DJ Andy Smith was named in the Top 20 Greatest DJs of All Time by Future Music Magazine and Music Radar
Marking the 30th anniversary of Portishead’s Dummy, The Commercial welcomes DJ Andy Smith to The
Sevens series in the basement Record Room
This October Bank Holiday party welcomes DJ Andy Smith (The Document/ex-Portishead), marking the 30th anniversary of Portishead’s seminal debut album, Dummy.
The Commercial is delighted to continue The Sevens series, inviting some of the most prolific and enduring artists in electronic music to The Record Room over the course of 2024.
The first shows in the series welcomed artists including Underworld’s Darren Emerson, Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor, Belfast’s David Holmes and Lionrock’s Justin Robertson to the Catherine Street venue.
On the 30th anniversary of Portishead’s Dummy – a genre-defining record released alongside Massive Attack’s Protection and Tricky’s Maxinquaye – The Commercial welcomes the band’s producer, sampler and tour DJ Andy Smith back to Limerick for a rare funk, reggae, soul & hip hop set on Bank Holiday Saturday, October 26th.
A city favourite as an annual visitor to The Wicked Chicken, Andy was named in the Top 20 Greatest DJs of All Time by Future Music Magazine and Music Radar, and came from within the same Bristol DJ community as fellow Portishead’s Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbons, sharing a passion for alternative sounds and pushing forward production styles. This shared spirit saw Portishead turn to him to supply them with sample material for their first two albums, and join them as DJ for the tours they would undertake to bring these records to fans around the world.
As a constant digger and discoverer of new and obscure music, intended specifically for the dancefloor, Andy was also the first to release a multi-genre mixed compilation on a major label. Released in 1998 on Polygram, ‘The Document’ album series became the framework which others followed. The compilation was crafted expertly from a variety of genres, in a time when people were following the samples and influences for the records coming out of the UK and US hip hop & trip hop scenes, hungry to explore a whole range of sounds.
Leading to two more volumes, ‘The Document’ 1, 2 & 3 were all critically acclaimed, and all three vinyl releases have become collectors’ items. Andy went on to create and produce compilation albums for Trojan Records and Greensleeves Records, before ‘Andy Smith’s Northern Soul’ and ‘Jam Up Twist’ for BGP Records, plus the ‘Reach Up’ series for BBE, infused his sets with soul and disco.
Gathering all this experience, playing almost exclusively from 7” vinyl, and with a rare ability to turn his hand to almost any genre, Andy is renowned for stitching together diverse, funk-driven sets, always specific to and driven by the night and crowd he’s playing to.
Still playing weekly throughout London and in a selection of clubs across the UK, see DJ Andy Smith at The Commercial on Bank Holiday Saturday, October 26th.
Tickets are limited to 80 per show, and are available now from www.thecommercial.pub and Eventbrite.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
