Robert Smith pulled double duty each night by performing with the Cure and then as the guitarist with Siouxsie and the Banshees after John McKay quit the group in Aberdeen. That musical experience had a strong impact on him: "On stage that first night with the Banshees, I was blown away by how powerful I felt playing that kind of music. It was so different to what we were doing with the Cure. Before that, I'd wanted us to be like the Buzzcocks or Elvis Costello; the punk Beatles. Being a Banshee really changed my attitude to what I was doing."

The founding members of the Cure were school friends at Notre Dame Middle School in Crawley, West Sussex, whose first public performance was at an end-of-year show in April 1973. 13-year-old Robert Smith and future Cure members Lol Tolhurst and Mick Dempsey formed a band called The Obelisk and played one show.

The inspiration for "Pictures of You" came when a fire broke loose in Robert Smith's home. Afterwards, Smith was going through the remains and came across his wallet which had pictures of his wife, Mary. The cover of the single is one of those pictures.

I opened up my eyes
And found myself alone, alone, alone above a raging sea
That stole the only girl I loved and drowned her deep inside of me
You soft and only, you lost and lonely, you just like heaven

Disintegration was Robert Smith's thematic return to a dark and gloomy aesthetic that The Cure had explored in the early 1980s. Smith deliberately sought to record an album that was depressing, as it was a reflection of the despondency he felt at the time. The sound of the album was a shock to the band's American label Elektra Records. Smith recalled "they thought I was being 'willfully obscure', which was an actual quote from the letter. Ever since then I realized that record companies don't have a f***ing clue what The Cure does and what The Cure means."

The NME Awards is an annual music awards show in the United Kingdom, founded by the music magazine NME (New Musical Express). In 2009, The Cure were the recipients of the Godlike Genius Award. In response to the accolade, Smith said, "I think in music if you can create something that's very simple that sticks with someone else and it emotionally moves them, it's genius in its own way. Few people manage to do it. Lots and lots and lots of people try but very few people manage to do it."

If only I'd thought of the right words
I could have held on to your heart
If only I'd thought of the right words
I wouldn't be breaking apart
All my pictures of you

Despite having no kids of his own, Robert Smith lavishes gifts on his nephews and nieces, taking them to Euro Disney every Christmas. He recalls: "Minnie Mouse coming up to me and asking me for my autograph with all the children looking on in absolute amazement was one of the best and most disturbing moments of my life."

In the episode, Barbra Streisand obtains the Diamond of Pantheos from Stan, Cartman, Kyle and Kenny, and transforms into a giant mechanical dinosaur called Mecha-Streisand. She is ultimately defeated by The Cure frontman Robert Smith, who himself transforms into a giant moth monster. As the singer walks off into the sunset, Kyle calls out "Disintegration is the best album ever!"

The Sandman is a comic book series written by Neil Gaiman and published by DC Comics. The main character is Dream, also known as Morpheus, who is one of the seven Endless. His face and physique is based on the amalgamation of Neil Gaiman in his twenties, The Cure's frontman Robert Smith, and ballet dancer Farukh Ruzimatov.