Smokie

Yorkshire, England, witnessed the formation of Smokie in 1966. The quartet achieved multiple entries on the British pop charts throughout the late 1970s by blending updated psychedelic pop, an approach shaped by their period on Mickie Most’s Rak Records and by the chief songwriters behind most of their successful releases, Rak’s Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. Vocalist Chris Norman, bassist Terry Utley, guitarist Alan Silson, and drummer Ron Kelly had previously performed together in the Elizabethans before launching the band Kindness in 1970. Although the group cut numerous singles across the late 1960s and early 1970s, none registered on the charts. Kelly departed in 1973 and Pete Spencer took his place behind the drums. After signing with Rak Records in 1975, the band, then billed as Smokey, reached number three in the U.K. with the single “If You Think You Know How to Love Me.” A second Top Ten entry, “Don’t Play Your Rock ’n’ Roll to Me,” preceded the name change to Smokie. Three further Top 20 hits arrived in 1976, among them the number-five single “Living Next Door to Alice.” Number-five placements followed with “It’s Your Life” in 1977 and “Oh Carol” in 1978. Chart activity ceased in early 1980; after issuing the 1982 album Midnight Delight, the original lineup dissolved. Spencer and Norman remained at Rak throughout the 1980s, penning hits for other acts, before reuniting Smokie in 1986 and releasing the album My Heart Is True. All Fired Up and Greatest Hits Live appeared next, while the band stayed active through the 1990s with fresh recordings such as 1992’s Chasing Shadows and 1995’s The World and Elsewhere alongside various hits compilations. A 1995 collaboration with comedian Roy “Chubby” Brown on the reissued “Living Next Door to Alice (Who the F**k is Alice)” returned Smokie to the U.K. singles chart. Renewed interest prompted additional studio albums—Light a Candle in 1996, Uncovered in 2000, and On the Wire in 2004—alongside continued live performances across the U.K. and Europe. The group’s twenty-first album, Take a Minute, arrived in 2010. Over the ensuing decade Smokie issued a handful of new tracks while maintaining an active touring schedule throughout Europe.