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.
63 articles
List of articles in the library
Level 42: Staring At The Sun (Polydor)
Review by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 15 October 1988
LEVEL 42 make me feel bad. They make me feel like I'm being as predictable as they are — and it's true. But what can ...
Review by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 22 October 1988
LET'S NOT mince words; most of these ambienceurs are a fraud, trying to sell us insubstantial ideas that aren't worth listening to by simply turning ...
Tom Tom Club: Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom (Fontana)
Review by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 22 October 1988
BOOM THE BASE ...
Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, International Musician & Recording World, November 1988
The Spirit of Eden LP is both a logical step and a radical departure for TALK TALK. Andrew Smith thinks it may prove controversial... ...
Deacon Blue: Dominion Theatre, London
Live Review by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 5 November 1988
I'LL BET whoever signed Deacon Blue thought they were signing the next Prefab Sprout. ...
Live Review by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 8 April 1989
WORDS FLY LIKE bullets from a scatter gun. They call Jalal Nurridin the "Godfather of Rap", but he's much more than that. ...
Tin Machine: The Tin Machine: Danger Signs
Interview by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 20 May 1989
WITH THE HELP OF HIS NEW BAND, DAVID BOWIE HAS AT LAST RECORDED AN ALBUM THAT REDISCOVERS THE DANGER AND EXCITEMENT THAT ONCE ESTABLISHED HIM ...
Simple Minds: Wembley Stadium, London
Live Review by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 9 September 1989
KERR-RAP ...
A Guy Called Gerald, Happy Mondays: Happy Mondays and A Guy Called Gerald Hit the Northern Lights
Report and Interview by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 30 March 1990
They came, they saw, they got wrecked and the police were called. Last week, Andrew Smith travelled to Reykjavík with both bands and witnessed scenes ...
Beats International: Let Them Eat Bingo (Go! Discs)
Review by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 31 March 1990
DEAD BEATS ...
Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.: New Funky Nation (Island)
Review by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 31 March 1990
BROTHERS IN ARMS ...
Interview by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 2 June 1990
ANDREW SMITH TALKS TO LARRY BLACKMON ABOUT POP'S LACK OF CODPIECES, THE AMERICAN DRUG PROBLEM, NWA, HOUSE MUSIC, THE BAND'S NEW SINGLE, 'I WANT IT ...
Mark Lanegan: The Winding Sheet (Glitterhouse)
Review by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 23 June 1990
WE KNOW very little about Mark Lanegan except that he's the singer with Screaming Trees and that this, his first solo album, is a magnificent ...
Report and Interview by Push, Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 18 August 1990
A couple of years ago, the success of DJ-based groups such as M/A/R/R/S, Coldcut, S'Express and Bomb The Bass heralded a new musical era. Now, ...
Interview by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 25 August 1990
A Russian, a go-go dancer and a Japanese DJ is hardly the combination you'd expect to be making the most exciting dance sounds around but, as ANDREW ...
Interview by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 1 September 1990
To the average pop fan, Tackhead are an overnight sensation but, as ANDREW SMITH discovers, there's a history and prime pedigree to this radical dance ...
Interview by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 22 September 1990
After the critical and commercial disappointment of Walking The Panther, LL COOL J is back on more typically outrageous form with his new album, Mama ...
A Tribe Called Quest: Storm Warnings
Interview by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 2 February 1991
Besides achieving Top 20 success with their new single, 'Can I Kick It?, A Tribe Called Quest have also been heavily involved with the re-recording ...
British Electric Foundation, Scritti Politti: Green Gartside and B.E.F.
Report and Interview by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 5 October 1991
BEF (THE PART-TIME preoccupation of former Heaven 17 bods second Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh) have just released a Music Of Quality and Distinction ...
Michael Jackson: Dangerous (Epic)
Review by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 30 November 1991
KING OF FLOP ...
Interview by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 16 May 1992
He's a wild ravin' boffin who makes all his own instruments. He's THE APHEX TWIN and he's Techno's first maverick genius. According to ANDREW SMITH, ...
Stereo MCs: High and Mighty: The irresistible rise of Stereo MCs
Interview by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 6 February 1993
Are they Prince times six? A Sly & The Family Stone for the Nineties? The best "new" dance band in Britain? ANDREW SMITH flies to ...
Dr. Dre: The Chronic (Atlantic)
Review by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 20 February 1993
IT'S OFTEN been said that if NWA's last LP had a saving grace, it was Dr Dre's eerie and innovative production work. As far as ...
Interview by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 15 May 1993
Verve were last year's second most likely contenders for world domination after You Know Who. At which point they threw several spanners in the works ...
Tony! Toni! Toné!: Forum, London
Live Review by Andrew Smith, The Guardian, 8 September 1993
THERE ARE many unspoken rules in pop. One is that you can tell how important a group consider themselves to be by the number of ...
Live Review by Andrew Smith, The Guardian, 29 September 1993
A FEW years back, with acid house at its peak and video games beginning to bite into record sales, there emerged a theory that rock ...
Live Review by Andrew Smith, The Guardian, 2 November 1993
IN 1992, WE thought we were unshockable. Then came news of an English band, those angry sons of Asian immigrants, who had found a chink ...
Live Review by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 22 January 1994
THE CHAP next to me looks as though he's trying to squeeze the juice from a lemon using only his buttocks. This is a sight ...
Live Review by Andrew Smith, The Guardian, 13 April 1994
HENDRIX'S line, when tuning his instrument between songs, used to be, "Hey, only cowboys stay in tune." The post-grunge equivalent of this, as articulated by ...
Brand New Heavies: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Andrew Smith, The Guardian, 23 June 1994
WHEN BRAND New Heavies lumbered on to the scene in 1988, few would have rated their chances of surviving into 1994, let alone of becoming ...
Future Sound of London: London Calling
Interview by Andrew Smith, The Guardian, 8 July 1994
Two years ago Future Sound Of London changed the course of dance music. Now they are changing the way rock bands tour... ...
Live Review by Andrew Smith, The Guardian, 15 July 1994
GALLIANO HAVE the knack of polarising opinion. On the one side, you have a public who have been drawn to the band's deeply hip fusion ...
Jeff Buckley: The Garage, London
Live Review by Andrew Smith, The Guardian, 5 September 1994
AS JEFF Buckley ambled lugubriously on to the stage, the faces of pretty much everyone in the capacity crowd betrayed the same thought — "How ...
Interview by Andrew Smith, The Face, November 1994
JAY KAY shouldn't really be telling me shit like this. He and his band for — make no mistake, it is his band — have ...
Interview by Andrew Smith, The Face, January 1995
You probably know him as "that slacker guy" who recorded 1994's lo-fi radio anthem 'Loser'. That's fine by Beck, but just don't call him the ...
Future Sound Of London: Future Pop
Report and Interview by Andrew Smith, The Face, January 1995
When Future Sound Of London played live in New York last month, they were at home in London, connected to the venue only by a ...
Seefeel, Spiritualized: Spiritualized, Seefeel: Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Andrew Smith, The Guardian, 27 February 1995
THE GHOST of St Jimi must have been smiling: this was a good night for guitars. First, the London quartet Seefeel set about deconstructing the ...
Kurt Cobain, Manic Street Preachers: Is This Music To Die For?
Report by Andrew Smith, The Guardian, 31 March 1995
AN ARTICLE in this week's Melody Maker describes some of the dozens of letters the paper has been receiving every week since Richey James's departure ...
Report and Interview by Andrew Smith, The Guardian, 7 April 1995
How come an unknown British band are so big in the US? ...
Interview by Andrew Smith, Ray Gun, May 1995
HER HOUSE IS set back from the street, on a wide avenue in Maida Vale. A pair of imposing, wrought iron security gates shield it ...
Grooverider, Moby, Orbital: Tribal and Strife
Report by Andrew Smith, The Guardian, 8 May 1995
The Criminal Justice Act put the rave under House arrest. But it's out and it's phat in Oxfordshire ...
Interview by Andrew Smith, The Face, July 1995
Ladies and gentlemen: introducing Sheffield's own Jarvis Cocker, man of the common people, unlikely sex symbol, top pop personality and the best TV presenter we never ...
Cypress Hill: Back in the Daze
Interview by Andrew Smith, The Face, October 1995
CYPRESS HILL used cannabis to devastating effect in the marketing of their Black Sunday — racking up best-selling rap album in the process. Can they pull the ...
Report by Andrew Smith, The Face, October 1995
Amsterdam's Safe House Project does more than just advise clubbers on Ecstasy: it goes right to the source, to the manufacturers. ...
Goa Trance: Paradise Lost Can Be Regained
Report by Andrew Smith, The Guardian, 16 November 1995
Is a movement that started 12 years ago in a small south Indian state about to take over the British club scene? Andrew Smith chills ...
Mark Hollis: Composing Himself
Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, The Sunday Times, 25 January 1998
ANDREW SMITH meets the former Talk Talk singer whose haunting new album marks the next stage in an intriguing musical odyssey. ...
Lee Hazlewood: The Return of Nancy's Boy
Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, The Observer, 13 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 ...
Spice Girls, Thunderbugs: Girls on top
Report by Andrew Smith, The Observer, 22 August 1999
After Spice, all-girl groups are dominating the charts. They're successful, but who's got the power? ...
Everything But The Girl: Girl trouble
Interview by Andrew Smith, The Observer, 12 September 1999
Everything But The Girl have been through a lot in the past two decades — folk, jazz, MOR, drum'n'bass... oh, and life-threatening illness and parenthood, ...
Nitin Sawhney : The Outsider: Nitin Sawhney
Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, The Observer, 19 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 ...
The KLF: Burning question: The KLF
Report and Interview by Andrew Smith, The Observer, 13 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 ...
Three Lions: Fat Les and 'Jerusalem'
Report and Interview by Andrew Smith, Observer Music Monthly, 21 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 ...
Radiohead: Sound and Fury: Radiohead
Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, The Observer, 1 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 ...
Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, Observer Music Monthly, 15 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 ...
Manic Street Preachers: Our Manics in Havana: Manic Street Preachers
Report and Interview by Andrew Smith, The Observer, 18 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 ...
Sigur Ros: So good they make you vomit
Report and Interview by Andrew Smith, The Observer, 15 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 ...
Vincent Gallo: Buffalo Boy: Vincent Gallo
Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, The Observer, 30 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, 4 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 ...
So Solid Crew: Ghetto Blasters: So Solid Crew
Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, Observer Music Monthly, 25 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. ...
Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, Observer Music Monthly, 10 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 ...
Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, The Sunday Times, 7 February 2010
The guitarist has left many famous bandmates to pursue adventures in jazz and electro, but now rejoins with Eric Clapton. ...
back to LIBRARY
