Stevie Smith - Lead Vocals & Harmonica (1985 - date)

Stevie’s involvement with Ruthless Blues began in 1985, (whilst he was working with Bad Manners) when he began covering the odd absence of then Ruthless front man, Johnny Mars.

As the months went by, Stevie covered for John more and more often, until by the end of the year Stevie had joined the band full time. The change in feel of the band was enormous with Stevie’s powerful vocals and "cheeky chappy" Cockney banter replacing the cool drawl of Chicago-born Mars. Stevie’s influence on the direction Ruthless took was considerable and the level of commitment within the band increased significantly with the result that the band’s live performances went from strength to strength. Stevie was also responsible for writing most of the original material that Ruthless now started to add to their set.

Stevie’s musical career began when he started playing harmonica at the age of twelve. But by the time he joined his first tentative school bands (with the late, and sadly missed, Steve Waller) he had turned initially to playing percussion and later, bass guitar.

However, as he approached school leaving age, the diminutive Smith, having watched his school friends grow in height on a daily basis whilst he didn’t, and being an astute sort of bloke into the bargain, realised that being a bass guitarist would mean lugging large pieces of equipment around with him all the time. He therefore reasoned that this was as good a time as any to take up the harmonica again! And so it was that Stevie began playing on the folk club circuit with his old school mate Waller again.

As Stevie’s reputation spread he began doing the odd gig with people like Long John Baldry, Kevin Coyne, and Jo-Ann Kelly. In 1971, Stevie started hosting the renowned Sunday night jam sessions at the Half Moon in Herne Hill, South London. These sessions featured an amazing array of musical talent from the most popular bands of the era including members of the Jeff Beck Band, Rory Gallagher band, Thin Lizzy, and 7^th Wave. It was also around this time that Stevie first met Tony Fernandez who was later to become the Ruthless Blues drummer.

1975 saw the formation of the highly acclaimed S.A.L.T. which was fronted by Stevie and also included Mick Clarke on guitar and Tony Fernandez on drums. The band reached their high spot with an appearance at the 1977 Reading Festival and the release of an EP the same year. Unfortunately, however, at that time punk was very much the "in" thing and R’n’B wasn’t. So, by 1979 S.A.L.T had unfortunately broken up.

Stevie went on to form another band, Ramrod, which was rather short lived, as was a briefly resurrected S.A.L.T and by 1981 Stevie had almost retired from the music business. However, his reputation as an outstanding harp player had been established and he continued to be in demand for recording sessions with a variety of people.

1983 saw Stevie become a rather unlikely addition to Bad Manners with whom he went on to complete three tours of the USA and record one album and a single. Stevie recalls the period with a sparkle in his eye, "We didn’t make any money, but we sure had a lot of fun!".

Stevie formed several other bands of his own over the years including Terminal Snack, and The Purple Gang but Ruthless Blues became the mainstay of his musical career throughout the late eighties and the nineties.

Incidentally, Stevie also claims that he was runner up in the Hohner World Harmonica Championship in 1975 and was once a member of a World Championship harmonica group – but that’s another story!