Post by Henny Macc on Jul 29, 2020 23:12:26 GMT
Adrian Frederick "H" Smith (February 27, 1957 - )
Years active: 1973-1990, 1992-present
Country of origin: England
Recorded vocal range: B♭2-A5 - 2.9 octaves
Featured bands:
- 1977-1980 - Urchin (lead vocals, lead guitar)
- 1980-1990 - Iron Maiden (lead guitar, backing vocals)
- 1989 - A.S.A.P. (lead vocals, lead guitar)
- 1992-1995 - Adrian Smith and the Untouchables (lead vocals, lead guitar)
- 1995-1999 - Psycho Motel (lead guitar, backing vocals)
- 1997-1999 - Bruce Dickinson (guitar)
- 1999-present - Iron Maiden (lead guitar, backing vocals)
- 2011-present - Primal Rock Rebellion (lead guitar, backing vocals)
- 2021-present - Smith/Kotzen (lead vocals, guitar, bass)
{Full band history}
Recorded high notes: - 1973-1974 - Stone Free (lead vocals)
- 1974-1976 - Evil Ways (lead guitar)
- 1976-1977 - Urchin (lead guitar)
- 1977-1980 - Urchin (lead vocals, lead guitar)
- 1980 - The Broadway Brats (guitar)
- 1980-1990 - Iron Maiden (lead guitar, backing vocals)
- 1989 - A.S.A.P. (lead vocals, lead guitar)
- 1992-1995 - Adrian Smith and the Untouchables (lead vocals, lead guitar)
- 1995-1999 - Psycho Motel (lead guitar, backing vocals)
- 1997-1999 - Bruce Dickinson (guitar)
- 1999-present - Iron Maiden (lead guitar, backing vocals)
- 2011-present - Primal Rock Rebellion (lead guitar, backing vocals)
- 2021-present - Smith/Kotzen (vocals, guitar, bass)
A5: "Misunderstood"
D5: "Silver and Gold"
C♯5/D♭5: "Blood Brothers" A.S.A.P. song, "Fighting Man", "Kid Gone Astray", "Reach Out", "The Lion"
C5: "After the Storm", "Blood Brothers" A.S.A.P. song, "Madman", "Silver and Gold", "30 Days in the Hole" live Oxford 1980, "Wishing Your Life Away"
B4: "Blood Brothers" A.S.A.P. song, "City of Dreams", "Don't Ask Me", "Down the Wire", "Fallen Heroes", "Fighting Man", "Kid Gone Astray", "Long Time No Woman", "Misunderstood", "My Lady", "Reach Out", "Scars", "School Days", "That Girl" live at the Marquee 1985, "The Lion", "30 Days in the Hole" live Oxford 1980, "When She's Gone", "Wishing Your Life Away", "You Could Be a King"
A♯4/B♭4: "After the Storm", "Ain't Got No Money" live Oxford 1980, "Blood on the Ocean", "Down the Wire", "Fighting Man", "Kid Gone Astray", "Long Time No Woman", "Misunderstood", "Music" live Oxford 1980, "When She's Gone", "Some Days (I Only Want to Rock 'n' Roll)" live Radio 1 BBC Session 1979, "Wishing Your Life Away"
A4: "After the Storm", "Animals", "Big Trouble" live 1992, "Blood on the Ocean", "City of Dreams", "Down the Wire", "Fallen Heroes", "Fighting Man", "Glory Road", "Got a Hold on Me", "Hate and Love", "Juanita" live at the Marquee 1985, "Kid Gone Astray", "Live to Learn", "Make Up Your Mind", "Misunderstood", "Reach Out", "Rosalie" live at the Marquee 1985, "Silver and Gold", "Suicide", "That Girl" live at the Marquee 1985, "30 Days in the Hole" live Oxford 1980, "Tortured Tone", "Walking Out on You", "Watch Me Walk Away", "Wishing Your Life Away", "You Could Be a King"
G♯4/A♭4: "Better Days", "Blood on the Ocean", "City of Dreams", "Get Up and Get Out", "Glory Road", "Judgment Day" live 1992, "Kid Gone Astray", "Life in the City" live Oxford 1980, "Lifetime", "Madman", "Music" live Oxford 1980, "Need Somebody", "Reach Out", "Scars", "School Days", "She's a Roller", "Singing the Blues" live 1992, "Some People", "Statesboro Blues" live Oxford 1980, "Taking My Chances", "The Late Show", "The Lion", "The User" live Oxford 1980, "You Don't Know", "When She's Gone", "You Could Be a King"
G4: "After the Storm", "Ain't Got No Money" live Oxford 1980, "Animals", "Big Trouble" live 1992, "Blood Brothers" A.S.A.P. song, "Blood on the Ocean", "Born Under a Bad Sign" live Ollie's Duck & Dive 2015, "Chevrolet" live at the Marquee 1985, "Cocaine" live Ollie's Duck & Dive 2015, "Countdown", "Crossroads" rehearsal 2009, "Don't Ask Me", "Down the Wire", "Fighting Man", "Get Up and Get Out", "Glory Road", "Going Down" live 2012, "Juanita" live at the Marquee 1985, "Keeping It Mellow", "Life in the City", "Little Girl", "Little Wing" live Ollies Duck & Dive 2015, "Live to Learn", "Long Time No Woman", "Madman", "Make Up Your Mind", "Misunderstood", "My Lady", "Running", "Scars", "School Days", "See Me Through", "Silver and Gold", "Some Days (I Only Want to Rock 'n' Roll)" live Radio 1 BBC Session 1979, "Steal My Heart" live Oxford 1980, "The User" live Oxford 1980, "30 Days in the Hole" live Oxford 1980, "2 Minutes to Midnight" live Long Beach Arena 1985, "Walking Out on You", "Wasted Years" live Bristol Bierkellar 1993
Recorded low notes:
E3: "Born Under a Bad Sign" live Ollie's Duck & Dive 2015, "Chevrolet" live at the Marquee 1985, "Cocaine" live Ollie's Duck & Dive 2015, "Don't Ask Me", "Get Up and Get Out", "Going Down" live Ollie's Duck & Dive 2015, "Hate and Love", "Little Wing" live Ollies Duck & Dive 2015, "My Lady", "Scars", "Silver and Gold" live at the Marquee 1985, "'Til Tomorrow", "Watch Me Walk Away"
D♯3/E♭3: "Watch Me Walk Away" live Oxford 1980
D3: "Cocaine" live Ollie's Duck & Dive 2015, "Glory Road", "My Lady"
C♯3/D♭3: "Better Days", "Rise Again", "Some People", "Taking My Chances", "'Til Tomorrow"
C3: "Rise Again"
B2: "Don't Ask Me", "Down the Wire"
A♯2/B♭2: "Rise Again"
.......................................................
*Blue marks soft falsetto notes.
*Underlines marks notes in backing vocals or otherwise muffled/obscured in the song mix.
{Detailed bio}
Though best known as a key part of the Iron Maiden guitar trio, Adrian Smith is someone who's done a surprising amount of recording work as a vocalist as well and is a better singer than many would expect. He posses a raspy, bluesy type of singing voice with great control and decent ease throughout the fourth octave, and even can be heard competently belting into the fifth octave at times. His highest notes tend to top out in the lower fifth octave most of the time, but he hits a rather unexpected A5 in "Misunderstood" that demonstrates an otherwise-unheard ability to wail out notes in that range with control and grit, which I'd love to hear more of if anything ever turns up. His low range is pretty minimal - the most I was able to find were some lower third octave notes and a very select few upper second octave notes, but in total it puts his total recorded range at a bit under three octaves, which isn't too shabby!
Smith actually started out his career as a vocalist during his teenage years in the early 70s, in a band called Stone Free that also included his future Iron Maiden bandmate Dave Murray on guitar. During this band, Smith developed an interest in playing guitar after seeing the attention that Murray got from girls, and switched over to that role for his next band, Evil Ways. This band originally featured David Hall on vocals, and upon landing a record deal in 1976 changed their name to Urchin. Hall later left the band in 1977, at which point Smith resumed handling vocal duties now in addition to guitars, and continued in this role until the band's demise in 1980. Though Urchin only ever released two singles during the time that they were active as a band, there are 2-3 albums' worth of recorded material that have been released decades after the band's breakup, most of which features Smith on vocals. Included among these early Urchin tracks are the songs "Life in the City" and "Countdown", which would later be rewritten as the Iron Maiden songs "The Sheriff of Huddersfield" and "22 Acacia Avenue", respectively.
Following the breakup of Urchin, Smith had a short-lived stint in a band called The Broadway Brats with some of his former bandmates, but then was invited to audition for Iron Maiden and landed the position of second guitarist with them, replacing Dennis Stratton in 1980. Since Iron Maiden already had Paul Di'Anno serving in the position of vocalist, Smith stuck to focusing on his role as guitarist, and otherwise only contributed backing vocals for a while. Smith went on to see great success with Iron Maiden, particularly from 1982 onward when vocalist Bruce Dickinson joined the band and they released their highly-acclaimed The Number of the Beast album. The band continued to release albums and tour for the next few years, keeping too busy for any of the members to do any work in side projects. In 1985, however, Smith temporarily made a return to singing in a one-off band that he organized comprising of former Urchin members Dave Colwell and Andy Barnett, and current Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain. This supergroup was dubbed The Entire Population of Hackney, and only performed one show in late 1985, in which they played a combination of old Urchin songs, new songs written by Smith, Colwell and Barnett, and covers. Included among these covers were the songs "That Girl" and "Reach Out", which Iron Maiden would go on to cover as single B-sides off their next album Somewhere in Time in 1986 (the latter actually being Smith's sole lead vocal contribution to Iron Maiden). Meanwhile, the new songs would later go on to be recorded by the next side project that Smith formed - A.S.A.P (Adrian Smith and Project), which he assembled in 1989, and recorded and released an album called Silver and Gold. This ended up being the band's only release, but features some great singing by Smith that really showcase his vocal abilities well!
In 1990, Smith quit Iron Maiden over creative differences with bassist Steve Harris, and apparently was originally planning on retiring from the music business altogether. He remained largely inactive with music for the first few years of the 1990s, but eventually was persuaded to continue his career and formed Adrian Smith and the Untouchables in 1992, another project in which he handled vocal duties. Allegedly this band recorded an album's worth of material between 1992 and 1993, but very little can by found by them online currently - only a singular music video for the song "City of Dreams", and a live performance featuring the songs "Judgment Day", "Singing the Blues", and "Big Trouble". The Untouchables later evolved into the band Psycho Motel in 1995, at which point Smith relinquished lead vocal duties and let singer Andy Makin take them over instead. Psycho Motel released two albums, State of Mind in 1995 and Welcome to the World in 1997, after which Smith reunited with his former Iron Maiden bandmate Bruce Dickinson, who had also left the band to pursue a solo career in the 90s. Smith ended up joining Dickinson's solo band as a guitarist, and released two albums with him, before they were both invited to rejoin Iron Maiden in 1999, to which they both accepted.
Since then, Smith has continued playing with Iron Maiden for the past two decades, and has put out five more albums with them. His only other side project during this time has been Primal Rock Rebellion, a nu metal-inspired band that he formed with vocalist Mikee Goodman in 2011 and released the album Awoken Broken with in 2012. Though he has mainly stayed focused on guitar as his sole instrument in bands since the late 1990s, in early 2021 he announced a new collaboration with fellow guitarist/vocalist Richie Kotzen, simply under the name Smith/Kotzen! For this project, both members are handling guitar and vocal duties, with Smith also playing bass and Kotzen providing drums. So far they have released one track, entitled "Taking My Chances", which features a nice vocal display from both of them, and have plans to release a full length album in March. Overall, I'm glad to hear that Smith make a comeback with singing, and look forward to what else he'll have to show us!
Though best known as a key part of the Iron Maiden guitar trio, Adrian Smith is someone who's done a surprising amount of recording work as a vocalist as well and is a better singer than many would expect. He posses a raspy, bluesy type of singing voice with great control and decent ease throughout the fourth octave, and even can be heard competently belting into the fifth octave at times. His highest notes tend to top out in the lower fifth octave most of the time, but he hits a rather unexpected A5 in "Misunderstood" that demonstrates an otherwise-unheard ability to wail out notes in that range with control and grit, which I'd love to hear more of if anything ever turns up. His low range is pretty minimal - the most I was able to find were some lower third octave notes and a very select few upper second octave notes, but in total it puts his total recorded range at a bit under three octaves, which isn't too shabby!
Smith actually started out his career as a vocalist during his teenage years in the early 70s, in a band called Stone Free that also included his future Iron Maiden bandmate Dave Murray on guitar. During this band, Smith developed an interest in playing guitar after seeing the attention that Murray got from girls, and switched over to that role for his next band, Evil Ways. This band originally featured David Hall on vocals, and upon landing a record deal in 1976 changed their name to Urchin. Hall later left the band in 1977, at which point Smith resumed handling vocal duties now in addition to guitars, and continued in this role until the band's demise in 1980. Though Urchin only ever released two singles during the time that they were active as a band, there are 2-3 albums' worth of recorded material that have been released decades after the band's breakup, most of which features Smith on vocals. Included among these early Urchin tracks are the songs "Life in the City" and "Countdown", which would later be rewritten as the Iron Maiden songs "The Sheriff of Huddersfield" and "22 Acacia Avenue", respectively.
Following the breakup of Urchin, Smith had a short-lived stint in a band called The Broadway Brats with some of his former bandmates, but then was invited to audition for Iron Maiden and landed the position of second guitarist with them, replacing Dennis Stratton in 1980. Since Iron Maiden already had Paul Di'Anno serving in the position of vocalist, Smith stuck to focusing on his role as guitarist, and otherwise only contributed backing vocals for a while. Smith went on to see great success with Iron Maiden, particularly from 1982 onward when vocalist Bruce Dickinson joined the band and they released their highly-acclaimed The Number of the Beast album. The band continued to release albums and tour for the next few years, keeping too busy for any of the members to do any work in side projects. In 1985, however, Smith temporarily made a return to singing in a one-off band that he organized comprising of former Urchin members Dave Colwell and Andy Barnett, and current Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain. This supergroup was dubbed The Entire Population of Hackney, and only performed one show in late 1985, in which they played a combination of old Urchin songs, new songs written by Smith, Colwell and Barnett, and covers. Included among these covers were the songs "That Girl" and "Reach Out", which Iron Maiden would go on to cover as single B-sides off their next album Somewhere in Time in 1986 (the latter actually being Smith's sole lead vocal contribution to Iron Maiden). Meanwhile, the new songs would later go on to be recorded by the next side project that Smith formed - A.S.A.P (Adrian Smith and Project), which he assembled in 1989, and recorded and released an album called Silver and Gold. This ended up being the band's only release, but features some great singing by Smith that really showcase his vocal abilities well!
In 1990, Smith quit Iron Maiden over creative differences with bassist Steve Harris, and apparently was originally planning on retiring from the music business altogether. He remained largely inactive with music for the first few years of the 1990s, but eventually was persuaded to continue his career and formed Adrian Smith and the Untouchables in 1992, another project in which he handled vocal duties. Allegedly this band recorded an album's worth of material between 1992 and 1993, but very little can by found by them online currently - only a singular music video for the song "City of Dreams", and a live performance featuring the songs "Judgment Day", "Singing the Blues", and "Big Trouble". The Untouchables later evolved into the band Psycho Motel in 1995, at which point Smith relinquished lead vocal duties and let singer Andy Makin take them over instead. Psycho Motel released two albums, State of Mind in 1995 and Welcome to the World in 1997, after which Smith reunited with his former Iron Maiden bandmate Bruce Dickinson, who had also left the band to pursue a solo career in the 90s. Smith ended up joining Dickinson's solo band as a guitarist, and released two albums with him, before they were both invited to rejoin Iron Maiden in 1999, to which they both accepted.
Since then, Smith has continued playing with Iron Maiden for the past two decades, and has put out five more albums with them. His only other side project during this time has been Primal Rock Rebellion, a nu metal-inspired band that he formed with vocalist Mikee Goodman in 2011 and released the album Awoken Broken with in 2012. Though he has mainly stayed focused on guitar as his sole instrument in bands since the late 1990s, in early 2021 he announced a new collaboration with fellow guitarist/vocalist Richie Kotzen, simply under the name Smith/Kotzen! For this project, both members are handling guitar and vocal duties, with Smith also playing bass and Kotzen providing drums. So far they have released one track, entitled "Taking My Chances", which features a nice vocal display from both of them, and have plans to release a full length album in March. Overall, I'm glad to hear that Smith make a comeback with singing, and look forward to what else he'll have to show us!
{Album ranges}
Urchin:
The Entire Population of Hackney:
Iron Maiden:
A.S.A.P.
Smith/Kotzen:
Previous version of this thread by axisundone on TRP2.Urchin:
- Urchin (recorded in the 1970s; released 2004) - E3-B4
- High Roller (recorded in the 1970s; released 2010) - D3-B4
- Get Up and Get Out (recorded in the 1970s; released 2012) - B2-C5
- Urchin Radio 1 BBC Session 1979 (1979) - F♯3-A♯4
- Live in Oxford 1980 (1980) - E♭3-B♭4
The Entire Population of Hackney:
- The Entire Population of Hackney (1985) - E3-B4
Iron Maiden:
- Somewhere in Time (1986) - B3-A4-C♯5
A.S.A.P.
- Silver and Gold (1989) - B2-G3-A5
Smith/Kotzen:
- Smith/Kotzen (2021) - C♯3-B4
- Better Days (2021) - B♭2-A4
I'm hearing G♯4s and C♯3s for Smith here and 
