Judge Smith was a founder member of Van Der Graaf Generator in 1967 along with Peter Hammill. Judge, however, left before the band’s first album. Judge went on to front his own band before opting for a solo career, which has continued today. He has also maintained links with Van Der Graaf Generator and some of his co-written songs have appeared on both Van Der Graaf Generator albums and also albums by Peter Hammill.
Strangely in the late seventies and early eighties Judge was co-writer of songs on the British TV comedy programme Not The Nine O’ Clock News. Continuing his solo career, Judge came up with the concept of the “Songstory”, which is in effect a concept album, which includes a narrative and music. Curly’s Airships was the first “Songstory to come from Judge Smith and was recorded over a long period of time between 1994-2000.
Curly’s Airships is Judge's epic songstory about the Imperial Airship Scheme and the R 101 disaster of 1929 and features performances from John Ellis (Vibrators/Peter Gabriel), Peter Brown, Arthur Brown, Paul Roberts (Stranglers) and also his former Van Der Graaf Generator band mates Peter Hammill, Hugh Banton and David Jackson. The album received massive critical acclaim on its original release in 2000 and also found favour with Van Der Graaf Generator fans.
