SONG STORY SUNDAY: Back with a story after missing a couple of weeks. This week let’s look at “Looking For Love In A Stranger”. Toni Haliday walked into the studio one day and said she wanted to be a pop star. She eventually had some success with Curve but I recall she was just 14 at the time. She had attitude and a decent voice so I gave it a go. This song was already done (complete with Rickenbacker 12 string) and I put her vocals on it. It’s not really her thing and I later spent some time trying to develop suitable material for her. I later put Mick Whitaker’s vocal on it too . Wayne Bickerton of State Records called and said he’d like to cut this and another song from the same session (She’s a Runaway) as singles with Mick. Wayne said he loved the demos and asked who was playing on them. I told him it was Paul Smith on Drums and me doing the rest. So Wayne said I should come down and play guitar and he’d hire some session musicians for the rest. We cut the tracks at Waynes Odyssey Studios which was pretty new at the time. http://www.philsbook.com/odyssey.html

The single came and that’s the second segment you hear on the audio collage. When I returned to Newcastle, Keith Satchfied asked me about the sessions and who had played on the track. I said the drummer was called Simon and the bass player had an unusual name. Keith said – was the drummer Simon Philips, I said yes. So was the bass player Mo Foster. I said yes that’s it. Keith says F*** me, you’ve only been playing guitar with the Jeff Beck group!!

Unfortunately Micks single did not set the world alight and did not sell well. About a year later I was at Odyssey doing something else and Wayne introduced me to Chris Farlowe. Chris had come in to sing his own version of the song and that’s the third segment on the collage. I don’t even recall if Chris’s version got released or not.

 
Looking For Love In A Stranger by Stevie_T