marshall smith

Marshall Smith is the latest venture in the musical lives of ex-A Witness bandmates Vince Hunt and Alan Brown. With the addition of fearsome ex-Pram and now-Nightingales drummer Daren Garratt, this is melodic pop with the edge you would expect: driving drums and percussion, solid bass foundations and soaring guitar riffs.

Marshall Smith write tuneful and memorable pop songs, powered by Hunt's driving bass and Garratt's ferocious drumming. Brown's mellifluous vocals lead the melody, with his guitar adding colour to the canvas. There's a great diversity to their material, as you'd expect from a group spanning underground favourites Big Flame, A Witness, The Great Leap Forward, The Nightingales and Pram. One reviewer (Simon Goddard in Uncut, October 2006) called them ‘a veritable C-86 Manc supergroup'.

Most of this first album Colours was recorded in Stockport, Northern England, over Christmas and New Year 2005 in a studio next to an earthmover hire company. Three songs – "Colours", "Slump On The Liko" and "Our Little Secret" - were put down in a tiny studio underneath a timber yard in Nottingham . But these boys can record anywhere and make it sound good, because their songs are so full of positive attitude. Check out "Cross of Wages”, "Underground Music Artist" and album opener "A Thousand Curves" for tight, tremendous songwriting delivered with a punch.