| Name | Judge Smith |
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| Background | solo_singer |
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| Birth name | Christopher John Judge Smith |
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| Born | 1948England |
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| Instrument | Vocals, drums, euphonium |
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| Genre | Progressive rock, alternative rock, avant garde, musical, opera |
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| Occupation | Singer, songwriter |
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| Years active | 1967–present |
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| Label | Masters Of Art |
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| Associated acts | Van der Graaf Generator, John Ellis, Arthur Brown, Lene Lovich, Mr Averell |
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| Url | Judge SmithCurly's Airsips |
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Christopher John Judge Smith (born 1948 in
England), is a songwriter, composer and performer, and a founder member of
progressive rock band
Van der Graaf Generator. He called himself Chris Judge Smith initially, but later decided to drop the "Chris" and to call himself simply Judge Smith.
Biography
Early years
In 1967, with
Peter Hammill, Judge Smith was a founder member of Van der Graaf Generator. He was originally the drummer (at some points he used a typewriter as well), but after drummer
Guy Evans had joined the band, Smith concluded that there wasn't a great deal for him to do, since his role was reduced to being a harmony singer. After having recorded the first Van der Graaf Generator-single ("People You Were Going To" b/w "Firebrand"), Smith left the band in 1968, amicably.
He went on to form a band called Heebalob, which included saxophonist David Jackson (who would later join Van der Graaf Generator). After the demise of Heebalob, Smith pursued a solo career, and wrote and recorded many songs. Several of those only appeared on his (currently unavailable) first solo album Democrazy (1991). Smith also wrote several stage musicals, including The Kibbo Kift (1976), The Ascent Of Wilberforce III (1981) and Mata Hari (1982), a musical co-written with (and starring) Lene Lovich.
Around 1973, Smith, together with Van der Graaf Generator co-founder Peter Hammill, began work on an opera based on the short story The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, Smith writing the libretto and Hammill composing the music. The new version is notable for having a cleaner, better produced sound, additional guitars and (unlike the first version) no percussion.
Peter Hammill has recorded a number of songs written by Smith, including "Been Alone So Long", "Time for a Change" and "Four Pails", and plays those live on a regular basis. Also Lene Lovich recorded songs written by Smith, including "What Will I Do Without You" and "You Can't Kill Me".
In 1974 Smith wrote and directed a short film entitled The Brass Band, which has won several international awards.
Smith also wrote music for the television comedy series Not The Nine O'Clock News in the 1980s, including the punk rock parody "Gob on You".
Recent years
In 1993
Dome Of Discovery was released, Smith's first CD proper. Apart from the vocals, virtually every note on the album came from the sampled sounds of real instruments. Smith spent months making his own samples, hiring various musicians and recording individual notes. This was to be the first of three songstories written and composed by Smith.
(2000)]]
On the same day that Van der Graaf Generator played their reunion concert in the
Royal Festival Hall in London, 6 May 2005, Smith played an afternoon concert, for the first time in many years, at the Cobden Club in London. He presented his new album
The Full English there, and played (amongst others) all songs on it, accompanied by John Ellis on electric guitar,
Michael Ward-Bergeman on accordion and
René van Commenée on percussion.
A recording of a concert by Smith in Guastalla, Italy, in 2005 was released on DVD on 20 March 2006, Live In Italy 2005.
Also in 2006, The Vesica Massage was released, an album of instrumental music for use by massage therapists.
In October 2007 Smith released a two-song single CD, "The Light of the World" / "I Don't Know What I'm Doing", under the name of The Tribal Elders. This band consists of Judge Smith, David Jackson, John Ellis, Michael Ward-Bergeman and Rikki Patten.
In January 2008 the full-length album Long-Range Audio Device was released, under the name of L-RAD, which is a collaboration of Judge Smith with Steve Defoe. Defoe is an American artist, founder of The Larry Mondello Band, who released numerous cassette tapes of their lo-fi music in the 1980s and 1990s.
In May 2009 Smith performed the premiere of his second songstory, The Climber (written 2005), with a Norwegian male-voice choir, the Fløyen Voices, and a double bass, at USF Verftet in Bergen, Norway. A studio recording was released on 17 May 2010.
Smith is currently working on a third songstory, Orfeas, which is to be released early in 2011.
Discography
Democrazy (a collection of recordings from 1968–1977, 1991)
Dome Of Discovery (1993, remastered version available on iTunes only, 2006)
Curly's Airships (songstory, double CD, 2000)
The Full English (2005)
Live in Italy 2005 (DVD, 2006)
The Vesica Massage (2006)
The Light of the World (two-song CD single, 2007, as The Tribal Elders)
Long-Range Audio Device (2008, as L-RAD)
The Climber (songstory, 2010)
At the official Judge Smith Musicography you will find an attempt to create a complete list of all Judge Smith's musical activities.
Notes
External links
Judge Smith (official site)
Curly's Airships (official site about the Curly's Airships songstory)
LOL-records (Judge Smith's recording-mixing studio and label for The Full English and Live In Italy)
The Larry Mondello Band (official site)
Judge Smith at the Van der Graaf Generator fan site
Category:1948 births
Category:Living people
Category:English male singers
Category:English singer-songwriters
Category:English drummers
Category:Van der Graaf Generator members
Category:Old Oundelians
