Stageway, 929 Produksjon, All Things Live Norway presents: Smokie – Legacy Tour
In recent years Smokie has experienced a new spring. They play at all the biggest and finest venues, and have fantastic ticket sales. This is the ever-popular band that first broke through in Norway with «If you think you know how to love me» in 1975 and that the following year spent a full 33 weeks on the charts with the smash hit «Living next door to Alice».
They went on to deliver big hits and bestsellers well into the 90s, and they are the band that has spent the longest on the VG chart, with the Beatles a good second. Since then Smokie has almost become part of the Norwegian language. Whether you like them or not, everyone knows who they are and knows some of their songs. They have a large and very loyal audience across large parts of the world.
Norway is still one of the countries that means the most to them, and that is why they keep coming back here to meet their enthusiastic audience, year after year. They have sold almost two million records in Norway alone, and they bring with them all the good old songs, as well as some newer material.
In 2021 bassist Terry Uttley passed away. He was replaced by Luke Bullard, son of keyboardist Martin Bullard. Martin Bullard has been with Smokie since 1988, together with drummer Steve Pinnell. In 2021 Mike Craft chose to step down after 26 years as vocalist. He was replaced by a good old friend of the band, Pete Lincoln. Pete has been frontman in well-known bands such as Sweet and Sailor, and has worked with several big international stars such as Sir Cliff Richard, Tina Turner and Shakin’ Stevens. Mick McConnell plays guitar and mandolin, and has done so since 1996. This lineup gave their first concerts in Helsingborg and Malmö in November 2021, to two full houses and an enthusiastic audience. Since then things have only gone upwards, and many believe the band has never been better than it is now.