Janet Smith's Role and Influence
Robert Smith has said that his mother Rita "wasn't supposed to have me", which was the reason for the significant age gap between him and his elder two siblings. "And once they got me, they didn't like the idea of having an only child, so they had my sister. Which is good, because I would have hated not having a younger sister." He has described little sister Janet as a "piano prodigy" and "the family's musical genius", but said that she was too shy to become a performer herself.
Janet knew Porl Thompson, the erstwhile "second" guitarist of The Cure, since they were children, and the pair began dating during Thompson's early tenure as lead guitarist for Malice and the Easy Cure. As well as having participated in The Crawley Goat Band from c.1973, Janet also performed keyboards as a member of Cult Hero in 1979, and their older sister Margaret contributed backing vocals to the project. Janet, together with Simon Gallup's then-girlfriend Carol (both dressed as schoolgirls) and real-life schoolboys The Obtainers, all sang backing vocals for The Cult Heroes' only live performance at The Marquee, London, opening for Fiction label-mates The Passions in March, 1980.
The Cure's in-house design company "Parched Art" (Porl Thompson and Andy Vella) created the album cover for The Cure's The Head On The Door using a manipulated photograph of Janet taken by Porl. During the mid 1980s Janet gave up a professional career as a pianist to spend more time with Porl and The Cure, and the couple were married in March 1988. Janet is also credited with having taught Robert's guitar technician Perry Bamonte to play piano while The Cure were recording Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, prior to Bamonte joining the group as keyboardist in 1990.
| “ | With the patience of a saint, she spent a month teaching me the rudiments of playing piano. Before this, I knew nothing. | ” |
Read more about this topic: Robert Smith (musician)
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