Rising Liverpudlian songstress Luvcat says she would probably faint if she bumped into The Cure’s Robert Smith backstage.
The 29-year-old – real name Sophie Howarth – adopted her Luvcat moniker in homage to the legendary rockers’ 1983 hit The Lovecats.
Now she will be appearing on the same bill as them at this year’s Isle of Wight festival in June.
Speaking at The Cure photography exhibition at London’s Iconic Images Gallery, she revealed to Metro her dad wanted to call her Charlotte Sometimes – a track from The Cure’s third album faith.
‘They eventually decided on calling me Sophie’, she said. ‘All my life I wished I had the middle name Sometimes. When I eventually named myself Luvcat, it felt like I was returning to that. My dad brainwashed me from a very young age educating me about The Cure. I was always the youngest person at their concerts, and I was very proud about that.
‘The Isle of Wight Festival was the first one I went to away from home. It feels like the craziest thing in the world to be going back and playing on the day of The Cure.
‘I’m terrified I’m going to see Robert somewhere backstage because he exists in my imagination only at this point. I’m terrified to meet him but hopefully one day I can.
‘I don’t know what I’d say – I’d probably just faint!’
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Luvcat enjoyed a whirlwind 2025. She supported Sabrina Carpenter for her BST Hyde Park shows, embarked on a European tour with The Libertines, and hit the road in the US.
Her debut album Vicious Delicious came out on Halloween.
Legendary ‘punk poet’ John Cooper Clarke also appears on her track He’s My Man (The Anniversary), an experience she described as like a ‘fever dream’.
She added: ‘I can’t accept that it really happened because he’s a totally intoxicating character to be around.’
Metro chatted with Luvcat the day after the Music Venue Trust 2025 annual report found 30 grassroots venues had closed in the UK and 6,000 jobs lost last year alone.
‘The reason my career changed after 10 years of struggling was through playing grassroots venues. It was from the grassroots venues in Liverpool then south east London like The Windmill and the Old Dispensary.
‘Liverpool’s barely got any left now; it’s hitting everyone so hard and it’s heartbreaking. We do all we can do to support them. I always try to go back and do surprise shows when I can, as often as I can. We release vinyl in support of independent venues.
‘It’s so important that artists, as they progress through their careers, go back and support the places that gave them that first opportunity.’
