Profile of Stephen Darrell Smith

He has produced the likes of Erin Rocha, the Pretenders and Anthony Costa, was nominated for a Brit award for his work with Sandi Thom, played on stage with the Pope and is Keith Chegwin’s best mate. Although it is likely you may never have heard of him.

Stephen Darrel Smith was brought up in a small modest house in Poole.
Son to a builder, Stephen had very little music surrounding him in his early childhood.
“My parents weren’t rich enough to have instruments,” he said.
“The house was so small there just wasn’t the room.”
It wasn’t until he was 12 that Stephen first played an instrument.
Whilst at his baby-sitters house he would play on the piano for hours on end and after a few visits his natural talent became obvious.
Despite this talent he claims that music has never been a conscious life choice.
“I was lucky really, music found me,” said Stephen.
“I never made an attempt to look for it and I never saw it as a job, it was always too unstable.
“But things just seemed to fall into place.”
His life could have turned out quite differently however.
His mother, who was rather old fashioned, insisted on him finding a trade.
The most obvious solution would have been for Stephen to work as builder alongside his father but it wasn’t for him.
“I couldn’t cope with builders’ language, f-ing and blinding,” he said.
At 16 he decided to become an apprentice hairdresser in an effort to have a trade which wouldn’t destroy his hands.
“In fact it was one of the worst things for my hands due to the peroxide, the bleach and wet rollers,” Stephen said.
“I was no good at it anyway, I can’t make small talk.”
Not long into his apprenticeship, Stephen was asked to go on tour, playing keyboards with the Okay Band in 1976.
The band toured Eastern Europe and Russia which, at the time, was under communist rule.
Despite having had various life altering experiences, Stephen says that his first tour, during the cold war, remains the most memorable.
“That part of Europe was, at the time, starved of live music so we were treated like stars,” he said.
“Everywhere we went there were hundreds of girls screaming at us, it felt like we were the Beatles”.
“It was also such a different culture, it was a different world and at 16 it was a big deal.”
Stephen spent several years after that as a professional keyboard player and organist.
However he was never content with the choices made by the producer.
“I always wanted to be on the other side of the glass not performing but producing,” he said.
“I would always say to the engineers why don’t you do it this way or that and eventually they got so fed up they told me to have a go at it myself.”
In 1979 Stephen bought himself a small system so that he could record himself but was asked to record other musicians as well.
“At first I recorded people for free because I really enjoyed it,” he said.
“But soon I had so many requests I realised I could make a living out of it.”
He built a room with a view, a full recording studio, in the grounds of his home in 1986.
From then on he juggled producing with performing.
The highest point in his career happened in 2003 when he was asked to perform at the Royal Albert Hall.
The gig was a concert in honour of Ronnie Lane from the Small Faces.
Stephen was playing Hammond organ along side various stars, including Pete Townsend, Paul Weller, Ocean Colour Scene and Ronnie Wood.
“It was a fantastic experience, but it was also quite odd,” he said.
“I expected the acoustics to be a disaster, it was terribly echoing, but when it was filled with people it changed and it turned out to be superb.”

Stephen’s greatest success to date has been his work with Sandi Thom in 2006.
Sandi’s single, I wish I was a punk rocker, was the biggest selling single of that year and was nominated for a Brit Award and the Ivan Novello Award.
The single was written by, Stephen’s partner in the music industry Ian Brown.
“I produced it over two years ago and it was released then but wasn’t very successful,” said Stephen.
“I thought it was dead to be honest.”
The single which made number one in England and Australia, contains only Sandi’s voice and percussion, with no band to accompany her.
This feature was due to Stephen’s production and may arguably be the reason for its success.
But Stephen remains modest.
“Sandi recorded her vocals and then returned to Liverpool, leaving me with the production,” Stephen said.
“I tried playing all sorts of guitars and keyboard behind it, but nothing seemed to work.
“In the end I kept it simple.”
The single was set to bring home a Brit Award last year, but when Take That returned to the music scene with Patience Stephen and the team just missed out.
“You would think I would be bitter about Take That’s success, but I think they are great.”
When EMI offered Sandi Thom a record deal they instantly saw I wish I was a punk rocker as the number one single.

Professional musician Jinder has been working with Stephen for over seven years.
Stephen has been his producer since 2001 and also writes with him on a regular basis.
He knows him both as an industry colleague and as a good friend.
Jinder said, “He is a really great guy, he always brings out the best in the people he works with.”
Jinder and Stephen are currently writing music for Harvey Goldsmith and John Mclaughlin, who writes for McFly.
Jinder said, “I have seen him working with others, he really knows how to bring out the inner artist and he has a very calming influence in the studio.”

When working in the music industry, Stephen claims that, you can never allow yourself to be excited about a project, as they can easily fail.
Two years ago however, he himself fell victim to excitement.
Music legend Van Morrison asked to work with him both as a producer and an organist.
Van didn’t turn out to be the legend that Stephen had expected however.
After waiting for Van for over five hours Stephen received a phone call from him.
“He told us he was lost, but he couldn’t tell us where he was, so the guitarist and I had to go looking for him,” Stephen said.
“When he did turn up he got out of his car wearing a white t-shirt, covered in an egg sandwich that he had had for lunch.”
“It really ruined the image.”
After meeting with Stephen for 20 minutes, Van turned around and went back to Bath, promising to record with him in the future.
Stephen says he was let down by the whole experience.
“I don’t often get excited about anything but I really felt disappointment,” he said.
“It hit me quite hard for a while and I took it personally.”
Two years later Van Morrison’s manager booked Stephen and his studio once again and once again Van stood him up.
“He’s just a funny guy,” said Stephen.
“I realise now that I shouldn’t have taken it personally.”

Of course like many musically successful people, Stephen has also had his run in with the law.
Whilst on a tour in Ireland with the Brotherhood of Man, Stephen was arrested on suspicion of being a terrorist.
“Unfortunately I have the same name as Steve Smith the Doncaster bomber.” Stephen said.
Stephen played organ for the Brotherhood of Man throughout the peak of their career.
The most impressive of their gigs included playing for the Pope in 1982 and Princess Margaret at Windsor Castle.
“We were on stage with the Pope during his last visit to England,” he said.
“He wasn’t very animated; he just sort of nodded and clapped in approval.”
“But he clearly enjoyed it.”

It was during his time with Brotherhood of Man that he became good friends with Keith Chegwin.
During Chegwin’s musical career, Stephen played keyboards in his band, but ended up being both his tour manger and body guard.
“On TV he can perhaps come across as annoying”. Stephen said.
“But he is such a clever guy”.

Stephen says that he has not yet reached the peak in his career.
He hopes to gain a number one that he has not only produced, but one where he has also been involved in the writing process.
Stephen is currently working with a trio called Mercury Men who, it is hoped, will be in the charts in the near future.

Mother-son relationship, relative values.

PHIL AND KATE DEWHURST

“I suppose lending your son more than £10,000 would seem like a lot, but it’s not to me… my reward is seeing the faces of the people who enjoy his music, that is pay back enough.”

Phil Dewhurst, 26, is a professional musician. To date he has sold over 10,000 albums and his career is going from strength to strength. Phil lives with his parents, his two greatest fans, in a small house in Corfe Mullen, near Bournemouth. Kate Dewhurst is a retired book keeper and Phil’s Mother. Her retirement project and hobby is to encourage, support and help fund her son’s career.

PHIL: I always knew I wanted to be a musician. I was brought up in Priors Marston in Warwickshire, the home of British folk music. As a child I would hear the likes of John Martyn and Fairport Convention drifting over the rolling fields of the Warwickshire countryside and into my bedroom window. The music fired my imagination, it was so new and strange and exotic, like something form another world, something I had never heard before. It was this that really sowed the earliest seeds for my fascination with music and folk music remains a big inspiration to me.
I have two older siblings. My sister Lindsey who is 14 years older, moved to America when I was five and my brother moved out when I was six. Up until then my sister was more of a nanny to me than a sibling, she would help look after me with my mum, so really I was an only child. Being only one of me meant that I was given more encouragement than most of my peers. I went to my grandparent’s house a lot and that’s where I found music. My first and fondest memory was sitting next to my grandmother, singing as she played her Hemingway 1968 piano.
My brother is one of the best microlight pilots in the world and he is as much of an artist in his craft as I am in mine. He couldn’t have been so successful without my parents backing. I am very lucky and I guess I have always taken it for granted. My parents allowed me to try all sorts of instruments as a child, the violin, trumpet, flute and piano, but when they bought me my first guitar I knew it was going to be my future. At first I would experiment for hours in my bedroom and it was confusing. But soon it became natural, as natural as drinking a glass of water, or breathing. I wrote my first song at fourteen. I came downstairs to my mum in the kitchen and I sat on the work top and played it to her. I was often playing her songs by Syd Barrett or Dylan and she thought it was another cover. When I told her I had written it she was staggered and astonished, she told me it could be a number one hit. I guess having been brought up listening to the best song writers out there, I had a good grounding. My parents come to almost every one of my gigs. They are my roadies, fan club and accountants rolled into one. Without their support, it would have been a lot more difficult to follow my career.

KATE: I suppose lending your son more than £10,000 would seem like a lot, but it’s not to me. I know ultimately that we may not get our money back, but my reward is seeing the faces of the people who enjoy his music, that is pay back enough.
I have never been one of those mums who want their sons to follow a career they don’t enjoy. I have always encouraged my children to follow their dreams and I think it will ultimately mean they succeed. This has proven true with all of my children. I first saw that Phil was talented when he sang in a school play at the age of seven. He played a singing Santa from space and all the mums rushed up to me at the end telling me what a wonderful voice he had. And when he was eight years old his violin teacher said he was ‘full of musicality’. I had taken it for granted up until then and blamed my thought that he was special on motherly tunnel vision.
When he was in his first band he needed somewhere to rehearse so we converted our garage into a recording studio. He recorded his first album in the spare room, so the studio also gave him somewhere to record in. He spent days putting egg boxes and carpets on the walls, but the neighbours would still come knocking at our door saying that the noise from the garage made their ornaments vibrate off the shelf.
My husband and I have let him live with us to allow more money to be put into his career and he’s twenty six now. I think it’s normal for sons to still be at home at that age. We get along so well. He is great company. We sometimes rub each other up the wrong way, but rarely. If he worked in an office all day and came home drunk after spending all night in the pub it wouldn’t be the same and he wouldn’t be my son. It’s great fun that he is a musician, I get to re-live my youth again. I love supporting him, my husband and I see it as our hobby and our retirement project.

Near mid-air collision gives Bournemouth musician new found lust for life

‘We were coming in to land…and then suddenly the thrusters cut in and we zoomed back up into the air at a 45 degree angle – I thought I was going to die’
Bournemouth musician Jinder was on a return flight from New York when the plane veered to avoid hitting another plane lost in the fog.
‘It was a bad ending to a great trip.’ Jinder said.
He had been touring in Manhattan with his girlfriend for a week and was looking forward to returning home for the Christmas period.
The musician and his girlfriend were on Virgin Atlantic flight VS26 on December 22 due to land at Heathrow.
The fog, which had surrounded Heathrow Airport the week before Christmas, grounded hundreds of domestic and international flights.
Jinder said, ‘We flew over the night sky of London and saw the fog lit up by the street lights below, it was beautiful.
‘We could see the landing strip metres away and then suddenly the thrusters cut in and we zoomed back up into the air at a 45 degree angle, I thought I was going to die.’
Jinder said that the captain informed the passengers that another plane had been blocking the navigational system which was preventing them from landing.
When the plane eventually did land it had to wait three hours to taxi due to the number of grounded flights.
‘While we were waiting to get off, the Captain gave us more information and said that another plane was wandering around the runway lost in the fog.
‘Air traffic control had told him to take off at the last moment.’ He said.
‘It will make me think twice next time about flying around Christmas and about flying with Virgin Atlantic.
‘I really didn’t feel safe on the flight and I was glad to be on the ground’.

Borat evokes a mixture of hilarity and embarrassment

Borat, evokes a mixture of hilarity, embarrassment, and horror.
Borat is a Kazakhstani journalist (played by Sacha Baron Cohen) who is sent to America to find out more about ‘the best country in the world’.
His character is a racist, sexist, journalist, who is a hero in his own country.
Cohen claims to have developed the character as a tool to bring out the worst in people, the racism and prejudice which still openly exists in the United States.
I saw this film twice, once knowing nothing of Cohen’s aims nor the film’s content and the second understanding the reasoning behind the explicit racism in the film.
As an avid believer of political correctness, a considerable proportion of the scenes in the film shocked me and I found it hard to believe that it was allowed to be shown here in the UK.
Many scenes are extremely funny, but are overshadowed by the vulgarity of the insults, portrayed by Borat’s innocence throughout.
The greatest moments of humour, were the situations Cohen and the American people found themselves in.
Many such scenes, although funny, carried a squirm rating of 10, and two thirds of the way in, I found myself clock watching.
Clearly believing Cohen is an innocent Kazakhstani, the American people are overly polite and unaware they are being set up.
As a society of Bush-hating Brits, where the majority believe all Americans are stupid, this humour goes down well.
What I think is not understandable, is Borat himself being bigoted and racist is a situation where he is not trying to evoke a reaction.
At one point he is shocked at seeing a black man for the first time and says: “This man is a real chocolate face, no make up” - Is this really necessary?
If left out would this have reduced the impact of the film?
The ongoing characterisation that all Kazakhstanis are anti-Semites is also incomprehensible, and I think unnecessary.
This leads me to question, why has this film has been such a success?
In bringing out the worst in the American people, he seems to have brought out the worse in us all.
This film is funny in many ways, the form with Kazakhstan subtitles and national anthem, give the whole piece a fantastic realism.
However, I worry that many will be laughing at the film, for the wrong reasons, laughing that someone is at last agreeing that gay men should be, ‘strung up’ or that women have a ‘brain the size of squirrel’.
This film may be used as a tool for like minded people to be racist and prejudice.
My advise is, watch it, but watch it knowing that it’s aims are to comment on political correctness and to evoke a reaction in you, do not belittle yourself and join in with the racism, instead appreciate its humour and intelligence.

'Violent Bully' in court for abusing his girlfriend

A ‘violent bully’ allegedly held his girlfriend by the throat and repeatedly thumped her around the face – Bournemouth Crown Court heard yesterday.
31-year-old Andrew Gilchrist of Johnston Road in Poole, told the court that he had ‘chosen the wrong girl’, when he pleaded not guilty to malicious wounding of his girlfriend.
Karen Turner claimed that, after an argument over an ex-boyfriend in January 2006, Mr Gilchrist violently attacked her.
The court heard that Mr Gilchrist allegedly held Ms Turner against the bed by her throat and then repeatedly thumped her on the side of her face.
After Ms Turner ran down the stairs, Mr Gilchrist again allegedly pinned her down by her throat and punched her several times.
The prosecution Barnaby Shaw told the court that Ms Turner managed to stab Mr Gilchrist with a piece of floor tile, enabling her to get away ‘just in time’.
It was reported that Ms Turner left the house wearing no shoes, nor top under her coat.
The prosecution said that Mr Gilchrist was a ‘violent bully’ and that Ms Turner had run from the house to ‘get away from the violence’.
Mr Gilchrist however denied the accusations.
He claimed that Ms Turner had been seeing a psychiatrist and was “going mad” when she “flailed her arms at him” and stabbed him with a piece of tile.
“I got the wrong relationship with the wrong girl” said Mr Gilchrist.
“She’s got a problem and she’s doing it all out of context”.
“I never hit a woman and I never would”.
The case continues in court and a verdict has not yet been decided.