Consett born Thompson features a couple of times on this blog. He digs out interesting and amusing stories from his musical memory box stretching over 50 years.
He talks about recording the first single for Tygers of Pan Tang in Impulse Studio, Wallsend, and being at the forefront of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal at Neat Records.
He also recalls working in studios with Raven, Gus Dudgeon, Rodger Bain, Sheena Easton, The Hollies and Venom. Check out the links at the end of this post for his stories.
Recently, Steve got in touch and brought me up to date with what he has on the boil….
‘Covid put the mockers on much of my creative output in 2020, so for this year my aim is to generate output in spite of the virus. First to come is an excerpt from my book I’m writing ‘Stories From a Songwriters Life’.
Life has provided me with tons of stories which I need little encouragement to tell. For years people who’ve heard and enjoyed these stories have been saying “write a book”. I’ve resisted this for a couple of reasons.
First of all, I’m embarrassed to do something as egotistical as writing about my life. The second reason is the idea of writing something ‘long form’ worries me. I’m a songwriter, a storyteller. Everything I do is short form: a three-minute pop song, a short anecdote. How could I maintain interest over several thousand words?’
Good news is that Steve has decided to take all the anecdotes and life stories and patch them together.
‘If I can make this flow in a coherent way, maybe I’ll have a book’…said Steve.
He’s making the early chapters available free to read on download and I’ve had a look at some stories including these from his youth….
‘Apart from trying to write songs I had taken a few stabs at getting a band together but they all came to nothing. I became a weekend hippy. Tie dye, long hair, the lot. Overalls during the week and tie dye at the weekend. I was so into music and yet I’d not yet seen many live bands.
I noticed in Melody Maker that a pop festival was taking place over two or three days. So, that summer when I was just 18, I donned my safari boots and my homemade tie dye T Shirt and hitch hiked to Staffordshire with two bob in my pocket.
The 1970 festival featured among others: Free, Black Sabbath, The Grateful Dead, Traffic and Ginger Baker’s Air Force. I ate nothing for three days, smoked dope for the first time and ended up sleep walking around Stoke on Trent. Far out man!’
Steve writes about his time as an apprentice in Consett Steel Works and how it made a lasting impression on him….
‘At the Steel works I remade the acquaintance of a guy from school, Robin Hird, who played guitar. We got talking and said he would give me a bass guitar if I would form a band with him. I readily agreed.
A few days later he turned up at my parents’ house with a drummer called Mick Simmons. I played them some songs I was writing, and Robin said “see, I told you he was talented”.
And that was that. Neither of them saw fit to inquire if I could play bass.
With the inclusion of Mick Glancy a few days later on vocals we had a band. My interest in being a steelworker declined. I was surely bound for rock stardom!’
Read the stories from Steve’s schooldays, starting work and beginning of his musical career in ‘Goodbye Consett’ which is free to download from Friday 8 January 2021 at
www.steve-thompson.org.uk/book
Alikivi January 2021
THE GODFATHER of the North East New Wave of British Heavy Metal | ALIKIVI (garyalikivi.com)
Guardian Recording Studio stories #3 | ALIKIVI (garyalikivi.com)
ALIKIVI : NORTH EAST UK 