Steve Chapman Smith

Steve Chapman Smith has been involved on the Yorkshire music scene since the late 1970s. Releasing his 1st single with the band Just Frank in the heady days of Power pop! John Peel played the single a number of times and the band got to meet their hero when John broadcast his show from the Queens hotel in Leeds. Just Frank were together for just over a year and had the honour of being on the bill at Wakefields Unity hall supporting local lads Strangeways and Chrissie Hynde and the cissy bars The then unknown Chrissie Hynde asked Ada Wilson from Strangeways whose are these trousers? mine if theres any brass int pocket came Adas reply. The rest as they say is history! The cissy bars were renamed The pretenders and Just Frank and Strangeways sank into obscurity! Steve went on to record and play with various Wakefield based bands including Ada Wilson and keeping Dark, Stranger than Fiction and The Citron Girls! Venturing further afield Steve went on to be a founder member of seminal Leeds rockers Red Lorry Yellow Lorry The band were wrongly put into the Goth genre which was sweeping through the UK in the early eighties. The lorries were renowned for their intense stage shows which left audiences bruised and shell shocked! Signing to Red Rhino records RLYL recorded the classic debut single Beating my head which stayed at the top of the indie charts for several weeks. Steve also played on Hes read and Take it all and played on John Peel sessions with RLYL. Another Wakefield band Fiat Lux had just been signed to Polydor and needed a drummer and bass player. Steve was asked and jumped ship! An album was recorded with producer Hugh Jones (Echo and the Bunnymen, Teardrop explodes) but sadly was never released and the band were dropped like a hot potato! Kicking his heels Steve bumped into Gary Marx who had recently left The sisters of mercy drinks were drunk and Steve wound up in the Goth supergroup Ghostdance fronted by Anne Marie from The skeletal family This was a temporary measure as Steve was working on his own songs, but Steve played many gigs and recorded on the first clutch of singles and John Peel and Janice Long sessions. Working with Tracey Chapman Steve formed Riprize and released Bewitched on the Karbon label. Produced by Gary Marx the single got rave revues and picked up local and national radio play. The idea was to form a band and tour the new material but finding the right members didnt happen and the project was put on hold. Steve dropped of the music radar for a while and then one day he heard Copperhead Rd on the radio, Got into Steve Earle and got the writing bug again! Writing acoustically Steve writes old fashioned songs written from the heart! Songs about real life! You could call them contemporay Folk! He has an acoustic duo called The Troubadors who have released a 5 track CD and are busy gigging around Yorkshire! Check out The Troubadors on my space for gigs and different recordings. Steve also writes and records, lives, loves and makes babies with Tracey Chapman Smith. Check out Traceys page on my space thinking monochrome for scs........? Love you - want you - need you x TCS aka t'wife I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4