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THE LONG FADE

The Steve Thompson Band Posted on March 26, 2022 by Steve ThompsonMarch 26, 2022

An album fifty years in the making.

Available on all the platforms: Spotify, iTtunes, YouTube etc. Look for the platform icons to the right or below and click on your choice

The CD version of this album is no longer available but it is available to download from Cherry Red Records on all the platforms. Choose your preferred option over to the right.  Click here for a free PDF of the CD artwork and sleeve notes AND LYRICS!

ARTISTS WHO COVERED THESE STEVE THOMPSON SONGS

THE LAST TEARDROP: Elkie Brooks

PLEASE DON’T SYMPATHISE: Sheena Easton, Celine Dion

STILL STANDING STILL: New song

GUY WALKS INTO A BAR: New song

THE BIG SKY: New instrumental

HURRY HOME: Wavelength, Sarah Brightman

LOOKING FOR LOVE IN A STRANGER: Chris Farlowe

PARIS BY AIR: Tygers of Pan Tang

TURN THE NUMBER ROUND: New song

ONE OF A KIND:  Elkie Brooks

BAR THE DOUBTING: New song

BEHIND THE WHEEL: Alvin Stardust

PARIS BY AIR INSTRUMENTAL: Tygers of Pan Tang

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Taking The Easy Way: Alvin Stardust

The Steve Thompson Band Posted on March 4, 2022 by Steve ThompsonMarch 4, 2022

The Forgotten Single

In 1988 I wrote and produced this song for Alvin Stardust. Now, thanks to DJ Mike Read and Cherry Red Records it finally sees the light of day. (album to follow) Click on the icon of the platform of your choice.

Read the story behind this recording.

 

 

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Youth Opportunity Schemes & The New Wave of British Heavy Metal

The Steve Thompson Band Posted on February 17, 2022 by Steve ThompsonFebruary 17, 2022

DisGuise

I’ve told the story many times about the time I was House Producer at Impulse Studios/ Neat Records. We had at the studio a young assistant called Conrad Lant. Conrad was on a youth opportunity scheme meaning he got £10 on top of his dole (unemployment benefit) for doing work experience with us. Conrad talked me into giving his own band a session. His band was called Venom and the rest, as they say, has become history.

But a memory occurred to me recently of Conrad’s predecessor also on work experience at the studio. I do not recall this lad’s name but we called him The Mekon (for some reason). He was a bit of a surly bugger. I remember the incident that saw his work experience terminated thus allowing Conrad to enter the picture. I was producing a band from Hartlepool called DisGuise. This would be shortly after I produced Tygers of Pan Tang because I was asked to do this by their manager Tom Noble who also managed the Tygers. He said he was pleased with my Tygers production.

On the day of the Disguise session we’d laid down the first take of their first song. The guys put down their instruments and came through to the control room to hear a playback. As they trooped in their main singer and bass player Jimmy McKenna asked: “How was it”? My stock answer to such a question would always be “Fantastic”! If it wasn’t fantastic I’d add after a brief pause “but let’s do one more to see how it goes”.

However, before I could exercise my production psychology The Mekon blurted out “sell yer bass and have a really good night out man”! This was followed by a moment of embarrassed silence and then embarrassed muffled giggles. I looked round for a hole to bury myself in but then decided if such a hole could be found I would bury The Mekon in it.

To be honest I don’t recall what my response would have been had The Mekon not interjected. But it would have been complimentary and encouraging, they were a great band with an interesting and edgy sound. The pic is of DisGuise mk 1 line-up – Peter Scott guitar, Jimmy McKenna bass, Alan Scully drums. The line-up for the 1979 Impulse session had John Miller on drums (in between his stints with White Heat)

The next day I sent The Mekon back to the dole with a recommendation that they should not send him anywhere that required the merest slice of tact and diplomacy. I may also have suggested sending him into outer space on the next NASSA mission but I don’t fully recall.

This opened up an opportunity for Conrad who actually got on great with everyone. And as I intimated, the rest is history.

Posted in Blog

British India House

The Steve Thompson Band Posted on February 13, 2022 by Steve ThompsonFebruary 13, 2022

When I quit my band Bullfrog in 1974 it was to concentrate on becoming a songwriter. I made some demos assisted by Bullfrog drummer Jim Harle in a studio called Mortonsound in Carliol Square Newcastle. The building that was home to Mortonsound Studio was impressively named “British India House”. I used to walk down an incline past Worswick Street Bus Station. The bus station is no longer there but thankfully British India House is still standing to this day. It is is an impressive 1930’s Art Deco style building.

A while ago I chanced upon the tape from that day and borrowed a Revox to have a listen and digitize the songs. These demos are too primitive, naïve and cringe-worthy to share. But this work is my first solo demo recording and represents the foundations of my song writing career.

Jim, the Bullfrog drummer who was the only other musician on the session recalled “there was an elderly gentleman at the mixing desk that day”. That would be Roy Hartnell who became a friend of mine. He was 40 years old – elderly!

Cringe-worthy the recordings may be , but the they represent the first step on a journey I was determined to make. Some might say my real first steps were with my band Bullfrog but this did not take me to my chosen destination. Or maybe it simply took me to the destination that was meant to be: Carliol House, Newcastle. Perhaps the start of a new journey. Those who know me will not be surprised that I embarked upon that journey with a determination more like a curse than an asset.

Mortonsound was a humble 4 track affair but I did return there once more when I quit my job as house producer at Impulse studios around 1979. Unlike my first visit to Mortonsound the second visit produced hits: a top 20 album track for a British artist and a massive hit for a Canadian vocalist. The story of that second recording session is told here:
https://steve-thompson.org.uk/i-quit-heavy-metal-and-a-flower-pot-man-came-to-call

I travelled to the studio with an 80’s pop icon and a 60’s song writing icon sat in on the session. Quite a story don’t you think?

British India House
Me and Jim around that time

Mortonsound Studio
Worswick St Bus station with British India House in the distance

Posted in Blog

Remembering Alvin Stardust

The Steve Thompson Band Posted on January 30, 2022 by Steve ThompsonFebruary 20, 2022

NOTE: if you arrived at this page by going to www.alvinstardust.xyz after March 4th 2022 www.alvinstardust.xyz will take you to the download platforms for Alvin’s single “Taking The Easy Way”

Back in the late eighties I pitched a song “Taking The Easy Way” to Alvin Stardust. A few weeks later his manager called me and said they all really loved the song and Alvin would like to cut it as his next single. This was great but then he went on to say that they all really loved the demo of the song I had produced and would it be possible for Alvin to put his voice on that very track. I said of course and so over the next few days I booked a studio and arranged a date for Alvin to come up to Newcastle. Alvin was a smashing bloke and very easy to work with. We cut the track and that was that. (or so I thought).

A few days later I heard from Alvin’s manager again. He said everyone loved the track but they wondered if I could come up with a whole album’s worth of material. I said for sure and assembled a bunch of possible material and sent it all off. Alvin and his team picked their favourites and I made arrangements for the recordings. And so Alvin came North again and for a month stayed with me in my house in Whitley Bay. We fooled about in my home studio in the evenings and each day headed into Lynx studios in Shieldfield, Newcastle. (This was the same studio where only a year or two earlier I had recorded the Tygers of Pan Tang album – “Burning In The Shade”). I didn’t drive then so each morning Alvin and I  headed into town on the Metro. Alvin had highly recognisable looks so we drew some strange glances. However, folks must have looked at the nondescript  guy (me) in conversation with him and thought, “nah, can’t be”. (I’ll mention Alvin’s recognisability again later)

We had a ball cutting the Album and when all was done I shared a taxi with Alvin to the Holiday Inn near to Newcastle Airport. He planned to stay over night and fly out early next morning. He went to check in but gave be a sly wink and said “watch this”. As he checked in he asked to see the duty manager on some subterfuge or other. When she arrived she immediately recognised him and went all wobbly and asked the receptionist to get a member of staff come and take a picture of her and the pop star. Then she asked Alvin what room he had been given. When he replied she said, “oh no, we can’t have that, let me upgrade you to a suite at no extra charge”. As she went off to make the arrangements Alvin said under his breath to me “works every time mate”.

And so the album was delivered and everyone was well pleased with it. There was, however, one fly in the ointment. Alvin was between record deals at the time so the album was “shopped” around the labels. Unfortunately he couldn’t get arrested and the album has laid gathering dust for some 30 odd years.

But fast forward a few years after we gave up pitching the album. Tony Bray of Venom and his business partner Eric Cook had bought Lynx studios. They invited me to go and see them. So we had a cosy chat at the studio and Tony said to me “we’d like to give you free of charge, enough studio time to cut an album”. I replied that I thought this was incredibly generous generous but why on earth would they do this? Tony replied “well you gave us a career man”! But as it happened I didn’t have an album to make right then so I didn’t take up their offer. But before I left Eric pointed to a small pile of tapes and said, ” when we bought the place we found those  in the tape store. They have your name on them so you may as well have them”. It was the Alvin Stardust recordings.

Fast forward again. Sometime around May or June in  2014  Alvin called me out of the blue and asked if I still had those recordings. I said indeed I did and promised to dig them out. However he did not mention how ill he was and by October that year he had passed away.

Fast forward again to 2022 and DJ Mike Read gets in touch. He says he had found a cassette of the demo for the single “Taking The Easy Way” that Alvin had sent him all those years ago. Mike has been playing the track on his Heritage Radio Show. Mike said   listeners have been asking where they could get a copy of the track – watch this space!

See also FORTY YEARS OF AIRPLAY

 

Posted in Blog | 3 Replies

Forty Years Of Airplay

The Steve Thompson Band Posted on January 26, 2022 by Steve ThompsonJanuary 26, 2022

A recent series of email exchanges with this young lad (right) has reminded me of a story you may enjoy. Back in the eighties Mike Read was on Radio One (when it was listenable). He held the plum spot of Breakfast Time. I was on a roller coaster ride of a hit single with Hurry Home by Wavelength. Mike played a strong part in that hit, playing the record to death on his show. One morning I was having my breakfast whilst listening to the Mike Read Breakfast Show and he had once again played my song Hurry Home. As it finished he said “that song was written by a guy called Steve Thompson. Yesterday Pete Waterman played me a load of his demos. They were brilliant and when you come across someone so talented don’t you just hate them”. This was an incredible thing to hear on the wireless so I assure you I remember accurately every word. Anyway, I finished my breakfast and maybe half an hour later Mike was on topic again “hey remember that songwriter I told you about, Steve Thomson? Well here’s his latest record – “I Don’t Want To Be The One. As the intro started he said over it “By the way, it’s the Searchers. Did wonders for my ego I can tell you. Anyway, moving on to our current airplay scenario. Mike is once again spinning my “latest record”. This time it’s Alvin Stardust. Tell you more later.

Posted in Blog

I Quit Heavy Metal and a Flower Pot Man Came To Call

The Steve Thompson Band Posted on January 16, 2022 by Steve ThompsonJanuary 16, 2022

Another chapter from my book for your perusal:

I Quit Heavy Metal and a Flower Pot Man Came To Call

“Lots of sunny people
Walking hand in hand”
Let’s Go to San Francisco: John Carter and Ken Lewis.

Artwork Mark Mylchreest

An intriguing chapter title, I hope you’ll agree. There was no trigger for this story emerging from my subconscious after 39 years. It just dropped from the back of my mind one morning as I took a shower.

It’s the summer of 1981 and for three years I’d been house producer at Neat Records. Neat was fast growing into a foremost specialist Heavy Metal label. It had not begun as a Heavy Metal label. We set it up as a vehicle to see what we could do. I produced the first two singles on Neat which were mainstream pop and then I produced the first Heavy Metal single on Neat Records which was Neat 003: The Tygers Of Pan Tang. I also produced the first album on the label: “Rock Until You Drop” by Raven. And then my final production for Neat was a brash young trio called Venom. After the Tygers single, the interest in Neat releases had gone ballistic. I was also operating as A&R guy and apart from producing, I was trawling through the piles of cassettes and tapes coming in from heavy metal hopefuls.

We had a young lad at the studio on a youth opportunity scheme. His name was Conrad Lant. He helped out on the sessions as a kind of gopher/tea boy. Conrad was watching all this happen and he was forever telling me all about his own band Venom and beseeching me to give them a break. One day I relented and gave them a session. We recorded 3 tracks that day, one of them being “In League with Satan” which eventually became their single. I loaned Conrad my Gibson bass for the session.

With hindsight I can see now that big and significant things were happening at the studio. But at the time my workload was increasing and it was dedicated to heavy metal. There was less and less time for me to develop any of my own stuff. So, I decided to quit. When I told Micky Sweeney, the sound engineer I was leaving the studio, he decided to go too: a clean break. Neat Records was becoming pretty high profile so the engineer and house producer jumping ship at the same time was a big enough story to make the regional newspapers.

I dropped out of the growing Neat Records story, a story that I had played such a significant part in up to then. This career move was either very brave or very stupid but I was young and I instinctively felt I had to do it. I’ve since given many interviews about those early days at Neat for books, blogs, magazines, films and radio as well as on the talks circuit.

And so there I was in my flat in Tynemouth, contemplating my future. It dawned on me that my future right then looked a little bleak. All I had was a dream and a cart load of ambition. Then there came a knock at the door. Flobbalop!!

I answered the knock and there on the doorstep stood a man who introduced himself as Ken Lewis. He said he’d read about me in the local press and he was a songwriter too and would like to chat about song writing. So, I invited him in. Over a cup of tea, he began to tell me his story. He said he had sung backing vocals on The Who’s “Can’t Explain”. He’d been a member of the 60’s band The Ivy League. He’d written several hit songs with his partner John Carter. One of them being “Let’s Go To San Francisco“. A big hit and they’d called themselves The Flowerpot Men for that one. He told me that he and his writing partner John used to make up names for a band when they had recorded something worthy of release. Then Ken explained that he’d been suffering mental illness and was no longer in the music business. I believed him. I believed he was mentally unwell, it was kinda obvious. But I think I believed all the other stuff too, as implausible as it may have seemed. He just wanted to talk, so it wasn’t important whether his stories were true or not. Maybe I neither believed nor disbelieved his stories at that time. I just accepted them. Ken said he was very interested in my work and wanted to hang out with me the next time I was in a recording studio. I said OK and as it happened, I had a session arranged the following week as I seriously needed to get my new song writing career underway.

The recording session was at Morton Sound in the heart of Newcastle City. The same studio that I’d first used when I quit my band Bullfrog. I could have used Impulse but I wanted to make a clean break. Plus, I was broke and the session was a low budget affair. I was going to knock off as many songs as possible in just one session.

As a non-driver I asked my mate Graham Jenkinson to drive me to the studio and so he picked me up in his white transit van and took me and my gear into Newcastle. When I climbed into the van, I found that also along for the ride was young Andy Taylor, now a major pop star with Duran Duran. Andy had dyed his hair blond and at 9am was happily smoking a spliff. I declined to participate. I asked Andy, “what’s it like being a pop star” and he responded “fucking great”.

The session went fairly well. I had asked my drummer, Paul Smith, to bring only bass drum, snare and hi hat to keep it simple. The band Fist had recruited a new singer called Glen Howes, who impressed me, so I asked him to sing the demos for me. There were only 3 of us on that session: Paul on Kit, Glenn on vocals and me on everything else. And Ken Lewis sat in on the session and listened. He didn’t participate or comment at all. When the session was over, he said goodbye, and left. I never saw him again.

This is all I remember of my brief association with Ken Lewis. He didn’t suggest we co-write or anything at all and he seemed to want nothing from me. Back then I only half believed his story but with the benefit of Wikipedia, I have now been able to check his story out. Reading Ken’s Wikipedia entry, I found he was indeed a member of The Flower Pot Men and co-wrote “Let’s Go To San Francisco” with John Carter, as well as several other hits. He was a member of the Ivy League and did indeed sing backing vocals on The Who’s “Can’t Explain”. What he omitted to tell me was that the guitarist in his early band with John Carter, was Jimmy Page. Wow! The most telling thing in the Wikipedia entry is the explanation that: “Ken Lewis quit the music business due to depression and moved to Wallsend”. He was living near to Impulse Studios/Neat Records. Sadly, the entry also reveals that he passed away in 2015. I don’t know why he popped into my head in 2020 but I might have been tempted to re-make contact and ask him why he tracked me down in 1981.

It’s rather strange to recall Ken passing through my life so briefly, almost like a ghost. The recording session that he sat in on, included my biggest selling song ever: “Please Don’t Sympathize” – a top 20 album track for Sheena Easton and a hit single for Celine Dion, going Platinum in Canada and France. Perhaps Ken Lewis had simply stopped by to be my lucky charm. Thanks Ken.

Ken Lewis (Left) & John Carter
The Ivy League Ken, Perry Ford & John

Carter Lewis & the Southerners (Jimmy Page third from left)
Carter Lewis & the Southerners

Press Cutting

Posted in Blog

Laid Back Procrastination

The Steve Thompson Band Posted on January 6, 2022 by Steve ThompsonJanuary 6, 2022
I mentioned earlier my new album for Spring to be accompanied by a live show (possibly the last one ever). Well, album production has been slowed down by external events. Two consecutive studio sessions were postponed by Covid isolation requirements. On the third attempt I, myself suffered from a lurgy (non Covid). This stymied my plans for adding vocals. Bolstered by the reception I got to “I Will Go Back” I planned to come out of the closet as a vocalist. For the time being I’m back in the closet. Alternative instrumental sessions were planned which are now on hold whilst my finger recovers from a painful association with a kitchen knife. And so I’ve decided to say the album may happen in spring but then again it may not. It will happen when it happens. I’m taking the pressure off myself to set a date. No good can come of such pressures.

During the isolation period I engaged with pre-production at home. I started to work on the title track for an album that would follow the next – “Strange Times”. This is an experimental album that at present exists largely as a concept and artwork. The new song is working really well. Should I bring it forward and include it on the Distant Destination album. Or should I perhaps work on the two as a double album and title them both “years of procrastination”. We shall see.
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I WILL GO BACK

The Steve Thompson Band Posted on November 19, 2021 by Steve ThompsonMarch 12, 2022

Available on the platforms listed to the right (or perhaps below if you are on a mobile). Choose your service or view the video below.

This is a download only release but there are 10 limited edition CD’s available. These are white label CD’s in a jewel container and professional print sleeve. Each CD is uniquely numbered and signed. (Sorry all CD’s now gone)

https://vimeo.com/643038136?loop=0

Bid for limited edition CD

Available on all the platforms below after release date.

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Double Disk Plus Demos

The Steve Thompson Band Posted on September 18, 2021 by Steve ThompsonSeptember 19, 2021
In 1982 I had a massive top 20 hit song and with the proceeds I bought a house in Whitley Bay and installed a recording studio. Over the following years many of my musician friends called in and helped me lay tracks. Elements of this story have since appeared in various blogs and interviews. Fast forward to 2021 and many of those recordings have now been released in various formats by Cherry Red Records.
The first piece of work in the new Whitley Bay studio was with Jon Deveril of Tygers of Pan Tang. The Cage album had just gone top 20 and my song on it “Paris By Air” had entered the singles charts. Bizzarely the band then folded. So, Jon and I set out on a project. It started small with a Fostex X15 portastudio. Soon, after there was another cash injection to the Stevie T vaults and we went 8 track with a serious mixing desk. The demos for the next two Tygers albums: “The Wreckage” and “Burning In The Shade” were recorded there in Whitley Bay. The albums were not strictly speaking heavy metal but are still part of the Tygers story and most certainly my own story.
I’ve now licensed all those demos (or those I could find) to Cherry Red. CR already owned the rights to Burning In The Shade and have now acquired The Wreckage. So now were looking at a package of the two albums complete with the demos that begat them. Release date to be confirmed. The Video below features some fly on the wall footage of Jon and I working in that Whitley Bay studio on “All Change Faces”, a song destined for The Wreckage album.

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Hindsight And History

The Steve Thompson Band Posted on September 4, 2021 by Steve ThompsonSeptember 4, 2021

The picture to the right is my first band Bullfrog as featured on the CD cover of a new release from Cherry Red Records. The picture is from 1971. It’s our “Beatles on the rooftop” moment. Except this is Eldon Square, Newcastle. Years later other bands played Eldon Square in officially organized shows. But ours was not an official event it was a rebellious act of self promotion. We bust into a basement and ran a mains cable across the grassy square to the monument in the centre where we set up and played a blues/rock set to Sunday strollers. The stunt was the brainchild of our Australian manager known only as “Skippy”. Skippy convinced us that the notoriety would catapult us to the top. As it happened, all it got us was an article in the Sunday Sun. Shortly after Skippy got deported so that was that.

Years later we appeared in a history book published by the Newcastle Evening Chronicle. This was not due to any notoriety of the band. The pictures taken in 1971 show behind us the architecture that was soon to disappear when the developers moved in to build a town Centre shopping mall.

But we were seeking notoriety and fame for our music. We were young and ambitious, I was just 19 years old. How were we to know that 50 years later a picture from that sunny day in May ‘71 would form the cover of a CD on which one of our songs would rub shoulders with the likes of Mott The Hoople, Free, Uriah Heap, Deep Purple, Hawkwind, The Yardbirds, Thin Lizzie, and others.

That’s the original 1969 Bullfrog lineup in the picture. Left to right: Mick Glancy, Robin Hird, Mick Simmons and Me – Steve Thompson. By the time we recorded “The Joker” which appears on disk three of the Cherry Red boxed set “I’m a Freak Baby 3” two line-up changes had occurred. Pete MacDonald replaced Mick Glancy on vocals and Jim Harle replaced Mick Simmons on drums.

Images From Eldon Square Sun May 30th 1971



Fast Forward To 2021

Click here for more info or to purchase the boxed set

Click to enlarge
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Posted in Blog

Hollow Victory (A Sketch)

The Steve Thompson Band Posted on August 14, 2021 by Steve ThompsonAugust 14, 2021

I’m working up this forgotten song (Hollow Victory)  into new arrangement for a new album (Distant Destination) with my band. This is not it – It’s just a teaser. A doodle from which the full song formed. I may post other teasers or work in progress. It’s a very powerful song IMHO and is destined for the vocals of  of Jen Normandale. The song was started for a project with a Russian Girl called Oxana. 

I wrote a number of pieces  for the project but when she got deported it killed it all off (The project).  Watch this space:

It’s a Hollow Victory
With A Bitter Taste
And The road behind you

Is laid to waste
You made your exit
And You had your say
what about the times
You could have been having
All The Days Of Love
And living and laughing

 

Posted in Blog

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Latest Blogs

  • THE LONG FADE
  • Taking The Easy Way: Alvin Stardust
  • Youth Opportunity Schemes & The New Wave of British Heavy Metal
  • British India House
  • Remembering Alvin Stardust
  • Forty Years Of Airplay
  • I Quit Heavy Metal and a Flower Pot Man Came To Call
  • Laid Back Procrastination
  • I WILL GO BACK
  • Double Disk Plus Demos
  • Hindsight And History
  • Hollow Victory (A Sketch)
  • IRON MAN OF NORTON: Second Shipment – Various Artists
  • A Pocket Full Of Memories
  • IRON MAN OF NORTON: Boxed Set – Various Artists
  • Cherry Red
  • Sleepless Nights
  • Goffy Plays Hurry Home & A Fan Rings In From Nunthorpe
  • Released At Last: SOUTHBOUND
  • Almost Something
  • The Subtle Art Of Namedropping
  • Goodbye Consett
  • Test Post to Twitter and Facebook
  • CREAM: The Late Sixties
  • Glam Queens And Street Urchins
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