After releasing a run of autumn gig dates on this site last week Emma got in touch with some more news…
‘I’m delighted to be nominated in two categories of the Independent Blues Awards 2024 in America.’saidEmma.
‘I’m the only UK artist to be nominated in both categories ofBest New Artist andBest New Artist Release for my album ‘Memphis Calling’. It would be great to win’.
‘You only have to click on the link below and keep scrolling until you get to Best New Artist and Best New Artist Release where you can vote in each category for me!’
All the readers are wishing you the best of luck Emma, fingers crossed!
So far this year Emma ‘Velvet Tones of Teesside’ Wilson has clocked up a lotta miles on the gigometer and this autumn adds a few more…
“It’s been great to see some of you on the road. I’m now looking for gigs in Europe and have just confirmed a date in Germany performing with the Milwaukee Band on 7th December 2024 at Messajero in Monchengladbach, Dusseldorf”.
Are you performing at any venues you haven’t played?
“There’s Diseworth Blues Club in Derby I’m really looking forward to. It’s a brilliant club run by Blues Enthusiasts. It’s these small clubs that are keeping the Blues scene alive in the UK”.
After releasing your latest album last year what has the feedback been like?
“I’m so delighted that a year after the release of ‘Memphis Calling’ it’s still being reviewed and played all over the world”.
“In May I was featured in the iconic Italian Music Magazine ‘Buscadero’, and all the songs are still being played on International Radio stations and hitting the rhythm and blues charts”
“The stand out song has to be ‘What Kind of Love’. The song written by and featuring Don Bryant has been in the top 10 iTunes blues in about 50 countries!”
Emma recently guested on an album by German band Milwaukee Music where she displays a softer jazzy side of her voice. Olaf Rappe of the band thanked Emma for her contribution.
“Milwaukee and Friends – Crossing Borders’ is twenty good friends making a special album. I’m very happy to have the wonderful Emma Wilson, the British soul and blues queen, as lead singer on two songs ‘Midnight in Harlem’ and ‘Rio de Janeiro Blue”.
Have you found time for a break this year?
“I went to the South of France in May and laid on the beach for a week. But all I could think about was music, music, music!”
Catch Emma on these confirmed dates >
Acoustic set Saturday 14 September at Claypath Deli, Durham
Seated gig on Saturday 12 October at Hutton Rudby Village Hall, North Yorkshire from 7 -11pm. Also on the bill are North East Blues Legend George Shovlin & UK Americana star Lola-Rose.
“I’ve always been fascinated with everything World War Two related and RAF in particular. My grandfather was in the Royal Flying Corps, and both my father and my son were in the RAF” explained Terry.
“I was in the Air Training Corps in South Shields but then a medic came to school to test us all for colour-blindness. I failed the test miserably and was told I would never be accepted by the RAF. I was gutted, as you can imagine”.
Terry lives in Marske on Teesside, but was born in South Shields at midnight 21st– 22nd December 1948…“My mum asked the midwife which day was my birthday. She was told it was the 21st as my head came out on that day. That crosses the Winter Solstice, so my top half is Sagittarius and my bottom half Capricorn. I think this explains why I’ve done so many different jobs in my life”joked Terry.
Throughout his school years his parents moved around the country…
”We lived above a wallpaper shop in Stockton on Tees, then moved to Billingham and later down south to Reading and Mitcham”.
Finally, the Wilkinson family moved back to South Shields where Terry was a pupil at South Shields Grammar Technical School for Boys.
“After leaving school, I worked for the Crown Agents for Overseas Governments in London, thenWise Speke stockbrokers in Newcastle where I became a Member of the London Stock Exchange”.
“From 2000 I ran a successful Theatre in Education company touring schools for 15 years. It won a Best New Business Award but I gave it up in 2015 in order to write”.
When researching his family tree and local history Terry has always been fascinated by one event.
“At midnight on 3 May 1941, the factory and Head Office of Wilkinson’s Mineral Water Manufacturers in North Shields was hit by a single German bomb. It went through the roof, descending through all three floors, taking all the heavy bottling machinery and chemicals down to the basement – which was in use as a public air raid shelter. 107 died, 43 of which were children. Whole families were wiped out.”
“It is written by my good friend, Peter Bolger, who also manages a comprehensive website on the incident”>www.northshields173.org
“Because of censorship and the government’s desire not to damage public morale, little is known beyond Tyneside. It was, however, one of the largest loss of life incidents from a single bomb during the provincial Blitz”.
“Nothing is known of the identity of the plane which dropped the bomb – type, squadron, mission etc – as German records were mostly destroyed in the closing stages of the war”.
“I wanted to write a story that answered all these questions and create a fictional alternative. Having said that, nobody could say with any conviction this is not what happened”.
Terry started on a series of five espionage novels. ‘Handler’ is set in 1941, ‘Sleeper’ in 1942 and is currently working on the third ‘Chancer’ which covers 1943.
“They’re a mix of fact and fiction and trace through the war years of an English-born German spy, Howard Wesley, and his nemesis, MI5 agent Albert Stokes”.
“Wesley is a figment of my imagination. Stokes is based on a real character. And this is the pattern for the other books in the series. I also like to plunder WW2 history for little-known incidents and people who feature against the broader background of what was taking place in the war”.
‘Handler’ won a ‘Chill With A Book’ Premier Readers’ Award just a few months after publication. This spurred Terry on to get others in the series out there as quickly as possible.
“A few of those who have given good feedback have made the point that it would make a good series. I am convinced that it would. I certainly write with a film or TV series in mind”.
“In the shorter term I am hoping to record the whole series as audible books. I recorded an extract from the book that author John Orton is currently writing (link to interview below) and he was happy with it”.
“I’ve spoken to my publisher – UK Book Publishing – and offered them my services as a narrator for others. I’m also an actor, card-holding Equity member and very good at accents and dialects”.
Terry Patterson had one foot considerably smaller than the other so wore a calliper.
“It’s known as a clawfoot. I was bullied by school gangs so decided to fight back”.
From gutting fish, to boxing to heartfelt poetry – this is Terry Patterson’s story.
Born in North Shields in 1956 Terry attended Ralph Gardiner Secondary modern school, he left with no qualifications but was taken on as an apprentice fish filleter at North Shields fish quay.
“Working on the fish quay was hard but good fun. Weighing, icing and boxing salmon to begin with, then learning how to fillet various types of fish and how to drive a popper lorry. I tell ya’ the smell took some getting used to”.
With school bullying still fresh in his mind, Terry joined North Shields Boys Boxing Club where he was taught by ex-professional Joe Myers.
His boxing career lasted a total of 22 years, in that time he worked in the shipyards and had been a school caretaker.
A couple of years ago I interviewed ex-boxer now coach Preston Brown from Sunderland.…”Yeah I know Pasty Brown very well” said Terry. “Over the years I fought a few Sunderland lads. Derek Nelson was a classy boxer who turned pro. I fought two ABA finalists in Gordon Pedro Philips and Willie Neil. I fought Pedro in the North Eastern Counties final but lost. Both lads were well schooled”.
“Willie’s coach asked if I’d fight him one evening because his opponent hadn’t turned up. I weighed in at 10st 6lbs (welterweight), he was heavier than me by 6lbs. I knew his reputation for knocking people out. Norman Fawcett negotiated with his team and £50 was slipped into my hand for taking the fight”.
“Willie could bang a bit – so could I – but he had me down three times during our bout. We set about each other unleashing hell for three fierce rounds. I had him going at one point after landing a good left hook but the bell sounded and my chance to finish him had gone”.
“Gordon and Willie are still good to this day – it’s been 36 years since we shared a ring. I see them at boxing dinners and Boxing Club Reunions. Both of them bought my novel ‘Like Mother Like Son’.
In over 200 bouts Terry won national honours and passed the advanced ABA coaching exam plus he was involved with coaching youngsters until 1986.
After an industrial accident left him unfit to continue his love of boxing, Terry was determined to focus on another sport and won the Disabled Sport England Snooker Championship five years in a row.
“I qualified as a UK professional snooker referee and got a call up to referee the Maltese open in 1997” said Terry.
In 2002 he became North Tyneside’s first World Professional Snooker Coach. He coached at Wallsend Supa Snooker for disabled and able-bodied youngsters, but after a fall on icy roads, not only had he injured his back, he suffered from a dark depression.
Terry added “I was diagnosed as clinically depressed. It’s something I just try to get on with. A surgeon advised me to take up knitting – no I didn’t – but I was determined to excel at something.”
Throwing himself into a number of academic courses at North Tyneside College Terry volunteered at Newcastle’s Percy Hedley training centre working for clients who had cerebral palsy.
He spent over five years working in various care homes until the injuries he sustained over the years got the better of him.
“Depression is something I’ve dealt with my whole lifebutI feel life still holds challenges for me”.
With an interest in poetry and short stories he began to spend his time writing. To date Terry has produced 46 novellas and three novels ‘Like Mother like Son’, ‘He Who Rides a Tiger’ and ‘Living with Grandpa’. His writing is free to read on Movellas.com.
“I’ve also written plays – two of which have been staged in various theatres. ‘Reaping the Benefits’ and ‘The Redundant Blade’ which was written as a tribute to Tom Hadaway”.
“We were only four days from staging ‘The House Across the Road’ when covid broke and we lost cast members. Eighteen months later we tried again and two days before the production two young cast members took ill. My producer and I lost a lot of money and we decided to walk away and the group disbanded.”
Prolific North East Writer and theatre producer Alison Stanley and cast will be reading one of Terry’s plays at Laurels in Whitley Bay, at 2pm on Thursday 22nd August. ‘A Home for Willie’ raises awareness of dementia.
Terry explains “At 68 years of age I’ve never done any for personal gain, never made anything from it butwould love to have one of my books or plays made into a television programme or series”.
“I would like to follow where Catherine Cookson and Tom Hadaway left off. I hope that one day when I’m no longer around I’ll be remembered like the people who inspired me”.
Now 85, Arthur talks about joining the police force as a cadet in 1955…
‘Yes, I was a polis in Newcastle, the city was a lot different then I’ll tell ya, it was still getting over the war to be fair. My first beat was Sandyford Road where the Civic Centre is now. That was all houses then’.
‘It was quite a tough beat, a rough area with pubs like The Lamberts Leap and another called The Sink near the Haymarket. You had to earn your corn, there were no radios or panda cars – you were just pushed out onto the beat and that was it, you had to get on with it’.
‘There was a police pillar (similar to a post box but with a telephone inside) on the corner of Sandyford Road. If you arrested anyone you hoped you could get the person to the pillar. It was difficult cos sometimes you had a couple of guys fighting…you had to get them there, it wasn’t easy’.
‘There was generally more respect for the police then, you would get more help from the public once you established yourself on the beat, which you had to do cos you were tested out straight away’.
‘Once they knew you were fair and straight you got a lot of help from them. You were on that same beat for years, you weren’t just passing through you got to know every shop keeper, every doctor, every villain…you got to know the whole community. But then the T. Dan Smith regeneration project of slum housing clearance began and the place changed completely’.
‘I always liked paper work, always took pride in my reports. A crime file for shoplifting or murder has a beginning, middle and end and you had to go to court and defend what you had written. In the end someone could go to prison so you’re under pressure, under scrutiny. That reality far exceeds any drama’.
‘I moved from department to department, CID, drug, vice, crime squad, then around 1978 I worked for the anti- corruption team in the Government based in Hong Kong. For the year I was there I would see people living in cages on roofs, people swapping babies in hospitals, it was a weird place. I wrote an article for the Police Review national magazine on what I saw, they paid me £25 for it. It was read all over the country’.
‘I didn’t start writing until I was 40 you know. When I came back to the UK, I worked in Washington Police Station, a young cop called Jeff Rudd came to see me ‘I used to be a musician in a band, I’ve still got all these tunes going round my head but can’t put words to them. I read your article and seen your reports, I wonder if you’d be interested in putting some words to my tunes?’
Well, I give it a go and then thought nothing of it until a few months later I was pleasantly surprised when he handed me a tape with the songs on. I really enjoyed my time with Jeff, he was a very accomplished guitarist. We ended up writing around 50 songs, one of them ‘Big Bren’ was about the athlete Brendan Forster, that was played on radio’.
‘That led us to doing an interview and playing some of our music on the Frank Wappat BBC Newcastle radio show, then we done a couple of gigs in Washington. Next thing my wife Irene said why not contact Tom Hadaway? (writer When the Boat Comes In, Newcastle Live Theatre).’
‘I wasn’t sure at first because I didn’t know him but as he was from North Shields we met and he told me to write a play. ‘What do I write about Tom?’ I asked ‘Write about what you know. What fires you up.’
‘So, I went away and wrote about the bait room. Tom read the play and was laughing at it ‘Yeah, you know how to write dialogue son’.
‘There was a police section house near Exhibition Park, in it was a bait room, just a pokey little room with a table to play cards on. If you’re on night shift you’d take sandwiches and a flask of tea in. That’s where you gathered around 1am where the events of the night would unfold’.
‘You would get advice on how to deal with someone, it was a good place to sort things out like the older cops would tell you how to deal with a death, how to deliver a death message to the unfortunate family. It was a sort of meeting of minds over a game of cards. Aye the bait room was a good place to vent your spleen so to speak.’
Running parallel with his police work Arthur was training in athletics at the running track at Ouseburn, Newcastle.
‘I was on shift in the Bigg Market from 5pm till 1am, that was rough, there was fighting most nights. After finishing I would grab a few hours sleep then go to court, then onto shot put training. I was in the British athletics team from 1962-71 and competed in the 1970 Commonwealth games in Edinburgh. I was very fortunate and saw the world with athletics’.
Arthur talked some more when the conversation turned to the present day and the riots that are happening this summer around England.He recalled a quieter time for the police.
‘I remember we had a huge kettle for the bait room. It was always on the stove. One day a big fish wagon went past the section house and dropped a fish out of one of the boxes. I picked it up brought it back into the station put it in the kettle and boiled it up. All day everybody was complaining about the smell from this mackerel…and no, we didn’t eat it!’
‘Another story was one night when I was up beside the Hancock Museum going to the section house at Park Terrace. Can you remember the litter bins that used to hang on a lamppost? Well, this one was upside down on the lawn outside the Hancock and it was moving around. I lifted it up and there was a hedgehog underneath it!’
‘So, I put it in my coat and took it up to the section station. Inside are lockers to put your bait in so I put the hedgehog inside one of them and waited for the copper to open it. He just about had a heart attack when he opened the locker!’
Hearing these innocent stories was a world away from watching how the police were dealing with the riots around the country, but then Arthur’s tone changed.
‘I remember it was winter time, snow piled up on the ground. I went in for my bait around 12.45am and heard a muffling sound, I opened the door and there was an older police officer trying to commit suicide with a plastic bag on his head. There was a scuffle as I grabbed hold of him but couldn’t get the bag off. I looked around found a fork and split the bag but caught his face at the same time’.
‘He was playing hell with me for saving his life ‘What right did I have’ and all the rest of it. As we were having this argument I could hear the other officers coming in for their bait so everything was put back right, we straightened up the chairs and table as if nothing had happened’.
‘That policeman only had a couple of year service left, he was very bitter, he didn’t thank me. Turned out he had a hell of a life with his wife and thing was he had seen action in the second world war’.
After writing about his experiences in The Bait Room, Arthur kept in touch with Tom Hadaway and wrote another play.
Tom looked at it and gave me pointers, when I finished it landed on two desks. One was the BBC in Manchester where I met them, it ended up on the Saturday Night Theatre radio show, which was a big thing’.
‘The other was the script reader for David Puttnam (producer Chariots of Fire, Local Hero, Midnight Express) who hated it at first but won her round in the end. She said she couldn’t do anything with it but put me in touch with an agent who was looking for writers for a tv show called The Bill. That’s where the writing started’.
Arthur being interviewed on BBC Breakfast about writing ‘Harrigan’.
In 1988 Arthur retired from the police force giving him more time to devote to his writing where over the next decade he delivered TV episodes for Wycliffe, The Bill, Casualty, Spender and Harrigan. The Bait Room was finally made in 2009.
‘I used the same discipline for writing as I did sport. Getting a focus, deciding what you want and going for it.’
‘What am I doing now? I’ve had a lot of my writing shown around the North East. ‘Pickets & Pigs’ was a story set to the background of the 1984 Miners strike’.
‘Later this year I’ve got a play on stage which I started writing in 2003 with Dave Whitaker. ‘Blackbird in the Snow’ is one of those that you leave on a shelf for a while then go back to’.
‘I worked with Dave on a musical about the Jarrow March called ‘Cuddy’s Miles’. John Miles wrote the music for it, Cuddy was a cook on the march, he was John’s relation. That was well received when it played The Customs House in 2004’.
‘Sadly, Dave passed away in 2021. He’ll be sorely missed so the new play is produced as a salute to Dave’s beautiful lasting memory’.
‘Blackbird in the Snow’ has a four night run with the premier on 5th November 2024 at Laurels, Whitley Bay. For more info and extra dates contact the official website >
New play by writer Ed Waugh (Dirty Dusting, Wor Bella) & directed by Russell Floyd (The Bill, Eastenders).
Royalties from over 20 professionally produced plays including Dirty Dusting,Wor Bella, Hadaway Harry, Carrying David and The Great Joe Wilson, plus financial support from Arts Council England allows playwright Ed Waugh to focus on what he loves best: working class history, in particular forgotten North East working class history.
South Shields-based Ed and the team behind this important work have unearthed another forgotten story about the North East.
“This is an incredible story, full of drama and tension, an almost forgotten story, despite the incident making headlines nationally and internationally.” explained Ed. The subject of the new play is The Cramlington Train Wreckers which premieres in November and tours the region.
To maintain their profits, coal owners told miners they had to take a 40 per cent cut in wages. Stanley Baldwin, Conservative prime minister in 1926, also said every other section of the working class had to take pay cuts ‘in the national interest’. A General Strike was called and Northumberland miners were ready to challenge the establishment.
Ed explained “The intention was to stop a blackleg coal train that the miners felt was undermining the strike. Unfortunately for the perpetrators, they accidentally derailed a passenger train, the carriages were part of the Flying Scotsman”.
“The upshot was eight Cramlington miners were sentenced to a total of 48 years’ imprisonment for their part in the derailment”.
Most of the 281 passengers were treated for shock and bruises with only one person slightly injured, fortunately there were no deaths.
“Although largely forgotten, the story is an important part of British history. With the centenary of the General Strike rapidly approaching I felt it was important to assess the events in an informed, dramatic and entertaining manner. Were they terrorists or workers defending their jobs and communities?”
A North East tour in November 2024 includes South Shields Westovian Theatre, Gosforth Civic Theatre, Alnwick Playhouse, Hexham Queen’s Hall, Cramlington Learning Village Theatre, The Glasshouse Gateshead, Playhouse Whitley Bay, Bishop Auckland Town Hall and Barnard Castle Witham.
The Cramlington Train Wreckers is supported by Arts Council England.
Some say White Heat were the best band to come out of Newcastle who never ‘made it’. They made all the right moves – opened for Judas Priest, headlined London’s Marquee, signed to Virgin records, they were contenders – but unfortunately never got over the line.
If you asked me to list what gave me the biggest buzz I would say playing live top of the list, writing songs in second and recording in third place said Bob Smeaton. But one thing I did learn is that playing songs live and recording them in a studio are two different animals.
I love performing in front of an audience and I felt that I was a much better frontman than I was a singer, so studio work for me back in the early days was not always an enjoyable experience.
Also, the vocals were always done last, so the rest of the band were able to relax and the pressure was on me to deliver. What did I do after White Heat and Loud Guitars split? I pretty much stopped performing gigs as my career went down a different path.
After signing up as an actor for stage and TV roles, a successful career in music documentary films came next. Bob worked on programmes featuring boy hood heroes The Who, Rolling Stones and The Beatles.
Bob added…I was fortunate to start making music documentaries but I never stopped writing songs. The songs that I wrote with Alan Fish my song writing partner in both White Heat and later Loud Guitars were good songs, that’s why some of them remain popular forty years after we recorded them. I’m really proud of those records we released in the late 70s early 80s, they’re a great time capsule.
Just before Covid happened Alan Fish encouraged me to get a set up so that I could record at home, I took his advice and got some pretty basic recording equipment.
Like most of us I had a lot of time on my hands so I recorded demos of a bunch of songs, there was a couple I’d been working on for decades but never finished, I also wrote some new ones.
Shine On (The Ballad of White Heat) was a new song and it took about two hours to write, some of them took around twenty years to finish – better late than never.
I always liked songs that told stories. Narrative has always been the key for me, that’s also been my approach when I’ve been making music documentary films and to some extent why I wrote my memoir.
When growing up in Benwell, Newcastle, the first person that I met that owned a Fender Strat was Stew Selkirk. Even as a teenager Stew was a great guitarist (The photographs of Bob and Stew were taken in the backyard of Stew’s house on Colston Street, Benwell, approx.1974).
When I released my memoir ‘From Benwell Boy to 46th Beatle and Beyond’ in 2018, Stew read it and we caught up again, we hadn’t seen each other for over forty years. Stew was still playing guitar and involved in record production. I mentioned that I’d written a bunch of songs that I’d like to record.
I sent him demos which he liked and he suggested we work together. Black Wind Blowing was the first song we recorded at his studio in Wooler during October 2021.
During the second Covid lockdown to cheer myself up, I was listening to Nick Cave’s ‘murder ballads’ album and reading a biography of Johnny Cash. They were the inspiration to write the song.
When I heard what Stew did with that first track, I was overjoyed, he had taken my very basic song and turned it into something really special. None of the songs I had written had been performed live so they had to stand up purely on the basis of what we recorded. Stew did a great job.
Back in the late seventies with White Heat we played the songs in front of an audience before we recorded them so we had a good idea of what were the strongest songs based on audience reaction. Then we would pretty much record the songs in the studio how we had played them live, there was not a lot of production as such.
We never thought to change the keys to suit my voice or rearrange the songs so they would sound better on the radio. It was impossible to capture the energy of a live band in the studio.
I didn’t want to sound like White Heat but there was always going to be a familiarity because it was my voice. There is so much great guitar playing by Stew on the songs, it would have been a different album if he hadn’t produced it.
The first recording that I released from the sessions I did with Stew was Shine On (The Ballad of White Heat). I thought it was quite fitting that for my first solo single I paid homage to my former band.
I revisited the character of Sammy who first appeared in the 1979 song ‘Sammy Sez’, the B side of our single ‘NervousBreakdown’. Sammy was loosely based on my brother Tony who appeared on the sleeve of the 7”inch. I also name checked a number of songs that Alan Fish and I wrote together.
In essence the song is about the way that music has the capacity to transport you back to a time and a place. It was written as a thank you to those people who supported the band back in the day.
I remember when we were playing gigs the excitement we used to feel when we would perform a song for the first time and how after we had played it a handful of times we would look out into crowd and see them singing along, it was a great feeling.
One of the songs I name checked in ‘Shine On (The Ballad of White Heat)’ was the Fish/Smeaton song ‘21 and Wasted’. In 1979 when we wrote the song, I was in full Springsteen mode, I was obsessed with him, this was my attempt at writing a ‘Springsteenesque’ lyric.
When we played it live it was great, but for some reason, with the benefit of hindsight, the studio version White Heat recorded for the ‘In the Zero Hour’ album fell short of our expectations.
A couple of years ago Alan re-worked the song, gave it a new title and recorded it with the Attention Seekers. I thought it was fantastic. Alan told me he had also recorded a rockier version of the backing track and that I was welcome to add my vocal to it for inclusion on my album.
I believe that in the Attention Seekers version both of the protagonists live to fight another day. In my version I will leave it up to the listener to decide what fate befalls them. It is one of my favourite songs.
In the video clip I used footage that was filmed of White Heat performing the song back in 1981 but cut to the recoding from my album.
Whenever I played Alan my songs, he would often comment on how I never wrote ‘happy songs’, when I first played him ‘Things that She Said’ he told me that I had finally written one.
The song is about the feeling you get when you meet someone who you really believe is going to have your back through good times and bad. Alan liked the song and offered to produce a recording of it, on the understanding that I let him do it ‘his way’.
During the two days we recorded at the Cluny Studios in Newcastle, I managed to keep my mouth shut. I’m pleased I did as Alan did an excellent job. It also features great work by Trevor Brewis, Sophy Jess Ball and Tony Davis. Alan was right it is a happy song.
Whenever I wasn’t busy working on music documentaries I would drive up to Wooler and record at Stew’s place. I also spent time recording at the Cluny Studio. A lot of the vocals and drums were recorded there. Trevor Brewis formally of Dance Class played drums, he was brilliant.
What are my hopes for the album? Once it was finished all I really wanted is for people to hear the songs and I was more than happy for people to listen to the album for free on the likes of Spotify and You Tube etc.
I enjoyed the writing and recording of the songs but once they were mastered all I wanted was to put them out there. The first thing I did was post the songs on the White Heat and Loud Guitars appreciation society page on Facebook. That was pretty much the sum of my promotion.
Various people offered to help promote the album or help find a record label. I didn’t want to do that, I’d been down that road with White Heat and it becomes more about the business. I didn’t view this as a money making venture, I just wanted people to hear my songs and hopefully enjoy them.
The response has been very encouraging, in that respect all the work that Stew Selkirk and I put into it has been worthwhile.
Am I planning on taking it out live? At the moment I don’t have any plans to go out and start doing gigs with a band. Putting a band together I imagine is much harder now than it was when I first started doing gigs in the seventies, we were kids then, we had less commitments.
There is every chance that I could turn up and do some support slots on my own or maybe with a couple of other musicians. The thing is that I never really considered myself a musician, I always thought I was a performer first and foremost and songs were a vehicle to tell stories which I love doing.
My guitar playing skills are pretty basic but you don’t need to know a hundred chords to write a song. Whenever I meet young musicians I always tell them to write songs and if what you write about is honest and personal to you, there is every chance it will connect with other people, we all go through similar situations in life – songs are like diaries.
When you hear a song it can transport you back to a time and a place and that is the beauty of a great song, it never grows old. As I said in one of my songs “We will shine on because we wrote it all down in a song”.
‘Another Journey Up the River’ was released 5th July 2024. The album is now available on all streaming services, You Tube and available to download on iTunes.
Flicking through TV channels I landed on BBC police drama The Cops. I remember when it was first broadcast in the late 90’s it was like watching a Ken Loach film on steroids. No surprise when it walked away with two BAFTA awards.
Executive producer was Tony Garnett, you might not know the name, but his pedigree is second to none. He and Loach pulled off some groundbreaking, influential work on Kes,Up the Junction and Cathy Come Home.
Written by Jimmy Gardner (The Bill, This Life, Inspector George Gently), The Cops is a gritty fictional drama which deals with the chaotic lives surrounding criminals and cops. Even everyday mundane events are served up on a shovel.
The script is sharp, the pace unrelenting, the hand-held fly on the wall documentary camerawork increases tension and keeps the viewer locked in to the authentic voices. The working class voices. And they don’t shy away from difficult situations, some scenes are far from being an easy watch.
After binge watching series one and two I switched on the third and sadly the final season, I recognised one of the characters, Michael McNally, who featured on this site 28 August 2018 (link bottom of page).So I got in touch with Michael to find out his story behind The Cops.
I’d watched the first two series and it was my favourite programme on TV said Michael. When I started watching it, I thought it was a fly on the wall documentary it took me 10 minutes before I realised it was a drama. I was totally hooked.
My favourite directors are Mike Leigh and Ken Loach – The Cops is somewhere in between their methods, the way they work with actors or non-actors in some of Loach’s films. In the programme there were two of the best actors I ended up working with, and that’s including working with Gary Oldman, there was Katy Cavanagh and John Henshaw – absolutely fantastic actors and people.
Some of the stories they told, drugs, robberies and coppers beating people up – how did they get away with showing this? I found it really brave, fascinating and refreshing to watch, I never imagined I would have an opportunity to get on it. I remember watching a BAFTA awards programme and it won beating a show called This Life which was also excellent TV.
Michael in the back row behind Katy Cavanagh and next to John Henshaw.
How did I get on the show? I remember I was just about to get on a train from Durham, I was living back in the North East then, I was excited about going down to London for an interview and read for a part to play alongside Robson Green (fellow Geordie actor, Soldier Soldier, Wire in the Blood).
When my agent called me up ‘Don’t get on the train, you’ve had a recall’. Three weeks earlier I’d had one interview for The Cops, I’d met the cast and was introduced to an incredible actor called John Henshaw (Early Doors).
At the interview it was all improvisation, there was no script, we were set up in different scenarios, like an acting workshop. I was nervous but got through it and think I done alright but never heard anything so was disappointed I’d missed out on this fantastic show.
Then a few weeks later another call from my agent ‘Get in your car and drive to Bolton’ – that’s where The Cops is filmed. It was great meeting up with all the cast again, the casting session was videoed, but again after a good session a few weeks had passed and no word. I’m thinking what’s going on? I missed that reading with Robson Green for this.
Then I got a call to go back down to Bolton they said they would pay my expenses so that was fine. This time it was more specific and the actors were working well together. I went back home and a week or so later they asked me to come down for a day and that’s where they said I had the job.
I stayed in digs in the town, one of the camera men had a small flat I rented off him. During the week I was there in my police uniform, at the weekend I was still playing in a band in working men’s clubs in the North East. That was 23 years ago, a great experience, PC John Martyns was my character.
Martyns was an ex professional footballer, based on a David Batty type player (1990s/2000s Leeds United, Newcastle United, England) an aggressive little player who made a bit money in the game then came out of it and ended up a copper – like some do in real life!
For me it was a really exhaustive process, there were lots of actors up there for the same parts. It was also one of the most exciting processes I’d been in because every time I went there it was nothing like any interview I’d had for an acting job before.
All the actors had a hunger for success, it was like they hadn’t achieved their full potential yet and they wanted to be part of something special. I went in on the back of the two series so felt a bit under pressure.
We were based in an old run-down school transformed and fitted up into a Police station. In rehearsals every Director you worked with would just give you tiny bits of information to work on then leave you to it.
They would give you a scenario like going into a bar where there are two attractive ladies, you are arrogant full of yourself, you don’t know what they are like, and you have to chat them up.
You would get three or four different situations like this which would last five or ten minutes. You’d think is anyone going to say stop – you were really out of your comfort zone. It was all about staying in the moment and it prepares you for the actual filming.
My first night filming I was given a script but told the filming might start before the script and might go on after – you just have to wait until somebody shouts ‘cut’. So, the script was just a guide, the general public were unknowingly involved in some of the scenes.
One of my first scenes was with Danny Seward, a lovely talented guy, also another singer and songwriter. I was sat in a police van on Friday night 11pm on Bolton High Street with a walkie talkie. The general public are walking up and down the street, in our scene we had to arrest someone.
Two actors were having a fight in the street and we got the message to go, so on with the blue flashing lights, pulled up and jumped out of the van – it wasn’t a closed set like on some programmes. Some of the general public were trying to defend the actors and others were encouraging us to get in there and sort it out.
We didn’t know where the cameras were we just heard someone say stop, so we got back in the van, re-set and done the scene about four or five times.
Same happened when responding to a fight in a bar, we had to pull people out and the general public in the bar didn’t know what was going on! There was an element of choreography for the fight, we didn’t want anyone to get hurt.
After that first night the cast got together afterwards for some pub grub and a karaoke. Most of us were unknown actors so mixed in with the general public without any hassle. Every member of the cast got up and sang, mine was Should I Stay or Should I Go by The Clash – it was a really good night. We were all getting in taxi’s later because it was filming the next morning.
Michael Caine’s masterclasses in acting were a real influence when they were shown on TV. Caine learnt you about film technique, camera angles and using your eyes.
I didn’t go to drama school like most actors I’ve met, I was a law student who first acted in a Channel Four film Accounts and moved to London. I remember everything Caine said, but The Cops was like chucking it all out the window.
You just had to be truthful to the moment, trust the guys who were filming and don’t be worried about their job just fully concentrate on being truthful and honest about the scene.
When the cast were socialising in a hotel bar the production team would watch who we would gel with and if there was any tension, or the one’s not making any eye contact, things like that. I’m sure they were aware of this and then put us together in scenes.
The police organisation weren’t too happy about some of the scenes because we were exposing bad behaviour inside the force. So, we had a couple of weeks training by officers from the London Met where we turned up in uniform, learnt how to read people their rights, how to deal with challenging situations, they told us loads of stories – really fascinating stuff.
The producers also sent us off to Doncaster, undercover with coppers. I remember over a weekend sitting in the back of a cop car with two uniformed officers watching how they made arrests and calmed situations down. On one occasion we spent two hours chasing a horse!
Production team and cast of The Cops.
Because it was so refreshing to do that work in The Cops, in a way everything else felt a bit of a disappointment. I thought would I be happy to do some of the jobs I’d done before?
After finishing on The Cops I got an interview for a regular place on Emmerdale. I’d already been in Crossroads, and soaps have their place rightly so, but coming off the back of a challenging show to a light fluffy programme – well I wasn’t sure about that.
After talking to my agent, I went along and done an improvised scene with an actress, but I got that feeling of I don’t want to be here. I must have given that impression because I didn’t get the job. I talked to my agent about it and sort of felt relieved.
What did I do after The Cops? Unfortunately, I went through a divorce then picked up working again, this time in education. I was a Drama teacher for young offenders in the Prison Service in Barnard Castle. I felt I was doing some really effective theatre work with the prisoners and some of them loved being involved. I done that for over 12 years.
What am I up to now? I still teach music and my next project is for PRS Inclusion Services, it’s for people with disabilities. I’ll be developing a choir from four community groups with a performance at the end, I’m looking forward to that.
I’m missing acting so I’ve been looking if I can get back into doing some again. Here in the North East I’ve been involved in a few performances and still playing music, also just been down to London and got some new photographs taken with the aim of getting a new agent. I think at my age I will be a lot better now with more life experience, and it means so much more.
You’ll find all 24 episodes, three series of The Cops on BBC iPlayer.
The site has been live since 2017 and now in 2024 is on course to hit 400,000 views so it’s a big thanks to readers from all over the world.
As the years fly by I find myself looking back and remembering film projects I’ve worked on. Memories may be a bit fuzzy but the good stuff comes to the front.
During a recent sort out at home I came across a work diary from 20 years ago. A quick flick through revealed a busy summer starting with dates for a short film I was commissioned to make about public art in the North East.
When discussing the project I was asked how would the film be made? Looking at the map of the art trail there’s quite a few sites located over a large area.
Off the cuff I remember replying ‘Well you can get great angles from above…so why not use a helicopter’. To my surprise my suggestion was met with enthusiasm and I was given the green light. Now I’d never been in a helicopter before and I’m not too clever with heights, when leaving the meeting I asked myself why did I even suggest it?
Back to my office and a quick look through Yellow Pages, yes it was that long ago, I came across Eagle Helicopters based in Newcastle, so put a phone call into them and booked a flight.
One sequence was shooting at Roker Marina in Sunderland, then the Conversation Piece on South Shields seafront and another circling the Angel of the North in Gateshead. To be honest it’s hard to believe it was 20 years ago, but the exhilarating feeling of filming in a helicopter hundreds of feet in the air will always remain.
A couple of weeks after that I flew out to America and enrolled on a film making course at New York Film Academy. Within days of landing at JFK airport and booking into a hotel in East Village, I was shooting a music video on the streets of Manhattan! I picked up some great tips from the Academy’s instructors for future projects.
A month later I returned to South Shields and was approached by South Tyneside Council about making an in-depth documentary recording a regeneration project in the town. Basically, the council tenants were looking to spruce it up. The brief was to document the progress working with the residents. Sounded like a good opportunity to use the techniques I learned in New York. And it was.
I remember first day of filming and a resident asking ‘What do you want to see’? my reply was ‘Show me the worst on the estate and we’ll work up from there’. ‘You’ll do for me’ he said.
He showed me the back of a vacant house where there was a make shift wooden shelter with a sleeping bag and quilt. Obviously, somebody’s bed, somebody’s home.
Years later when reading through those pages it made me realise the highs and lows of documentary film making in one summer. From capturing the celebration of public art from the sky, then brought down to earth by filming real life desperation.
VainGloriousUK are collectively known as Chas Groovy.
“There’s been some amazing music created in the North East which has never received the recognition that it deserved and there is always an emphasis on musicians from the southern end of the country” said Chas.
“Being mostly Hartlepool based we were well aware of bands like The White Negroes – who were immense in Hartlepool in the early 90’s – also Jimmy McKenna and Wendells Parlour”.
In the ‘80s Dave Emerson bought a video camera and started making recordings of local gigs. Dave realised that some of the videos he had might be worth sharing and the VainGloriousUK You Tube Channel was created.
Chas explains “We chose the name VainGloriousUK because all the North East groups went for glory but ultimately for some it was in vain. However, we realised later that the dictionary definition says that vainglorious means someone who is boastful, which is not what we mean at all!”
“We began seeking out, tidying up and uploading historic – and sometimes hysterical – video footage of music associated with the North East”.
Since the early 70’s there had been local TV shows such as The Geordie Scene and Alright Now. Many of these shows still exist in TV archives and bit by bit some interesting videos fell into their lap.
“The VainGloriousUK channel currently has up to 170 videos uploaded and its playlists also link to interesting videos from other sources”.
One of the sources was the late music journalist and broadcaster Ian Penman.
“Ian had undertaken work for Tyne Tees TV and, lucky for us, he kept a personal copy of many of the things he was involved in. It took a bit of arm twisting but eventually Ian let us use some of them”.
“One of these was the appearance of Brian Johnson’s first group Geordie. Recently we learned that our copy appears to be the only one still in existence when we were contacted about it being used in a forthcoming documentary about Brian” said Chas.
The collective had found a hidden treasure trove of recorded music so they created a website companion to the You Tube channel.
“This would enable us to tell the stories of the groups and artists and provide direct links to their specific videos, and most importantly, provide examples of their music to listen to with the opportunity for this to be purchased”.
“CDBaby, Spotify, Soundcloud, all of these companies charge a percentage for their services whereas 100% of any income goes directly to our artists. What we are doing is focusing on a particular geographical area which we passionately believe has been a hot bed of great music, we are doing it for fun – and the odd pat on the back”.
“Most musicians are flattered that we care so much about their music, some are a bit wary about how their historical musical legacy may now be viewed – what you thought was important at 16 is not the same when you are 56!”
Top of the hit list to trace was a band called The Mynd. Eventually contact was made with former keyboard player Billy Surgeoner, who was persuaded to put The Mynd music on to VainGloriousUK.
“Bit by bit that’s how it worked, we learn about an interesting artist, do a bit of homework and sometimes it works out nicely”.
“We would love to find the performance on Tyne Tees TV’s Northern Life programme from early 1977 by Newcastle group Last Exit singing ‘Don’t Give Up Your Day Time Job’ – whose lead singer went on to have a successful career in The Police”.
Early 70’s Newcastle glam/folk group Sandgate have been added to VainGloriousUK, including their appearance on the Geordie Scene.
“With Sandgate there is a great omission. The band comprised of two main line-ups, the first was formed and led by songwriter Fred Wheatley and they made some recordings. Then when Fred left the group the remaining chaps made further recordings which are the ones we have. We would love to locate Fred Wheatley and get our hands on the early Sandgate recordings”.
Vainglorious also have software available that can make a good job of reconstruction and remastering.
“Sandgate had two albums worth of really good recordings, they noticed that our efforts had improved them sonically”.
Songwriter Steve Thompson, who has featured on this site, has had his work uploaded onto VainGloriosuUK leading to Cherry Red Records releasing it.
“Also, partly as a result of our pestering regarding making the music of mid 70’s group FOGG available again, their original record company has re-released their original album plus a second album of their singles”.
“We’re always on the lookout for interesting artists with a body of recordings. We’re open to ideas for future video uploads so if anyone has an interesting video, we would love to hear from them”.
ALIKIVI : NORTH EAST UK CULTURE 