Tag Archives: Song Story 2018

The Evolution Of A Song

The Steve Thompson Band Posted on by
I was a big fan of the Searchers in the sixties so it was a pleasure to work with them in the early 80’s. Now not many people know this but the song they recorded was originally a “Cowboy Song”. Yes, the first demo demonstrates this both in the lyrics and in a short intro by a guy called Ken Black. Ken was a retired policeman and used to come round the studio a lot. For some reason that escapes me now, I had Ken record an intro to each song in the batch of demos. I explained the story behind the lyric as an imaginary western where a bad hombre was hiding away in a backwater one-horse town. The vocals on this track are by Phil Caffrey + Peter + Paul = The Caffreys. I played everything on that demo including drums which I’m not very good at by a long stretch

My publisher of the time, Brian Oliver called me and suggested if I were to take a verse from another of my songs (I’ve long forgotten which song) and the chorus from this one, re-write the lyrics then I’d have a hit on my hands. Always willing to oblige I did as he said and you can hear this version next on the audio collage. On this version, it’s just Smithie on drums and me on everything else (plus, of course, the Caffreys) In the early 80’s I was signed to MCA music and my mentor was Pete Waterman. Pete got the song to The Searchers who decided to cut it as their next single and the producer was to be Peter Collins (Gary Moore, Bon Jovi, Air Supply, Alice Cooper, Rush, Nik Kershaw, The Cardigans etc) Waterman was at the time Peter Collins’ manager. The next version you hear is the Searchers but this is not the mix that got released. This is an unreleased version
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It’s possible that this mix was a bone of contention between Waterman and Collins and may have lead to the breakup of their partnership. Collins thought that the raw rocky mix was a good representation of the modern day Searchers. Waterman disagreed because, as always he had his sights on the charts. He wanted all the bells and whistles and Collins obliged. The is the next version you hear and the one that was released. The single entered the lower region of the UK charts but it charted and went gold on a K Tel compilation album. Later the Searchers recorded another of my songs “Innocent Victim” and both tracks feature on their 30th and 40th Anniversary albums as well as various other compilations.

The Searchers were performing at Castles in Catchgate (Co Durham UK) which is near where I was raised and where my old band Bullfrog used to rehearse so I arranged to go along (by now I was living in Whitley Bay) When I got to the gig I went into the dressing room and introduced myself to the band. It was a great show and it was quite a blast to hear my song in the midst of all those classic tracks. What made it even better was that John McNally (or was it Frank Allen) introduced the song and said: “this song was written by a guy who used to go to school around here and he ‘s standing at the bar over there, Steve Thompson”. I got a big round of applause & it felt great.

How I Gave Venom The Devil

The Steve Thompson Band Posted on by

This story is taken from a piece I wrote ages ago called “Remembering the Eighties”. The 80’s story was originally commissioned by a website called “Metal Godz”. The site is long gone and my eighties article remains unfinished and unpublished.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

During all the recording sessions for Neat Records, we had the assistance of Conrad Lant. Conrad was a good tape op and got on well with everyone. He was always going on about his own band. It seemed that they saved up for about 3 months until they could afford enough pyrotechnics to blow up half a city and then they had a major blow out and had to save up to do another show. Conrad said very little about the music, it was mostly about the explosions. One day he informed me that the bass player had quit and he was being called upon to play bass. A gig was imminent so I loaned him my Gibson EB3 I still had from my own early career. (apparently, this fact is now ingrained in folklore as the moment “Black Metal” was born)

Conrad could barely contain himself seeing all these bands make recordings. He wanted his band committed to tape too. We had a slack day coming up so I relented and said he could bring his band in during downtime. Again I loaned him the bass. I produced three tracks with them but the only title I remember was “In League With Satan”. I taught the guys a musical trick sometimes called “The Devil”. The video below explains this.

I had no idea these tracks would come out as a single, I just produced it as a favour. Now Conrad was convinced he was on the way to mega-stardom and in need of a bass so I let him talk me into selling him my Gibson EB3. I explained the history of the instrument and made him promise it was going to a good home. The next time I saw my old bass it had holes drilled in it and an upside-down crucifix nailed crudely to it. My bass was now a mess and Conrad had become Chronos!  Years later he told me the EB3 had “died” in Los Angeles (he gave it a burial at sea)

Chris Farlowe

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Chris Farlowe recorded my song “Looking For Love In A Stranger” around 1980/81. I’ve always assumed it to be an unreleased track. Unreleased my arse !!! – Whilst doing some research and prep for our show The Georgian Theatre, Stockton on March 25th and I discovered it’s not on one album, not on two but three albums (that I’ve found so far). And just when you think the name dropping has gone as far as it can go check this: It’s me playing the guitar on that track. The other musos were Simon Phillips drums and Mo Foster on bass. Now check the date – yep I was playing guitar with the Jeff Beck Band (minus Jeff or course) Meanwhile here’s a little clip. You can hear us perform it at the Georgian on the 25th  (some tickets left https://goo.gl/iWU9LH ) Terry Slesser sings it in the show.

Album Links

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008ECXEEK/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/RocknRoll-Soldier-Anthology-Chris-Farlowe/dp/B01K8LG3JM

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008ECXPD0/

Preview in video below

Going Solo

The Steve Thompson Band Posted on by

It was 1983 and I had just signed an exclusive songwriting deal with MCA Music. Record Producer, Gus Dudgeon wrote to MCA complementing them on their wisdom in signing me and urged them to get me cracking on some songs for the new Elkie Brooks album. I’d worked with Gus a few times up to then but over the years I was to work with him a great deal. I thought it was really generous of him to write to my new publisher like that. To non-musicians, Gus may not be a household name but the artists he produced are certainly well known: David Bowie, Elkie Brooks, Joan Armatrading plus the majority of Elton John’s output. He also produced a slew of North East acts: Lindisfarne, Chris Rea, John Miles.

Obviously, I was definitely going to take up the Elkie Brooks challenge but I also knew how pernickety Gus was about songs, and so I devised a cunning plan. I figured the best way to get a cut on the next Elkie album (Gus had produced Pearls and Pearls ii) was to invite him to write it with me. As it turned out I was wrong, I figured he would just let me write the song and toss in the odd comment and earning himself 50% of the song as he did so. He had never written a song before but as it turned out he did not plan on being a passenger in the writing process and was determined to play a full part in the collaboration. To be fair the concept for the lyric was Gus’s idea. A songwriter working late at night when their partner/lover detects something strange in the lyrics. Gus also declared that what would be great for Elkie was a Doobie Brothers groove. I must say it all turned out to be quite an adventure.

Me and Gus

The writing sessions started out at MCA’s offices. The MCA staff were really excited about this and they had a removals firm come in to move a grand piano out the MD’s office into a large open area. Our songwriting began right there but it was kinda odd as people kept stopping by to take a peek. Gus declared that the next day should be different so he had MCA rent a whole rehearsal room complete with a stage and a PA. Talk about overkill !

So the next day just after noon we turned up at Nomis Studios in West London for the next phase of the writing process. I neglected to mention that the man who signed me to MCA and was my mentor there was Pete Waterman. Pete managed a producer called Peter Collins who was also starting to record a lot of my material. We borrowed an acoustic guitar and drum machine from Peter Collins for the writing session.

Gus and I were ready to begin writing session part 2 when all hell broke loose, There came a thunderous noise from next door and various parts of the room were shaking. When it stopped we went through and, lo and behold it was Motorhead having a little rehearsal with the amps turned up to 11. I think Gus knew the guys and we had a little chat. Lemmy said they would be going off to the pub soon. After a couple more songs, sure enough, they did just that, never to return. Gus and I continued to work on our song and just like any session with Gus it went on and on and on. Gus’s approach to production is to push the artists to the limit of their ability. Always more, “give me more”. What works for production may not be the best approach to songwriting because what we ended up with was a tough song to sing.

The first bit on the audio/video is me singing the half-completed song. That’s me playing an acoustic with a pickup through the PA and singing my guts out. I must have had some bottle in those days because there I am performing solo in front of the man who produced Bowie’s Space Oddity. You can hear Gus joining in here and there and the odd interjection. It’s great to hear his voice again because, like many of the people in these song stories, Gus is no longer with us.

Peter Collins

The next bit is a bit of a blur. Either we worked really late or else had dinner but my memory kicks back in as we are driving around London in Gus’s Aston Martin quite late at night. I pointed out that we’re supposed to return the guitar and drum machine to Peter Collins and it’s getting late. As we approach Peters street, Gus decides to call him. This is him being flash – nobody else I know had a phone in their car in ’83. Peter answers, “Hi, it’s Gus, we’re going to drop your kit off – just making sure you’re up”. Peter asks how long it will take to get there. Gus says, “two minutes, we’re turning into your street”. Looking back now realise this may have had something to do with Peter’s demeanour because when he answered the door he was in his dressing gown, his eyes were wide and he was very nervous. He invited us in and gave us coffee. Gus rolled a huge spliff and started to tell us some ripping yarns from his music production career. Terrific stuff with many twists and turns but he always returns from the tangents every time without losing his thread. Eventually, Gus says to Peter “I’m sorry old chap, we’re keeping you from your bed”. Then Peter says, “no problem, YOU ARE MY BIGGEST HERO”. I was Gobsmacked. Peter had enjoyed a zillion hits that year and at that moment in time was hotter than Gus. I’m talking about, Gary Moore, Bon Jovi, Billy Squier, Rush, Air Supply, Nik Kershaw, Tracy Ullman, the list goes on.

We finally said all goodnight and I stayed over at Gus’s place in Cobham and the next day I headed home. The next step would be to produce a rough demo and then a full demo which Gus declared he would come to Newcastle to produce.

And so, the next piece of audio on the collage is my rough home demo. The lyrics aren’t finished and the arrangement is not settled. As you can hear, it’s a struggle to sing. I’m not the world’s greatest vocalist, far from it but this song would tax any singer as it had such a sweeping range.

Next on the tape/video is a version with Phil Caffrey singing. I think it’s Barrie Spence on bass, Paul Smith on Drums and me on Guitar and keys. I hear my Cassio keyboard in there.

So, Gus planned to come to Newcastle to produce the ultimate demo. I booked Lynx studios in Shieldfield and had John Cook on keys, Frankie Gibbon on bass, Paul Smith on Drums and I brought Maureen Harold (Mo Scott) in on vocals. This is the next recording on the tape/video. We worked at it and at it and at one point Gus wanted to edit the 2-inch 24 track master tape. I explained to him “Gus, have you any idea how much a reel of 2-inch tape costs? We don’t cut it up in demo studios.” Eventually, Gus threw up his hands and declared that he didn’t know how to produce a demo. He said he was going home and asked me to finish it the recording. I booked in the following week and did just that. John Miles came round at the end of the session and picked up the finished master tape as he was working with Gus himself the following week. And so the demo of “Going Solo” headed South for its date with Elkie Brooks.

Not long after Gus got the finished song demo he had a date to go to Elkie’s home in Cornwall and discuss the proposed next album. Gus had produced her last two albums Pearls 1 and Pearls 2 and both had been hugely successful. Obviously, at some point, he would introduce our song into the proceedings and propose it for the album. When Gus got back home he called me to tell me the outcome. I waited on the other end of the line with baited breath. Then Gus tells me what had happened that weekend at Elkie’s place. Over dinner one evening she fired him as her producer. There would be no next album, not one produced by Gus anyway. The format with the two Pearls albums was to cover other artists songs. A highly successful formula as it happens. However, Elkie was tired of that format and wanted to do an album of her own material.

So all that effort (enjoyable though it was) came to nothing and the song remained on the shelf to this day. However, several years later Elkie did record two of my songs but it was totally disconnected to Gus and the Going Solo episode. I’d been pitching songs her way and one day Elkie called me out of the blue and said she wanted to use my song “One of A Kind” (co-written with Tommy Morrison) on her next album. Guess what? The album was to be called “Pearls 3”. I asked if there were slots for any more songs and she said yes, they were still looking for a track to use as the first single. So I sat down and wrote another song especially for her. This was “The Last Teardrop”. A few days later I got another call from Elkie, she loved “Teardrop” and what’s more, provided it worked out in the studio, she thought it could be the single she had been looking for. (and it was eventually the single) In all of this, I never did mention “Going Solo” in case it was a taboo subject.

You can hear both of my songs Elkie Brooks eventually recorded at my next gig with my six-piece band at The Georgian Theatre, Stockton on March 25th. It’s an afternoon gig at the newly refurbished Georgian. Come along and here all the songs as well as the stories behind them.

Please Don’t Sympathise

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This song dates from 1981. I had quit as house producer at Neat Records. I had begun to realise that I was largely helping other people build careers whilst mine was on hold. I was becoming bogged down in Heavy Metal and whilst there’s no doubt I’m a bit of a rocker, I really wanted to pursue the path of a songwriter first and foremost. Production might come into it somewhere along the line but I wanted that to be a sideline, not my main gig.

So I walked away from Neat just as the buzz was growing. This may seem a little precipitous but I was young and it just seemed to be the right thing to do. What I didn’t realise at the time was that I had walked away with a pocket full of hit songs. That fact would emerge a little later. For now, I was penniless. More to the point I’d walked away from the facilities of a fully equipped recording studio. All I had now was a cassette recorder, a cheap Cassio keyboard and a very early and basic drum machine, a Roland DR 55 Dr Rhythm. I also had my red Cimar acoustic guitar (the one that appears in all my posters and social media stuff) and my 1970 Stratocaster which I still have to this day. However, the majority of my composing took place on that Cassio keyboard.

And so I set about composing the song that is the subject of this song story: Please Don’t Sympathise. I remember strumming the first 2 chords on acoustic sitting on the edge of the bed, humming a melody and thinking “nice, but the next chord has to go somewhere different”. I’ll talk a little about the song structure later.  The collage at the foot of this story starts with my own doodlings with that primitive equipment in my flat in Tynemouth. As always apologies for my vocals. The next stage in this song’s development has become a missing link. A missing recording that so far I have been unable to find. To tell that part of the story I need to morph briefly back to Neat Records with a piece of Heavy Metal History that has evaded the books and blogs.

For a brief period, I joined the heavy metal band, FIST ! Singer and guitarist, Keith Satchfield had his eye on some of my songs as potential commercial material to help take the band to greater heights. I said fine and gave him 3 pop/rock songs. He said, “no man, you have to join the band before we can do your songs”. So I replaced Dave Irwin and we cut the three songs. Sadly I don’t have any of the recordings. Then Keith took it a stage further and brought in a vocalist called Glenn Coates who impressed me a great deal. I’ve no idea where these recordings are either. Anyway, I was impressed enough to ask Glenn to sing on my next demo session after I left Neat/Impulse. We recorded about 8 songs including Please Don’t Sympathise at Mortonsound in Newcastle. I am unable to locate those recordings and I fear they may be lost forever.

I had just cut a single with the Hollies. One of my songs called “I Don’t Understand You. Bruce Welch of the Shadows was in the production seat for that recording in Odyssey studios, London. One thing led to another and I eventually signed a publishing deal with Bruce. I signed the contract at Tyne Tees TV Studios in Newcastle and Hank Marvin signed as the witness. Bruce selected 4 songs from the 8 song demo session with Glenn and asked me to make some more advanced demos. I could have gone into Neat/Impulse but I still wanted to carve new territory and so I went to Guardian studios in Pity Me, County Durham. I played bass, keyboards and guitar on the session with Paul Smith on drums and I brought my old mate Dave Black in to do vocals. I spent two full days on those four song demos, Bruce Welch was paying and he really wanted me to go to town on the production. Maybe it doesn’t sound like it now when folks have state of the art facilities in their bedrooms but those demos were “hot”. Remember the fact that Guardian Studios were located in a County Durham village quaintly called “Pity Me”. That fact is going to pop up again later in the story in quite a spooky way.

Enter a producer called Chris Neil. Chris and I had just had a massive hit with his production of my song “Hurry Home”. Chris was by now having a bit of a love affair with my material and had asked Bruce to give him first dibs on any new songs that came in from me. Chris was a well known and highly successful producer working with Leo Sayer, Gerry Rafferty, A-Ha, Rod Stewart, Cher and others. He picked up on two of the songs from the four songs I’d just demo’d. One of them he sang himself under the band name of “Favoured Nations” but that’s another story. The recording pertinent to this story is his production of Sheena Easton’s new album “Madness Money And Music” and he recorded Please Don’t Sympathise for that album. The album came out and did very well. It went top 20 in the UK, peaking at 13. It also charted in several other countries and did particularly well in Japan. Sheena’s version follows Dave’s rendition in the video.

And so, you may think, job done, end of story.

But no, a year later another chapter was added. Have you heard the charming story of how Rene Angelil mortgaged his house to produce Celine Dion’s first album? Well, he did so armed with one of my songs. Please Don’t Sympathise to be precise. Celine recorded the song on for her “Les Chemins De Ma Maison” released in Canada. She then released the song as the second single from the album. The single was a massive hit in Canada earning a Gold Disk. Celine then recorded an extended version of the song for her album Du Soleil Au Cœur which was released in France and Switzerland. The albums featuring my song sold 400,000 copies in Canada and 700,000 copies in France.

At this time Celine was singing exclusively in French and so Rene’s longtime collaborator, Edi Marne did a French adaptation. This is not a translation nor a co-write, it’s called a local adaptation. I’ve done English adaptations of foreign songs myself for the UK market and you get a 12.5% cut for this. The trick is to get something that sings well and is very similar to the original in lyrical intent if not a literal translation. And so Celine’s version of Please Don’t Sympathise is Ne Me Plaignez Pas. Now, here’s the spooky fact: remember, I cut the demo about two years earlier in a studio in a village called Pity Me: Well, “Ne Me Plaignez Pas” means “Don’t PITY ME”. (Cue spooky music)

I guess you would agree that this is a pretty successful song. But cast your mind back to the start of the story and the first part of the video. I was using pretty rudimentary equipment. The success of this and other songs helped me change that situation and I eventually had my own recording studio. However, it may just be the case that my best work was produced when I had very little equipment. There may be a moral in that tale.

As to the construction of the song: This is really just a pop song, nothing deep about it at all. But it has a groove and feel to it that people seem to like. I often set the chorus to my songs in a higher key to the verses and this is the case with this particular song. I’m not talking about a “123 here we go” key hike. I use a more subtle approach that listeners may not notice at all except that they know the general vibe has “lifted”. To make this work subtly and avoid jarring shifts takes hours of exploration and experimentation and this applies to the modulation from the chorus back down to the verse too. I know all the theory to these modulations but in practice, it takes a lot of graft to make it seamless. So for this song, I set it in G for the verses and Bb for the choruses. But I took it a stage further. The Verses slip in and out of G and Bb quite a bit before finally settling into Bb for the choruses. One other thing perhaps noteworthy is the 3 note run up on the bass guitar at the very beginning. That was present in every demo I made and I do take pleasure to note that every recording of this song by far more accomplished bass players includes this motif.

You can hear my band perform our version of this song in our Songs Stories and Multimedia show. The next one is at  The Georgian Theatre, Stockton – March 25th. Although the song has been cut by two pretty big time female recording artists, we do the male version. I chose to do this in memory of my friend Dave Black. It has been the passing of friends that has encouraged me to take this show on the road after all these years. So, Terry Slesser takes the lead vocal on this one. However, expect the unexpected when Jen Normandale steams in with a verse in French that would make Ms Dion proud.

I hope you enjoyed this song story. I will be delving into my memory bank for another one quite soon.

One Of A Kind

The Steve Thompson Band Posted on by

This song was co-written with Tommy Morrison. Elkie Brooks released this a single in Germany and France and then worldwide on the Pearls 3 album and then later on her Greatest Hits CD.

The video takes you through the various stages of the song. Naked song alert !!  – the mix-up starts with my rough “dooh be doo be dooh” rendition. All I had was the title and the melody. I gave this to Tommy to develop a lyric and next there is a version sung by Tommy when he’d done the lyrics.

Next, there is a version sung by Phil Caffrey that I used to pitch for covers. This version can be heard in full on the Caffrey Morrison Thompson album, “Sleepless Nights” released by VainGloriousUK.

Next, you’ll hear the Elkie Brooks version. Finally, there is an updated version I started to work on about a year ago. Maybe I need to finish this?

This song means a lot to me as Tommy is no longer with us. One Of A Kind was played as we said farewell to him at Sunderland Crematorium on a cold January day in 2014. Tommy’s funeral in 2014 as we bid farewell to him. I’m sure he’d be delighted to know that my band are still performing this song. Come and see us perform it at The Georgian Theatre on. March 25th. The amazing Jen Normandale takes the vocals on this one in the show.

For those with an interest in such things a few words about the construction. From my simple beginning, I had a title, a melody, a feel and an emotion. I discussed all this with Tommy and he came back with the perfect set of lyrics. This is not a simple pop song lyric – “I’ve spent a lifetime, or so it seems, moving in circles, dealing in dreams”, pure Morrison Magic. My approach was one that I’ve heard Paul Simon discuss. To present oneself with a musical conundrum that you then set about trying to solve. I was aiming to produce a song that emulated an era without sounding Retro. This is a sixties song written in the nineties. I could not be too experimental because I wanted the song to be recorded by someone. Writing a song for other artists is not the same as writing a song for your own band. The artist will invariably be writing their own songs and so you have to hit them with something that surpasses those songs. Something that is structured so very singable that they want to do it so badly they put their own songs aside in favour of yours. I managed this twice on Elkie’s “Pearls 3” album! Anyway back to the construction: The opening two chords are fairly standard. There are a few obvious choices that the third chord could move to but I chose none of them. Nothing outrageous but I went to a place, not 100% expected. I also did this with the opening two chords in the choruses too. What I worked on hardest with the song were the feel and emotion. I simply cannot describe this, it comes from within. Elkie added a few lyrics “I’m so glad you’re mine, you’re one of a kind”. My original rough version contained lots of “dummy” words but I asked Tommy to leave the line “Whoa whoa whoa whoa, you’re one of a kind” as it was when he worked on the lyrics. Elkie said she felt that it sounded like we were unable to come up with words at that point. Both Tommy and I agreed that our “whoa whoa whoa whoa” meant a whole lot more than Elkie’s “I’m so glad you’re mine”. The Tommy/Steve version is the one my band performs – sorry Elkie!

Unsung Heroes

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Back in the early 70’s, there was a very healthy gigging scene for bands in the North East of England. Many venues featured two bands, some had several and so we all got to know one another. I was in a band called Bullfrog and on one show we double-billed with another local band, Beckett. I got chatting with their singer Terry Slesser. This could well have been the Rex Hotel in Whitley Bay which had two stages and always featured two bands. We talked about our ambitions for our respective bands. I said that my real interests lay in songwriting and if things didn’t go well with my band then that’s the route I would take. “Ah”, said Terry, “Songwriters, the unsung heroes”. I responded that this was a great title for a song and Terry said: “well let’s get it written and recorded”.

We were both full of good intentions but nothing happened, that is until 45 years later. Meanwhile, I did indeed go into the songwriting and production world. Terry’s singing career went from strength to strength. Mott The Hoople invited Terry to be the replacement for Ian Hunter. Instead, he joined Paul Kossoff’s Back Street Crawler. He was also a member of its successor band, Crawler, for the balance of the 1970s. Terry was on a shortlist of two (himself and Brian Johnson) when AC/DC was looking for a replacement for vocalist Bon Scott. Bonn had died in February of that year. In 1983, Terry featured as lead vocalist with Charlie on their US hit single “It’s Inevitable”, and the related album. Also in 1983, Terry was featured on backing vocals on the Def Leppard album Pyromania. In 1984, he toured Europe, Japan and the USA as a backing vocalist with the Michael Schenker Group.

I took a different route and went into songwriting and production. I had songs 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. I enjoyed hit singles and albums. I also produced some key recordings during the ‘New Wave of British Heavy Metal’ (NWOBHM) including Raven, Venom (both huge influences on rock giants, Metallica) and The Tygers of Pan Tang,

Then last year I came in from the songwriting back room and stepped on stage again for the first time in decades. Terry and I finally made good on our plans to work together when he became one of the guest vocalists on my show “Steve Thompson Songwriter”. I had put together a great band and we performed many of the songs listed above. I also told stories behind the songs and showed video clips. The shows went very well.

We also went into Custom Space Studios in South Shields and recorded (just the two of us voice/guitar) a song Tommy Morrison and I had written for Paul Rodgers called “Sleepin’ Train”. We had a blast and got done so quickly that we had time left. So I went in and laid down a rough of “Unsung Heroes” for Terry to take away and work on. We enjoyed the session so much that we decided to cut an album in the same studio. Our conversation that day led us to call this proposed album “Fragile Imperfections”. Let’s hope it doesn’t take us another 45 years to finish it!

The VainGloriousUK label has released a taster for the forthcoming album featuring “Sleepin’ Train” and “Unsung Heroes” (sorry about my vocals). Download for 20p or order a limited edition white label CD with jewel case and printed sleeve for £1.

http://www.vaingloriousuk.com/album/slesser-thompson-taster-57

There is a new “Steve Thompson Songwriter” show on the horizon too. This is The Georgian Theatre, Stockton on Tees UK, March 25th: Tickets £10 Advance.

https://georgiantheatre.co.uk/live-event/steve-thompson-songwriter