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Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith was born in Greenwich Village, New York, to English parents. A stint living in San Francisco was followed by relocation to the Hastings in UK, where school classmates included the artist Dinos Chapman and the future Spice Girls/Pop Idol svengali Simon Fuller – whose attentions failed to save Smith's fourth-form band from obscurity.

After studying philosophy and politics at the University of York, Smith moved to London, where he toured and released records with post-punk and electro bands for a few years (at one point failing an audition for The Clash), before finally submitting to his first love, which was writing.

Starting at Melody Maker, he moved rapidly to The Face as a feature writer during its mid-'90s heyday under Sheryl Garratt, and from there to the Guardian, Sunday Times (as Chief Pop Critic) and The Observer. Along the way, there were articles on crop circle hoaxers; the ecstasy testers of Amsterdam; the secret world under London and human rights work of Bianca Jagger, not to mention interviews with everyone from Madonna to the architect Richard Rogers, artist Damien Hirst and amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.

In 2002, Smith left journalism to write his UK #1 and international bestseller Moondust: in Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth. Describing his search for the nine remaining men who walked on the moon between 1969 and 1972, Moondust was nominated for two British Book Awards and chosen by The Times as one of its 100 Best Books of the Noughties.

He now divides his time between writing and documentary film. His most recent book, Totally Wired: On the Trail of the Great Dotcom Swindle, is about the bizarre life of the New York Web pioneer Josh Harris, and was published in hardback by Simon & Schuster in October 2012, with paperback to follow.

List of articles in the library by artist

Elastica Limits

Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, Observer Music Monthly, March 2002

As Britpop's queen, she had everything: In Elastica, she had a best-selling group and in Damon Albarn, a boyfriend lusted after by thousands. But then ...

KLF, The: Burning question: The KLF

Report and Interview by Andrew Smith, Observer, The, February 2000

Why did Bill Drummond set fire to £1 million? Why did he want to chop off his own hand on stage? And why did the ...

Lee Hazlewood: The Return of Nancy's Boy

Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, Observer, The, June 1999

NEW YORK CROWDS don't get much hipper than this. The women look either like a young Patti Smith or Marianne Faithfull circa Girl On A ...

Manic Street Preachers: Our Manics in Havana: Manic Street Preachers

Report and Interview by Andrew Smith, Observer, The, March 2001

THURSDAY MORNING and the short journey to the national radio station affords a first look at Havana, which turns out to be exactly what I ...

Moby: Definitely Moby

Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, Observer Music Monthly, October 2000

"I was a rigid punk rock Marxist. Then I was a rigid vegan dance music Christian." Today, he's loosened up and become one of the ...

Nitin Sawhney : The Outsider: Nitin Sawhney

Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, Guardian, The, September 1999

Nitin Sawhney says he feels like a stranger in England, where he was born, and in India, the land of his parents. The tension has ...

Radiohead: Sound and Fury: Radiohead

Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, Observer, The, October 2000

IN THE EARLY '90S, you knew you'd arrived as a rock group the day you made it on to MTV and the Beavis & Butthead ...

Sigur Ros: So good they make you vomit

Report and Interview by Andrew Smith, Observer, The, April 2001

ON THE OTHER side of the door is a sprawling south London estate gathered round an old factory turned business park, as oppressive an environment ...

So Solid Crew: Ghetto Blasters: So Solid Crew

Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, Observer Music Monthly, November 2001

SHOTS RANG OUT and a man collapsed in a heap near the dance floor. Another lay slumped, bleeding profusely, in a doorway near the toilet. ...

Vincent Gallo: Buffalo Boy: Vincent Gallo

Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, Observer, The, September 2001

He's a self-confessed sexual compulsive, a teetotal right-wing extremist who made the hit movie Buffalo 66. Andrew Smith meets Vincent Gallo, painter, actor, model, director, ...

Yoko Ono: Just imagine: Yoko Ono

Interview by Andrew Smith, Observer Music Monthly, November 2001

In the '60s, Yoko Ono married John Lennon and campaigned for peace in Vietnam. More than 30 years on, she's still irrevocably linked to her ...

List of genre pieces

Three Lions: Fat Les and 'Jerusalem'

Report and Interview by Andrew Smith, Observer Music Monthly, May 2000

After scoring with their World Cup hit 'Vindaloo', Damien Hirst, Keith Allen and Alex James are back with the official song for Euro 2000. But ...

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