Simon Smith has been the

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...

with several

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

Indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

bands, most notably

The Wedding Present The Wedding Present are an English indie rock group formed in 1985 in Leeds, England, by members of The Lost Pandas. The band has been led by vocalist and guitarist David Gedge, the band's only constant member. Closely linked to the C86 scene ...

from

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, which he joined in 1988, and also worked with its offshoot

The Ukrainians The Ukrainians are a British band, which plays traditional Ukrainian music, heavily influenced by western post-punk. Career The Ukrainians were formed in 1990 by Wedding Present guitarist Peter Solowka, with singer/violinist Len Liggins an ...

Career

Simon Smith started out briefly as a member of The Chorus with

Peter Solowka Peter Solowka or Solovka (, , born late 1959 in Oldham) is a musician of Ukrainians, Ukrainian and Yugoslavian descent. He has been involved in music since 1985, most notably as guitarist with The Wedding Present from their inception until 1991, a ...

, who also became a member of The Wedding Present. The Chorus released tracks on the AAZ record label from 1983 to 1985 including the 7" double A side single "These Stones" / "Diamond Mine". Simon left The Chorus to join stable mates The Sinister Cleaners in 1985, replacing the

drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

that had featured on their earlier releases. He released 3 12" EPs with The Sinister Cleaners and toured the UK and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

with them from 1985 to 1987. Simon left The Sinister Cleaners to join The Wedding Present as drummer in 1987, working briefly with Sinister Cleaner Len Liggins and Pete Solowka in The Wedding Present offshoot band

. Simon, along with Keith Gregory, Paul Dorrington (both ex-Wedding Present) and Jaqui Cohen (ex-Dustdevils), started a new group called Cha Cha Cohen in 1994. Simon split his time between Cha Cha Cohen and The Wedding Present until 1997, when Wedding Present singer / guitarist

David Gedge David Lewis Gedge (born 23 April 1960, in Bramley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England) is an English musician and songwriter. Gedge's lyrics explore themes such as romantic love and heartbreak. According to Michael Sutton of ''AllMusic'', his ly ...

took a break in order to start a new group,

Cinerama Cinerama is a widescreen process that originally projected images simultaneously from three synchronized 35 mm movie film, 35mm projectors onto a huge, deeply curved screen, Subtended angle, subtending 146-degrees of arc. The trademarked pr ...

. Cha Cha Cohen went on to make two albums on the Glasgow-based

Chemikal Underground Records Chemikal Underground is an independent record label set up in 1994 in music, 1994 at Glasgow, Scotland, by rock band The Delgados. It was set up to release their first single, "Monica Webster" / "Brand New Car" and went on to break many new Sc ...

label, and, thanks to their help, Simon began tour managing for a living. Simon also played gigs and recorded with Beachbuggy, brainchild of former Wedding Present bass player and guitarist Jack Straker. In 2004, David Gedge and Wedding Present guitarist Simon Cleave began using the name The Wedding Present again but Simon Smith was not asked to join the band's new line-up.

Discography

With The Wedding Present

UK singles

# Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now? (Reception 1988) # Давні Часи/Davni Chasy (

promo PROMO (Promoting Missouri) is a Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territ ...

, Reception 1988/RCA 1989) # Kennedy (RCA 1989) # Brassneck (RCA 1990) # 3 Songs EP (RCA 1990) # Dalliance (RCA 1991) # Lovenest (RCA 1991) # Blue Eyes (RCA 1992) # Go-Go Dancer (RCA 1992) # Three (RCA 1992) # Silver Shorts (RCA 1992) # Come Play with Me (RCA 1992) # California (RCA 1992) # Flying Saucer (RCA 1992) # Boing! (RCA 1992) # Loveslave (RCA 1992) # Sticky (RCA 1992) # The Queen of Outer Space (RCA 1992) # No Christmas (RCA 1992) # Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah (Island 1994) # It's a Gas (Island 1994) # Sucker (no label 1995) # 2, 3, Go (Cooking Vinyl 1996) # Montreal (Cooking Vinyl 1997)

Albums

# '' Українські Виступи в Івана Піла'' (

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

, RCA 1989) # ''

Bizarro Bizarro () is a supervillain or anti-hero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Otto Binder and artist George Papp as a "mirror image" of Superman, and first appeared in ''Superboy (comic bo ...

'' (RCA 1989) # ''

Seamonsters ''Seamonsters'' is the third studio album by English rock band The Wedding Present. It was recorded in ten days in 1991 by American producer Steve Albini at Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. Albini had earlier recorded two EPs with th ...

'' (RCA 1991) # '' Hit Parade 1'' (compilation, RCA 1992) # ''

Hit Parade 2 ''Hit Parade 2'' is a compilation album by The Wedding Present released in January 1993. Having decided to release a limited edition single every month for all of 1992 (each featuring an original track on the A side and a cover version on the B ...

'' (compilation, RCA 1992) # '' Peel Sessions 1987-1990'' (compilation, Strange Fruit 1993) # '' Watusi'' (Island 1994) # ''

Mini The Mini is a very small two-door, four-seat car, produced for four decades over a single generation, with many names and variants, by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors British Leyland and the Rover Group, and finally ...

'' (Cooking Vinyl 1995) # ''

Saturnalia Saturnalia is an Roman festivals, ancient Roman festival and holiday in honour of the List of Roman deities, god Saturn (mythology), Saturn, held on 17 December in the Julian calendar and later expanded with festivities until 19 December. By t ...

'' (Cooking Vinyl 1996) # '' Evening Sessions 1986-1994'' (compilation, Strange Fruit 1997) # '' John Peel Sessions 1992-1995'' (compilation, Cooking Vinyl 1998) # '' Singles 1995-1997'' (compilation, Cooking Vinyl 1999) # '' Singles 1989-1991'' (compilation, Manifesto 1999) # ''The Hit Parade'' (2 CD compilation, Camden Deluxe 2003)

With Cha Cha Cohen

Singles

# Sparky's Note (Hemiola 1994) # 538 ep (Chemikal Underground 1995) # Spook on the High Lawn (Chemikal Underground 1997) # Freon Shortwave (Chemikal Underground 1998)

Albums

# Cha Cha Cohen (Chemikal Underground 1998) # All Artists Are Criminals (Chemikal Underground 2002)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Simon Living people Year of birth missing (living people) English rock drummers The Wedding Present members