Nell Smith: Emmerdale star backs Leeds celebration of singer's music

The event, which takes place on Monday, will feature videos and a 15-minute documentary that Nell made before her tragic death aged 17, in a car crash in British Columbia, Canada last October.

The band Penelope Isles, who played on Nell’s album Anxious, which was released posthumously in April, will perform some of her songs live, and the event will be compered by Simon Raymonde, boss of Bella Union Records, who released Anxious and Where The Viaduct Looms, the album of Nick Cave covers that Nell recorded with her friends The Flaming Lips during the Covid lockdown.

Nell’s parents Jude and Rachel will be returning to Yorkshire from Canada, where they emigrated when Nell was five years old, to attend the evening.

As well as commemorating his daughter’s achievements, Jude says the event will also raise money for a foundation in Nell’s memory. Aiming to reach 100,000 Canadian dollars, Jude says that so far they have reached about 60,000 dollars. They intend to award 10,000 dollars annually to support the careers of young musicians.

“It’s been going really well,” he says. “My sister did the Merch Market in Manchester (in May), that was quite successful, and we’ve also received a few donations from things happening over here (in Canada).

“We’ve got some offers of some cool stuff as well. We going to be doing something with the Soundwaves Art Foundation and there’s a documentary being made, it’s not green-lit yet but they’ve put a budget line of 20,000 (dollars) into the fund.

“In October we’re going to be having an event here that will be similar to the Brudenell, we’ll have some bands playing some of Nell’s favourite songs and some of her songs and we’re hopeful at that event in October that we’ve reached our 100,000 goal. There’s lots of positive stuff happening on that side of things.”

For Jeff, who plays Cain Dingle in the Yorkshire-set soap opera Emmerdale, this event is close to his heart. His wife Zoe Henry, who plays Rhona Goskirk in Emmerdale, befriended Rachel at a baby cafe after their eldest children, Violet and Jed, were born 21 years ago.

“They became good mates and then, as that natural thing happens, the mums go ‘let’s all go out and the dads meet’. Then I met Jude and he and I just hit it off, we’re really big into music, we have a lot of similar likes, we’re very similar people,” Jeff explains.

Jeff and Zoe’s son Stan became a friend of Nell’s, and the families stayed in touch when the Smiths emigrated. “When Nell came to us a few years ago when she was just about to do the stuff with The Flaming Lips, her and Stan hadn’t seen each other for a few years but because they were both musicians, they really kind of clicked and hit it off and became really close,” Jeff says.

After seeing Nell perform in Leeds and Liverpool with The Flaming Lips, they hooked up again when Nick Cave invited Nell to go to the All Points East festival in London.

“The kids were really best mates, they were always ringing each other all the time and became really close – to the point where it was a bit more difficult for us in that Stan would be wanting to speak to Nell or Nell would be ringing him at 3pm in Canada when it was more like 11pm here.

“They were just like two kindred spirits. Then we went over to Canada to see them just after that.”

Jude had regularly shared Nell’s songs with Jeff. “I heard a lot of the pre-demos before The Flaming Lips and things like that,” Jeff says. “I always knew she was an incredible talent and just a very strong and positive life force as well from an early age a child. I remember them coming over when they’d been in Canada a few years, and Nell must have been seven or eight, we went up to Bolton Abbey and we were all playing football, but Nell was just like one of those kids that are uber present and not demand your attention but she was just magnetic as a little kid.

“Also, when we went to the Nick Cave gig, she’d grab Stan’s hand and they got right to the front and you think I wish I had the confidence to surge through a crowd to get to the front to be there. She would take life by the hands and go for it. It was very admirable.”

A regular gig-goer at the Brudenell, Jeff has helped liaise with the club’s manager Nathan Clark to organise the event for Nell. Nell’s family are encouraging young students at Leeds music colleges to come along to the night.

Jeff says: “I think if we can get young people along that may prick their ears up at getting the funds to help them, but also it’s about getting Nell’s music out there as well. I really feel that the more people​​​​​​​ listen to this album, the more people will go, ‘My gosh, this is really special​​​​​​​’. It’s not some vanity project on anyone’s part​​​​​​​, it’s a genuinely brilliant album by a young artist that I think young people will really connect with.

“Not everybody’s into pop. She was an alternative indie kid who was producing music that not many people produce. Not many record labels like Simon Raymonde’s will go, ‘I’m going to take this young indie kid and I’m going to put them on a stage’. I think it will connect and speak volumes to a lot of kids who love that kind of music.”

Celebrating the Life and Work of Nell Smith takes place at Brudenell Social Club, Leeds on Monday June 16. https://www.brudenellsocialclub.co.uk/whats-on/celebrating-life-work-nell-smith/