This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for music. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted.Find sources: "Martin Smith" drummer – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: "Martin Smith" drummer – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Martin Smith (17 December 1946 – 2 March 1997), was a drummer for Gentle Giant and Simon Dupree and the Big Sound. He played on the first two Gentle Giant albums, Gentle Giant and Acquiring the Taste, before being replaced by Malcolm Mortimore. Smith was a versatile drummer who specialised in playing jazz and blues styles.

Smith died on 2 March 1997, at the age of 50, of internal hemorrhaging. Purportedly he had been very ill with a blood disorder for five years. He continued to drum until two months before his death. 150 people went to his funeral, including many fellow musicians, and Gordon Haskell (of early King Crimson fame) wrote the eulogy.[1]

References

  1. ^ "Martin Smith - The Gentle Giant Home Page". Blazemonger.com. 21 December 2008. Retrieved 20 October 2015.