 Check this out:- Hollow Victory – This makes it sound a little like a folk song but it’s not. Well, maybe it is – ALL my songs are folk songs. The end product I have in mind is a rock song – I hope you can see it. This is a working draft complete with melody, lyrics and rough arrangement. Sorry about the vocals, if I could sing I’d be deadly. |
Steve Thompson
Visiting Chic Vocalist
Chick vocalist ( aged 4 and a half) has now left. Session was a success although she occasionally concentrated on dance steps and forgot to sing. What this means for this project is that the studio is all powered up and working.
This being the case I’ll be starting to lay tracks and the first up will be "I will Go Back" and brand new song "Hollow Victory" (need second verse lyrics for that)
Before pressing on though I’d like to go back into the archives just one more time and present up some songs from the same era(s) that Graham has already picked.
Here we go – Never Say Die – Your Finest Hour and A Video A Pizza & a Couple of Cans, "Pizza" is a bit quirky and some would say a joke song but it’s a very honest song as I thought of it one evening walking home carrying a Video (rented) A Pizza (vegi supreme) and a couple of cans (Carslberg special brew)
Finally, here is a song which I think has a lot of promise. It was never really finished, first here is the rough demo with the writer struggling with guitar strings and larynx – Better Times and then a live rendition with the song still unfinished Better Times Live. I think the rough shows the feel and the attitude whilst the live version shows another side although the band is poorly rehearsed and the feel is all wrong. (poem is by Tom Kelly)
See also "Silent Stone" below for the last dip into the archives.>
Silent Stone
 This song is special to me. I came across this monument to 204 miners near where used to live. After I put up the story on a website it attracted a lot of interest (click here) As you will see on that page this resulted in a man sending me a book which together with my visits to the monument inspired this song… Silent Stone. It is a live rendition by the Steve Thompson Band at the Customs House, South Shields. I think this could make a great modern folk song for Oxana perhaps with a monologue in Russian in the middle. |
Chick Vocalist
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I’ve therefore laid down some of her favourite tracks from Grease ready for her session. I finally had to do that last bit of refurb hook up the multi track and get it to synch with the computers. Got that done fairly painlessly – dunno why I put it off ! Anyway it’s all ready now but Aksana is not going to be the first chick vocalist in this refurbed studio ! |
Just been doing some more on the studio refurb. I’ve got a visiting talent this weekend and she sang some stuff to me over the phone that proved she’d moved on a bit from twinkle twinkle little star. Paris By Air Picture Disc
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The record company MCA said that a picture disk did not exist (like they should know!) I said it does exist and I’ve got one because my Gran saw one in the shop and bought it for me. They offered my Gran a job in their PR department but she declined. |
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Hollow Victory
| With all this revamping of older stuff I thought it time to add something new. Early working draft of Hollow Victory – This is just a section of the intro which also forms the chorus. Needs some crunchy guitars on there too. |
I Will Go Back
Early working draft of I will Go Back
Looking For Tracks
I came across this female version of The Last Teardrop on a DAT. It is Jayne McKenzie who I first recorded a single with when she was 11 years old. On the same DAT I found her version of Lovin’ Arms and a more cheesy version of the same song aimed at Eurovision.
I then went looking for the Male version ofLovin’ Arms and from the same session found Sleepin’ Train and Friday.
Hurry Home: A Story
People contact me all the time about replacing their scratchy vinyl copies. Here’s one story behind such a request.
Back in ’87, my wife (then girlfriend) had to spend 7 weeks in France with her family while I stayed here in the UK. As you can imagine, a disaster for any teenagers in love! Anyway, we wrote to each other loads and in one of her letters to me she wrote out the words to “Hurry Home” to let me know she was missing me and all that… Anyway, I didn’t realise the words had come from a song at all until some time later….
A couple of years later, we had a bit of a break up (as teenagers do), and spent some time apart. I have a habit of listening to the radio as I fall asleep, and on this particular night dozed off to radio 2. About 3am I suddenly found myself wide awake listening to a song I had never heard before, but somehow knowing what the next lyric was – quite a strange experience I can tell you! Having been totally freaked out, I sat up and finally worked out what had happened. The song of course was “Hurry Home” and I had read the lyrics many times, but never heard the song.
Happy ending: This, of course, prompted me to call my girlfriend, and we married a few years later. I managed to get a second hand copy of the 7″ but it was scratchy as Hell – hence my scouring of the net for a digital copy.
Opening Suggestions
The Greatest Adventure
The Last Teardrop
Hurry Home – Sara Brightman
Hurry Home Backing Track
higher Key Eb verses F chrouses
Beautiful Sight
Singing Under Fire
My good friend Tony Markey came to my studio to do a vocal session today.
Tony is not around a great deal because he spends 3 months at a time singing on a cruise ship and 3 months at home.
When I say “singing” I have to point out that Tony is not the kind of guy to just do anything simple. He’s actually entertainments manager and probably loads of other stuff as well. He was telling me that in lifeboat drill he sits in seat number two next to the captain which means if the captain is incapacitated then he is in charge of the vessel.
Sunday Supplement
The Sunday Supplement on BBC Radio Cleveland with guests me (top), Hayley (right) and Paul Anderson (left) presenting. Phone in’s and discussions about what’s in the Newspapers. This is my second visit. I struggle to stay “with” the programme, express an opinion on things I have (a) no knowledge of and (b) no opinion on, OR struggle not do blether on and on about stuff I DO have an opinion on. Mostly struggle to be mildly interesting in the hope that no-one demands their license fee back. I think I may have failed on all counts.
