Finally, Hurry Home by Wavelength available as a digital download. People who have worn out their vinyl have been contacting me for years about this. The vinyl version is changing hands for anywhere between £1 and £40.
Steve Thompson
Song Story – Mike Pender
As last weeks SONG STORY SUNDAY featured the Searchers, how about Mike Pender this week. First you’ll hear “It’s Over” which was a solo single for Mike. I did not write this song but I produced the single as well as paying bass and keyboards on it. My co-producer and I, John Verity gave him one of our songs as the B Side which is what you hear next. It’s a pretty crappy song really but to give Mike his due he did his best with it.
Anyway when the single came out Mike had set up Mike Pender’s Searchers he called me asking me to do a TV show with them in Manchester. I was playing off stage and would not be in camera shot. However, various camera men and dudes with clipboards found my positioning not to their liking as I kept getting into shot. I was eventually moved to about 30 feet away. Now, although I had a monitor it was a bit discomforting to be playing with a band that was small figures in the distance. What was really difficult was that I could not hear the drummer’s count-in. A couple of times I had to add to the surreal-ness of the situation by shouting across the studio floor, “sorry I missed the intro can you count in a bit louder”
[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/stevie_t-1/its-over[/soundcloud]
Please Don’t Sympathise – Song Story
Here is another of my songs going through it’s various stages. Firstly there is my home rough demo using a DR 55 Dr Rhythm drum machine (a very early drum machine ). Next I took it to Guardian Studios in Pity Me (UK) where Paul Smith supplied the drums I did the rest and Dave Black added the vocals. I’m afraid I don’t recall the name of the girl who did harmonies. Next we hear Sheena Easton’s version. This was released in 1982 on the top twenty album “Madness Money and Music”. Unfortunately my song was not included on the USA release but it did really well in Japan and was added to later Stateside releases. Finally there is a version by Celine Dion which is a French adaptation by Eddie Marnay released both as a single and album track in 1984. The single was a big hit in France and Canada (cert Gold) and the album Les Chemins de ma Maison also did well. As you can imagine the album has been re-released many times now and Ne Me Plaignez Pas is on oodles of compilation CD’s which continue to sell well to this day. Incidentally, Sheena’s version was produced by Chris Neil who also went on to produce Celine Dion. I’ve featured a live version of Ne Mr Plaignez Pas which I prefer
[soundcloud] http://soundcloud.com/stmedia/song-story-please-dont[/soundcloud]
Hurry Home Song Story
Here is the story behind Hurry Home. The audio collage you can hear below starts with my rough demo. Unfortunately auto-tune had not been invented in those days. The rough demo was laid down after a heavy metal session I recall, everyone had left and there was only me and audio engineer Mickey Sweeney in the studio. I nipped in quickly and laid down a demo. There is a recording in my kitchen that pre-dates this but I can’t find it so you have been spared. This particular demo was recorded next to a taxi office which you can hear. Next, I only made a couple of simple demos, the first being with Paul Caffrey followed by another with Mick Whitaker. Next there is a clip sung by Vikki Clayton (Fairport Convention) and after that a version by Sarah Brightman. We conclude with the big one by Wavelength. Wavelength’s version charted in 1982 and went top 20 staying in the charts for 3 months. Oh, and BTW Sarah B, if you’d like to pay me the royalties from your 100 date world wide La Luna tour of stadiums I’d be happy to accept!
[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/stmedia/hurry-home-collage[/soundcloud]
My wife Molly had to go into hospital for a operation. She was on the phone to her mother telling her and I was playing a kind of spoof slushy love song. Afterwards I went out into the kitchen and finished off the song. Molly loved it but I thought is was overly sentimental. Anyway she took it into hospital with her and all the staff loved it. She insisted I send it out to people so I sent it to my publisher. The producer, Chris Neil was looking for songs for Sheena Easton and called my publisher. He spoke to Sarah Toniolo and she told him the story. His own wife was in hospital having a baby so he related to the song. Sheena hated it so he recorded it with Wavelength and boy am I glad he did. The song coincided with the Falklands conflict and became a much requested favourite. Some people assumed I had written it specifically for that reason but, as you can see, this was not the case.
Wavelength’s Top of the Pops appearance is here http://youtu.be/HNG6anfVJbk
Song Stories
I’ve been thinking about this for a while. For any song there will be demos, pre-demos, work-tapes, and perhaps various versions. It means trawling though cassettes and hard drives but I was thinking I might do that with a number of my songs – watch this space.
An Experiment
Johnny Two Phones
I finally did something sensible (I think) with technology. I bought an expensive state of the art (at the time) HTC Desire. As a Mac user I didn’t want to put all my “apples” in one basket so went Android instead of iPhone. I really do like Android. However, all that desirability of apps is a waste as the internal memory of the HTC Desire is pitiful. I’ve moved as many to the external card as possible but some (Google’s own Gmail, Maps being the chief suspects) will not go to the card.
A friend of mine has a Samsung Galaxy S, which has plenty of internal memory, and I was quite impressed with it. However when I contemplated purchasing one I was struck by its physical size. How could I part with my perfectly formed HTC Desire. But then again, a machine with more power could be more useful as an everyday tool. Looking at what is available I could not find a Desire sized phone with a Galaxy size memory.
So here’s what I did: I purchased second hand off Amazon, last years model Samsung Galaxy. What the hell I have last years model HTC and it’s second hand too. At this price I could afford to walk around with two phones for a while I decided which was best with the loser hitting Ebay.
I have to say the machine likely to hit Ebay is the HTC. The increase in Physical size is negligible and easy to get used to. I like the design of the HTC and the functionality of the implementation of software is nice. I now realize that different manufactures use Android differently. So I miss some of the HTC Sense approach but then again I think I’ll get used to the Samsung approach reasonably quickly. What I am already loving is it’s power and speed. I have all my audio, multimedia, business and entertainment apps on there including some I had purchased and had to ditch on the HTC.
Cellar Club South Shields
Left Mick Whitaker – Right Steve Thompson, Behind, Ken Goodinson on Drums
This was the Whitaker Band in 1998 or 1999 (can’t quite remember) at one of our favorite gigs – the Cellar Club, South Shields. I took these down from my old site as I had run out of file space. Here we go again.
Vocals: Mick Whitaker,
Keyboards & Backing Vocals: Andy Hawking,
Guitar and Backing Vocals: Steve Thompson,
Bass: Richard Rutherford,
Drums: Ken Goodinson. ( see also this page )
Set One
Set Two
That’s The Way Love Turned Out For Me
Occupy Stanhope
I have been working with Jack Drum Arts of County Durham on a Community Play based on the subject of the 1818 “Battle of Stanhope”. The play will run for 3 days in March 2012 in a barn in Stanhope.
Basically the story goes like this: the Napoleonic wars had ended and there was a lesser need for lead (bullets). Starving lead miners in Weardale turned to poaching to supplement their income. The Prince Bishop sent Gamekeepers on a mission and captured the Siddle brothers. Their friends and family took pursuit and caught up with the Prince Bishops men in Stanhope and an almighty battle took place at the Black Bull.
This all took place 193 years ago but it is still remembered in songs, stories and of course the play “The Bonnie Moorhen”. This coming Weds 7th December is the anniversary of the “Battle of Stanhope” and we plan to re-enact it in the very pub where it happened. We’re planning to stream this and it can be seen here from 3pm GMT on December 7th just click on “watch” in the top menu.
Diverse
For no apparent reason this thought came to me as I was out driving: “I’ve played guitar with the Jeff Beck group and sung with the Nolan Sisters”. How diverse is that? So. how did these two, poles apart situations come about? Well, firstly producer Wayne Bickerton picked up on one of my songs and wanted to put it out on his label, State Records. He really liked the demo and asked who was playing on it. I informed him it was just two people. My mate Paul Smith on drums and me doing everything else. So Wayne says, “OK, you come and play guitar on the track and I’ll pull in a bunch of session people”. Vocals on the release were to be Mick Whitaker but it also ended up with Chris Farlow singing it (I met him at the studio a few months later) You can hear both these versions by clicking here. So the sessions took place with Waynes session guys and I showed them all the parts – it sounded a lot like the demo only more polished of course. When I returned to the North East Keith Satchfield (of Fist) asked me about the sessions. I said there was some guy called Simon Philips on drums and a bass player with an unusual name. Keith said “was his name Mo Foster”. Ahah. I said that’s it. Keith looked a little stunned for a moment and then declared “F*** me, you’ve only been playing with the Jeff Beck band (Mo and Simon far right in pic below) 
So on to the other part of the story. In 1985 I took part in an event to support the Bradford Football Fire Disaster Appeal. The gig took place at St Georges Hall, Bradford and featured the likes of Smokey, Kiki Dee, Motorhead, Colin Blunstone and of course the Nolan Sisters. I played keyboards with John Verity’s band. John had organised the gig. Top of the Bill was Gerry Marsdon (he of the Pacemakers). There was a big jam session towards the end and I distinctly remember trading keyboard licks with Rod Argent. Jim Rodford and Bob Henrit, respectively bass player and drummer with the Kinks were keen to do a couple of Kinks tunes in the jam so we obliged with “You Really Got Me” – no problem. Next came “All The Day and All of The Night”. The main riff was easy enough to busk but nobody was quite sure of the chords to the bit “The only time I feel all right is by your side” so it kind of fell apart there with just bass and drums really knowing it. The funniest bit for me was when we were doing a blues jam. I looked to the assembled guitarists on stage and noticed they were playing in the key of G (by the chord shapes their hands were making) and so I joined in, also in the key of G (naturally). A few moments later I glanced at Worzel of Motorhead and spotted he was playing in the key of A, blissfully unaware he was the only person doing so! Incidentally this was the gig credited with re-uniting Smokie but that was almost short lived when their drummer Pete Spencer fell backwards off the drum podium and injured himself. Luckily, as well as multiple guitarists we were sporting two drummers (Paul Smith) at the time and so the beat went on. And finally; my singing debut with the Nolans. The last act was Gerry Marsden and the last number was the anthem for the appeal “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. Everybody got up and sang this one. There were loads of us so we clustered in groups around several mics. I clustered with the Nolans and that, dear readers is who I got to sing with the Nolans. Sadly there is no picture of this event but I do have the programme (below) strangely the Nolans are not mentioned on it – a strange oversight. ≈
Click to Enlarge
Diverse
For no apparent reason this thought came to me as I was out driving:
“I’ve played guitar with the Jeff Beck group and sung with the Nolan Sisters”. How diverse is that?
So. how did these two, poles apart situations come about? Well, firstly producer Wayne Bickerton picked up on one of my songs and wanted to put it out on his label, State Records. He really liked the demo and asked who was playing on it. I informed him it was just two people. My mate Paul Smith on drums and me doing everything else. So Wayne says, “OK, you come and play guitar on the track and I’ll pull in a bunch of session people”. Vocals on the release were to be Mick Whitaker but it also ended up with Chris Farlow singing it (I met him at the studio a few months later) You can hear both these versions by clicking here. So the sessions took place with Waynes session guys and I showed them all the parts – it sounded a lot like the demo only more polished of course. When I returned to the North East Keith Satchfield (of Fist) asked me about the sessions. I said there was some guy called Simon Philips on drums and a bass player with an unusual name. Keith said “was his name Mo Foster”. Ahah. I said that’s it. Keith looked a little stunned for a moment and then declared “F*** me, you’ve only been playing with the Jeff Beck band (Mo and Simon far right in pic below)
So on to the other part of the story. In 1985 I took part in an event to support the Bradford Football Fire Disaster Appeal. The gig took place at St Georges Hall, Bradford and featured the likes of Smokey, Kiki Dee, Motorhead, Colin Blunstone and of course the Nolan Sisters. I played keyboards with John Verity’s band. John had organised the gig. Top of the Bill was Gerry Marsdon (he of the Pacemakers). There was a big jam session towards the end and I distinctly remember trading keyboard licks with Rod Argent. Jim Rodford and Bob Henrit, respectively bass player and drummer with the Kinks were keen to do a couple of Kinks tunes in the jam so we obliged with “You Really Got Me” – no problem. Next came “All The Day and All of The Night”. The main riff was easy enough to busk but nobody was quite sure of the chords to the bit “The only time I feel all right is by your side” so it kind of fell apart there with just bass and drums really knowing it. The funniest bit for me was when we were doing a blues jam. I looked to the assembled guitarists on stage and noticed they were playing in the key of G (by the chord shapes their hands were making) and so I joined in, also in the key of G (naturally). A few moments later I glanced at Worzel of Motorhead and spotted he was playing in the key of A, blissfully unaware he was the only person doing so! Incidentally this was the gig credited with re-uniting Smokie but that was almost short lived when their drummer Pete Spencer fell backwards off the drum podium and injured himself. Luckily, as well as multiple guitarists we were sporting two drummers (Paul Smith) at the time and so the beat went on.
And finally; my singing debut with the Nolans. The last act was Gerry Marsden and the last number was the anthem for the appeal “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. Everybody got up and sang this one. There were loads of us so we clustered in groups around several mics. I clustered with the Nolans and that, dear readers is who I got to sing with the Nolans. Sadly there is no picture of this event but I do have the programme (below) strangely the Nolans are not mentioned on it – a strange oversight.
Click to Enlarge
Remembering Charlie Crane
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| Charlie Crane |
I met Charlie Crane mid to late 80’s through my work as a songwriter. I had just come to the end of a publishing contract with MCA Music and Charlie had just left employment as a publisher (can’t remember – maybe it was ABC Music) I was looking for a new publisher and he was looking for some action. I can’t remember how we met but we hung out for a while. To be honest I had kinda fallen out with MCA as they fired my main man, Pete Waterman leaving me without a mentor.
I stayed at Charlie’s house a couple of times and met his wife and kids. I recall a moment when Charlie caught me dealing from the bottom of the deck in a card game. I was playing with his six-year-old son at the time.
I remember hearing somewhere that Charlie was a one-time member of a band called the “Crying Shames” but I did not pay this much attention as I was more concerned with my own career. Eventually, Charlie got the gig with MCA music which put an end to us working together since I had just left them. I guess I should have stayed in touch and got him to work my back catalogue but I was more concerned with the future. I got a publishing deal with DJM through Gus Dudgeon and concentrated on that, losing touch with Charlie.
Just yesterday evening Charlie came to mind so I thought I would Google him. I vaguely recall hearing he had died so I didn’t expect to find him on Facebook. I did find him though. Made me think how great the web is that I could learn more about his story that I selfishly paid scant attention to. Through YouTube I was able hear him sing and realising that the record was produced by the legendary Joe Meek, I really wished I had got into a conversation about this. This web page – tells the story of the “Crying Shames” very well and in the YouTube below you can hear Charlie sing. He was a nice unassuming guy and I wish that I had kept in touch but our paths crossed briefly and we went our own ways – such is life.
