Smutty

I'm a stand up bass player not to be confused with a bass guitar player (toys for girls). I'm the original founding member of Levi and the Rockats, Havalinas, 13 Cats and currently working on the The Dark Angels. For most of my adult life I've been living in Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington and New York City. Levi and the Rockats were the first neo-rockabilly band formed in the late '70's in London. Managed by Leee Black Childers. At the time Leee was also managing Johnny Thunders' new band The Heartbreakers, who were touring with the Sex Pistols on the Anarchy In The UK tour. We were also were privileged enough to play two sold out shows in Times Square with The Clash on the London Calling tour.
So my introduction to music was basically being chucked in at the deep end with a load of punks, which was great. Leee introduced us to many famous faces of the time including, artists and photographers who took a shine to me personally. Consequently I was photographed and lauded by the likes of Andy Warhol, Mick Rock, Robert Mapplethorpe, Bob Gruhan, Steve Misel, Bruce Weber and many more. Some of the photos from this period are featured in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Edinburgh, and many coffee table books from that time. It might read like i'm blowing my own trumpet (which i am) but this period was a pivotal moment in time when fashion, art and music were brought together - fuelled by the punk and rockabilly movements which for the first time came together against the norm and at the time, uptight society in general (I will come back to this at a later date in my blog).After the Rockats broke up in the early 80's we went our separate ways as bands do. We reform every few years to do re-union shows in Japan and Europe and are still all great friends. Also at this time I formed the Havalinas with ex-Rockat Tim Scott-Mcconnell LINK TO TIM SCOTT MCCONNELL MYSPACE and we got signed to Elektra with a critically acclaimed album, followed by tours with Bob Dylan, Crowded House and Chris Isaac to name but a few. One stand out Havalinas cover was 'High Hopes' which appeared on a Bruce Springsteen album.Post Havalinas, Tim Polecat, me and Slim Jim Phantom and Danny Harvey (ex-Rockat) formed the super Rockabilly group The Thirteen Cats . We recorded albums in Japan and toured extensively in Japan and the USA. We also made a live performance video at the Hard Rock Cafe in Vegas.I'm currently back in London working on the second edition of my book 'Kats, Tats Cars and Creepers' - which the first print edition sold out. I'm very excited to be working on this project with the highly respected Rockabilly style artist Vince Ray. The next edition will be more extensive including the more risque areas of present day rockin' scene including burlesque/fetish, psychobilly and rock 'n' roll art and posters. My new band the Dark Angels in collaboration with Jim Jeffries LINK TO DARK ANGELS MYSPACE have recorded an album and will be doing some gigs in and around the UK and Europe at the end of the summer.Away from work, I live in London with my wonderful fiance Kate and new born son Vincent Taylor Smith - a chip off the old block. We will soon be joining his sister Kali Rae Smith and her mother Jen in Seattle, who has been fighting cancer for the second time this year and we all hope for the best.More in depth stories to come .........watch this space.