The Cure UK Tour 2027: Robert Smith Confirms More Concerts Are Coming

The Cure will play more concerts in 2027. Robert Smith said so himself on BBC Radio 6 Music on Tuesday 3rd November 2026.

Here's what Smith actually said, what the band's past behaviour suggests, and why I think a UK date is likely even though nobody can promise one. If you'd like a nudge when real news lands, the sign-up form at the foot of this page is the place to register your interest.

What Robert Smith said about 2027

The comments came as The Cure were named on 6 Music's Artists of the Year list for 2026, alongside Fontaines D.C., Charli XCX, Robyn and Erykah Badu. In a recorded message, Smith said:

"I'm looking forward to more Cure concerts in 2027. Of course I'm not allowed to say where or when yet, but I'm confident they'll be bursting with new songs."

He signed off with "watch this space". Short, then. But look at how much is packed in there.

• "More Cure concerts in 2027" is a firm statement. He doesn't say maybe.
• "Not allowed to say" tells you something exists that somebody else controls. You aren't forbidden from announcing a plan you don't have.
• "Bursting with new songs" gives you the reason for the shows.

Notice what's missing, though. He never said UK. He never said tour. Anything claiming a confirmed UK tour has gone a step further than the man himself. The honest version is that concerts are confirmed and geography is not.

The Cure at Rock en Seine, Paris, 30th August 2026. Photo: ManoSolo13241324, CC0

Why a UK date looks likely, and why it isn't certain

My read is that The Cure will play in the UK in 2027, but I wouldn't plan the Christmas party around it. Three things point towards it.

The first is simple habit. The band have played Britain in 2018, 2019, 2022, 2024 and 2026, and those are only the headline moments. They're an English band with a deep home crowd, and Smith has been unusually busy here lately. In March 2026 he took over from Roger Daltrey as curator of the Teenage Cancer Trust week at the Royal Albert Hall, and that week was on his own list of 2026 highlights.

The second is new material. A band with fresh albums to play tends to bring them home, and the last two UK runs both came with a record attached or a record on the way.

The third is the clock, which I'll come to.

Now the case against. The Cure played a huge amount of Britain and Ireland last summer, six headline shows in nine weeks, so there's no pent-up gap outside London. Far Out also pointed out that the band haven't been to North or South America in three years. If you were planning 2027 from scratch with new songs to promote, the Americas would be an obvious first stop, and that could push any UK return later in the year or into 2028.

So treat this as a strong probability. It's not a fact, and I won't dress it up as one.

The Cure's previous UK dates

The history matters because it shows the sort of shows they play here. Recent British dates have swung from an album launch for 3,000 people to Hyde Park and the Pyramid Stage.

Hyde Park was the 40th anniversary party, part of the BST Hyde Park concert series. Glastonbury 2019 was the band's fourth time headlining the festival, 33 years after they first did it in 1986. The 2022 run went through arenas including OVO Hydro and Utilita Arena Birmingham. Manchester's turn came in August 2026, and National World's review called it the band's first show in the city since 2016.

Summer 2026 was the biggest run for years: 31 shows in 23 countries, according to Contactmusic, from Primavera Sound in Barcelona in early June to Rock en Seine in Paris on 30th August. The Isle of Wight set alone ran to about two and a half hours.

The London problem

This is the bit I'd watch.

Look at that table again. None of the 2026 UK and Ireland headline dates were in London. The last time The Cure played the capital, as far as I can find, was the Troxy on 1st November 2024, when they performed Songs of a Lost World in full on the day it came out, in front of 3,000 fans and more than a million on a free stream. Before that you're back to the three arena nights of December 2022.

That means London has gone two years without them, and it has sat out a summer in which Cardiff, Belfast, Manchester and Edinburgh all got outdoor headline shows. Fans in the south-east had to travel. NME did report rumours of a special Cure set at the Royal Albert Hall during Smith's Teenage Cancer Trust week, but the published line-ups didn't include the band and I can't find any report that it happened.

If I had to place one UK show on the 2027 calendar, it'd be London, and it'd be outdoors. The band have form at Hyde Park, though nobody has linked them with BST 2027, and you shouldn't read that as a tip. The capital's stadium summer is filling up quickly too, with Fontaines D.C. at London Stadium on 9th July, so it's an easy calendar to picture and a hard one to predict. For a wider look at what's already planned, our major UK stadium concerts page keeps the big shows in one place.

One thing I would not do is plan a trip around any of this yet. Book nothing. Register, wait, and move when a date appears.

When could UK dates be announced?

Nobody has given a date, so this is inference rather than news. But the last two UK announcements give us a decent pattern.

For the 2026 shows, the sequence ran like this. Rock en Seine confirmed the band on 16th September 2025. The Isle of Wight Festival followed on 29th September. The UK and Ireland headline shows came a day later, on 30th September, with general sale on Friday 3rd October. Cardiff was added in October. So the first UK date appeared about nine months out, and the whole UK picture took less than a month to come together.

The December 2022 arena tour was announced even earlier, on 6th December 2021, a full year ahead, and tickets went on sale four days later. Demand was strong enough for extra London nights to follow.

Set that against Smith's message on 3rd November 2026, and I'd expect the first concrete 2027 date between now and the end of March 2027. If the concerts are in summer, that window fits the 2025 pattern and festival poster season. If they're later in the year, it could slide into spring. A festival bill is the likeliest first clue, because that's how it started last time.

The useful lesson isn't the month. It's the speed. Last time there were three days between the announcement and general sale. Fans who hear about a tour a week late have missed the moment.

New songs, and how many albums are coming

"Bursting with new songs" is the most interesting phrase Smith used, because it would be a change. The reviews I read of the 2026 UK shows describe sets built on existing material: Radio X had the Isle of Wight set opening with "Alone", NME had Cardiff opening with "Plainsong", and both ended on "Boys Don't Cry". The surprises were old deep cuts such as "alt.end" and "Mint Car", plus a heatwave "Hot Hot Hot!!!" in Cardiff.

Robert Smith at Southside Festival, June 2019. Photo: Mr. Rossi, CC BY-SA 4.0

So where do the new songs come from? Smith told 6 Music in June that the Songs of a Lost World sessions produced three albums' worth of material. "The second one is done, so that's about to be delivered to Universal," he said.

Then he described them, and this is where it gets fun. The next album is "more dismal than Songs of a Lost World", he said, before admitting that dismal is "a horrible word to use". The one after that is the shock: "really upbeat", "really poppy", his "idea of Cure Pop". Then the line that will end up on a T-shirt: "It's banging."

Neither album has a release date. Still, it's easy to see the shape of a plan: new record, new shows, songs tested on the road. Fans have waited long enough to be sceptical. There were 16 years between 4:13 Dream in 2008 and Songs of a Lost World in 2024, and Smith has a long history of promising things that take their time.

But the last record paid off. It reached number one in the UK, and in February 2026 it won the band their first Grammys, for Best Alternative Music Album, with "Alone" taking Best Alternative Music Performance.

Smith has also had the oddest, busiest year of his career as a guest. He sings with Olivia Rodrigo on "What's Wrong With Me" and plays on Foreign Tongues, the record behind all the talk of the Rolling Stones in 2027. He's 67 and everybody wants him on their album.

Why 2027 may matter more than most years

Here's the clock I mentioned. In October 2024, Smith laid out an end point. "I'm 70 in 2029, and that's the 50th anniversary of the first Cure album," he said. "If I make it that far, that's it." He also said the band would "probably be playing quite regularly through until the next anniversary", which means 2028, when a documentary is planned too.

Robert Smith on the Orange Stage at Roskilde Festival, July 2012. Photo: Bill Ebbesen, CC BY-SA 3.0

Take retirement talk from a rock star with a pinch of salt. Plans change, and the conditional wording leaves plenty of room. But if he means even half of it, the remaining Cure shows are countable. That's why I wouldn't wave away a 2027 date as just another tour, and it's why I'd expect demand to be serious when one is announced.

The band itself has changed as well. Perry Bamonte died on 24th December 2025, and Eden Gallup officially joined at Primavera Sound in June 2026, playing alongside Smith, Simon Gallup, Roger O'Donnell, Jason Cooper and Reeves Gabrels. So any 2027 show comes with a line-up that's new to many fans, as well as the new songs.

Three shapes a UK return could take

Since nobody has told us the plan, it helps to think about what's realistic. The band's own recent history offers three models, and each would suit a different kind of fan.

The first is the festival headline slot. That's how the Isle of Wight worked in 2026 and Glastonbury in 2019. You get a full two-hour-plus set and a bill full of other acts, but you also get a field, a weekend's logistics and a crowd that isn't only there for one band.

The second is the outdoor headline show. Blackweir Fields, Wythenshawe Park and the Royal Highland Showgrounds all followed that format last summer: one band, one long evening, strong support acts and a big open site. If I had to pick the likeliest model for 2027, it's this one, because it worked so recently and because it's the easiest way to fill the London gap.

The third is the winter arena tour. December 2022 is the template: Belfast, Glasgow, Leeds, Birmingham, Cardiff and London in under a fortnight, with demand pushing up the number of London nights. New songs suit a room like that. Heavy, slow, dismal songs certainly do. A set that opens on a 2024 album track feels different under a roof in December than it does in June sunshine, and Smith has already told us the next record is the dark one. I'd love this version, and I'd give it a real chance if the album lands in the second half of 2027.

For anyone hosting guests, the difference is practical. An arena night and a day in a park ask very different things of a group, from travel to timings to what the evening feels like. That's why it helps to tell us early which of the two you're planning.

Who could support The Cure?

No support acts exist for shows that don't exist, but Smith's taste leaves a clear trail. His 2026 UK and Ireland shows came with Mogwai, Slowdive, The Twilight Sad, The Joy Formidable, Just Mustard, The Slow Readers Club and Stella and the Dreaming on selected dates. His Teenage Cancer Trust week ran from 23rd to 29th March 2026 and featured Elbow, Manic Street Preachers, My Bloody Valentine, Wolf Alice, Mogwai and Garbage.

Read those lists together and you get a man who books guitar bands he actually likes, with little interest in filling the bill with whoever's biggest. Mogwai appear on both. The Twilight Sad remixed "A Fragile Thing" for Mixes of a Lost World. So if a 2027 announcement arrives, I'd expect at least one familiar name and at least one band you'll be pleased to discover at 6pm.

What about festivals in 2027?

I can't find a credible report tying The Cure to any UK festival in 2027. Not Glastonbury 2027, which starts on 23rd June and has its own headliner rumour mill, and not anywhere else. You'll see wish lists. Treat them as wish lists.

Still, Glastonbury is the fun one to think about. The Cure have headlined Worthy Farm four times, and a fifth would be a nice way to mark the run-up to the 50th anniversary. That's my speculation, and nobody connected with either side has suggested it.

If the band do hold off on the UK, 2027 is hardly short of big nights. Radiohead fans know all about long waits, Oasis return with a huge Live '27 run, and Fontaines D.C. at Heaton Park on 3rd July is as close as this summer gets to a Manchester guitar event. Browse everything on our live music page if you'd rather not wait.

How to register your interest

No date exists yet, so this is about being told first rather than buying anything. Register now and we'll be in touch when there's real news.

Use the Stay in the know form at the foot of this page and add a short message saying The Cure. It helps to include:

• How many people would be going.
• Which city you'd prefer, if you have one.
• Whether it's a personal night out or you're hosting guests.

The cost of doing this now is that you're putting your hand up for a show nobody can describe yet. I'd still do it. Three days was all the warning fans got last time.

Smith ended his message with a promise and a shrug. Watch this space. We are.

Photo credits: Cover: Robert Smith at Southside Festival, June 2019. Photo: Mr. Rossi, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Cure at Rock en Seine, 30th August 2026. Photo: ManoSolo13241324, CC0. Robert Smith at Southside Festival, June 2019. Photo: Mr. Rossi, CC BY-SA 4.0. Robert Smith at Roskilde Festival, July 2012. Photo: Bill Ebbesen, CC BY-SA 3.0.