1818 Days Since Showtime

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Back in October 2011, I set up a website to assist with the production of a community play. The play was “The Bonny Moorhen”  which told the story of the “Battle of Stanhope” that took place in 1818 (remember that number).

The play was to take place in a converted barn on March 22nd, 2012 for three (sold out) nights so I put a countdown timer on the site that started counting down from 173 days until show time. Each day the time showed we were one day closer. Those 173 days were a fantastic adventure.

As often happens the original site for the project disappeared but I have spent the last few weeks reassembling the site from my archives and fixing links although some remain broken. Interestingly the countdown timer has continued counting and now shows days SINCE showtime. Interestingly, today it shows that it is 1818 days since we told the story of The Battle of Stanhope, a most significant number indeed. This seems to be a good day to share this with you so please enjoy the stories and images on the site http://1818.org.uk

This link http://stmedia.org/archives/ditd/?order=ASC  will reveal the Blog in chronological order from the very first activity til the day the chairmanship was passed from James Percy to Liz Gill and a new social enterprise was formed beginning a new chapter of Drama In The Dale. Drama in the Dale continues to this day www.dramadale.co.uk

You can see all the photographs from the project (various photographers) here and the video below tells the story from my own personal perspective.

Down To The River

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‘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.

 

 

A Status Update

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We released the Mayor of Redcar & Cleveland’s CD this week. The launch went great and it’s a terrific version of my 1982 hit “Hurry Home”. After the day was done was somewhat exhausted. Many people worked on this recording with me but it fell to me to produce it, develop the artwork, make the video and all the other stuff. I realised as we put this to bed and began the process of selling the CD to support The Mayor’s charities that there was still more work to do. Now we had the show in Saltburn to work towards (at which The Mayor, Barry Hunt would perform Hurry Home live). I’d been so wrapped up in the new CD that I had forgotten the show. Now I realised I had 4 weeks to prepare a show with a cast of 8 people (now 12 with Barry & singers) all with very busy schedules. The show, consisting of songs, stories and multimedia takes a lot out of me to produce and perform and as I looked at this daunting task I realised I could not do it. Well, I guess I could at a push but it would be exhausting and perhaps not much fun. I’ve therefore decided to cancel the Saltburn show. Sorry about this. People who have bought tickets will receive a full refund.

In the show “Steve Thompson Songwriter” we play all my best-known songs. There is also a new one that I wrote recently for Kerrianne Covell. And I have some new material on the way for Terry Slesser too. I think I’d like to pursue this route. Yes, by all means, the old stuff but I want to tread some new ground too. It’s still all original so it’s still a risk in today’s scene so if there is to be a new “S T Songwriter” show up ahead it may contain these elements but be a little bit more cut down and more manageable.

I still have some “solo” shows in my diary where I tell the stories and play songs including one for Barry late March at Grinkle Park.

I hope that everyone who had been looking forward to the Saltburn show will understand and forgive me for pulling out. I just felt this was the right thing to do. I’ll be at Zetland FM this Friday evening talking to Jeremy Gartland and perhaps we may explore these ideas.

2017 And Running

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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.

 

The Steve Thompson Band – A Year in Pictures

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It’s that time of year so here’s a review in pictures of the past year of the Steve Thompson Band.

See you in 2017

Merry Christmas

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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.

Live On Metro Radio

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We’ll be live on Alan Robson’s Night Owls show Monday 12 December featuring just two of our four fabulous singers Mick Whitaker and Kerrianne Covell. This is a special preview of our Live Theatre show on December 14th where we’ll also be joined by Lorraine Crosby and Terry Slesser. https://goo.gl/NzMAQg Tune in to Metro on the 12th to hear stripped-back versions of the songs in our special Christmas song party.

alan-robson

 

X Factor Star Teams Up With Veteran Songwriter

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kerrianne2Kerrianne 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

BECKET MEETS BULLFROG

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We’ll be opening with a Bullfrog number with Sless on vocals. How cool is that, only took us 42 years to get around to it. Gigs announced soon.

becket-bullfrog

Milestone

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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.

Eurovision 1983

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In 1983 I was asked to write English lyrics for the Italian finalist in Eurovision.  I was up against the wire and had to do this really quickly. As I was working Tommy Morrison rang me and said, “what are you up to” (as he often did). I told him what I was doing and he said “do you need a hand” and I said he could come over and sing a demo for me. So he drove up from Sunderland and what you hear is me and him in my kitchen with him singing and me on my acoustic.  Man, I wish Tommy was still around. He’d be so into the new band, running around and helping and he’d be at every gig.

Not long after I had delivered the finished lyric and the demo I got a phone call from Italy. They played me the recording over the phone with Riccardo Fogli singing my lyric. They wanted me to check that he had the right pronunciation. It sounded fine to me. However, as he only came 11th in the competition I never heard my version again. Then relatively recently I discovered an album on German Ebay. The notes said the version of the Per Lucia was not as the credits indicated,  but the “rare English version”. So I bought it and it’s laid in a cupboard for years until I finally got around to listening to it and sure enough, it’s my lyric version. I’ve dubbed the English version onto the 1983 Performance.

In 2010 I gave an interview for a book on Eurovision – you can read the transcript here.

New Keyboard Player

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st4sq2-800Dean Stockdale has joined us on Keyboards. The picture now featuring Dean is the CD that gets distributed around collaborators.  It just never worked out with Les Watts – conflicting schedules and location of rehearsals took their toll. However, I’m sure Les will pop up later in another part of the project. Now we’re steaming ahead. Soon we’ll decamp to Newcastle to rehearse the singers and after that – the premier gig tah dah dah !!!