Smutty Smiff

Smutty Smiff also known as Stephen Dennis Smith (born 5 July 1959, East London, England) is a British musician, one of the founding members of Levi and the Rockats rockabilly punk band, from Los Angeles, California, United States, discovered by Leee Black Childers, tour manager of David Bowie, Iggy Pop and The Stooges.

Biography

In 1977, Childers has just finished the Anarchy in the U.K: Live at the 76 Club tour with Sex Pistols, The Clash, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Johnny Thunders, featuring The Ex (band), and New York Dolls. After the tour was over, Levi Dexter met Childers on a rockabilly concert in London. Childers decided to start a fresh project. Dexter and Smutty Smiff decided to form a band together, even though Smiff had no musical training. One week later, Childers purchased a double bass for Smiff and a first gig was booked in Max's Kansas City.^[1]

In about same time, when the band was accepted by local artists, musicians and photographers, Smiff became a model and a friend to photographers such as Andy Warhol, Mick Rock, Bob Gruen, Janette Beckman, and Robert Mapplethorpe . He did some runway shows for Betsey Johnson and Stephen Sprouse. He also did some photo sessions for the German and Italian editons of Vogue. About his experiences with Warhol and The Factory, Smiff talks in his upcoming book Smutty: The Only Essex Boy In Warhol´s Factory.^[2] He also released one sold-out book called Kats, Tats, Cars and Creepers^[3][4] as well as co-writing two songs for the the John Travolta movie, the General's Daughter 's soundtrack,^[5] and appeared in Where the Boys Are.

He toured with, or opened for, Tina Turner, The Clash, David Bowie, Kiss, The Pretenders, Bob Dylan, The Go-Go's, Ramones, Talking Heads, and Joan Jett amongst others.

In 1979, Dexter decided to quit the band and go solo after the Whisky a Go Go gig. Smiff decided at the time to continue with The Rockats with Dibbs Preston taking the vocals. After relocating to New York, Rockats signed with Chris Blackwell and released the album Rockats: Live at the Ritz, with an album cover shot by Mick Rock. Introductions to the album were made by Billy Idol.

In early 1980s, after four months of rehab, Smiff relocated from Arizona to California and formed The Havalinas with Tim Scott McConnell. Their song "High Hopes" was covered by Bruce Springsteen, who in 2014 named his entire album High Hopes.

Presently, Smutty Smiff is situated in Reykjavík, Iceland, where he is a radio host in a rock radio station,^[6] and also runs a production company WILDCAT EHF together with his personal manager, Wiktoria Joanna Ginter.

References