April 2015 • Smeggy RIP

Rob Martin | Dave Cheesybits | April 2015
Hello. For those of you in Brighton, who knew Dave Cheesybits of Smeggy and the Cheesybits fame (and House of Cheese), it’s with great sadness that I have to write to tell you that he died of cancer last week, after battling with it for several years.

Certainly he will be muchly missed by the Isle of Wight music scene, where he was a huge influence on many; an original musician and an entertaining performer.

I know he had many fond memories of his time in Brighton and spoke highly of many of the Brighton characters in the late 70s. The House of Cheese is dead – Long Live Cheesybits!
Rob Martin.

Roger | Dave Bowater | April 2015
Your older readers might like to know that Dave Cheesybits, of Smeggy and the Cheesybits, died on April 15th 2015.

Funeral (they’ll probably call him Dave Bowater) is on 27th April 2015 09:45 at
Isle of Wight Crematorium
Station Lane, Whippingham, East Cowes
Isle of Wight PO32 6NJ

I suspect there will be drinking afterwards.
He was indeed correct when he said...

Dave Cheesybits | Revenge of the Lawn |
16 Nov 2013
After sending you my last post (re: Boaty Dave) I realised that since I last posted at this site I have been in a whole other band. I can (almost) guarantee that this will be the last.
Roger

About Smeggy & the Cheesybits

Dave Cheesybits:
Pratt, Glue and The Noisy Song were three songs from our rare and badly attended practice sessions. This was organised compared to the days when Smeg would turn up on my doorstep after I hadn't seen him for 3 months with a bass player I'd never met and announce that we were supporting the Damned in a couple of hours time (this really happened and as I recall, was quite a good gig)

'The Night Of The Tropical Iguana and Knees Up Mother Brown' Ah...How can I explain this? I think this was shortly after the band had split up (possibly the same night) and Berrnie and I were running through some of our songs (realising where we had been going wrong mostly) slowly descending into a drunken stupor.

Finally we decided that freeform poetry was the way forward (Red, Dead, Motorbike Spike), or possibly lounge music (Night Of The Tropical Iguana). or skiffle (I have a skiffle version of Mama We're All Crazy). Finally, Bernie decided he was going to go solo (Knees Up Mother Brown).

Dave Cheesybits | Rudeness | October 2007
Has it really been five years since I first posted here? There are a couple of Smeggy and the Cheesybits mp3s attached for your archive.

Please help yourself to any of the others on my site if you want them. I am mainly writing because nobody mentioned Smeggy and the Cheesybits in the 2005 emails and I don't want that to happen again in 2007.

If I had to criticise this site (I mean if you held a gun to my head) my one gripe would be that it isn't rude enough. I remember everybody being really rude at the time and your site doesn't reflect this. So can I just say Shit, Fuck, Wank, Grollys, Cock, and Flappy Bits. Can everybody try and swear at least once when they post to this site then the atmosphere would be more like the visceral experience I had in Brighton in the late seventies.

I would still lurv to talk to anybody that has photos (or tapes) of Smeggy and the Cheesybits especially Kim or Nick. I can as ever be contacted through my site at www.cheesybits.com just click on "Complain" or email me direct. Errr...that's all...Tits.

Sally Chambers | May 2008
Here's an important bit of Brighton band history.  It doesn't concern the town of Brighton, but it does involve the Brighton band, Smeggy and the Cheesybits. Letters have been appearing on the Bitching page of the House of Cheese about the throwing of a sandwich at the

band in its early days and apparently it was this sandwich that started the tradition of chucking flour, eggs etc. at the band, a tradition continued later in King Kurt

This sandwich is still in existence it seems and a song has been written about it by an Isle of Wight band. It's at the bottom of this page www.cheesybits.com/revenge/song.htm 
Sally Chambers.

Dave Cheesybits | Paul Martins Fan Club
Gig List
| August 2008
Dear PD. Can I just correct Paul Martin's assertion (here) that they played Upstairs at Ronnie Scott's on their own. In fact they were ably supported by Smeggy and the Cheesybits for about one and a half songs until the huge black soul dudes who ran the club muscled us off the stage with a look of total disgust on their faces.

That gig is memorable because we met Tom Baker in a pub just down the road and gave him a ticket for the gig (he didn't come). For years I have been dining out on this fleeting appearance. Whenever I meet jazz musicians I always let slip that I played at Ronnie Scots and let them draw their own conclusions. Dave Cheesybits House of Cheese™
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