Smokey Bastard

Smokey Bastard are a mixture of seven English punks, folkies and bewildered musicians, playing original material and arrangements of folk tunes from whichever country we pinch them.
The Smokey Bastard song 'The Boys Who Left the Band' is ostensibly an autobiographical punk outpouring in the form of a twisted morality tale, finding meaning and motivation in the sordid history of the band.However, it was almost the first song Smokey Bastard ever wrote, it consists pretty much entirely of lies, and the only true things in it BECAME true after the song was written, so if you're looking for a biography of the band, ignore it.
Jonny the drummer didn't so much leave the band as disappear, since after recording 'Boys' with him we havn't actually managed to find the guy.
Cookie the banjoid also hasn't very literally left the band, in his case because although he's no longer a member of the band he's often still here.
Alex the drummer turned up and played the bodhran first try, so he's in.
Sophie the fiddler turned up and played the whole set first try, so she's in.
Everone else has been there pretty much since the band's messy beginnings, rising as it did out of the drinking, smoking, firegazing, singing and crassly insulting sarcastic behaviour which were and are the staple activities in the Ness Family Care Home for Lost Waifs, Strays and Musician-types.
These days, underneath the smell of alchohol and weird green vomit, Smokey Bastard is actually fairly coherant and is pretending to be 'businesslike'. We think this means hats, but we're not sure.
Summer 2008 will involve a uk tour, and milk bottles full of Guinness.