A MUSICIAN who was well known on Bradford’s 1950s and 60s band scene has died.

Irvin “Smudge” Smith started his music career in 1957at the Police Boys Club on Leeds Road, where he and four friends - brothers Irvin and Morris McVeagh, Kenny Fowler and Brian Lawrence - started a skiffle band called The Dingos.

The group played in local pubs, clubs and during the intervals in cinemas.

Bradford music promoter Garth Cawood paid tribute to his former bandmate: “As more electric instruments were introduced into the band, the McVeagh brothers and Brian Lawrence left and The Dingos continued with Kenny Fowler on lead guitar and Smudge Smith on drums. New members that joined the band at that time were Malcolm Clark, Ian Banister and myself as rock ‘n’ roll took over. Sammy King joined at a later date.

“Smudge continued to to be The Dingos drummer up to the 1990s when he left to live in the USA.

“He made a great contribution to the local music scene, and especially to us, The Dingos. He was always prompt and reliable, which was so important to me running the band, and he was a likeable guy with a cheeky sense of humour, especially with the public.

“He was born and lived at Heath Terrace, off Leeds Road. His parents were Fred and Ethel Smith, his father and grandfather ran a fish and chip shop on Harewood Street in the 1950s and 60s.

“We last saw him in 1991 when we had the Bradford Rock ‘n’ Roll Réunion show at the Pile Bar and YTV filmed it for Calander.

“Smudge passed away at his home in California a few days ago. His wife died a few years ago and his sister Joyce died recently.

“He leaves two sons, one in California and one in Wakefield.”

The Dingos were a popular act on Bradford’s music scene and they are profiled in When Bradford Rocked by Derek AJ Lister, who was the singer with Dal Stevens and the Blue Jays and Dal Stevens and the Four Dukes, then resident DJ at the city’s Gaumont and Majestic ballrooms.

When Bradford Rocked is a comprehensive guide to the groups which populated Bradford’s lively music scene between 1954 and 1966 and contains nearly 500 biographies and more than 300 photographs of acts.

“It was a crucial period in music history,” said Derek. “Back in the mid-1950s everything had changed; before the rock ‘n’ roll years hit Britain, we’d lived in austere times and everything was in black and white. Suddenly there was this burst of creativity - fashion, haircuts, cars and music changed forever - and, for the first time, there were teenagers. Everyone wanted to be in a group.

“Every town and city had its homegrown skiffle, rock ‘n’ roll and beat groups, none more so than Bradford. The scene was vibrant and there was real talent here. Had there been a Brian Epstein we could’ve created a ‘Yorkshire sound’.”

As well as The Dingos, Derek’s book features bands such as Mick Sagar and the Cresters, The Del Rio Four, Lorraine and the Bahtats, The Phantoms, andThe Dakotas.

“These bands which played such a big part in this important, memorable chapter in Bradford’s music history,” said Derek.

“There are a lot of people out there who went to the Majestic and the Gaumont who will remember them.”