Steve "The Gentle Giant" Smith

Mr Steve Smith or "The Schist"  is a man of many talents. His weapon of choice in this band, is the 5 string Overwater Hand Made Bass Guitar.

By day he is a IT guru, but by night the Jaguar driving giant of a man becomes the groove laden partner of our drummer Pete Barton.

A master of instruments as diverse as Piano, Oboe, Drums and his beloved hand made Bass Guitar, this guy is a real rock maestro, and is the oil in the engine of this magnificent Rock & Blues band, that are "Bang To Rights".

Steve started life way back in the late sixties and having started playing piano at an early age he quickly moved on to the Oboe and then the Drums. Playing in school bands, Steve's talent was soon recognised at secondary school by his teachers. Steve, became a regular member of the school band, playing at all sorts of events, and even playing at The Royal Albert Hall.

Time was moving on, and so was Steve. Now In his mid teens, Punk had been and gone and the new romantics ruled the airways, and Mark King was the Bass player of choice.

Steve was captivated by Mark King and his mastery of the Bass guitar. He persuaded his parents to lend him the money to buy one, and with the promise of paying them back he visited his local music shop, and bought himself a Fender Precision Bass guitar, albeit a copy.

With his talent for reading music Steve practised endlessly until after 12months of making his fingers bleed he was offered the job of playing bass in a little known band called The Envoy. 

The Envoy got themselves known on the local Pub scene and became very popular, and most weekends could be seen playing all around  bars and clubs in The Black Country, and had secured themselves a recording contract with a national record label. Steve was at a crossroads in his life, to either try to become a professional Bass player or learn a trade in the fast growing IT industry.

Unfortunately for the music industry Steve chose the IT route and for the next twenty years worked hard at becoming one of the best, and most sought after IT Consultants in Britain, but damn it !! music just wouldn't go away.

In the late Nineties Steve began promoting Live music in his spare time, in and around the Telford area, and once again he began to pick up his Bass guitar. It would be around late 2004 early 2005 that Steve first met Merv at a open mic night and they quickly became friends, and formed the band Cladh Hallan. By now Steve had splashed out some hard earned cash on new equipment and was really getting "In The Groove".

Cladh Hallan was short-lived, recording only a couple of songs and playing only a handful of gigs, but their friendship continued and so it was that after that fateful day that Merv and Mark met, it became clear to Merv that Steve was the obvious choice to take on the role of Bass Guitarist,

And Bang To Rights were nearly there.

Weapons of choice: Ashdown Amplification, Handmade Bespoke Overwater Bass Guitars.