Interesting to look back at those on the Bowie / New York Dolls conveyor belt who ended up left there. Brett Smiley was a protege of Andrew Loog-Oldham who released the above single in the UK in 1974 and it tanked. Very much in the Bowie/Dolls/Jobriath/T.Rex mode, but lite and constructed somehow. He had a compilation of the demos he recorded at the time released thirty years later. An interesting listen but he was clearly too young and underdeveloped for the outfit he was being measured for.
He's otherwise best known for his TV encounter alongside Loog-Oldham with Russell Harty, ITV's leading chat show host at the time. The interview is a pretty uncomfortable watch. Harty, a pretty odious character at the best of times, makes little effort to hide his contempt. Smiley seems a lamb to the slaughter. Still, the songs themselves are an interesting listen and VaVa Voom at least sounds like a chart record to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment