Smith, Adrian

From Discoogle.com

Info

Real Name: Adrian Frederik Smith

Born On: February 27 1957

Genres: Rock

Member of

• Urchin
• Iron Maiden
• Entire Population Of Hackney, The
• Asap
• Untouchables, The
• Psycho Motel
• Dickinson, Bruce
• Hansen, Kai
• Kiske, Michael

Biography

I first met Adrian when I was in Samson and he�d just joined Iron Maiden. We were over the road from each other in different studios; we were doing the second Samson album and he was doing �Killers�. He was very much the new boy in the band, but I was really impressed with the style of his guitar playing. And he was dead rock and roll. He was skinny, pasty and waiflike, and he looked really cool!

He�s a pretty mellow person, and he�s got a very dry sense of humour. His nickname in the band used to be Willie-Orwontee - not for nothing! He likes to take his time over things, which is not a bad thing and in the old days when we used to do soundchecks together, we�d all be waiting for him, he�s such a perfectionist over sound.

In a world populated by faceless guitarists who all go to school to learn how to do it and end up all sounding virtually indistinguishable, Adrian has evolved a tone and style that is all his own and is unique. Nobody sounds like Adrian, and that is priceless. His guitar playing sounds lazy, like the notes are almost falling over each other but they never do. You actually hang on every note that he plays, because you don�t quite know where it�s going to go next.

He�s a very good athlete. When he plays football or tennis, he has a natural grace, and that�s what his guitar playing�s like. When he plays football, he gets the ball and you think, �He�s never going to get past that guy�, but suddenly, there�s a little shuffle and he�s dribbled past him. And it�s like watching him play guitar. I swear to God the timing is the same!

When he left the band in 1990, I think everybody was a bit surprised at how much we missed him and certainly, I don�t think anybody had realised how much the fans would miss him - big time. I wouldn�t have rejoined Iron Maiden if he wasn�t in the band. I just don�t think it would have been complete without Adrian, and now, it�s great having three guitarists.

I think possibly one of the greatest tracks he�s ever written is on the new album; it�s called �Paschendale�. When I was writing stuff with him for the album, I noticed he had lots of Siegfried Sassoon and other war books lying around, and he was researching this track. It�s a fantastic song and really evocative of the whole horrific period of warfare - a stunning piece of music, ten minutes long.

Adrian�s philosophy, I guess, goes back to something we were talking about one drunken night. He turned around and said, 'The thing about me is, all I�m interested in is just having a bit of a sing and a play', and that is at the root of everything that is Adrian. He�s happy having a drink, having a sing and playing guitar. And for something that�s that simple, he does it alarmingly well - especially the guitar playing.

ironmaiden.com

Adrian Frederik "H" Smith (born February 27, 1957 in Hackney, East London, England) is a songwriter and one of three guitarists in the heavy metal band Iron Maiden.

Biography Whilst at school, Adrian befriended Dave Murray and founded his first own band Urchin as lead singer and lead guitarist. Adrian bought his first guitar from Murray, a Woolworths' Top 20, for five quid, his dad fixed it. Murray left to join Iron Maiden, the new band of another friend, Steve Harris. Smith continued to front "Urchin" until joining Maiden in late 1980 for the Killers album (released in 1981), replacing Dennis Stratton. Smith first wrote songs for Maiden on the 1982 album The Number of the Beast, and was the band's secondary song writer from then on. Smith and Dave Murray combined playing dual lead guitars helping to forge the trademark sound of Iron Maiden. Some notable dual lead solos are "2 Minutes To Midnight", "Alexander the Great" and "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner". Notable solitary solos include "Wasted Years", "Stranger In A Strange Land" and "The Wicker Man".

Adrian's solos are usually composed rather than improvised. His legato playing is very smooth and fast, and typically even his very fast passages have a musical function and relationship to the chord structure behind the solo, drawing from modes and arpeggios which are more often from the blues licks.

Smith released a solo LP with the band ASAP (Adrian Smith And Project) titled Silver and Gold in 1989. Following its release, Smith departed from Iron Maiden in 1990, and was replaced by Janick Gers. It is widely believed that Adrian left due to his unhappiness with the direction the band was taking: after releasing the experimental Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son albums, Steve Harris had decided to take the band back to a more traditional hard rock direction which you can clearly hear on the No Prayer for the Dying album. This album featured one last song co-penned by Adrian with Bruce Dickinson, "Hooks in You".

Bruce Dickinson's comment on Adrian:

When he left the band in 1990, I think everybody was a bit surprised at how much we missed him and certainly, I don�t think anybody had realised how much the fans would miss him - big time. I wouldn�t have rejoined Iron Maiden if he wasn�t in the band. I just don�t think it would have been complete without Adrian, and now, it�s great having three guitarists.

Later, Adrian formed his prog rock and fusion band Psycho Motel. The band recorded two albums, State of Mind (1996) and Welcome to the World (1997). Smith would also play on Bruce Dickinson's Accident of Birth and The Chemical Wedding albums.

On August 22nd 1992 Smith made a brief appearance onstage with Maiden to play "Running Free" during the Donington Festival, much to the appreciation of the audience.

In 1999, Smith re-joined Iron Maiden for the "Ed Hunter tour", a tour in support of the video game of the same name. Since then, Smith and Maiden have released 3 studio albums, Brave New World in 2000, Dance of Death in 2003 and A Matter of Life and Death in 2006.. He remains with the band to this day.

In his spare time, Adrian loves fishing, as can be seen on the Rock In Rio DVD.

Adrian has a wife named Natalie, and three children, son Dylan Smith (born in 1989) and twin daughters Natasha Smith and Britney Smith (born in 1991)

Discoogle's comments powered by Disqus