I first saw The Smithereens on Channel 4’s (at the time) unmissable Friday evening music show The Tube. I’m pretty sure the first song I heard them play was “Behind The Wall Of Sleep” (and thanx to the wonders of YouTube I’ve just discovered it was January 30th 1987 and the first thing I heard was “Blood And Roses”, f*ck you memory!). Bass player Mike Mesaros looked like Dee Dee Ramone. He and the other 2 guys up front (singer Pat DiNizio and guitarist Jim Babjak) all played Rickenbacker guitars (a 4001, a 325 and a 330 respectively) all in black. Drummer Dennis Diken looked like he didn’t belong with the other three. They blew me away. I almost immediately phoned the guitarist in my then band, The Libertines, to make sure that, if he hadn’t seen it he needed to turn the TV on and catch them when they came back on. It was OK he’d seen it, and it blew him away too.

The Smithereens were from New Jersey and were obviously hugely influenced by the British Invasion Beat Groups of the 1960’s. There are points in this record when you have to ask yourself is this a late 80’s recording or a genuine 60’s one. That question has to be asked right from the off as “Strangers When We Meet” messes with your perception of time. It’s a rollicking good 60’s pop tune in the vein of The Beatles  “I Saw Her Standing There”. “Behind The Wall Of Sleep” begins with the line “She had hair like Jeanie Shrimpton back in 1965” letting you know it’s a 60’s influence and not from the time (the girl in the song is later described thus “Well she played a bass guitar and she was playing in a band, And she stood just like Bill Wyman…”). The album also had a lovely ballad, “In A Lonely Place”, sung together with Suzanne Vega.

Mark and I got quite obsessive about The Smithereens for a while culminating in August 1988 with us getting Mark’s then girlfriend to drive us to London to see them at The Astoria on the tour to support their second album “Green Thoughts” (hopefully coming into a collection near me very soon). It was a bloody fantastic gig too. I have one other of their albums on vinyl, 1994’s “A Date With The Smithereens”, but as that is in the form of a box set of 4x7” singles we won’t cover that here. 

The Smithereens made their final album in 2011, well, their final album with Pat Nizio who sadly passed away in 2017. They were great…

The Smithereens on The Tube 30/1/87 - https://youtu.be/uBKFa3yB8ZY?si=KUxoDULw3pImOHTi

In the late 90’s me and Deb and our great friend Dawse trooped off to a grotty back street boozer on the edge of Moseley in Birmingham. The reason for this was the advertised performance of TV Smith, former singer with The Adverts and genuine Punk Rock legend. I’d seen him play before, in 1990 in Camden Town with his then band Cheap and then one night at Ronnie Scott’s in Birmingham when he opened for Tom Robinson. The chance to see him up close and personal in a pub was too good to pass up.

As we all stood at the bar perusing what wasn’t an exactly overpopulated room I was seeing a lot of sizeable, balding gentlemen in what felt like uniform distressed, brown leather jackets and got to thinking to myself “where are all the old Punk Rockers ?”. Then it struck me, these are the old Punk Rockers! Anyways that night we got to have a chat with TV and either me or Deb said in the course of that conversation “If you ever need somewhere to stay in Birmingham give us a call” and numbers were swapped. A few months later my phone rang and it was TV Smith (yes I nearly collapsed in shock !). He was coming back to Brum and if he put us on the guest list could we put him up for the night, I almost panicked at the thought of having a genuine Punk Rock legend under my roof. Over the next few years Teev (I always struggle with what to call him. TV seems too formal, Teev too familiar and I don’t feel I know him well enough to call him by his actual name Tim) stayed with us 3 or 4 times, always a perfect guest, just feed him toast, Marmite and tea in the morning, point him to a train station and he’s on his way.

I’d had this album on CD since it was first released in 2001 but the last time we saw TV, in 2017 in Stourbridge, he had this version on Pink vinyl so I had to have it. It is indeed the best of the man covering songs by The Adverts, Cheap and his solo songs but they have all been re-recorded with the help of his friends from German Punx Die Toten Hosen (the Dead Trousers !) and now sound more modern day Punk than the originals. It’s one for hardened TV Smith fans but also a good place to start if you are unfamiliar with what he does.

I’m still in touch with TV, in fact we’re promoting him in Shrewsbury in June this year (tickets available from https://www.seetickets.com/event/tv-smith/alberts-shed/2989754 BTW), a day when I will no doubt wrestle with whether to call him TV, Teev or Tim all day.

Expensive Being Poor - https://youtu.be/pZz7mOXDu0g?si=Ot6K6WnHtW9cvjxL

In 1991 I did a couple of tours with a band called Cheap And Nasty. They were the post Hanoi Rocks band formed by Nasty Suicide. The 2nd guitarist was Timo Kaltio a former Hanoi Rocks roadie, the bass player was Alvin Gibbs formerly of The Users/UK Subs/Iggy Pop’s band and the live keyboard player was a fella I vaguely recognised but couldn’t place, name of Mel Wesson. We were sound-checking one day and Mel started to play a piano piece I recognised instantly and suddenly I realised who he was. I cheekily stepped up to an open microphone and began to sing along

“Travel round the world, Cover every inch, It just cannot be done

You meet a lot of girls who don’t mean anything, So only look for one…”

Those being the opening lines from “The Last Words Of The Great Explorer” by TV Smith’s Explorers and Mel Wesson was the keyboard player in that band. To say he was surprised that I knew it was something of an understatement. 

The Explorers were the band formed by TV Smith after the breakup of The Adverts, who we have already ascertained I was/am a massive fan of, The Adverts and TV Smith. The first thing we heard from him after The Adverts was a single at the end of 1980 “Tomahawk Cruise”. It’s not on this album but I still think it’s one of the greatest (post) Punk singles ever released which is why I’m leaving a link here so those of you that don’t know it can bathe in all its glory https://youtu.be/apkdsVw6e3k?si=1ZWfL1Nr-FDh1RcF.

This album followed shortly afterwards in 1981 and I’m pretty sure I bought my copy, complete with bonus 7” single, from the record department at WH Smith in Solihull ! It is notable really only for TV Smith’s lyrical input, the album itself is nothing exceptional (and when I say that I in no way mean that it’s bad). The stand out track is the title song and three other tracks were lifted as singles, “The Perfect Life”, “The Servant” and “Have Fun”, none of which bothered the charts or the radio airwaves unduly. 

TV Smith is one of our great treasures, a troubador travelling the length and breadth of Europe playing tiny gigs to appreciative audiences who fits more enthusiasm and fire into a single show than some I could name have mustered in an entire career, he’s a genuine Punk Rock legend and deserves your time and attention.

The Last Words Of The Great Explorer - https://youtu.be/bWZsBggWM4s?si=QJokDcUXptdtrHz4