The Dick Smith band… Considering the popularity of this band not an awful lot has been written about them…well I intend to right that particular wrong and not from an outside view ..I was in the band …yeh it’s me Dave Barrett…the “wild and crazy ” lead singer….I will enlist the help and memories of […]
Posts
Frankie Goes To Hollywood and The Dick Smith Band
Picture the scene .. It’s 1979 – 1980 on the Liverpool gig circuit, The Dick Smith Band are regular players at the Masonic, Oscars and The Moonstone, they have just released their second indie single Givin The Game Away and Way of The World. DSB playing at the “Masonic” every Thursday, in the audience are […]
Flight Of Pegasus “We Mean It” Review
“We Mean It” Featured Album on Chris Currie
26.01.19 – Chris Currie presents with Featured Artist: MIKEY KENNEY and Featured Album: WE MEAN IT by DICK SMITH BAND plus three hours of the best in music from the Merseyside area
40th Anniversary Release
12″ Vinyl Released on Sleaszy Rider Records. The 40th Anniversary Release of Givin’ The Game Away / Way of The World with Motorway Madness Live at Sir James New Years Eve 1981 with 1,200 people mixed by “Pab” listen on Spotify , SoundCloud … Digital Download at iTunes / Bandcamp Available NOW from the Shop […]
Paul “Conway” Stuart
We received some very sad news this week , that Dick Smith Band Drummer Paul Conway Stuart passed away suddenly in 2015. Dear Conway, I hope you can somehow see or feel that your old buddies, The Dick Smith Band and crew, are all thinking about you and saddened to hear that you’ve passed away. […]
The Singer
David Kenneth Barret .. Lead vocalist and front man .. Dick Smith Band .. Where do we start with this man .. I first saw Dave as a front man in a band in New Brighton before DSB started.. the band was crap but he looked the part totally… later when I got together with […]
The Bass Man ..
Steve Barrett ..Bass player …Dick Smith Band I don’t think anyone knew how good he was at the time..he certainly didn’t …but his bass playing style ..analysed by a few and copied by many remains the cornerstone and heartbeat of DSB…live he was ferocious and volatile but you knew what you would get with Steve […]
Lead Guitar
Paul ” Dilly ” Downes …Dick Smith Band …..Lead and rhythm guitars PD as we called him …lived round the corner from me and was regarded as one of the hippest dudes around …he’d lived in a temple in Switzerland someone had said ….I’d seen him around and thought he was too groovy to talk […]
Rythmn Guitar
Paul ” Francis ” Madden .Dick Smith Band ….Lead …slide and rhythm guitars Paul or ” Frank ” as he was known ….was the driving force behind DSB and to some extent sacrificed some of his own glory for the sake of the band …on the records he was sensational …but live he took it […]
Drummer No 1
Steve Swift ….Dick Smith Band ….Drummer Swifty as we use to call him arrived just in time for DSB ……we were taking our music pretty seriously and needed someone who could take us to the next level…we had a succession of would be DSB drummers round to 198 Seaview rd, to audition ..one promising candidate […]
Drummer No 2
Paul “Conway” Stuart Dick Smith Band drummer No 2 .. Steve Swift left the band in 1981 and Conway joined … during the audition Conway set up his double bass drums .. numerous toms and symbols .. as if he was about to perform a magic trick … we all watched in amazement .. we’d […]
The Manager …
Guitarist Paul’s brother Peter Michael Madden was DSB manager for most of the bands life and it’s funny really but when you are 21 years old and at the peak of your powers you don’t really think about bills and diesel for the van and mortgages and stuff like that …fortunately for DSB Pete did […]
The Soundman
Paul ” Pab ” Boothroyd ….Dick Smith Band ….sound engineer ” dae summkin abooot the soound …its shite man ” not the most obvious sentence to completely and utterly change one man’s life but change it it did….trainee auto engineer Pab then probably eighteen years old had come up to Scotland on a DSB mini […]
Big Dave
Big Dave ….Dick Smith Band …Roadie.. Everybody loves Big Dave…..certain sections of his fan base used to call him ” Big Davey ” ……and he was almost a cult figure…I’m not saying that glibly…he really was…..not the worlds greatest sound engineer or the worlds most enthusiastic equipment carrier but give him some pot and boy […]
Full Pot …
The only photo we have of AJ – One of the unsung heroes of DSB was driver and roadie Alan ” full pot ” Pearce ..we loved him like a brother and he was an integral part of everything we did….he was someone we all probably confided in individually with out ever knowing everyone else […]
The Start ….
P.D , Dave and Steve started Dick Smith and the Dole Q at the Post Office in Wallasey Village in early 1978 ….. my brother passed on a message from P.D that he was looking for a rhythm guitarist …. viv …. a brilliant drummer helped us out at first to get started … he […]
The Mattress Room …
Rehearsing was a noisy business … we covered every wall in the front room with mattresses .. we may have even included the ceiling … can’t remember .. set up the mixing desk in the kitchen area for recording and started playing … The songs came from guitar ideas and some were just born through jamming […]
Snoopy Roxy Benny and Woody
Snoopy , Roxy and Benny … the band dogs … snoopy and roxy used to go everywhere with the band … all the gigs .. up to Scotland all over the place.. opening the front door snoopy would always be the first in followed by Dave and roxy … Roxy …. at Inverness Benny was […]
Bula …..
It’s 1978 and we need a van ! .. we’re sick of using transits .. breaking down at 2am in the middle of ?? …. we got together with a crazy hippie ” Mad Dave ” who had found and old ambulance , Pab vetted the engine , in fact he rebuilt it … this […]
