Steve Thompson

I’ve finished writing all the songs for Jobling The Musical and Lee Morris is busy arranging them for the Westoe Brass Band.

The show will take place at The Word, South Shields, June 24th.

To whet your appetite I thought I’d share the demo for one of the songs here. (Health warning: my own vocals are not the best you’ll hear.) The song is “Me Last Days”. As I set out to write this one I knew I had quite a task on my hands as the song features Jobling contemplating his execution just days away. I remembered something I learned whilst I was briefly a thespian with Jack Drum Arts. I seem to recall the technique was called “hotspotting” and this is where an actor holds an unscripted conversation or interview whilst inhabiting the character by drawing on what they know about that character. And so, late one night with a few glasses of vino to assist I became William Jobling. With Tom Kelly’s lyrics in front of me I sang in stream of consciousness style using a melancholy chord structure. I didn’t construct the song it just flowed from me. Later Tom asked why I had not used the third verse and I explained that I was so emotionally drained that I could do no more. And so we’ve left it that way, just two verses.

This video firstly features that very first stream of consciousness rendition followed by a slightly more produced and constructed version with some lyrical and musical tweaks. Which version do you prefer? Come to the show to see how it turns out. Booking (required) here —https://goo.gl/Q7KXnC

Me Last Days Collage from Steve Thompson on Vimeo.

‘Down to the River’ premiered at the National Centre for Spoken Word in January 2017. Now you can enjoy it here https://steve-thompson.org.uk/dttr/ by clicking through the numbered tabs at the top.

The exhibition takes as its source the poem, ‘Geordie,’ which features in Tom Kelly’s poetry collection ‘Dreamers in a Cold Climate’ (Red Squirrel Press).

Kelly reads the poem as Steve Thompson, musician, songwriter and producer creates a stunning soundscape. Photographs are by Kev Howard.

This work is centred on the North-east of England but could well be Chicago or Glasgow the impact is equally devastating and is all too soon forgotten by the powers that be.

‘Down to the River’ gives a voice to those made mute by history.

Time to hit the ground running for 2017. There should be another outing for the “Steve Thompson Songwriter” show early April. More on that when we have it. I’ll also be taking the show around as a one-man talk with Multi Media and the first of those is in March for Loftus Tradesmen’s Reform Club.

Several other projects are on the go. We’ll be recording a single with the Mayor of Redcar & Cleveland in support of his charities. We’ll be re-releasing some Mick Whitaker recordings as well as a very interesting collection with Terry Slesser. There will also be a complete set of recordings with my first band Bullfrog to be called “From Aces To Zebras”. These recordings will be released through my usual channels but I’ve also done a deal with North East label, VainGloriousUK. More on all of this as soon as we have it.

In the immediate future, I have a little mini “Shields” tour planned. On Saturday 28th January it’s SOUTH Shields at a fabulous new venue called The Word. On that gig, I’m on a laptop for an experimental multi-media exhibition “Down To The River” with poet Tom Kelly and photographer Kev Howard. It starts at 2 pm, tickets £5: Catherine Cookson Room, The Word, 45 Market Place, South Shields, NE33 1JF

On Sunday 29th of January it’s NORTH Shields and I’m back on guitar with a brand new band called “Mick ‘n’ Sless”. That’s Mick Whitaker and Terry Slesser and we’re also joined by Steve Dolder on drums and John Dawson on Bass. The gig is the Magnesia Bank, 1 Camden St, North Shields NE30 1NH. Show time is 4 pm – entrance is free.

Well, that’s it for 2016, we’ve done our last show for the year. Actually, considering Nemix was a showcase warm-up you could say we’ve done our only gig of the year. Aha the best things are a rare treat !Who knows what the New Year might bring – watch this space. I want to thank the band: Dean, Richard, Kerrianne, Paul, Lorraine, Mick, Terry and David the projectionist. In particular, I own Richard, Paul and Dean a big thank you because as I hadn’t played for 16 years they rehearsed with me for almost a year to put the show together. As I say, watch this space.

Kerrianne Covell who hails from Norton on Teesside has been on the journey of her dreams since the age of 12.

Having won a competition in 2013 with the region’s favourite and biggest radio station TFM, Kerrianne performed at the Metro Radio Arena as the champion of their Big Audition. Supporting the likes of Pixie Lott, Example, Little Mix and many more gave her the fuel to fire her burning desire to be one of their peers.

Bounding inside with talent in Pop, Contemporary R&B and Alternative, Kerrianne and her performing experience took to the X Factor stage in 2014. Wowing not only the crowds but also the judges, who gave her a much-coveted spot at the judge’s houses with Cheryl Fernandez-Versini.

Her mother Pamela recently reached out to veteran North East Songwriter, Steve Thompson asking if he could write a song to help Kerrianne’s singing career.  Steve has written songs that have been recorded by Celine Dion, Sheena Easton, Elkie Brooks, The Hollies, The Searchers, The Tygers of Pan Tang, Baby Ford, Colin Blunstone, Elaine Page and Chris Farlowe. Now Steve has written a handful of songs for this talented young singer and Kerrianne is set to perform one of them ‘Over Bar The Doubting’ with Steve’s band at The Live Theatre. Newcastle on December 14th. Kerrianne will also sing a song that Steve wrote for Elkie Brooks as well as another he wrote for Alvin Stardust. On the latter she is teamed with the other singers of the band Terry Slesser, Mick Whitaker and Lorraine Crosby.

This fine array of North East vocal talent will sing songs from Steve’s repertoire as recorded by International recording artists and Steve also tells the stories behind the songs using a range of multimedia. This is a fascinating and unique project, reflecting the creativity and variety of the North-East music scene, with some of the region’s best singers and musicians.

Steve said “when a mum asks you to do something then it must be done. I was really impressed with Kerrianne’s X Factor performance ( https://steve-thompson.org.uk/kerrianne/ ) I was even more impressed when we went through the song I’d written for her. She has a terrific grasp of melody and interpretation of lyric. Now the audience at Live Theatre can look forward to a new story, a new song and a new singer”

STEVE THOMPSON: SONGWRITER

LIVE THEATRE NEWCASTLE DECEMBER 16th

TICKETS £16
Box Office: 0191 232 1232

Book online: www.live.org.uk

Steve Thompson Band reaches a Milestone

We’ve been rehearsing in Middlesbrough since February and the band is really starting to sound good. It took so long because firstly, I’ve not played in 15 years and I was well rusty. Secondly, the material presents such an eclectic range that we’ve had to work really hard to get a “band sound”. The milestone  I referred to is that this week we will leave our base in the Custom House, Middlesbrough and head to Newcastle. There we will rehearse with 3 of the singers in the project: Lorraine Crosby, Mick Whitaker and Andrea Pattison. As well as singing my biggest hit “Hurry Home” Andrea will be standing in for Tanya Rowlands and Charlotte Black who could not make this rehearsal. Also missing will be Mo Scott but we’ll catch up with her later. You may have spotted that Mick is in the minority being the only male singer amongst 5 female singers.  Sadly, Phil Caffrey had to drop out due to other commitments so we’re a little short on male vocalists. I have my eyes and ears open for suitable candidates for the post.