Debbie Smith (musician)

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Debbie Smith

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| origin = United Kingdom

| instrument = Guitar; bass guitar

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| occupation = Musician; DJ

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| associated_acts = Mouth Almighty, The Darlings, Curve, Echobelly, Nightnurse, Snowpony, Bows, SPC ECO, Ye Nuns, Blindness, The London Dirthole Company

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Debbie Smith is a British guitar and bass player who has been in several bands from the 1990s to the present, including Curve,{{cite news |last=Colone |first=Arlene |title=Ahead of the Curve |url=http://www.nyrock.com/features/curve.htm |url-status=dead |newspaper=NY Rocker |date=April 1998 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080515112430/http://www.nyrock.com/features/curve.htm |archive-date=15 May 2008}} Echobelly,{{cite web |last=Fasolino |first=Greg |title=Echobelly |publisher=Trouser Press |url=http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php/entry.php?a=echobelly |url-status=dead |access-date=11 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090228133016/http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php/entry.php?a=echobelly |archive-date=28 February 2009}} Nightnurse,{{cite journal |last=Bresnark |first=Robin |title=Psycho Babble Charlotte Hatherley |url=https://www.angelfire.com/me4/everstarlett/1999one.html |journal=Melody Maker |date=6 February 1999}} Snowpony,{{cite web |last=Judd |first=Daniel |title=Snowpony |url=http://www.gaydarnation.co.uk/UserPortal/Article/Detail.aspx?ID=4460&sid=54 |url-status=dead |publisher=GaydarNation |date=5 September 2001 |access-date=11 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005184443/http://www.gaydarnation.co.uk/UserPortal/Article/Detail.aspx?ID=4460&sid=54 |archive-date=5 October 2011}} Bows,{{discogs release|id=44179|name=Bows: Cassidy}} Ye Nuns,{{cite journal |last=O'Keeffe |first=Niall |title=When it comes to singing The Monks' praises The Nuns can't shake the habit |url=http://www.thestoolpigeon.co.uk/17/comes-singing-monks%E2%80%99.html |url-status=dead |journal=The Stool Pigeon |issue=17 |date=17 June 2008 |access-date=11 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081016053033/http://www.thestoolpigeon.co.uk/17/comes-singing-monks%E2%80%99.html |archive-date=16 October 2008}} SPC ECO,{{cite web |title=SPC ECO Myspace page |url=http://www.myspace.com/spceco |access-date=11 December 2008}} and current bands Blindness and The London Dirthole Company.{{cite web |title=Blindness | Alternative / Electro Filth / Noisetronica | Music, Lyrics, Songs, and Videos |url=http://www.reverbnation.com/weareblindness |url-status=dead |publisher=ReverbNation |access-date=2 January 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120911033618/http://www.reverbnation.com/weareblindness |archive-date=11 September 2012}}

Smith was interviewed for the 1995 book Never Mind the Bollocks: Women Rewrite Rock by Amy Raphael (published in the US as Grrrls: Viva Rock Divas).{{cite book |last=Raphael |first=Amy |title=Grrrls: Viva Rock Divas |url=https://archive.org/details/grrrlsvivarockdi00raph |url-access=registration |publisher=St. Martin's |location=New York |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-312-14109-7}}{{cite news |last=Meyer |first=Jim |title=Hail, Hail Britannia |url=http://www.citypages.com/1995-11-15/music/hail-hail-britannia/ |url-status=dead |newspaper=City Pages |date=15 November 1995 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090426171721/http://www.citypages.com/1995-11-15/music/hail-hail-britannia |archive-date=26 April 2009}} She was also interviewed and quoted for the book Frock Rock: Women Performing Popular Music, a sociological study of women musicians in British popular music; at the time of the interview she was in Echobelly, and the book notes that Skin and Yolanda Charles both said that Smith was the only current black British female guitarist either one of them could think of.{{cite book |last=Bayton |first=Mavis |title=Frock Rock: Women Performing Popular Music |url=https://archive.org/details/frockrockwomenpe00bayt |url-access=registration |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-19-816615-3}} Frock Rock says that "women like Skin, Natacha Atlas, Yolanda Charles, Mary Genis, and Debbie Smith are now acting as crucial role models for future generations of black women."

In 1997, Debbie Smith was the subject of the third episode of a TV series with the blanket title A Woman Called Smith (first broadcast on BBC2, 9 April 1997).{{cite web |title=A Woman Called Smith: Debbie |url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/566870 |url-status=dead |work=BFI Film & TV Database |publisher=British Film Institute |access-date=22 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090129045236/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/566870 |archive-date=29 January 2009}}

Smith is a lesbian,{{cite web |author=CC |title=Top Ten: Black Gay Movers and Shakers |url=http://www.rainbownetwork.com/UserPortal/Article/Detail.aspx?ID=17340&sid=94 |publisher=GaydarNation |date=10 October 2006 |access-date=11 December 2008}} and appears in a 2021 documentary film, Rebel Dykes,Radio Times 25 June–1 July 2022, page 87, Channel 4 listingsDebbie Smith interview as featured in a 2021 film by Harri Shanahan and Sian A Williams, with a Channel 4 television premiere on 28 June 2022 at 1:05am: a rousing and detailed documentary uncovering the unheard story of post-punk lesbian feminism in the 1980s, told through archive footage, interviews and animation.{{cite web |title=Rebel Dykes – All 4 |url=https://www.channel4.com/programmes/rebel-dykes}} about the 1980s London dyke community; at that point in time she was in feminist lesbian post-punk band Mouth Almighty. She continues to perform as guitarist and DJ, and works at London music shop Intoxica! Records.{{cite news |last=Jones |first=Alice |title=Beyond Britpop: Whatever happened to the class of '95? |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/beyond-britpop-whatever-happened-to-the-class-of-95-2304322.html |newspaper=The Independent |date=2 July 2011}}{{cite journal |last=Gausi |first=Tamara |title=Independent London record shops |url=http://www.timeout.com/london/music/features/4441.html |url-status=dead |journal=Time Out London |date=18 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081112012019/http://www.timeout.com/london/music/features/4441.html |archive-date=12 November 2008}}{{cite news |last=Winneker |first=Craig |title=Vinyl Revolution: In a Digital Age, The LP Record Makes a Comeback |url=https://www.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB122113970488023395.html |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |date=12 September 2008}}