Judge Smith
Encyclopedia
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
. Initially working under the name Chris Judge Smith, he has been known simply as Judge Smith since 1994.
, Judge Smith founded the band Van der Graaf Generator. He was originally a singing drummer and percussionist (sometimes playing a typewriter), but after drummer Guy Evans
joined the band, Smith realized that there wasn't a great deal left for him to do, since his role was reduced to being a harmony singer. After recording the first Van der Graaf Generator-single ("People You Were Going To" b/w "Firebrand"), Smith amicably left the band in 1968.
He went on to form a jazz-rock 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, some of which appeared on his (currently unavailable) first solo album Democrazy (1991). Smith also wrote several stage musicals as lyricist with composer Maxwell Hutchinson
, including The Kibbo Kift (1976) and The Ascent Of Wilberforce III (1981) and his own chamber opera, The Book Of Hours (1978). Mata Hari (1982), was his last 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 album was finally released in 1991 on Some Bizzare Records
, with a cast of singers including Lene Lovich, Andy Bell
, Sarah Jane Morris
and Herbert Grönemeyer
. A reworked version, entitled The Fall Of The House Of Usher - deconstructed & rebuilt, was released on Hammill's Fie! label in 1999. 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 them live on a regular basis. Lene Lovich also 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".
.
After many years of work developing a new form of narrative music he calls "Songstory", Smith completed and released, in 2000, the double CD Curly's Airships
, about the R101
airship
disaster of 1930. Amongst many others, Peter Hammill, Hugh Banton
, Arthur Brown
, David Jackson
, John Ellis
and Pete Brown
performed on the project. Smith believes that the 2 hr 20 min work might be the largest and most ambitious single piece of rock music ever recorded. Curly's Airships was to be the first of three Songstories so far written and composed by Smith.
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, his first for many years, at the Cobden Club in London. This concert launched his new album The Full English, and featured (amongst others) all the songs on it. He was accompanied by John Ellis on electric guitar, Michael Ward-Bergeman on accordion and René van Commenée on percussion.
A DVD recording of a concert by Smith in Guastalla
, Italy, Live In Italy 2005, was released on DVD on 20 March 2006.
2006 also saw the release of The Vesica Massage, an album of instrumental music designed 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 consisted 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, a collaboration between Judge Smith and American artist Steve Defoe. Defoe is a 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 in 2005). The work was performed with a Norwegian male-voice choir, the Fløyen Voices, and no other instruments apart from a double bass, at USF Verftet in Bergen, Norway
. A studio recording was released on 17 May 2010.
In 2007, 2008 and twice in 2010 Smith and David Jackson performed their piece The House That Cried live in Italy, with a choir and orchestra.
Smith released his third songstory, Orfeas, on 9 May 2011. It is a retelling of the ancient myth of Orpheus
, performed by seven separate ensembles, each playing an entirely different kind of music. It features performances by, amongst others, John Ellis
(as George Orfeas), Lene Lovich
(as Eurydice) and David Jackson
(as the saxophone player in the George Orfeas Band).
At the official Judge Smith Musicography you will find an attempt to create a complete list of all Judge Smith's musical activities.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
), is a songwriter, composer and performer, and a founder member of progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
band Van der Graaf Generator
Van der Graaf Generator
Van der Graaf Generator are an English progressive rock band, formed in 1967 in Manchester. They were the first act signed to Charisma Records. The band achieved considerable success in Italy during the 1970s...
. Initially working under the name Chris Judge Smith, he has been known simply as Judge Smith since 1994.
Early years
In 1967, with Peter HammillPeter Hammill
Peter Joseph Andrew Hammill is an English singer-songwriter, and a founding member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Most noted for his vocal abilities, his main instruments are guitar and piano...
, Judge Smith founded the band Van der Graaf Generator. He was originally a singing drummer and percussionist (sometimes playing a typewriter), but after drummer Guy Evans
Guy Evans
Guy Randolph Evans is an English progressive rock drummer, percussionist and composer, and a member of Van der Graaf Generator....
joined the band, Smith realized that there wasn't a great deal left for him to do, since his role was reduced to being a harmony singer. After recording the first Van der Graaf Generator-single ("People You Were Going To" b/w "Firebrand"), Smith amicably left the band in 1968.
He went on to form a jazz-rock band called Heebalob, which included saxophonist David Jackson
David Jackson (rock musician)
David Nicholas George Jackson , nicknamed Jaxon, is a British progressive rock saxophonist, flautist, and composer. He is best known for his work with the band Van der Graaf Generator and his work in Music and Disability...
(who would later join Van der Graaf Generator). After the demise of Heebalob, Smith pursued a solo career, and wrote and recorded many songs, some of which appeared on his (currently unavailable) first solo album Democrazy (1991). Smith also wrote several stage musicals as lyricist with composer Maxwell Hutchinson
Maxwell Hutchinson
John Maxwell Hutchinson is an English architect and broadcaster.-Early life:He was born in Grantham, Lincolnshire to Frank Maxwell Hutchinson and his wife Elizabeth Ross and went to school in Northamptonshire at Wellingborough Prep School and the independent Oundle School...
, including The Kibbo Kift (1976) and The Ascent Of Wilberforce III (1981) and his own chamber opera, The Book Of Hours (1978). Mata Hari (1982), was his last musical, co-written with (and starring) Lene Lovich
Lene Lovich
Lene Lovich is an American singer based in England, who first gained attention as part of the New Wave music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Her most popular hit single was "Lucky Number", first released in 1979.-Early years:...
.
Around 1973, Smith, together with Van der Graaf Generator co-founder Peter Hammill, began work on an opera
The Fall Of The House Of Usher (opera)
The Fall of the House of Usher is an opera by Peter Hammill and Chris Judge Smith . It is based on the short story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe....
based on the short story The Fall of the House of Usher
The Fall of the House of Usher
"The Fall of the House of Usher" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in September 1839 in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. It was slightly revised in 1840 for the collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque...
by Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
, Smith writing the libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
and Hammill composing the music. The album was finally released in 1991 on Some Bizzare Records
Some Bizzare Records
Some Bizzare Records is a British independent record label owned by Stevo Pearce. The label was founded in 1981, with the release of Some Bizzare Album, a compilation of unsigned bands including Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, The The, Neu Electrikk and Blancmange.-1981-1989:One of the first bands that...
, with a cast of singers including Lene Lovich, Andy Bell
Andy Bell (singer)
Andrew Ivan "Andy" Bell is the lead singer of the English synthpop duo Erasure. He also has a solo career, with the albums Non-Stop and Electric Blue.-Early life:Andy Bell originates from the Dogsthorpe area in Peterborough...
, Sarah Jane Morris
Sarah Jane Morris (singer)
Sarah Jane Morris , is a pop music, jazz, rock and R&B singer and songwriter.In 1982, Morris joined The Republic as lead singer. A London-based Afro-Caribbean-Latin band with leftish tendencies, they received enormous publicity from the music press including cover stories with NME and City Limits...
and Herbert Grönemeyer
Herbert Grönemeyer
Herbert Grönemeyer is a German musician and actor, popular in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He starred as war correspondent Lieutenant Werner in Wolfgang Petersen's movie Das Boot, but later concentrated on his musical career...
. A reworked version, entitled The Fall Of The House Of Usher - deconstructed & rebuilt, was released on Hammill's Fie! label in 1999. 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 them live on a regular basis. Lene Lovich also 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
Not the Nine O'Clock News
Not the Nine O'Clock News is a television comedy sketch show which was broadcast on BBC 2 from 1979 to 1982.Originally shown as a comedy "alternative" to the BBC Nine O'Clock News on BBC 1, it featured satirical sketches on current news stories and popular culture, as well as parody songs, comedy...
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. Since 2006, a remastered version has been available for download at iTunesITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
.
After many years of work developing a new form of narrative music he calls "Songstory", Smith completed and released, in 2000, the double CD Curly's Airships
Curly's Airships
Curly's Airships is a double CD by Judge Smith, released in October 2000. Smith regards the album as a new form of narrative rock music, which he calls "songstory". Curly's Airships tells about the R101 airship, crashing in France during its maiden overseas voyage in 1930...
, about the R101
R101
R101 was one of a pair of British rigid airship completed in 1929 as part of a British government programme to develop civil airships capable of service on long-distance routes within the British Empire. It was designed and built by an Air Ministry-appointed team and was effectively in competition...
airship
Airship
An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or "lighter-than-air aircraft" that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust mechanisms...
disaster of 1930. Amongst many others, Peter Hammill, Hugh Banton
Hugh Banton
Hugh Robert Banton is a British organist and organ builder, most widely known for his work with the group Van der Graaf Generator in the 1970s.-Career:...
, Arthur Brown
Arthur Brown (musician)
Arthur Brown is an English rock and roll musician best known for his flamboyant, theatrical style and significant influence on Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel, Marilyn Manson, George Clinton, Kiss, King Diamond, and Bruce Dickinson, among others, and for his number one hit in the UK Singles Chart and...
, David Jackson
David Jackson (rock musician)
David Nicholas George Jackson , nicknamed Jaxon, is a British progressive rock saxophonist, flautist, and composer. He is best known for his work with the band Van der Graaf Generator and his work in Music and Disability...
, John Ellis
John Ellis (guitarist)
John Ellis is an English guitarist and songwriter.-Career:He was a co-founder of the pub rock band Bazooka Joe in 1970 and a founding member of the punk rock band The Vibrators. Ellis formed The Vibrators in 1974 while still at art school studying illustration. The Vibrators released two albums...
and Pete Brown
Pete Brown
Peter Ronald Brown is an English performance poet and lyricist.Best known for his collaborations with Jack Bruce, Brown also worked with The Battered Ornaments, formed his own group Pete Brown & Piblokto!, and worked with Graham Bond and Phil Ryan. Brown also writes film scores and formed a film...
performed on the project. Smith believes that the 2 hr 20 min work might be the largest and most ambitious single piece of rock music ever recorded. Curly's Airships was to be the first of three Songstories so far written and composed by Smith.
On the same day that Van der Graaf Generator played their reunion concert in the Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
in London, 6 May 2005, Smith played an afternoon concert, his first for many years, at the Cobden Club in London. This concert launched his new album The Full English, and featured (amongst others) all the songs on it. He was accompanied by John Ellis on electric guitar, Michael Ward-Bergeman on accordion and René van Commenée on percussion.
A DVD recording of a concert by Smith in Guastalla
Guastalla
Guastalla is a town and comune in the province of Reggio Emilia in Emilia-Romagna, Italy.-Geography:Guastalla is situated in the Po Valley, and lies on the banks of the Po River...
, Italy, Live In Italy 2005, was released on DVD on 20 March 2006.
2006 also saw the release of The Vesica Massage, an album of instrumental music designed 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 consisted 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, a collaboration between Judge Smith and American artist Steve Defoe. Defoe is a founder of The Larry Mondello Band, who released numerous cassette tapes of their lo-fi music
Lo-fi music
Lo-fi is lower quality of sound recordings than the usual standard for music. The qualities of lo-fi are usually achieved by either degrading the quality of the recorded audio, or using certain equipment. Recent uses of the phrase have led to it becoming a genre, although it still remains as an...
in the 1980s and 1990s.
In May 2009 Smith performed the premiere of his second songstory, The Climber (written in 2005). The work was performed with a Norwegian male-voice choir, the Fløyen Voices, and no other instruments apart from a double bass, at USF Verftet in Bergen, Norway
Bergen
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....
. A studio recording was released on 17 May 2010.
In 2007, 2008 and twice in 2010 Smith and David Jackson performed their piece The House That Cried live in Italy, with a choir and orchestra.
Smith released his third songstory, Orfeas, on 9 May 2011. It is a retelling of the ancient myth of Orpheus
Orpheus
Orpheus was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music; his attempt to retrieve his wife from the underworld; and his death at the hands of those who...
, performed by seven separate ensembles, each playing an entirely different kind of music. It features performances by, amongst others, John Ellis
John Ellis (guitarist)
John Ellis is an English guitarist and songwriter.-Career:He was a co-founder of the pub rock band Bazooka Joe in 1970 and a founding member of the punk rock band The Vibrators. Ellis formed The Vibrators in 1974 while still at art school studying illustration. The Vibrators released two albums...
(as George Orfeas), Lene Lovich
Lene Lovich
Lene Lovich is an American singer based in England, who first gained attention as part of the New Wave music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Her most popular hit single was "Lucky Number", first released in 1979.-Early years:...
(as Eurydice) and David Jackson
David Jackson (rock musician)
David Nicholas George Jackson , nicknamed Jaxon, is a British progressive rock saxophonist, flautist, and composer. He is best known for his work with the band Van der Graaf Generator and his work in Music and Disability...
(as the saxophone player in the George Orfeas Band).
Discography
- Democrazy (a collection of recordings from 1968–1977, 1991)
- Dome Of Discovery (1993, remastered version available on iTunes only, 2006)
- Curly's AirshipsCurly's AirshipsCurly's Airships is a double CD by Judge Smith, released in October 2000. Smith regards the album as a new form of narrative rock music, which he calls "songstory". Curly's Airships tells about the R101 airship, crashing in France during its maiden overseas voyage in 1930...
(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)
- Orfeas (songstory, 2011)
At the official Judge Smith Musicography you will find an attempt to create a complete list of all Judge Smith's musical activities.
External links
- Curly's Airships (official website 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