Bob Smith

aka Robert Hooper-Smith


An uncanny knack for being in the right place at the right time meant Hawke’s Bay keyboardist Bob Smith was never out of a gig for too long. The night he quit The Dallas Four, he picked up a new band and a new residency just down the street; on another occasion his band Redeye left their regular haunt after it made the news for all the wrong reasons and immediately found another.

It was as part of Redeye that Smith appeared on the Mark Williams hits ‘Yesterday Was Just The Beginning Of My Life’ and ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore’ as well as on New Zealand music television shows Grunt Machine and Ready To Roll. The regular TV exposure and their distinctive look, especially Bob Smith’s jet-black mane, heavy beard and dark glasses, made Redeye one of the country’s most recognisable bands of the middle 1970s.

Redeye - Little Miss Lonely Heart, written/sung by Bob Smith (EMI, 1977)
Redeye's John O'Connor and Frits Stigter on television show Grunt Machine, 1975.
Photo credit: Bob Smith collection
Bob Smith and Sharon O'Neill.
Photo credit: Bob Smith collection
Bob Smith's security pass to Avalon TV studios for Grunt Machine.
Karma - Clear Water Revival (Zodiac, 1973)
Advertisement for a Buck a Head concert with Redeye and the Country Fliers [sic], Opera House, Wellington, May 1975.
Photo credit: Bob Smith collection
Redeye at the Cabin, Wellington, c 1974. From left to right: Denys Mason, John O'Connor, Tom Swainson, Frits Stigter, Bob Smith.
Photo credit: Bob Smith collection
Bob Smith and Yuk Harrison outside Granny's, Auckland, 1970s.
Redeye's self-titled album, produced by Rick White, EMI, 1977. Art work by Max Tilley.
Bob Smith (playing John Kristian's bass)  in the New Zealand Green Grass Band, Great Ngāruawāhia Music Festival, 1973. Smith recalls: "We were all ex-members of the Dallas Four (even Sonny had been part of the residency at The Crypt) and we still got together socially to play the songs of the day that we missed: CSNY etc. We would swap instruments according to who wanted to play what."
Photo credit: David Stone
Redeye pictured with John Donoghue, from the back of the 1975 Timberjack-Donoghue album (Ode). From left to right: John O'Connor, John Donoghue, Tom Swainson, Bob Smith (standing), Frits Stigter, Denys Mason.
Kemp Tuirirangi (second from left) and Bob Smith (far right) on set for a Mitsubishi advertisement, c. 1990s. 
Photo credit: Bob Smith collection
Tommy Ferguson's Goodtime Band.
Photo credit: Bob Smith collection
Shotgun (from left): Bob Jackson, John Parker, Bob Smith, John Kristian, Larry Morris, Billy Nuku.
Redeye - So Damn Fine, written/sung by Bob Smith (EMI, 1977)
Bo Diddley backed by Redeye at Slack Alice, Wellington, 1976.
Photo credit: Bob Smith collection
Karma - Rock 'N' Roll Circus (Zodiac, 1972)
Karma at Granny's, Auckland, with Bob Smith on the Vox Contintental keyboard.
Photo credit: Bob Smith collection
Back cover of the 1977 Redeye album (EMI). Photography by Catherine Palethorpe.
Bob Smith at Granny's, Auckland.
Photo credit: Bob Smith collection
Redeye at Te Mata Hotel, Havelock North.
Photo credit: Bob Smith collection
Kemp Tuirirangi, right, during the filming of a Mitsubishi advertisement. Bob Smith second from left. 
Photo credit: Bob Smith collection
The Squires. Left to Right: Derek Parker, John Lindsay, Bob Smith, Craig Alexander, Ali Zurcher.
Photo credit: Craig Alexander collection
Bob Smith.
Photo credit: Bob Smith collection
Redeye bio promoting their 1977 debut album on EMI.
Redeye at Ray Johns' club The Cabin, Wellington, c 1974. Clockwise from top left: Bob Smith, John O'Connor, Tom Swainson, Denys Mason, Frits Stigter.
Photo credit: Bob Smith collection
Bob Smith in Redeye, 1977.
Photo credit: Publicity photo
Mark Williams' third album Taking It All In Stride, EMI, 1977, produced by Alan Galbraith, and backed for the most part by Wellington soul-funk band Redeye, with arrangements by Dave Fraser. Other players include Alan Galbraith, Dave Fraser, Kevin Bayley, Beaver, Sharon O'Neill and Mike Booth.
Bob Smith - Sea Cruise (Rock Around the Clock, 1981 - NZ On Screen)
Insert from the 1977 Redeye album, produced by Rick White.
Karma, left to right: Yuk Harrison, Johnny Banks, Bob Smith, Peter Timperley.
The Dallas Four, 1970. From left to right: Bob Smith, Jimmy Ford, Dody Potter, John Kristian Flathaug.
Photo credit: Bob Smith collection
Sharon O'Neill and Jon Stevens tour, 1980.
Photo credit: Bob Smith collection
Redeye - Little Miss Lonely Heart, written/sung by Bob Smith (EMI, 1977)
Redeye, from left to right: John O'Connor, Frits Stigter, Tom Swainson, Denys Mason, Bob Smith.
Photo credit: Publicity photo
Bob Smith at the Cabin.
Photo credit: Bob Smith collection
Karma - Ruby (Zodiac, 1972)
Labels:

EMI


Ode


Zodiac

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