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 that includes a narrative and music. The Climber was the second of Judge’s Songstory albums, and was originally released in 2010. It contains nine tracks composed by Judge Smith and is performed by Judge along with Norwegian male-voice choir The Fløyen Voices. 9 titles by Smith, orchestrated by Michael Brand / Ricardo Odriozola, It is a piece for solo voice, Male Voice Choir and Double bass and is the absorbing tale of an English mountaineer in the Italian Alps, featuring truly memorable music.
