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About '80s Gadgets
Dallas’ ’80s band, 80s Gadgets, was formed to pay tribute to a fun decade of music that pushed the limits. The Gadgets were heavily influenced from watching MTV in the early days, where they witnessed big hair, larger-than-life synthesized sounds, massive makeup (on both men and women), and mainstream pop melodies that would always leave behind an earworm.
Sandy Smith (lead vocals) and his little brother Tory (guitar) banded together with their talented musician friends where they could re-live their childhood memories and entertain crowds in a fun, light-hearted way using real instrumentation (not backing tracks) and a professional sound to keep party-goers thirsting for more.
80s Gadgets
Sandy Smith - Lead Vocals
Sandy Thomas Smith is the lead singer for 80s Gadgets, and older brother to Tory. Sandy’s passion growing up was listening to rock and pop music, and singing along with his favorite tunes, as well as knowing obscure facts about 80’s bands (such as, how to spell “Nu Shooz”).
During his childhood, you could find Sandy most days watching his heroes play guitar on their MTV, or tuning into Headbanger’s Ball on a Saturday night. Although usually a reserved dude, he has a great time unleashing his ’80s rock star on stage! He’s been singing in bands since 2018 and even doubles as the lead vocalist with 90 PROOF Country.
Favorite 80’s bands: INXS, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, many more
Favorite 80’s movies: The Goonies, Rad, Aliens & Flash Gordon (guilty pleasure)
Favorite 80’s sitcoms: Night Court
Favorite 80’s video games: NES Castlevania and Rastan (Arcade)
Tory Smith - Rhythm & Lead Guitars, Backing Vocals
Tory Glen Smith is the booking manager and lead guitarist for Dallas / Ft. Worth’s raddest 80s band. As a child of the 1980s, Tory started 80s Gadgets to release his “inner rock star nerd” while always having the best seat in the house to listen to his older brother (Sandy) emulate the larger-than-life rock stars of the ’80s and belt out tunes that take him back to his childhood.
Tory also spent many summers glued to MTV and his early music influences included Stevie Ray Vaughan, Duran Duran, Journey and Dire Straits.
Favorite 80s movie: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Favorite 80s sitcom: Growing Pains
Most popular question Tory gets asked by fans: “How old is Sandy?”
Dave Powell - Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals
Dave Powell ain’t your average guitarist. This shredding machine has been scorching the music scene for over 30 years, hailing from the wild west of Dallas/Fort Worth. He’s like a musical chameleon, picking up licks from rock, metal, jazz, and country like nobody’s business. His trusty black Telecaster has been by his side through it all.
Dave’s got a trophy case full of epic achievements. He’s mesmerized audiences at the Country Music Awards, wowed execs at major Nashville labels like Sony BMG, and held down the house band gig on Carnival Cruise Lines (talk about rocking on the high seas!). He’s wailed with Saints and Sinners (a killer Whitesnake tribute) and rocked out with Even It Up (Heart tribute). He’s even jammed with Texas country royalty like Pat Green, Randy Rogers, and Kevin Fowler, leaving crowds pumpin’ their fists and screamin’ for an encore.
Dave’s a force of nature on the guitar, a rocked-up, energy-fueled Texas tornado. If you’re looking for a good time, look no further!
Bruce Ogletree - Drums
Unlike the other young whippersnappers in the band, drummer and background vocalist Bruce Ogletree was all grown up in the ’80s and working in Dallas as a professional photographer.
After raising a family and changing careers a few times, Bruce got the itch to drum again and picked up the sticks again in his fifties, playing for church, rock cover bands, and swing and jazz bands to boot.
80s Gadgets is a nice stroll down memory lane, but the best part is the friendships he is forging among his fellow bandmates and, of course, the adulation of the screaming masses!
Favorite ’80s movie: Brazil
Favorite ’80s sitcom: Night Court
Most Popular Question: Can I play your drums?
(most popular answer: No.)
Ben Smith - Bass Guitar
After playing professionally for the better part of 20 years, Ben Smith had decided it was time to put his bass guitar in its case and call it a day. Fast forward a few years later and out of the blue, Ben gets the call from Tory about 80s Gadgets. Being an ’80s kid and loving the music of the time across all genres (and maybe missing the stage just a little bit), it was an easy decision for him to make after Tory laid out his vision for the band.
Ben was obsessed with the music of the ’80s as a child. If there was a music program on, Ben was watching it. Everything from “Headbanger’s Ball” and “Friday Night Videos” to “Hee-Haw” and the “Grand Ole Opry” with some “Yo! MTV Raps” in the middle.
Ben played in various heavy metal and country bands for most of his music career, so playing ’80s music has been an exciting and rewarding experience for him and he doesn’t plan on “retiring” again anytime soon.
Favorite ’80s singer: George Michael
Favorite ’80s cereal: C-3PO’s
Favorite ’80s cartoon: Masters of the Universe
Favorite ’80s politician: Pass
Most common question asked by fans: “Is your lead singer single?” (He’s not, btw)
Adam Wyse - Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Being a true teen of the 80s, Adam has been enjoying the music that the 80s Gadgets are performing since this totally awesome genre was just called “music”.
Having played in several high energy successful bands based in the Dallas / Ft Worth metroplex over the last few decades including hard and classic rock, softer and “yacht” rock as well as years of wedding and special event venues has been a foundation of performance which has led to the return of when music was fun and upbeat! It is no wonder that the 80s Gadgets repertoire brings us all back to a simpler and happy time in music history.
Favorite 80’s band: Anything keyboard driven…Journey, Loverboy, Night Ranger, Asia, Styx and many, many more.
Dave Harding - Keyboards, Backing Vocals
“Aussie” Dave Harding grew up in Australia but has been a proud Texas based Ameristraylian for the last 18 years. A teenager in the 80’s, Dave’s staples were the great Australian bands like INXS, Midnight Oil, Men At Work and ACDC.
Dave played in a number of covers, R&B and Prog Rock bands back in Australia, and has been playing with various bands around the DFW area for the last 10 years as well.
He loves being the backup keyboard player for 80s Gadgets and reliving the greatest decade by far through these epic songs.
Fav 80’s bands: Supertramp, Simple Minds, Style Council, Tears For Fears, Genesis.
Fav 80’s Movie – there can only be one: Crocodile Dundee! Yes…”that’s not a knife……..”