TV Smith

TV Smith, former frontman and songwriter of seminal UK punk band The Adverts, is seen as a cult legend by many fans of Britain's late 1970s New Wave scene.
Tim Smith grew up in Devon where he developed an interest in poetry and, later - influenced by the records of Bowie and Roxy Music - songwriting. At art college, he met girlfriend and fellow Iggy and the Stooges devotee Gaye Black and in 1976 the couple moved to London after reading about the Sex Pistols in the music press with the aim of starting their own punk band.
Upon arrival, they changed their names to TV Smith and Gaye Advert respectively, recruited guitarist Howard Pickup (born Boak) and drummer Laurie Driver (born Muscat) and formed The Adverts.
The band debuted at Andy Czezowski's Roxy in Covent Garden in early 1977 before signing to Stiff Records and releasing their debut single "One Chord Wonders", one of the era's signature anthems and a response to ongoing criticism of the band's musical inexperience and alleged ineptitude. The single received positive reviews and became an underground punk hit (partly due to the now-iconic portrait of Gaye Advert that adorned its sleeve).
The band found brief chart success in late 1977/early 1978 with subsequent singles "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" and "No Time To Be 21" which were followed by the release of their debut LP "Crossing the Red Sea with the Adverts". The album performed disappointingly despite positive reviews but is now considered by many to be one of the best releases of the New Wave.
The band's follow-up LP Cast of Thousands was produced by Mike Oldfield alumni Tom Newman and appeared to owe as much to Smith's progressive rock influences as it did to punk. As a result the record was universally derided by a bewildered and reactionary punk press and the band folded shortly after its release.
Gaye still lives with TV in West London but retired from music after The Adverts folded.
Smith continued to forge his own musical path, however, going on to form post-punk pop-rock outfit TV Smith's Explorers in the early 80s and raucous political rockers TV Smith's Cheap later the same decade. Both bands sadly released only one album each.
Following Cheap's collapse in the eraly 90s, Smith embarked on a solo career which continues to this day. His eclectic recorded output as a solo artist is probably most simply described as a mixture of semi-acoustic socio-political protest music and fiery punk rock. As a live perfomer, Smith tours mostly as a lone troubadour, playing energetic acoustic live sets to a devoted cult following across Europe, America and - most recently - Australia (including revamped versions of Adverts' songs). However, he also perfoms the occasional electric gig with collaborators such as Amen and The Midnight Creeps (both US), Die Toten Hosen and Garden Gang (both Germany), Punk Lurex (Finland), The Valentines (Italy), and Los Quattro/The Bored Teenagers (Spain).
In 2007, Smith and The Bored Teenagers performed the Adverts' debut album in its entirety to a packed 100 Club in a thrilling show to commemorate the 30th anniversary of that band's first gigs. His most recent album is entitled In The Arms Of My Enemy (2008).
For a full discography and reviews please see TV Smith's allmusic.com entry at:
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&searchlink=TV|SMITH&sql=11:kpftxqtgldae~T0
See also: http://www.tvsmith.com
See also: http://www.myspace.com/tvsmith