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Well HELLO there hipsters,flipsters,finger popping daddies and delegates to the Peoples sub committee of the Internationalist progressive movement for the advancement of Proletarian (and related classes) towards a just and Socialist (or near offer) future Working Party (South West).
The sensational RED SMED AND THE HOT TROT SMASH THE SYSTEM BAND have launched 8 tracks onto YOU TUBE. Click on the image and you too can watch and listen with the Big Mutha himself.
ME AND MY CLONE
LEON TROTSKY
DON'T BE SO BLOODY MISERABLE
PARTY AT BRIAN'S
Enter your text here...
Red Smed's
Least SHIT
Tracks!!
PARTISAN SONG
FAT BALD DAVE
BRIDGWATER
ROCK N ROLL IS PRETTY EXCITING
Click above to read an interview with the bands manager Max Barstead in the Daily Communist
Click above to visit the RED SMED myspace site
AVAILABLE RECORDINGS BY RED SMED & THE HOT TROT SMASH THE SYSTEM BOOGIE BAND
"SONGS FOR SWINGING COMMUNISTS" (1987)
"Songs for Swinging Communists" is a cassette album recorded in 1987 at Dunwear Studios by Andy Burbidge.
The musicians -Brian Smedley;- vocals,guitars, accordion Andrew Napthine;- bazouki, mandolin,bodhran Dave Hanna;- vocals Kevin Freeman ;-drums, vocals and Jenny Booth (the only one of Smeds girlfriends to actually call him 'Red') vocals and screams .
The recording took one evening and was basically recorded live with the aid of 2 bottles of irish whiskey (Jamesons & Bushmills)
the songs;-
LEON TROTSKY (Smedley);- This song had been written by Smed in 1985 and first featured on a demo by the Sedgemorons but this near acoustic version also featured Dave and Kev having an ad lib vocal exchange.
LOUGHGALL;-(Hanna/Napthine);- Dave Hanna wrote this lyric to the tune of 'give me a parrabellum' an Irish rebel standard , after overhearing then Northern Ireland secretary Tom King in communication with his bodyguards in Bridgwater one night. The blood curdling screaming is Jenny. The lyric tells of the SAS ambush of IRA volunteers in May that year.
SUPPORT THE SANDINISTAS (Smedley);-Written as a virtually straight lyric in support of the Nicaraguan socialist movement which at the time was under major threat from American backed Contra insurgents.
THE DAY WE NET THE FACISTS IN BRIDGWATER (Smedley) ;- Tells the story of the November 1986 'Friends of British Ulster' march through Bridgwater which was used by the National Front as a subterfuge. A counter demo organised by Smed and others found itself outnumbered 4 to 1 by the Fash!
PATRIOT GAME (Behan) A acapella version of the Dominic Behan song by Dave.
UP AGAINST A WALL AND SHOT (Smedley) ;- a George Formby style ditty listing exactly who should be lined up against a wall during the forthcoming revolution. ..."anyone to the right of Michael Foot" (apparently)
PUT ON YOUR DANCING SHOES (Trad;- arr Smedley) A long time favourite from the Film Summer Holiday but wit hsuch rubbish lyrics (about Humpty Dumpty and Little bo peep) that Smed re-wrote it about Jailed striking Miner Terry French-who came to speak at the Bridgwater May Day Rally the following year, Chilean Socialist Salvador Allende and American anarchist Joe Hill.
COME OUT YE BLACK AND TANS (Behan) Another Irish standard sung by Dave - towards the end of the 2nd bottle of whiskey.
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON (Reece);- popularised by Billy Braggin the 80s this was nevertheless an American song of struggle written by Florrie Reece back in the early 20th century.
"Parretgrad UK" was the first CD album recorded by the band and was undertaken over several days at MTM studios in Monkton Heathfield during 2000. The recording was professionally produced by Tony of MTM studios (who once played with Carl Douglas on 'Kung Fu Fighting')
The album sleeve was designed by Milos Salus from Slovakia. The picture on the cover is his Grandfather who was in the Czech-Slovak Legion.
The Musicians;- Red Smed;- vocals, guitars, accordion, keyboards Matt Bartlett;- Bass Kevin Freeman;- Drums Dave Newton (under the alias Reggie Mental) on mandolin Jo Cox;- flute and vocals Elaine di Campo;- backing vocals and Cathy Smedley (aged 11) backing vocals
The Songs;-
THE PARTISAN SONG (trad) ;- a shadows style instrumental version of the red Army marching song. Smed over dubs the lead on 12 string guitar and accordion while Jo takes alternative verses on flute.
LEON TROTSKY;- (Smedley) yet another version of the classic. And in fact the 4th available recorded version.
DON;'T YOU MARRY A COMMUNIST (Smedley) A duet between Smed and Elaine. This version was played at Attilla the Stockbrokers wedding!
DON'T BE SO BLOODY MISERABLE (Smedley) A live favourite at the time, this reggae/ska was essentially a pastiche of 'Last train to Skaville' but with modern socialist lyrics. Jo's flute features heavily here.
MULTIFREIGHT (Smedley) a song written in the style of the IWW Timber rollers of the early 20th century but telling the story about the lorry driving company (now defunct) that Smed worked for in 1986 and was sacked from for wearing a James Connolly badge.
BONNY VAN DRIVER (Smedley) to the tune of 'bonny pit laddie' this was Smeds second work song of the album - this time relating his years working for NJ Singletons as a van driver. The song (sang in Scots accent) terminates with a bagpipe solo - played on keyboard but engineered by Dave Newton until it became 'the Sedgemoor Contemporary Bagpipe Collective'.
GLOBAL TOWNSHIP (Smedley) An attempt to write a Zimbabwean highlife song. Again features the flute of Jo.
BRIDGWATER (Smedley) Maybe the only song written about the town.....in this case features jazz organ overdubbed by Smed
PARTY AT BRIANS (Smedley) A song which tells of the 1986-87 weekend partys at West Quay which would just happen when someone shouted 'Party at Brians!?' .
GOING SHOPPING (Smedley) written for the dangerous brothers back in 1980 this song was dug out and given a jazz makeover by Smed. The theme goes back to the interminal shopping trips as a teenager to help his mum speed up the process in sainsburys...the repetitive 4 note bass line is particularly evocative of this. The chorus is an actual shopping list from 1980 suggested by former girlfriend Debbie.
ROCK N ROLL IS PRETTY EXCITING (Smedley,Bruce ,Fraser) title song to the 1985 Sedgemorons musical of the same name in which Smed played brummie car park attendant Rockin Brian who was having his car park pulled down and turned into a disco and 'da kids' campaign to help him fight it.
FLAGS (Smedley) written at the time of the Velvet Revolution in 1989 when it appeared the key political statement was simply ripping the Communist symbols from the middle of the national flags. The song later featured in the stage show 'Czechomania' sung by Jo Cox.
KATIUSHA (trad) another instrumental version of a Red Army song. Katiusha was the artillery piece favoured by the Soviets in smashing the Nazis .
DO THE WASHING UP (2002) was the second CD album recorded in Tony's MTM studio in Monkton Heathfield. Cover artwork was by Dave Newton who was also involved in the mixing.
The Musicians;- Smed;- vocas, guitars, 6 string bass, harmonica Matt Bartlett ;- bass Kevin Freeman ;- drums David Newton (under the alias of Captain Balderelli) mandolin Elaine di Campo;-vocals Heidi Powell ;- vocals Cathy Smedley (aged 13) vocals
The Songs;-
THE MAGINIFICENT SEVERAL (Bernstein arr Smedley) is of course Leonard Bernsteins theme tune from the Maginificent Seven. In thiscase it features Smed alternating the melody on guitar, harmonica and 6 string bass. The overdubbed female chorus effect is by Elaine.
TOO FAT TO ROCK (Newman/Smedley) a song featured in the 1987 musical 'Rock rock rock rock rock rock rock' with words by Kim Newman and music by Smed. In the show Smedley played a character called The Fat Bopper- hence the song.
DO THE WASHING UP (Smedley) was originally a song written for the Dangerous Brothers in 1980 and featured on their album 'Going Shopping'. It tells the tale of dominating Northern mothers repressing the ambition of budding Ghenghiz Khans.
DROP DEAD DARLING (Kane/Smedley) written in 1984 by Smed and girlfriend Debbie Kane as thet were splitting up, this was originally a vinyl single by the Sedgemorons and played extensively on John Peel. This version has Elaine singing lead.
I LIKE A GLASS OF BEER NOW AND THEN (Smedley/ McCausland) A Pogues style send up with some lyrical contribution from Mac McCausland who would have been in the Red Smed band had he not left the area suddenly in 2000. The lyric mentions sites in County Down where Smed had visited when tracing his irish family.The song was originally written for the Spanners and featured on their album of the same name.
VOTE FOR BIG BILL;- (Smedley) a campaign song for Labour candidate Bill Monteith that year but only ever performed once.
WHEN TEDDY'S GONE (Smedley/Vernon) part of a series of songs written early 90s by Smed and Alexia Vernon for the band The Spanners and previously recorded with Vernon singing on the Spanners album 'I like a glass of beer now and then'. This time the singer is Cathy .
SWEDISH LANGUAGE YEH YEH YEH (Smedley) written for the Dangerous brothers in 1980 this song is in genuine Swedish and used to be an on stage favourite. The abstract solo is played by Smed while Dave messes around with effects.
STOGUMBER CAJUN GUMBO (Smedley) Borrowing heavily from the cajun sequence in 'Southern Comfort' Smed lyrically resets the incident on Exmoor and inserts ad lib French nonsense into the proceedings.
DANCING SHOES (Trad arr Smedley) The 3rd recoridng of this song originally featured on 'Songs for Swinging Communists' - also on the Spanners album.
DAGENHAM ESSEX (Smedley/ Vernon) another Smed-Alexia song this time sung by Cathy. Housemartins style mouth organ played by Smed and sweet harmonies by Elaine. Lyrically it was about Alexias boyfriend and sometime Red Smed bassist Stuart Croskell - but the real location (Egham) wasn't so lyrical.
NEW AGE BOOGIE MAN (McCausland/Smedley) A great blues send up by missing Mac Mc.C this time sung by Smed with Elaine and Heidi going meltdown bonkers on R&B backing.
THE INTERNATIONALE (Poitiers arr Smedley) The famous Socialist anthem played instrumentally on guitar and 6 string bass by smed with a multi dubbed chorus vocal by Elaine.
WEST QUAY A GO GO
My new text...
If you want any of these albums its £5 each. Cheque to Bridgwater International c/o 7c west quay,Bridgwater TA63HL. Or cash paid into West Quay records. Advance orders smedlo@globalnet.co.uk
Red Smed and the Hot Trot Smash the System Boogie band
WEST QUAY A GO GO is a home recorded album featuring just Red Smed and Cat with 11 tracks recorded at West Quay on Smeds portastudio Xmas 2008, 1 song (Fat bald dave) recorded by Rob Perdrix on the same studio at West Quay 2004, Agency man recorded on Matt Bartletts computer at Weston Zoyland 2005 .
The album features Smed or Cat on lead vocals with Smed playing all instruments including multi-tracking on his keyboard (hence the occaisional sound of sax and violins)
The profit from the sale of this album go to the CUBA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN
The Songs
THE AVENGERS THEME (Laurie Johnson arr Smedley) Smeds favourite. Especially fond memories of Diana Rigg in leather.
HAIL THE BOLD DISTRICT COUNCILLORS;- (Smedley) Smeds most recent song - written in the revolutionary style of the Russian or Spanish hero ballads in this case it extolls the virtues of his Labour comrades on Sedgemoor District Council...The speech at the end is Lenin himself.
LOVELY LOVELY LOVELY (Smedley/Pichrtova) One of 3 songs written by Smed and his Czech girlfriend Sarka Pichrtova.Lyrics are Smeds - and tell the story of the modern day Romeo and Alzbeta Bathoryova while the music is Sarkas - arranged by Smed.
CAR PARK ATTENDANT (Smedley/Bruce/Georg the Window Cleaner) .Smeds song from the Rock n Roll is pretty exciting sheep worrying musical of 1985. The song was written by Smed but featured contributions by former girlfriend Lianne Bruce - now a professional Stage manager - with the chorus refrain whistled by a window cleaner called George while they were trying to write it.
DAVE THE MANIAC (Smedley) a very early song written in 1979 telling the story of local 'character' Dave (not fat bald mind...) who was a bit on the 'manic' side. Never before performed.
I GET AROUND MUCH MORE SINCE YOU;VE BEEN GONE (Smedley) Written in 2004 this pastiche of the old Duke Ellington jazz song 'dont get around much anymore' tips the lyric on its head and is basically a tribute to Cats mum and her stamina in the face of male fallability.
SARKASM (Smedley/Pichrtova) Another Sarka-Smed song. Music by Sarka, words and arrangement by Smed, this one is yet another 'maybe some relationships are best left in the fridge' for a while song.
WEST QUAY A GO GO (Smedley/Pichrtova) The final SS ditty - there are words to it but it was done as an instrumental as the melody conveys the message on it's own.
FAT BALD DAVE (Smedley) Fat Bald Dave is a real person and all incidents in the song happened.
ME AND MY CLONE (Smedley/Newman) A song written by Kim Newman with music by Smed back in 1982 for a stage show 'Your Television Knows Best'. This one features Cat on lead vocals and Smed on everything else.
AGENCY MAN (Smedley) Written in 2005 when the European Union Accession state workers started coming into the UK. The message is the old one of Workers of the World Unite!!
BEACH PARTY (Smedley) a song which was written for a Dangerous Brothers sketch back in 1978 and revived for the Sedgemorons musical in 85. It;'s a kind of Cliff Richard Frankie Avalon Annette Funicello tribute, in the worst possible way.
WORKERS PLAYTIME:-(Trad) well...it was a theme often used in radio back in the 40s and 50s...also the theme for the captain kangaroo show and also known as 'Puffin Billy'
