cancer Trust series runs from 24–30 March, with headliners including The Who, The Corrs, James Arthur, a comedy night hosted by Micky Flanagan, as well as the Sex Pistols, who will be performing with Frank Carter.

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The Cure’s touring team have spoken to IQ about live’s integral role in the multi-pronged strategy that helped the band’s first studio album in 16 years top the charts across Europe.

Songs of a Lost World reached the summit last week in most major European markets, including their native UK where it outsold the rest of the top 20 combined.

The LP – which gave the Robert Smith-fronted band their first UK #1 since 1992’s Wish, and their first ever chart-topper in several other countries – dropped via Polydor on 1 November. The promotional campaign included two solid days of Cure content and interviews across BBC channels between 31 October and 2 November (lead single Alone also premiered on Mary Anne Hobbs’ 6 Music show on 26 September).

Central to the coordinated approach, the group performed two world exclusive live sessions for BBC Radio 2 In Concert and BBC Radio 6 Music on 30 October, followed by a global livestream from the 3,100-cap art deco East London venue Troxy on the day of release.

Charlie Renton of Primary Talent International tells IQ how the Troxy show, which has attracted more than 1.7 million views on YouTube, came together.

“It needed to be a venue with character, have the facility to park nine trucks and a facility to house a 10-camera shoot”

“Robert got in touch with us towards the end of the summer saying he had a confirmed album release date, could we find a relatively small venue ‘with character’ to put on an album launch show on the release date which would be livestreamed,” says Renton.

“Not having a huge amount of lead time on this, we were so lucky to get Troxy to move a few dates around for us! It really worked out well being such a beautiful venue and so well set up for the filming too.”

Pete Wilson of promoter AAA Entertainment reveals the event was just three months in the making.

“At the back end of July, we got emails from Primary asking us what we could find for a livestream on 1 November,” he says. “After a series of calls and emails over the next 48 hours, we set about seeing what might be available in London and Brighton at around 1,000 capacity.”

Wilson explains that from an original list of 30 venues, it quickly came down to a handful.

“It needed to be a venue with character, have the facility to park nine trucks and a facility to house a 10-camera shoot,” he continues. “Eventually, the Troxy was the optimum choice and we set about trying to clear pencils. This, with the relief of all concerned, was achieved.

“To create an event with a live vibrant fanbase, media and guests was a challenge, but it happened.”

“The main focus was that we needed to make sure the tickets went to real fans – especially due to the show being livestreamed”

Tickets for their BBC Radio 2 In Concert set were allocated via a free ballot, while the Troxy gig went on sale via Dice, with the band maintaining their well-documented low price, anti-scalping stance. Applications for each night stretched well into six figures.

“The main focus was that we needed to make sure the tickets went to real fans – especially due to the show being livestreamed,” notes Renton. “As it was the album launch show, it was set up so fans pre-ordering the album would get a code to enter the onsale.

“Robert wanted it to be a very reasonable ticket price, with no dynamic pricing and any fees to be made absolutely clear from the very start of the buying process. The final £50 ticket price ended up including a £1 charity donation to War Child, too.

“Troxy was already partnered with Dice, which was really helpful with its pricing clarity and anti-tout set up.”

Simon Eaton, head of live at Troxy, elaborates: “In order to have the opportunity to purchase a ticket, customers were first required to preorder the band’s new album Songs of a Lost World, in order to obtain a one time use code. Once on sale, the code allowed fans to purchase a maximum of two tickets per person which could not be sold or transferred to another person, with ID required on entry.

“Messaging was explicitly clear from the outset: if it’s not been purchased on Dice, it’s not a legitimate ticket. The few that did appear on Viagogo for extortionate rates were forgeries, sent cease and desist letters and removed immediately.”

Moreover, Eaton hails the concert as “three hours of solid beauty”.

“None of this could have happened without Robert Smith, who deserves a very special mention,” he adds. “It’s rare to never that artists get involved directly, we usually only deal with their background teams. He was there right from the start, a breath of fresh air.

“His decision to not only have the show streamed globally, but to make it available to all for free is unprecedented, given the potential revenue stream if it was charged. He oversaw the merch which was made specific for the night, with the date and venue printed on, badges were given out as freebies to everyone on entry. These are things that don’t happen every day and something that will stay in the memory for a long time to come.”

“Most bands become big and then either implode or spend years trying to maintain that level, but The Cure have just continued to build”

More than 45 years after forming, The Cure have enjoyed a huge surge in popularity and keep getting bigger with every outing. In 2023, they achieved the highest-grossing tour of their career, with their 30-date North American tour selling 547,000 tickets for a gross of $37.5 million.

“The Cure have always been unique,” says long-term agent Martin Hopewell. “Most bands become big and then either implode or spend years trying to maintain that level, but The Cure have just continued to build – without ever compromising or shifting styles to match whatever else was going on at the time – and you’d have to say that much of the reason for that has been their live performances.

“The fact is that they’re a bloody good band and they consistently deliver some truly epic live shows. The success of this new album – and the coordinated campaign to launch it – is obviously very exciting for all of us and I’m really thrilled for Robert and the rest of the band. They deserve everything they get.”

Smith recently told Radio 6’s Matt Everitt that the band have another LP “virtually finished”, with a third new record also in the works. He also elaborated on their future touring plans up to their 50th anniversary in four years’ time.

“We’ll start up again next year,” said Smith. “Seriously, I have to finish the second album. We were going to play festivals next year, but then I decided that we weren’t going to play anything next summer.

“The next time we go out on stage will be autumn next year. But then we’ll probably be playing quite regularly through until the next anniversary – the 2028 anniversary!”

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The Cure has cancelled 7,000 concert tickets listed on secondary resale websites, according to frontman Robert Smith.

In addition, the band has announced a plan to resell scalped tickets for their upcoming North American trek and donate the original fees to the charity Amnesty International.

When the Lost World tour was first announced, the Cure opted out of Ticketmaster’s platinum and dynamic pricing ticket options. The band also restricted ticket transfers in markets where it was legally allowed to do so in places like New York, Illinois, and Colorado.

“Any/all tickets obtained in this way will be cancelled and original fees paid on those tickets will not be refunded”

Following that move, Smith last Friday (31 March) announced: “Approx 7k tickets across approx 2200 orders have been cancelled. These are tickets acquired with fake accounts/ listed on secondary resale sites.”

The night prior, Smith said ticket buyers should not try to find a loophole with ticket transfer rules, and warned, “offering to sell/send account login details to get around [Ticketmaster] transfer limitations… any/all tickets obtained in this way will be cancelled, and original fees paid on those tickets will not be refunded.”

Pricing around the The Cure’s US tour has proved controversial in recent weeks, with the singer having criticised Ticketmaster for “unduly high” fees charged in the Verified Fan onsale for the dates, some of which were more than the face value of the ticket. However, Ticketmaster later agreed to refund fans some of the fees (between $5 and $10), as a “gesture of goodwill”.

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