Debbie Smith is a British guitar and bass player who has been in several bands from the 1990s to the present, including
Curve
In mathematics, a curve (also called a curved line in older texts) is an object similar to a line (geometry), line, but that does not have to be Linearity, straight.
Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by a moving point (ge ...
,
Echobelly
Echobelly are a British rock band, debuting in 1994 with their album '' Everyone's Got One''. They were often compared to Blondie and The Smiths; Morrissey becoming a fan of the group.
The most prominent part of Echobelly's success formula wa ...
,
Nightnurse
Nightnurse was an English indie rock band from London, England, who had some success in the late 1990s.
They released three singles, with their second "Skirt" reaching no.11 in the UK Independent Singles Chart in February 1998. They were the f ...
,
Snowpony
Snowpony were a British indie rock group initially formed in 1996 by Katharine Gifford and Debbie Googe.
History
Gifford, who at the time was in Moonshake, gave Googe a tape of songs she had been working on before Moonshake went on a US tour. Go ...
,
Bows,
Ye Nuns,
SPC ECO
SPC ECO (pronounced Space Echo) are a British shoegaze band formed in 2007.
The band consists of Dean Garcia ( bass, drums, guitar and programming), formerly of Curve, and his daughter Rose Berlin (vocals); and a long list of "friends and co ...
and current bands Blindness and The London Dirthole Company.
Smith was interviewed for the 1995 book ''Never Mind the Bollocks: Women Rewrite Rock'' by Amy Raphael (published in the US as ''Grrrls: Viva Rock Divas'').
She was also interviewed and quoted for the book ''Frock Rock: Women Performing Popular Music'', a sociological study of women musicians in British popular music; at the time of the interview she was in Echobelly, and the book notes that
Skin
Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation.
Other cuticle, animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have diffe ...
and Yolanda Charles both said that Smith was the only current black British female guitarist either one of them could think of.
''Frock Rock'' says that "women like Skin,
Natacha Atlas
Natacha Atlas ( ar, نتاشا أطلس}; born 20 March 1964) is an Egyptian-Belgian singer known for her fusion of Arabic and Western music, particularly hip-hop. She once termed her music "'' cha'abi moderne''" (modern popular music). Her mu ...
, Yolanda Charles,
eggae bassistMary Genis, and Debbie Smith are now acting as crucial role models for future generations of black women."
In 1997, Debbie Smith was the subject of the third episode of a TV series with the blanket title "A Woman Called Smith" (first broadcast on
BBC2
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
, 9 April 1997).
Smith is a lesbian
and was interviewed in a 2021 documentary film by Harri Shanahan and Sian A Williams about her time in the feminist lesbian post-punk band Mouth Almighty (the documentary had its Channel 4 television premiere on 28 June 2022 as part of its Pride Season). She continues to perform as guitarist and DJ, and works at London music shop Intoxica! Records.
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References
External links
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Living people
Black British rock musicians
English bass guitarists
English women guitarists
Lesbian musicians
LGBT Black British people
LGBT musicians from England
LGBT DJs
Musicians from London
Women bass guitarists
Year of birth missing (living people)
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