Category Archives: Music Projects

Jobling, The Musical

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Click to enlarge

Yesterday saw the culmination of a lot of hard work. This was the premier show of Jobling The Musical which my collaborator Tom Kelly and I began several years ago. Relatively recently an opportunity came up to stage the musical at the National Centre for the Written Word (The Word) in South Shields. Shortly after embarking upon that an opportunity came up to work with Westoe Brass Band on the project which was really exciting as we felt this would lend a great deal of authenticity to a story set in 1832. Our final rehearsal took place at Haven Point on the seafront in South Shields which interestingly is directly opposite the 4th floor flat on the opposite bank of the Tyne where I wrote the top 20 hit “Hurry Home”. (pictured)

Given the lead in time we had available, the show was a “script in hand” performance but it was very powerful and the audience loved it. It is an interesting time politically to be staging the show as there are very strong synergies with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s mantra “for the many, not the few”. Tom Kelly’s writing is most evocative and powerful and this was skillfully handled by the cast directed by Jonathan Cash. For my own part, this being a difficult subject to write about and I had taken great pains to wrap strong emotional content into the songs. Several people said afterwards that they had been most touched by the music. I, myself was not immune to this even though I had composed them. To hear the songs being skillfully delivered by the cast supported by the fantastic sound of Westoe Brass Band was extremely moving. One of the cast mentioned that they saw my face during one of the most emotional pieces and almost filled up too.

Afterwards Tom and I took part in a question and answer session and it was clear there is an appetite to see the show fully staged. We are all very hopeful that we can move this on and take this important North East story to a larger stage. The show was recorded in video and audio so you may see bits and pieces in the coming months. Meanwhile to hear song demos, click here. Let me quote our director Jonathan Cash’s words after the show which sum it up very well.

A personal thank you to all the cast. You made your director very proud. Also to Lee Morris and the band for accommodating the changes we needed so readily and for the beautiful sound you made. It felt like The Word had been waiting for that joyous, mellow loveliness. Thank you Tom Kelly for asking me to get involved and for your perceptive and always human writing and to Steve Thompson for the melodies that made everyone care so much. Today was worth all the effort. Jobling will rise again!

See the full cast list and musicians below the image gallery.

Book & Lyrics: Tom Kelly
Music & Lyrics: Steve Thompson
Director: Jonathan Cash
Musical Director: Lee Morris

The Cast
William Jobling, a pitman: Michael Skoyles
Isabella Jobling, his wife: Helen Cash
Ralph Armstrong, a pitman: Stephen Mason
Thomas Hepburn, Pitmen’s Union Leader: Dan Greener
Lord Melbourne, Home Secretary: Jonathan Cash
Elizabeth Turner, sister of Isabella: Bethanie Johnson
All other roles played by the members of the company

The Westoe Brass Band
Cornets: Stephen Goddard, Selwyn Thompson, David Petherick,
Georgia Davies, Ruth Nisbet, Christopher Canham
Flugel: Jo Wright
Horns: Ann Stone, Alison Dickason
Baritone: Lynne Griffiths
Euphoniums: Steve Kyle, Ray Canham
Tuba: Luke McCormick
Trombone: Elliot Gray
Percussion: Matthew Hunt

Strike Up The Band

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My band goes into rehearsal in January.Core line-up is Paul Smith – Drums, Richard Rutherford – Bass and me on Guitar. Since my repertoire is so eclectic having written for a broad range of artistes http://goo.gl/HMlCxV we will use those early rehearsals to establish a sound and vision. Then we’ll add keyboards and vocals. The set will feature stories as well as songs and believe me, I have a lot of stories.
I’m deadly serious – my guitar is in the workshop being serviced. I’m going back to the Gym to service my ageing body and I’m practising my chops and getting my mojo ready – look out 2016 !!

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Southbound: Released At Last

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southbound3Three tracks recorded circa 1977/8 by popular North East band Southbound. I produced this session for the Neat label but it never saw the light of day. Now some 38 years later I’ve dug out an old cassette, digitised it and then ran it through some sophisticated software to breath some life into the recordings. These tracks will be available soon: Released At Last !

More about the band here.

Before We Depart

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I got chatting to  an old buddy that I cut a couple of albums with and toured with back in the 80’s and the upshot is we’ve started trading licks for a possible new album. Mostly under wraps for now. More soon. He’s a track I’ve started working on that bears the title BEFORE WE DEPART (This Mortal Coil). The brackets are a gag and will probably not make the cut.

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Down To The River

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Down To The River is a Multi Media adaptation of the epic Tom Kelly poem “GEORDIE” which was published by Red Squirrel Press in a collection entitled “Dreamers In A Cold Climate”.For the purpose of this new work which will be released on DVD the 20 minute reading has been broken down into 9 distinct pieces beginning with “Geordies Lament” and culminating in “Down To The River” and an Overture has been added. The sound sculptures to create this body of work have been developed by producer/songwriter Steve Thompson and photographer Kev Howard has joined the project team. Images are being shot to produce the visual aspect and you can preview some of them here. The work will also become a student project for Middlesbrough College as a piece of site specific physical theatre.

The audio only rendition of this work can he heard below. One piece has been set to images and you can see that at the foot of this page.

The “Overture” set to Kev’s pictures.

Jobling

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A Musical: Book and Lyrics: Tom Kelly, Music: Steve Thompson

JOBLING is based on events surrounding the gibbeting of William Jobling, Jarrow Pitman and the last man gibbeted in the north in 1832. Jobling was tried and hung at Durham, then gibbeted on Jarrow Slake for his part in the murder of South Shields magistrate Nicholas Fairles.

The action moves between 1831 and 1832 in the north-east and London: from the 1831 Binding Strike, a year after the birth of the Northern Union of Pitmen, led by Tommy Hepburn, to the gibbeting of Jobling in August 1832.

Click here for the story of William Jobling

hanging

Three new pre-demos just in from somewhere on the Seven Seas. Tony Markey ably assisted by Christine Milburn has added vocals to these tracks. These songs are by no means finished but they offer more scope than my own poorly sung rough demos.




Apologies – rough demos with my dulcet tones (Steve T)

Voices

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Click “play” to see all pieces play in order. Click on “playlist” for info and to watch pieces individually.

Dam Head Rangers

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This project began life as a musical. We’re now developing the story to become a Monkees/Beatlesque/Mash TV series. We’re working with Teesside University students to form a scriptwriting team and we may also be working with Middlesbrough College.

Men from the Swallwell and Whickham area of Gateshead deserted during the First World War and lived hand-to-mouth in the open along the banks of the river Derwent. At the end of the war they changed their names and returned to society. They became known as the ‘Dam Head Rangers’. For the purposes of this project the story will be re-located to the River Tees.

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THE DAM HEAD RANGERS

August 1914

Men march off proudly to fight in WW1. Wives, mothers and children wave them off.

Children at school are told of the war abroad that it will be over soon. “By Christmas” their fathers and brothers will be home.

A young boy carries a telegram. All the street watch to see which house will receive the telegram telling of a loved ones’ death in the war.

Children and women work, try to make a living while the men are away. They wash clothes, others on farms. It is a hand-to-mouth existence.

Some men return with mental disabilities and do not know their families and are often in distress and throw themselves to the ground in the street, re-living the horrors of war.

Others return during the night, furtively, these men are the Dam Head Rangers.

They have deserted from the army and are living in make shifts tents by the banks of the River Derwent.

We see the way these men survive, and the comradeship as they are constantly pursued by the authorities.

On the eleventh hours of the eleventh day of 1918: The war ends. The Dam Head Rangers take up new identities. And, like the rest of society, try to make new lives.

Steel Town

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steel_townSeptember 12th 1980 – The British Steel Corporation closed down Consett’s iron and steel works thus ending a 140 year old, proud tradition and throwing 3000 people out of work.

Steel Town, (the musical) tells the story of the dying days of steel making in Consett and the town’s struggle for survival. All of this is set against a young man’s dream of rock stardom and escape from an industry in decline.

This is a story of laughter and tears, heartache and pride. The show was a great success when it premiered at the Customs House in South Shields – April 2000. It ran again in September at the Consett Empire twenty years on from the closure of the works. Visit the Steel Town website.
You can hear the original cast album here and you can also download it.

Urban Grit

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This is probably the first Kelly/Thompson and is largely experimental. Some of the material found it’s way into the Voices Exhibition but others remain unreleased.

Sleepless Nights

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Caffrey, Morrison & Thompson

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I put a whole bunch of tracks recorded in the nineties through  Digital mastering kit and this album was the result. There are tracks written by me some by Tommy Morrison and some co-writes, all sung by Phil Caffrey who also had a hand in some of the writing. Sadly, Tommy passed away in January 2014 and a song we wrote together for Elkie Brooks was played as he was laid to rest in a packed church in Sunderland. I think of Tommy often.

There is a review of the album here.

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