Around 2019 I was gigging a full 6-piece electric band. Lockdown put an end to that. During lockdown, my writing naturally became more contemplative. This song is one of those. There’s some deeply personal stuff buried in that lyric. Recording it had to be done differently too. All the parts had to be recorded remotely and I had production meetings with Jen and the other performers in Zoom. (inc Richard Naisbett & Steve Dolder) The final piece was my added bass gtr at Harbourmaster Productions with me and Martin Francis Trollope wearing masks as the lockdown was tentatively lifted. It became the title track from my album DISTANT DESTINATION https://steve-thompson.org.uk/product/distant-destination/
THE SINGER ON MY LEFT IS ER……………
This song “Guy Walks Into A Bar” is our show opener. It’s a more recent composition and, whilst I’ve dissed the naivety of my lyrics I’m quite pleased with the cinematic story of this one. So I’m a bit unhappy that I found myself forgetting the words to the second half of verse 2. But worse was to come. I forgot who the fuck Jen was. Nurse !!!
BOP BOP SHE WAH
Like I say, I was mostly a backroom boy during my music career, never in the limelight. But now I’ve accidentally ended up centre stage. I get a bit embarrassed announcing hit song after hit song. Those pop songs with naive lyrics written by my younger self.
So it’s a breath of fresh air to do this one. It’s a real song about real life with real emotions. Here is the inspiration for this one. I was walking down the street in Whitley Bay clutching a movie I had rented on VHS. (remember those?) I was also carrying a pizza in a box and two cans of special brew. I was planning a big night in. I started humming a tune – then it hit me – “A VIDEO A PIZZA AND COUPLE O CANS ”. This is a hit, I thought. Sadly I was wrong. Baffles me, the most honest song I ever wrote. The story culminates with one of my best lines “WHOO WHOO, BOP BOP SHE WAH “. Beat that Mr Zimmerman!
TWO SONGS – THREE HITS
Here, from our recent Two By Two Brewery, show is a couplet of songs responsible for a lot of record sales. Hurry Home, a top 20 hit for Wavelength was in the UK charts for three months. Sarah Brightman also recorded Hurry Home and it appeared on a bonus CD (Rare Tracks) coupled with her album Fly II. Details here https://bit.ly/flyII
Please Don’t Sympathise was released by Sheena Easton for her “Madness Money And Music” album which went top 20 around the world and in particular went Gold in Canada.
A young Canadian (Celine Dion) picked up on the song and recorded it in French for her album “Les Chemins De Ma Maison”. Celine also released the song as a single and was a massive hit, going Gold and winning an award for the highest-selling single in Canada of 1984. The album sold shedloads in Canada and France.
Cherry Red Records recently re-released a Deluxe edition CD of Sheena’s Madness Money and Music as well as a version on green vinyl. The liner notes on this re-release refer to me as “The Godfather of the North East NWOBHM”.
Diva #2
I promised you another diva video from our Two By Two Brewery show and this time it’s Jen Normandale with her version of a song I wrote for Elkie Brooks. Elkie had already decided to record another of my songs “One Of A Kind” but she asked if I could come up with a single for the forthcoming album.
And this is it “The Last Teardrop”. She released it as a single and an album track on “Pearls 3”. The album was later re-released under the title “The Last Teardrop”.
You can probably still get this album but you can hear Jen’s (superior) version on my own album “The Long Fade” https://steve-thompson.org.uk/thelongfade/
Jen is running the Great North Run today. Long may you run Jen.
Diva #1
I promised you some Diva toons from our recent Two By Two show. Here’s the first from Kirsty Forster tomorrow I’ll post another from Diva Jen Normandale. Lots more to come Mark Mylchreest shot the whole show. Round about now some of you may be thinking, “shit why did I not go to that show”? If that’s you, atone in the comments.
FOLLOW THE DIVAS
Another live one from our 24/08 Two By Two Brewery show. Let me tell you a little about this song and how it feels to sing it. Don’t get me wrong, I ain’t no Stevie Caruso but do I try my best. This is a song Tommy Morrison and I wrote for Elkie Brooks. It features on her album “Pearls 3” and was also a single in Germany and other parts of Europe (but not the UK)
As I introduced the song I realised my mistake. It was preceded by a song featuring Jen and that was preceded by one featuring Kirsty and now I had to do a fairly demanding song myself. In other words, I had to follow the Divas. When I say “demanding” I mean this: I’m playing very little guitar. Barry is not playing most of the time. And Richard is leaving loads of space too (I think he does it on purpose). So it is a very exposed vocal. As I say, it may not be Caruso but a year ago I couldn’t even have imagined myself doing this let alone singing a full set of my songs. Oh, and by the way: I do get a buzz, when it gets to what I think is one of Tommy’s best lines (rest his soul): “Moving in circles, dealing in dreams”.
So having followed the Divas, I’ll let them follow me. Next, I’ll post Kirsty and Jen’s featured songs. Lots more to come boys and girls. Video Mark Mylchreest
A Whitley Bay Song.
This here is a Whitley Bay song. Inspired by a poster in the infamous Ship Inn whilst I quaffed ale with my publishing mentor Brian Oliver. I worked on the concept for the song on the train journey home. Eventually, I reached home, a bedsit attached to the Burgundy Cobbler nightclub in Whitley Bay. First I rolled a joint with fresh leaves from the plant on my window sill looking down on the dark rain South Parade below. Suitably mellow I picked up my battered acoustic guitar and I put together the song Paris By Air. A month or so later I moved out of the Cobbler a short distance to Cambridge Avenue to share a house with the Tygers Of Pan Tang. This was a Whitley Bay rock n roll house but as yet no blue plaque. At the request of John Sykes as to what I had been up to in the studio that day, I played the boys my new demo of Paris By Air. The rest is history – hit single, top 20 album. You can hear the Tygers do their own version in their Whitley Bay Playhouse show on Nov 9th. It will probs be a bit louder than this acoustic version with my team of Funsters at our Two By Two Brewery show – a Saturday Party People production from Martin Thompson (Nepotism at its best) Video by Mark Myschreest with more to come.
The Bank Manager and a Hit Song
This is a story about my bank manager. I posted it on Facebook a week ago and it has got 600 likes so far. Several people remember the man with fondness. Read the full story below.
I had been tidying up my email and came across a message from 2 years ago that I had missed. It took me back 45 years and is quite a story. Around 1981 I was newly married. I was instructed to toddle off to the bank and acquire a mortgage with which to buy ourselves a house. So off I went to my bank: Lloyds in Tynemouth (pictured above) and had a cosy chat with the manager. I remember his very words. He said he “would be doing me (a struggling songwriter) no favours to saddle me with a mortgage”. So what’s a struggling songwriter to do: come up with a hit that’s what. And that’s what happened, a massive top twenty hit. And that opened a whole series of doors and shed loads of my songs got recorded and released. And then the royalties started to flow and I was suddenly on first name terms with the bank manager. We got the Mortgage and “Ray” gave me a whole heap of help and advice. Eventually, he retired and I moved on but I’ve never forgotten his kindness.
So back to the email. It was from the son-in-law of the former manager of Lloyds bank in Tynemouth who had died some years ago. Now that his wife had also passed away this son in law was disposing of their belongings. Amongst the bank manager’s things he found a cassette tape and a note from me. This has now been returned to me and the note is below
I’m touched to learn that he kept the note and the cassette all those years right up to the end of his life.
As you can say the cassette and the note (above) have been returned to me.
Rockin’ At Rocking Horse Rehearsal Studio
THE CRY OF THE AUTUMN CROW
KRAAARRRK !!!!!!
KRAAARRRK !!!!!!
Leon pulled his flimsy coat tighter around his shoulders, breathing out a cloud of vapour into the frigid autumn air. He looked skywards for the source of this disturbing and harsh sound.
KRAAARRRK !!!!!!
Was it an omen? It certainly was ominous and so many things had presented themselves as omens in the past week. But Leon could not figure out what that stark cry from the sky could mean. Procrastination had held him in that spot, freezing and leaning against his wooden staff for several hours. He was afraid to go, afraid to stay. Was the calling crow beseeching him to begin the journey or warning him not to go? How was he to know? He was no fool and he knew there was no middle ground, no third possibility.
His hand trembled as he gripped his staff tighter. He looked down at his unmoving feet. Oh, if only he could employ his hands and feet to decide. They were his tools for action. His brain was in swirling turmoil: useless. The air around him grew a little colder. Was that rumbling sound an indication of thunder in the distance?
If he stayed where he was he could remain innocent of any painful reality to be faced. But was that a good thing? Perhaps the journey’s end would reveal his fears to be unfounded. This would be a happy thing, But what if? What if his destination cancelled out all possibility of hope and delivered to him a reality that destroyed the innocence of not knowing? Two choices: the choosing of one option would brutally murder the other.
KRAAARRRK !!!!!!
It was a harsh and brittle sound with a razor-sharp edge that could cut into flesh. Unlike the pleasant little birdsong on the trees of his memories, this cry was emitted on the wing and therefore took on a reverberant tone of the cold autumn atmosphere. It was not a sound to be ignored. Leon accepted the omen and placed one foot ahead of the other. He was committed, one step inevitably follows the other.
Storm clouds had created
A curtain of despair
But when he reached the clearing
He found no others there
He stood alone for hours
Beneath the rising sun
And as it reached its zenith
He knew no one would come
He stood astride the crossroads
And watched the sun depart
Indecision held him
But the journey had to start
A full moon rose to guide him
And he followed in its wake
This was the strangest journey
He’d ever had to make.
As he walked he knew what he would find
All he cherished and loved, disappeared
As he turned into the moonlight
It was clear, it was just as he had feared
These are strange times
With no road signs
No Supply lines
Along the way
These are strange days
Such a strange place
Where there’s no trace
Of yesterday
These are strange days
In the last phase
Of the old ways
We used to share
These are strange times
Very strange times
Bar The Doubting
We had a great rehearsal this week with the full band. When I say full band I mean this is my solo show on acoustic and vocals but first I added a percussionist (Barry Race) then a keyboard player (Richard Naisbett) and then a couple of BVs (Jen Normandale and Kirsty Forster)
This song is a bit of Blue-eyed Soul featuring Kirsty Forster. Me and Jen are drowning Kirsty out a bit – oops. I’ve been working on my lead vocals and realise now that I have to pull back a bit and be sweeter on the BVs (I’m only learning) If you want to see this show with 100% original material and a fair smattering of hits you currently have 2 choices https://steve-thompson.org.uk/shows/ – we hope to bring you more.
