Garth Smith (born Garth Davies, 10 December 1955) and sometimes credited as Garth, was known for being one of the bassists of the

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

formed punk rock band,

Buzzcocks Buzzcocks are an English punk rock band formed in Bolton, England in 1976 by singer-songwriter-guitarist Pete Shelley and singer-songwriter Howard Devoto. They are regarded as a seminal influence on the Manchester music scene, the independen ...

Biography

Garth was born in the Lancashire town of Tyldesley on Saturday 10 December 1955. He was named after the village of Garth in mid Wales, near to the town of Builth Wells where his mother was born and raised. Smith was the original bassist of the band, playing in their first show in the Bolton Institute of Technology, where the other founders of the band, guitarist

Pete Shelley Pete Shelley (born Peter Campbell McNeish; 17 April 1955 – 6 December 2018) was an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. He formed early punk band Buzzcocks with Howard Devoto in 1976, and became the lead singer and guitarist in 1977 whe ...

and vocalist

Howard Devoto Howard Devoto (born Howard Andrew Trafford, 15 March 1952) is a retired English singer and songwriter, who began his career as the frontman for punk rock band Buzzcocks, but then left to form Magazine, one of the first post-punk bands. After M ...

, were students, on 1 April 1976. He rejoined the band after Devoto left and Shelley took the lead vocalist role, around March 1977, when the band played gigs again. The band recorded and released some material with him, such as ''

The Roxy London WC2 ''The Roxy London WC2'' is a live album of recordings taken from various punk bands that played at The Roxy club in Covent Garden, London between January and April 1977. Overview The original Harvest Records release in 1977 (cat. no. SHSP 4069 ...

'' (June 1977), a various artists

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

of bands who played live at The Roxy; Buzzcocks live at the Roxy album recorded in April 1977, and plays on Time's Up" on " Short Circuit: Live at the Electric Circus" the album that featured the first

Joy Division Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. Sumner and Hook formed the band after attend ...

's live recording, he also took part in the first

Peel session John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

s, did the White Riot Tour and recorded both songs on the "

Orgasm Addict "Orgasm Addict'" is a song by the English punk rock band Buzzcocks. It was the A-side of the Buzzcocks' first single, with "Whatever Happened To...?" as the B-side, which was released on 4 November 1977 by record label United Artists. Cover im ...

" single. On 8 October 1977 he was expelled from the band, due to his alcoholism after Buzzcocks had performed at Mr. George's in Coventry. He moved to New York City and by 1980, he joined Dirty Looks. During the late 1980s, Smith played bass for the

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

based band, Temper Temper, fronted by David Aldred. Smith played bass on their debut album, ''History of England''. Since then, little of his whereabouts are known. In 1988, he sent a condolence card to Pete Shelley's mother, Margaret, on the death of Pete's father John, whom Garth thought to be a great man. As of 2017, he supports

Tyldesley Tyldesley () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, it is north of Chat Moss near the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, southeast of Wigan ...

Rugby Union Club and Wigan Athletic F.C. . Garth currently plays bass in a Tyldesley-based band, Young Once with Tony and Pete. He is also a member of the Lancashire 'Supergroup' Moondogs, comprising lead vocalist Steve Roden and drummer Chris Webster of Crayven, Tony Wragg – the main voice with Young Once – and Chris Ratcliffe of The Covertones, musician without portfolio on sax, keyboards, guitar and vocals. Garth plays double bass with this 1950s good time band.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Garth 1955 births Living people Buzzcocks members English bass guitarists English male guitarists Male bass guitarists People from Tyldesley