'BIRDMAN!? “I have no idea what it means. Ask Steve Hands, he came up with it. No, don't ask him. He won't know either.” Richard Vernon struggles to explain the name. 'I can describe what BIRDMAN is! However, I'm the one who discovers that Paul Smith still writes songs and plays guitar like Pete Townsend and is running out of patience with Tom Verlaine's riffs. I persuaded him to sing and record, I brought Steve Hands to give him wings and I brought him back to Earth because I want people to hear this. And all in the kitchen because Smith doesn't want to go to a studio.”
Vernon and Hands met in the band 'The One' with Peter Perrett of The Only Ones. Since then, Vernon spent almost ten years playing bass for The Mission, then Ricky Warwick of The Almighty and a host of well-known artists.
A multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer and performer in his own right, Hands has been in The Band of Holy Joy and is now back with The Only Ones. Peter Perrett has described him as the most musical drummer he has ever played with.
Vernon and Smith met when they signed to Rough Trade and then Island Records, with Helter Skelter. Smith left the band and disappeared from view when their now sought-after debut album 'Consume' was released.
Previously, Smith had been in The Doctor's Children, produced by John Leckie (Stone Roses, Radiohead, XTC, Magazine) and released worldwide, including on the legendary Glass, Upright and Down There labels. The Doctor's Children also toured with the likes of Steve Earle, REM, James and Violent Femmes, appeared twice at Glastonbury and was championed on BBC Radio 1 by Andy Kershaw and Janice Long. In that period, Sony-BMG Music hired Smith as a composer. BIRDMAN!
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