Judge Smith (his real name) co-founded the influential rock band Van der Graaf Generator in 1967 with singer-songwriter Peter Hammill, and since then has continued to be involved in numerous musical projects as writer, composer or performer.
During the '70s and '80s, he wrote several stage musicals in collaboration with composer Max Hutchinson: The Kibbo Kift was produced at the Traverse Theatre for the Edinburgh Festival of 1976 and at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield the following year. The Ascent of Wilberforce III was produced at the Traverse Theatre in 1981. Their musical Geraldo's Navy was commissioned and accepted by Michael Rudman and David Aukin of the Hampstead Theatre Club, but not staged. The Ascent of Wilberforce III received a second production at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith in 1982.
Later the same year, the Lyric also presented Mata Hari, a music-theatre piece he co-wrote with (and which starred) singer Lene Lovich.
As a librettist, his works include the text for classical composer Joseph Horovitz's oratorio Samson, premiered in a radio broadcast from the Albert Hall in 1977, short texts for works commissioned from the same composer by The Kings Singers, and the libretto for composer Michael Brand's cantata Pioneer 10, performed at Birmingham Symphony Hall, 1992. Following a twenty-year collaboration with composer Peter Hammill, their opera The Fall of the House of Usher was finally completed, recorded and released in 1992, and in 1999, a revised and re-mastered recording was re-released on Fie! Records.
His own Requiem Mass for Rock band, Choir and Brass was published in 1975 and still awaits its first performance, but his chamber opera The Book of Hours was directed by Mel Smith at the Young Vic Theatre, London in 1978. His short film The Brass Band, which he wrote and directed in 1974, has won several international awards.
His songs have been recorded by Peter Hammill and Lene Lovich and featured on the early '80s TV comedy show Not the Nine O'Clock News. A list of his albums can be found on the Musicography page of his web site.
After many years of work, in 2000 he completed and released the double CD Curly's Airships, a Songstory about the R101 airship disaster of 1930. Amongst many others, Peter Hammill, Hugh Banton, Arthur Brown, David Jackson, John Ellis and Pete Brown collaborated on the project.
His latest project is L-RAD, a collaboration with American artist Steve Defoe. The album Long-Range Audio Device was released in January 2008, and can be ordered at Judge's website www.judge-smith.com . L-RAD has its own MySpage-page at www.myspace.com/lradproject .
Current projects include a book on spirituality, a half-hour Songstory The Climber (to be performed with an Alpine Choir from the Italian Dolomites), and a companion-piece Songstory John Bull, for Mediterranean guitar.
He was born in 1948 and currently lives in Sussex on the South Coast of England.
