Behind The Wheel

Steve Thompson Posted on by

It is surely remarkable how history so often repeats itself. Back in 1994 I had written and produced a “single” for Alvin Stardust called “Taking The Easy Way”. Alvin was, what they call “deal shopping” meaning we were looking for a record company to put it out. One day I got a call from Alvin’s manager saying that he’d secured some interest and that the interest extended to an entire album. The question was, did I have more material suitable for Alvin and would I be happy to produce an album. I’d enjoyed the earlier sessions with Alvin – a true pro and so I said yes. I started sending various songs and I wrote a couple of new ones. After some to-ing and fro-ing we settled on a set of songs. Christmas was approaching so I went into pre-production in the days leading up to Christmas 1994 because Alvin had a window to cut the Album in January 1995 and then he was on tour.

Early in 1995 Alvin stayed with me in my house in Whitley Bay for three weeks whilst we cut the album. I didn’t drive then so every day we’d ride the Metro to the studio in Newcastle. We made the album but unfortunately the deal did not come off and the tracks gathered dust all these years. Alvin did call me a couple of months before he died and we talked about reviving the project. He did not mention his health and so I had no idea he was not long for this world.

Fast forward to 2018 and John Gallagher of the band Raven get’s in touch. He’s spotted that I’m cutting my own album and offered his services to guest on a track or two. Would I be interested? You betcha! I produced an album with John and his band mates around 1981 (Raven: Rock Until You Drop) that is considered a landmark album, inspiring among others Metallica.

John says he’s in the country until Jan 23rd. This rings bells with me and is reminiscent of the Alvin recordings. There was a song I wrote for Alvin’s album that would be ideal for John: Behind The Wheel. So this is to be the track and just 23 years later I go into pre-production once more in the days leading up to Christmas. I’ve been working on the track today with a terrific sense of Deja Vu.

New Album

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There is every likelihood of a new album from the band in the New Year! Back in the summer, we had a string of departures from our ranks and so myself, Jen Normandale Ian Halford and John Dawson took to the recording studio. As a guitar, bass and drums combo, we started to sound remarkably Country Rock! I was obliged to play Keyboards myself but we have since added Jon Winship on keys.

From July onwards we’ve been in and out of a variety of studios and we now have a collection of recordings consisting of our take on some of my songs recorded by the likes of Celine Dion, Elkie Brooks, Tygers of Pan Tang etc but also some new material. We’ve been joined by a bunch of friends to create a really eclectic set of recordings. Guests on the album include Jim Hornsby  Steve Lamb, Ross Kerr, Kerrianne Covell Tony Markey, Elizabeth Liddle

Watch This Space

Internet Revelations

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Trawling the Internet is such an interesting pastime for songwriters. This is my song that Sheena Easton released on her top 20 album, Madness Money and Music. Here is just one of the revelations from this mornings trawl.

When “Take My Time” her first album was re-released on CD in the US on 19 June 1999 by One Way Records my song was one of the bonus tracks. The UK version of the album was re-released on CD on 19 October 2009 again with my song as a bonus track by Cherry Red Records. On 24 November 2014 an Original Album Series box set in the UK with all of her first five albums was released by EMI through Warner Music Group. My song is on that too. I knew about the US release but not the UK or the boxed set

I Will Go Back

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Here is another song from my archives. It’s a song from the musical I did with Tom Kelly, Steel Town. As we were writing, it was always planned to stage the show at the Customs House, South Shields. For obvious reasons I also wanted to take it (back) to Consett. One day I drove out there to drop some information at the Empire Theatre. I visited one of my favourite spots. I used to love looking down to Hownsgill Plate Mill with the railway tracks encircling it like a huge train set. Of course, it was all gone but I was a little put out by what I found at that spot. Two stainless steel sculptures that had nothing to do with the Steel Works. I called Tom and described the scene and out of that conversation came this song “I Will Go Back”. The line “when the lines are gone, you’ll find me there” refers to the Hownsgill railway tracks.

The song is sung by Darren Ali. In the musical Darren plays a young guy trying to escape the Steel Works into the music business. Basically me!. Darren contacts me every now and then claiming to be Steve Thompson which is a little confusing (for both of us). When we recorded the song Darren couldn’t get the middle eight. The section that ends in “when you reach for the sky”. So I sang it. I always found it quite charming that the young guy sings the song about going back and the older guy takes the middle eight and then we sing the final choruses together in harmony. Darren is a filmmaker now.

I will go back someday. When the lines are gone, you’ll find me there.

Colin Blunstone

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COLIN BLUNSTONE: A PERSONAL REFLECTION

This article about my time working with Colin Blunstone first appeared as an exclusive to the Zombies Fan Club. Click here to read it on the fan club page.

Colin Blunstone.I was always a fan of Colin Blunstone’s singing, so when he recorded my song “I Don’t Understand You” in 1982 I was delighted. Unfortunately, the track never got released, but such is the songwriter’s lot!

Fast forward to 1985 and I appeared on the same bill as Colin. The event was a fundraiser for the Bradford City Disaster appeal after the fire at the Valley Parade football stadium, held at St. George’s Hall in Bradford. There were some memorable moments in that show. For one, I remember trading keyboard licks from my position stage left with Rod Argent placed stage right! Anyone who is aware of my ham-fisted keyboard style will see the humour in that scenario.

Rounding out the night, we had a massive jam session with everybody onstage. With Jim Rodford and Bob Henrit both in The Kinks at the time, they wanted to do a couple of Kinks songs. We all busked our way through “You Really Got Me” but “All Day and All Of The Night” was not so straightforward. We all got the riff, no problem, but there’s a couple of tricky chords under “the only time I feel alright is by your side”. Jim and Bob knew it, of course, but the rest of us couldn’t quite get it, so the song sort of petered out each time we got to that bit, apart from the bass and drums.

Along the way, I got chatting to Colin about songs and stuff, and we thought it would be a good idea to write something together. I was doing a lot of work with John Verity at the time, co-writing and playing on a couple of his albums. The three of us agreed to cut some tracks and a few months later we descended on John’s “Somewhere In Yorkshire” studio. I recall that Colin had a couple of ideas for titles and storylines. “Scared To Death” was inspired by a certain fallen-from-grace rock star receiving a bad press in the tabloids. And “Hypnotised” came about because a friend was quitting smoking that way. Over the course of three days, we did indeed write and record those two songs. Sadly, all I have left of them are partial recordings. The tapes are long gone. (Aditional note: Colin Called me last night and we’re trying to reconstruct the songs from memory!)

Those sessions produced their own fair share of memorable moments. At one point, John V was mixing down some backing vocals, so Colin and I went out to the field behind the studio to play football. Not a kickabout mind you, a full-on competitive match with one man in each team and makeshift goal posts. Considering the size difference between us (I’m quite small in stature, and Colin quite tall and athletic), it was a bit of an uneven matchup, and at one point I ended up going right over the low fence around the field! It was all in good humour, though, and we both were in gales of laughter. Luckily John was calling us back into the studio, so I escaped without further incident!

But by far the most memorable event came during a quiet moment in the studio. Colin picked up an acoustic guitar and began strumming. Then he began singing “I Don’t Believe in Miracles”. It was wonderful, the room lit up. The sound he made was so beautiful that I imagined a ray of sunlight beaming down on his shoulders as tiny animated bluebirds fluttered above his head. Ok, overly poetic I know but hey, I’m a songwriter, I get to do that. Memories are made of this.

With special thanks to Susan Enterline and Steve Rossi

Here for you are the three songs mentioned in the article (all previously unheard by public ears)

 

My Time as a Member of Metal Band Fist (NWOBHM)

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Around 1978 I was equally active producing bands for Neat Records and writing and demoing my own songs. One day Keith Satchfield of Fist approached me and asked if I had any songs suitable for the band (Fist). He was trying to get a commercial edge to their output. I said sure no problem and gave him some possible candidates. Kieth came back and said he’s like to do three songs. However, there was a catch. Kieth said the songwriter had to be in the band so in order to get these songs recorded I had to join Fist. So that’s exactly what I did, I became second guitarist in Fist. Dave Irwin was not around. I don’t know if he had departed or booted out to make way for me but it was me and Kieth Satchfield on guitars. Harry Hiroshima Hill was on drums and John Wylie on Bass. 

I recently came across this tape box which lists the three songs we recorded but alas I do not have a machine to play them on. Until I hear them I don’t know if they are a rough mix or a finished master. I know the tracks never got released.

Foolin’ Myself – Jimmy Chambers

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I’ve found two versions of this song on my hard drive. I originally wrote and demo’d it around 1977. I can’t recall why I was running around making new demos of this song in 1980 but I must have had some action on it.  My old mate Gus Dudgeon recommended one of his session singers, Jimmy Chambers so I got in touch and arranged a session in London. My memory is hazy but I think the studio was Southern Music Publishers in Denmark Street in London (Tin Pan Alley). I found an interesting article about Denmark Street yesterday. I had left Impulse/Neat but I borrowed the 2 inch 24 track master and took it to London, put Jimmy’s vocals on and mixed it there and then. You can hear the results in the attached video. The song disappeared into obscurity so I can’t recall what action was going on with it. It’s me on piano and bass but I can’t figure out who’s drumming. It’s the Caffrey Bros on backing vocals. I never met with Jimmy again but I did see him many times. Not long after this, I started to see him on TV a lot. First as a backup vocalist with Paul Young and then his own band London Beat. He went on to have a mega career. Maybe it’s my song that gave him a kickstart 😉

Songwriting Masterclasses

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The first songs I wrote were pretty rubbish. However, I worked at it and eventually I must have got it right cos I’ve sold hundreds of thousands of records around the world. I also studied the masters: Lennon/McCartney, Goffin/King, Bacharach/David, Todd Rundgren, Brian Wilson (who Todd must also have studied). With my band we play many of my songs and I tell the stories behind them. Whilst we wait to get some more shows into the Bands diary we’re contemplating something else: A master class in songwriting. This is just a loose idea at present – no venues or dates yet. I’ve already started to tell the stories behind the recordings but this will explain how the songs were written – partly theory, partly anecdotal. I’ll also throw in some of the lessons I learned from the masters. Watch this space.

Searcher For A Day

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When I posted yesterday the story about my song that the Searchers recorded I forgot to mention that I was actually a member of the Searchers. Ok, just for a day but it left me with a terrific memory.
I had co-produced with John Verity a solo single with Mike Pender. He was still in the Searchers, it was to be a solo single by a Searchers member. The single was “It’s Over” written by David Valentine but John V and I made him do one of our songs “Brothers & Sisters” for the B side. Not one of our better songs and I still feel a little guilty. Check it out in the video below.
 
When the single was released Mike quit the Searchers and formed “ Mike Pender’s Searchers”. Anyway, he called me up one day and asked if I’d do a TV show with the band. The record relied heavily on keyboards which I had played and the band was a guitar bass and drums line-up. So I travelled to Manchester to do the TV show and that’s where I get my claim to fame of being a member of the Searchers (for a day)
 
The TV show was a strange affair. We all played live but it was recorded for later transmission. There was no audience but one would be dubbed later so it had to look as if the band were acknowledging an audience. It was strange to see Mike take a few paces forwards and bow into thin air with imaginary applause ringing in his ears
However, that was nothing compared to the peculiarities of what I had to do. I was playing off stage and would not be in camera shot. The band were in suits and ties Searchers style and I was in jeans and T-Shirt. However, various cameramen and dudes with clipboards found my positioning not to their liking and I was asked to move six feet back to be out of camera shot. The drummer counts the song in and we’re off…  STOP !!! The stage manager declares “the keyboard player is still in shot”. So I moved further back and we go again. Only to be stopped once more – I was still in shot. So I was moved 50 feet away at the back of the studio. Now, although I had a monitor it was a bit discomforting to be playing with a band that were small figures in the distance. Anyway, off we go again. This time Mike stopped the band “Where’s the keyboards?” I had to shout back “I can’t hear the fucking count in”. I had a monitor by my side but I couldn’t hear the count in. We had to ask the drummer to shout out the count. I was rather surreal.