Can't put a price on Bob

The Cure's Robert Smith, no doubt well compensated for the use of "Friday I'm In Love" in He's Just Not That Into You, reflects on his habit of firing band members and the value of value. (Times UK)

His axe has swung many times over the ever-shifting Cure line-up since 1980, and as their celebrated Curiosa Festival tour of America wound to a close in 2004 he sharpened his blade once again for the necks of the band’s long-term guitarists Roger O’Donnell and Perry Bamonte. “I knew that was it for Roger and Perry,” he says. “I didn’t spend more than five minutes with either of them on that tour apart from when we were onstage. When it’s gone, it’s gone. I told them both that I wanted to try something with Simon [Gallup, bassist] and Jason [Cooper, drums] and I’d let them know how it went. I felt that was the fairest way of doing it because I thought if it doesn’t work with Simon and Jason then the group will be over. The thing drifts apart. The bigger the group gets the harder it is to hold it together.”