Not everything in life is simple. Red Smed, however, is. And to prove it this blog has been set up to take you deep into his deranged socialist utopia where Lenin was quite a nice bloke, , Bridgwater has been renamed Parretgrad , every home has to display a portrait of Jake Thackray and Leeds United are at the top of the premier league.

DANGEROUS BROTHERS PHOTO GALLERY

Rare picture of the Dangerous Brothers on stage at the Bridgwater Art Centre c.1977. left to right Neal Heckford (Synth) Kev Freeman (drums) Ali Chalmers + Jo Redman (vocals) Smed (bass) Jim Rude (guitar) Rocco (vocals). Jim is wearing his grandads long johns, Neal is wearing cut off trousers and high heels.

By 1978 Simon 'Supermeat' Gibbs had joined the band after replacing Lester Hill, who replaced Dave Newton. Right is a picture of 2 19 year old dangerous brothers Smed (left,in Simons biker jacket) and Simon (right in a suit for some reason)
Photo above left is in the White Hart Inn ,Bridgwater where the band recorded their album (Internal Organs) and their single (False Nose/County Councillor) Smed has switched to 6-string bass bougt in 1979 on Boar lane ,Leeds.
Photo above right was taken in the very early days of the Dangerous brothers - late 1976-when they had previously been playing as an RnB band-heavily influenced by Dr.Feelgood. The venue is the old Girls Grammar school in Bridgwater which was by then part of the College, the gig was a Rag day event and the line up -Smed (guitar) Kev (drums) Nick 'Lester'Hill (guitar) Al Proctor (who died a year later- vocals) and Cold Buffet Bill (bass). One of them  (probably Bill) has ironically chalked 'punk rock' on a blackboard..      


Left is a photo which was in the mercury in 1979 of the DBs posing in the Art Centre foyer. This is the line up that made Internal Organs and the single -Simon,Neal,Kev,Rod,Smed.
Below are a series of posed shots of the band in and around the derelict Bridgwater docks.



In 1977 with punk rock in full swing the Lime Kiln skittle alley was a popular local venue for DBs gigs. In this line up Cold Buffet Bill is on bass,Dave Butland is on lead vocals with Rodney backing him, Nervo on drums and smed on guitar - this was before Neal had joined on keyboards. Also on stage for some reason is Jeremy Winspear who later went crackers.
In late 77 the band had Rod, (Rocco) Kim Newman (Zorro) and Eugene Byrne (Ma Dangerous) on backing vocals. Picture right shows them at a gig at the West India House notable for Cold Buffet Bill (a mountaineer) climbing the ceiling by the roof beams. The local DS had a strong interest in the bands activities....
After a 'bust' at kilve court the band had a major line up re-shuffle. Rocco took over on lead vocals and his costume changes (one per song) became a feature of the bands performance. This gig - at Bridgwater Town hall , sees him performing the song 'Coalman' dressed  as ..er..a milkman (??)..oh and the goddess in the wig is Smed Smedlo. Above left is the same gig - different costume change (probably 'Private detective') but note Simon Supermeats hospital whites (he was a porter at Musgrove, or a surgeon or something)  When Rocco left the band at the time of the single being recorded the band had a tour lined up but no singer. They brought in Tonto (local sax busker) who re-recorded 'False Nose 'vocal' (although for some reason Rocco's vocal was left on County Councillor) . Tonto did some of the tour but accidentally got stowed away with the gear after a gig in Bath and shortly afterwards was replaced by Dave Butland .

The final DBs line up 1980-81 was musically tighter than ever. Neal Heckfords synth remained the centrepiece. Smed - on 6 string bass- was writing the songs, Dave Butland on lead vocals and Nervo on drums with Alan Gadd brought in on guitar. The group were signed up by Circus Records to so an album  track 'Secret Seven' on an album alongside largely Bristol bands such as Black Roots  and recorded an album 'Going Shopping' at the same time. However the record company collapsed and the band gave up the ghost during the subsequent promotional tour in September 1981.