NORTH EAST UK MUSIC

WORKING MAN with North East UK drummer Micky Kerrigan

/ Alikivi / 1 Comment

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Who were your influences in music ? 

‘I was inspired in my early years by classical and jazz, in particular big band jazz including Cuban big band musicians like Stan Kenton, also Louis Bellson, The Buddy Rich Big band and Billy Cobham.

My main focus was on Emerson Lake and Palmer, The Nice, Rush, Queen and Heavy Metal bands like Metallica, Iron Maiden and Slayer. I was also really fascinated by Liberty Devitto (Billy Joels drummer)’.

How did you get interested in playing music ? 

‘I guess, just listening to the sheer power behind Carl Palmers playing. Then late one night on TV I watched Jazz at the Philharmonic and saw Louis Bellsons drum solo. It just blew me away. Gob smacked and shaking. Also watching Liberty Devitto playing on Billy Joels concert from Leningrad was pretty special.

The more I listened to Rush and The Proffessor, made me really want to define what style I wanted to play as a rock drummer’.

When did you start playing gigs and what venues did you play ? 

‘I started playing around the age of 11 and played all throughout my teen years. But then joined the RAF at 17 and left the drum sticks behind. It was about eight years later I met a couple of musicians on the base, and we put a rock covers band together.

I came out of the RAF after nine years in 2001 and began to focus on music again, playing with a few local blues musicians from the County Durham area and attending a few jams.

Then I got the gig with The Force around 2002 replacing Franco Zuccaroli (Jack Bruce etc). I guess being asked to headline Newcastle City Hall with The Force was quite nerve racking and special.

We went on to play other huge crowds like the motorbike rally Storming the Castle. Although The Force played mainly local gigs, I decided to branch out and after parting from the band I put my own three piece Rush tribute together and more recently Deep Purple in Rock. At the same time I played with Iron Maiden tribute Maiden England’.

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‘At this time, I was asked if I wanted to audition for Blitzkreig I jumped at the chance. After recording Back from Hell, a couple of world tours and three years later we parted ways.

Last year (2017) I was asked to play a 55-minute set in Sao Paulo, Brazil with the brilliant NWOBHM band Tysondog which was surreal.

I was picked up from the house, taken to Manchester airport and flown to Sao Paulo via New York. Done the gig. Then back via New York and Atlanta to Manchester before being dropped off at home. All within four days.

Leading up to this point I had already played on a couple of European tours with Blues Hall of Fame musicians Sweet Suzi and John Puglisi from Long Island in New York. I continue to play in New York with various musicians and I’m a regular visitor. God I even pick up the accent ha ha.

I’m now a regular session player in New York and jam regularly with some of Billy Joels past and present band members. That’s pretty defining so far right….ha ha’.

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What are your experiences of recording/studio work ? 

‘This is an area, I actually don’t have a great deal of experience in. I’ve recorded a few albums with local musicians but you would have to say my main recordings to date are live shows and The Back from Hell studio album, with Blitzkrieg’.

Have you recorded any TV appearances or filmed any music videos ?

’Im sure there are lots of bootleg dvds of Blitzkrieg. I wouldn’t know where any of those copies were though, ahem…. haha. There is a documentary on You Tube following part of one of our tours’.

Have you any stories from playing gigs ?

’Far too many to mention, but it usually involves silly behaviour and alcohol. My most recent one involves arriving at JFK airport from Sao Paulo en route to Manchester.

I had five hours, so I met up with a friend, who shall remain anonymous, who picked me up from the airport when I arrived at 08.30. I’d taken some miniature gins from the flight and something to smoke. It was great fun especially when her car runs out of gas on the outside lane of the southern state parkway, pushing it across four lanes baked was really funny.

My defining moment then after being rescued and going to a diner was thinking I was on a boat when we were nowhere near any water! Anyway, we parted ways, and I continued my onwards travel bound for Atlanta, Georgia.

Like I say I have plenty of great stories to tell, but we would need a few hours and a good bottle of Scotch to go on.’ 

Album-Stuckfish

What are your future plans in music ?

’I’ll continue to play in New York around the UK, and Europe with some amazing musicians I’ve met there. However, the big news is, I’ve just joined brand new Prog rock band Stuckfish who’s brand new album, Calling has just been released and has a great write up by Dave Ling of Classic Rock mag amongst others.

Calling features on the front cover of Prog Rock magazine next month (August 2018). The album is also at number two in an Australian rock chart. So, watch this space for tour dates’. 

Interview by Gary Alikivi    July 2018.

Recommended:

Brian Ross SATAN/BLITZKREIG: Life Sentence, 20th February 2017.

Lou Taylor SATAN/BLIND FURY: Rock the Knight, 26th February & 5th March 2017.

Steve Dawson SARACEN/THE ANIMALS: Long Live Rock n Roll, 2nd April 2017.

Martin Metcalfe HOLLOW GROUND: Hungry for Rock, 18th June 2017.

Jim Clare : Stormy Daze 2nd August 2017.

Tysondog: Back for Another Bite 5th August 2017.

WRITING ON THE WALL – in conversation with North East music journalist, broadcaster & producer Ian Ravendale

/ Alikivi

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Ian Penman has been a television and radio presenter, researcher, producer and journalist for more than 30 years, generally writing as Ian Ravendale to avoid confusion with the Ian Penman formerly of the NME.

He returned to music journalism (and Ian Ravendale) seven years ago writing for Classic Rock, Classic Pop, Vintage Rock, AOR, Vive Le Rock, Iron Fist, Blues Matters, American Songwriter, The Word and many more.

Ian has interviewed literally thousands of musicians from multi-millionaire rockstars to local indie bands on the dole…

‘I worked in television for Border, Tyne Tees, Channel 4 and also ran River City Productions an independent production company based in Gateshead.

In addition to making lots of local programmes I also worked on national music shows including Get Fresh, Bliss and (to a lesser extent) The Tube. The Tube was shot at Tyne Tees Television’s Studio 5 on City Road in Newcastle. The site is now a Travel Lodge!

It was interesting going to the canteen on recording day for shows like shows like Razzmatazz and The Tube and seeing who was in. I remember standing behind Phil Everly as he got his cod and chips!’ 

‘The music programmes I worked on were mainly produced by Border Television in Carlisle. I spent a lot of time there in the 1980’s. At Tyne Tees I worked mainly in the Arts and Entertainment department. Anything different or off the wall it would usually be me doing it.

We produced a program about rock poetry, presented by Mark Mywurdz, who at the time was a Tube regular. For some reason Mark wanted to present the program just wearing a raincoat. Nothing underneath!

After we finished recording the show one of the camera men came up and congratulated me; ‘That was the biggest load of rubbish I’ve seen in my life!’  I did a lot of alternative stuff. Some was challenging but none was rubbish!’

Talking about alternative stuff, can you remember Wavis O’Shave ?

‘He had a number of names – Wavis, Fofffo Spearjig, Rod Stewart, Pans Person. When I was writing for Sounds he saw me as a way in as the paper liked the off-beat stuff. He was a great self publicist. And still is!

He once told me about getting £1,000 out of the News of the World for a tip-off about a forthcoming witches coven scheduled for Witton Gilbert-or wherever Wavis said it was!’ 

What can you remember about working on Get Fresh ? (kids 1986-88  morning weekend TV show produced by the regional ITV companies taking it in turns for Saturday and Border producing all the Sunday editions).

‘For Get Fresh and Bliss, Border’s 1985 summer replacement for The Tube, most of the guests came up to Carlisle the night before so I’d take them out. People like Rat Scabies and Captain Sensible from The Damned.

We’d go into the music pubs and clubs around Carlisle and people would love seeing them there. Rat got up a few times to play with some of the local bands. When I met him I said ‘What do I call you?’ (His real name is Chris Miller). (Adopts cockney accent) ‘Just call me Rat’. So I did. Nice guy.

At the time he was really hoping to get the drum job with The Who, as Keith Moon had recently died. Didn’t happen, unfortunately.’

me fringed jacket crop.

‘Bliss was presented by Muriel Grey and produced in Carlisle by Janet Street-Porter. We featured live bands, got them to play for half an hour, used two songs on the weekly show, then repackage the 30 minutes for a Bliss In Concert special.

There wasn’t that much going on in Carlisle at the time, so we had no problem getting local kids in as the audience.

One week we didn’t have a live band and I’d got an advance copy of the famous animated video for Take On Me by A-Ha, who at that point were totally unknown.

Graham K Smith, the other music researcher and I thought it was really good so I rang their record company to see if A-Ha were available and importantly if they could play live. A resounding ‘Yes, they can do it’ was the answer.

Bliss was aimed at a teenage audience so A-ha would have fitted in perfectly. Janet-Street Porter comes in and looks at the video and goes (adopts cockney accent) ‘Oh no, that’s art school stuff, it’s boring. Draggy!’ 

Border TV could have had half an hour of A-Ha playing live in concert for the first time in the UK. But no. The band she booked instead were King Kurt, a well-past their sell-by date punk band.

So up they come in their ratty old bus with dogs on pieces of string and a stage act that consisted of throwing slop at each other. We – or rather Janet – turned down what became one of the biggest bands of the eighties’.

When you were reviewing gigs in the early 1980’s for Sounds were there any bands that surprised you or were disappointed with ?

‘It took me a while to ‘get’ punk. I was never into the boring British blues bands and prog acts which still show-up on the BBC’s compilations of 70’s rock. With the exception of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band who I liked.

When punk came along it started to make more sense. I was also into what is now classed as Americana. Along with more-left field bands like Sparks and Be-Bop Deluxe.’

I’m reading the book ’No Sleep till Canvey Island -The Great Pub Rock Revolution’ the book mentions the early careers of Joe Strummer, Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello…

’There were bands that were like a doorway between punk and the boring rock bands and Brinsley Schwarz, with Nick Lowe were one of them. I saw them play Backhouse Park, here in Sunderland. Dr Feelgood were another.

I saw The Damned support Marc Bolan at Newcastle City Hall and it was a short, sharp, shock. And I thought; ‘OK. What was that…?’

Phil Sutcliffe, my predecessor at Sounds did an interview with The Damned for Radio Newcastle’s Bedrock show that we both worked on. It was 30 seconds long and finished off with someone shouting ‘Oi! Who put duh lights out’!

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The big article you wrote for Sounds in May 1980 featured local metal bands Mythra, Fist, Raven, Tygers of Pan Tang and White Spirit. How did that come about ?

‘I was freelancing at Sounds, writing articles and reviewing gigs, some of which were of local bands. I was also working on the Bedrock program and one of my co-presenters was Tom Noble who was managing the Tygers.

I’d already written individual articles about the Tygers, Fist and Raven and Geoff Barton, the assistant editor at Sounds asked me to source a few more bands for a 4,000 word article. The North East New Wave of British Heavy Metal was born!’

NWOBHM had Iron Maiden in London, Saxon in Barnsley and Def Leppard in Sheffield….

‘Yes. As a reviewer I went as far as Redcar. A lot of the local bands I reviewed were from here in Sunderland, Newcastle and South Shields.

Sounds also had a guy called ‘Des Moines’, a pseudonym for a writer from Leeds called Nigel Burnham who is now an agricultural journalist and Mick Middles, based in Manchester. Between the three of us we had the north covered.

One time the Tygers of Pan Tang were supporting Saxon and I’d gone along. I’d previously written a review of Saxon which included something along the lines of ‘in six month’s time they’ll be back playing social clubs’.

At the gig Tygers guitarist Robb Weir came up and said, ‘Biffs lookin’ for you!’. Fortunately, he didn’t find me. Not yet anyway.’

Was there any conflict between watching a band that you weren’t a fan of and writing something positive about them ?

‘Geoff never said to me, ‘We’ve got a big metal readership here can you go easy on them?’ He never wanted me to do that. But I found metal bands easy to take the piss out of – and I did.

This stimulated very angry letters like ‘How dare Ian Ravendale slag off Ozzy. I’ve seen him and he was great’. I remember my opening line of a review I did of Ozzy, ‘What I want to know is how is Ozzy Osbourne so cabaret’.

I interviewed him a few times for Bedrock but my interviewees tended not to click onto the fact that ‘Bedrock’s Ian Penman’ was also sharp-tongued Sounds scribe Ian Ravendale.

One time a few years after the Sounds ‘cabaret’ comment I was working at Tyne Tees and on the Friday Ozzy was playing The Tube. The Arts and Entertainment office was next door and I saw him in the corridor looking lost.

So I went up to him and said ‘Hi Ozzy, The Tube office is just over there’. He thanked me and then said ’I’ve met you before haven’t I’. He still remembered me from the radio interviews we’d done’.

How did you get interested in writing ?

‘As a teenager I was a huge music fan and also into American comics. I wrote for a few comic fanzines then published some of my own which occasionally still turn up on Ebay. That gave me an insight into writing for public consumption’. 

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The Bedrock team with Ian sitting on the right.

What about radio? You were involved in Bedrock for nearly ten years…

‘Dick Godfrey was producing a program called Bedrock for BBC Radio Newcastle which featured interviews from national and gave local bands exposure which was otherwise very hard for them to get at the time.

I had always been interested in the nuts and bolts of the music industry and how it all worked and listened to programs like Radio 1’s Scene And Heard.

Dick had a feature called Top Track where each week a different listener would come in and play his favourite track and talk about it. ‘Some Of Shellys Blues’ by Michael Nesmith was my choice. This went down well with Dick so I asked if he’d be interested in me contributing features. ‘Yes but there’s no cash involved’.

Nesmith was soon going to be playing in the UK and I was going along to the gig so I asked Dick if Bedrock be interested in me trying to get an interview with him. ‘Definitely’ replied Dick.

So I phoned a record label I’d heard Michael was about to sign to and they gave me his hotel number. As ‘Ian Penman from BBC Radio Newcastle’ I arranged an interview, which I did a couple days later in London, the day after the gig. That was my start in radio’. 

How did you start with Sounds?

‘Phil Sutcliffe, who was the North East correspondent for Sounds, was a friend of Dick Godfrey and also worked on Bedrock. When Phil moved to London he recommended me to Geoff Barton, Sound’s reviews editor, to be his replacement.

Phil wrote a lot about the Angelic Upstarts, he liked the music but also had a sympathetic ear to what they were doing. He wrote the first articles about them. Same for Penetration, Neon and Punishment of Luxury.

I’d also been involved in the music fanzine Out Now which Tom Noble had produced, so I was becoming pretty proficient at interviewing and writing reviews.

I was out at gigs four nights a week and was known enough to be able to walk straight into Newcastle City Hall via the stage door. This put me in touch with Tyne Tees TV and when a researcher vacancy came up, I applied for that, got it and carried on at Sounds for a short while.

I also wrote a few pieces for Kerrang, which Geoff Barton had moved across from Sounds to edit. I wrote the first article on Venom. Yes, I’m responsible for Black Metal (laughs).

Then as now, my attitude was regardless of whether I liked the music or not if I could write something positive about local bands, and it was entertaining. I’ll do that.

If you write something negative about a local band, you could do them major harm. Also, a person in Aberdeen doesn’t want to know whether a band from South Shields are crap. Why would they?’

For the work that you were doing how important do you think research is?

’Some writers think of an idea then write a piece in support of that. I don’t do that. For me it’s about the facts and information presented in an interesting way. Opinions and personal taste are what they are. Maybe you like a band that I don’t. That’s fine.  But facts stand.

I do my absolute level best to write as accurately as possible. It’s really important for me to do that. Sometimes information comes from two or three sources. And if the information is contradictory, I’ll say that’. 

Any memorable incidents in your career ?

’I interviewed Debbie Harry at Newcastle City Hall when Blondie had just broken big. We were in one of the really small dressing rooms. It was tiny. The record rep said ‘Ok Ian you got seven minutes’.

He introduced me to Debbie who was standing with her back to me. She was leaning on a shelf writing stuff down. I said ‘Writing out the song lyrics ?’ She replied ‘Yeah, well I don’t really know them from the new album yet’. It felt a bit awkward.

I literally spent the next three minutes just watching her writing with her back to me, stunning in her jumble sale collection of clothes. Eventually she sat down and off we went.

All of this was fairly new to her, she had just been playing CBGB’s (small club in New York) and now it was to gigs with 2,000 fans like the City Hall. She was trying to get used to all this Debbie-fever that was going on around her.

By minute seven we were finally getting somewhere, and she was opening up when the record rep walked in ‘Right Ian. Times up!’

I did actually interview the solo Debbie on the phone for Get Fresh nine years later and she was much more forthcoming.  (The  City Hall interview is on Rocks Back pages if you fancy a listen. RB is a pay site but there’s lots and lots of great stuff up there).

For more information contact : http://ianravendale.blogspot.com

Interview by Gary Alikivi July 2018.

PIANO WORKS – interview with North East singer & songwriter Jen Stevens

/ Alikivi
Pic. The Shields Gazette.
Pic. The Shields Gazette

You played at the South Tyneside Summer Festival this year how did that go ?

‘I was supporting Pixie Lott and it went really well. There were around 12,000 there. Also played there in 2012 supporting Scouting for Girls with a similar sized crowd.

We had just brought out an album then and that gig definitely helped sales and local recognition.’

When did you get into music ?

‘I started playing piano when I was four, my dad and my brother where both playing at the time. And I sang in the church choir.

I had piano lessons by two doddery old women who charged 40p per lesson and if I got it wrong they used to whack me over the knuckles with a metal ruler!

Singing lessons at school and college followed. Then at Uni I studied Jazz and Contemporary music. When I was young, I listened to what tapes my dad was playing in the car. Bob Dylan, Queen, Eagles and Dolly Parton.

As I got older, I wasn’t really into to boy bands, and Fleetwood Mac are my favourite’.

What is your process of song writing ?

‘I’ve got a massive list of song ideas on my phone. I can overhear a snippet of conversation on the bus, or I’ll sit at the piano and put a few chords together, it changes song to song where I get ideas from. Sometimes I write using another character or a lot of imagery and metaphors.

After my mum died in 2012 we found some poetry that she had written. Really good stuff mixed with swearing and the odd fart joke ha ha.

But I took inspiration from it all. I wrote a song Child of Earth for my mum’s funeral, it’s an uplifting song with words taken from bits of poetry that she wrote in the hospice.

Some people have said the song calms down their kids when they are throwing a tantrum. Mum would of loved that. A song she had a part of writing in, calming kids down – because she loved kids – a real mother earth.

More recent songs tend to be based around mental health issues and bereavement. Recently a guy got in touch and said he liked the stuff I was doing around mental health and he really opened up.

He told me that he has made an appointment with a doctor to talk through his problems. Well that’s amazing – if somebody feels they can seek help after listening to my music…that’s a pretty good feeling’.

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‘I have a song based around mental health called Gravity. After my mum died my whole world went tits up. My marriage broke down and I quit my job teaching due to stress and anxiety.

If I was depressed, Mum would be the one to get me through it. I relied heavily on her, but now she was gone.

Everything came to a head when one night I went to the beach, very much alone. My phone rang and it was my dad. He didn’t know how down I was. I never told him why I was there. But we had a talk and put the world to rights.

He said at the end ‘Right, little one, are you ready to go home?’ And I was. So, Gravity was a turning point were, yes, I’ve been through a lot of crap, but I’m still here.

The main chorus lyric is ‘Would a rose still smell as sweet without the darkness of the street,’ meaning, would I be the person I am today if I hadn’t been through that?  I wasn’t going to be pulled down again. I’m on the up. It was a real turning point. 

Gravity was originally a piano ballad on my album Little One, but the band re-arranged it. (Tony Pottinger, bass, Adam Barnes, drums, Aaron Dixon-Cave, guitars).

We put a video together with our friends holding up cards with quotes on about their personal journey through mental health.

As the song progresses they hold up more positive quotes, followed by embraces with their nearest and dearest. We didn’t let them know beforehand that they’d be getting a cuddles, so the responses on camera were genuine.

There are some really lovely moments in it. When we watched it back there wasn’t a dry eye in the house’.

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Would you consider selling your songs to another artist ?

‘If you asked me five years ago, I would have said absolutely not. I’ve always been precious about my songs. But I look at other well-known artists and find they were songwriters at first selling their songs.

So yeah, I think it would be a viable way to go. Once I’ve written, recorded and played a song, it’s out there. People listen to the words, maybe like the music, but it’s gone, it’s out there.’

What do you think about crowd funding ?

‘As a kid I wasn’t allowed to go trick or treating or carol singing because my parents saw it as begging. So I’ve grown up with this thing in my head that you should sustain yourself.

But music is changing because of downloads, Spotify, You Tube bringing out a new platform, i-tunes changing next year. So, less money is going in the pocket of the artist which results in less money to put into future production.

So now crowdfunding is a sort of viable way to go in as much as it’s just a different way for an audience to give back. I’ve been thinking about it for the next album.

I am lucky that I have access to a grand piano and my other half is an excellent producer – he worked on the last album.

There’s less demand for physical product now, with streaming and downloads taking over. So obviously these things keep costs a little lower, but it’s necessary to put a lot of money into advertising etc. the way things are in the music industry right now.

But I still prefer to have the physical product of a CD or vinyl. I grew up buying cassettes at Woolworths, pouring over the lyrics and notes on the bus on the way home.

I love listening to a record as opposed to something on Spotify in the background’.

What does music mean to you?

‘Everything. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for music. I can turn around a bad day by sitting down at the piano for a couple of hours. Music has saved me’.

For more information, music and live dates contact the official website: 

https://www.jenstevens.co.uk 

Interview by Gary Alikivi    July 2018.

Recommended:

Dave Taggart, Music Still Matters, 15th April 2018.

Tony Wilson, For Folks Sake, 10th May 2018.

Ben Hudson, Bees & Bouzoukis, 24th May 2018.

Celia Bryce, Folk Law, 1st June 2018.

VINYL JUNKIES – Gary Payne, 7 songs that shaped his world

/ Alikivi

The love for vinyl has always been there and many stories are attached to it. There are whispers in some quarters that vinyl is back, and they are getting louder.

Not in the same numbers that it was in the pre-cd days of the 70’s and 80’s, but the records are up on display shelves of record shops. There are hundreds of reasons why we like a certain song. Vinyl Junkies is looking for the stories behind them.

Promoter/Manager/Label owner/Vinyl collector – just all-round music lover Gary Payne got in touch…

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‘Back in the ’80s I co-edited a punk fanzine Still Dying with my friend Will Binks, and along the way managed a few bands here and there.

I recall my sister buying me a copy of Lonely this Christmas by Mud for a present. It had a ‘to’ and ‘from’ printed on the front sleeve, which my sister actually filled in with biro.

Being someone who progressed onto collecting vinyl, this heinous act of defacing a picture sleeve should surely be worthy of a lengthy spell at her majesty’s pleasure. 

By early ’78  and ’79 , myself and my friends were becoming increasingly attracted to the many bands emerging on the punk scene and I think we could all sense there was just a different feel to what we had been into previously.

In the days when the local cinemas always featured a supporting film to the main feature, a trip to see Ray Winstone in Scum was preceded by the short film Punk Can Take It, which was basically the UK Subs in concert.

The flame was lit and burned brightly as we meandered our way through many bands that were emerging onto the scene. 

Aged 16, myself and my cousin made the trip to Newcastle Mayfair in an attempt to see the UK Subs. The night suddenly took a turn for the worse when an overzealous bouncer refused to believe that I could be 18 and therefore wouldn’t let me in.

Soon after, we took in our very first gig, Buzzcocks at Newcastle City Hall, although we couldn’t help think that the singer of the support band was a right miserable bastard! Still, I suppose Joy Division, and Ian Curtis in particular, had their well documented demons.

I recall standing at that gig commenting to my mate how sad it was to see there were two fella’s next to us who must have been in their 50’s. Today, as a regular gig goer, I still wonder if the younger attendees look at me and my mates with the same level of disdain.

In true punk rock style though, I don’t care what they think, but in years to come they will hopefully come to know that punk is like a favourite toy you just can’t put down.

I grew up with a new found air of independence and took on the mantle of organising our trips around the country to see a few of my heroes. Highlights would include Dead Kennedys in Liverpool, with Jello in magnificent form, as well as The Clash at Brixton Academy.

A few memorable trips were also on the agenda, namely Chron Gen at Preston and Vice Squad at Worksop, the latter of which made us known to the late Dave Bateman, Vice Squad guitarist and all round decent bloke.

To add to that, I could have died a happy man after the night we interviewed The Ramones for our fanzine at the Thistle Hotel in Newcastle, just after their Mayfair gig.

Their were lots of gigs that were brilliant along the way, but I especially recall the Christmas on Earth festival at Leeds as being a fun day out, not to mention us being chuffed to bits that the aforementioned Dave Bateman actually remembered us as we passed Vice Squads merch stall.

It seems ridiculous reading that back, but to a fan, it meant, and still means everything, perhaps more so as he is no longer with us.

I had a lot of friends who turned their hands to playing in various bands, but being blessed with the musical talents of a goat, I had to find some other outlet for my enthusiasm. It was soon after when I decided to put my organisational skills to great use by managing a local band called Public Toys.

Comprising a few of my friends, I would like to think my efforts went some way to raising their profile and their guitarist Robby remains a close mate to this day.

My next foray into management saw me take the reins for a band from Peterlee called Uproar. On hearing them, it was hard not to realise that they were a cut above the rest, and several ep’s and albums went some way to confirming that.

We endured a long and partly successful partnership over the coming years and again, the band and the punks in their local area remain some of the finest people I have ever met.

In the mid ’80s, I coincidentally timed the lull in the punk scene with meeting my beautiful wife and starting a family, although my love for all things punk never waned.

In the ’90s, a host of punk bands seemed to be reforming and over time, the scene became as vibrant as it ever was. I still had the urge to contribute to the scene in some way, so I started my own label Calcaza Records.

I started a free website and advertised for any interested bands to send me recordings or demos and all would be considered for inclusion.

I have never been money orientated and my only aim was to get as many unknown bands heard by more people. It was important to me that I included a booklet with all lyrics and full contact info for all bands as this would be a starting point hopefully, should anyone discover a band they might like.

Maybe it was seen by some as naive, but those that know me will know that I just love being involved in music, so if I made money, great,.if I didn’t so what.

Most bands who appeared on the two cd’s I released took on board my intentions, but one band in particular, who shall remain nameless, were as unhelpful as they could be and had no interest in anything but themselves. 

After my two cd’s, I turned to promoting, and put on a few gigs in the North East, again, with no real intention other than to put good gigs on, and hopefully not lose too much money in the process.

A John Cooper Clarke promotion made me a fair bit on one occasion, although on the whole, I probably lost more on my other gigs.

My main aim was that bands were paid fairly, and no one took the piss. Two criteria that a lot of promoters seem to overlook these days.

In the last few years, my son, a very talented musician in his own right, has been in several bands, all of which I seem to have fallen into managing, and I have genuinely loved being involved. Charlie Don’t Dance, for me the best of them, were very poppy, but very, very good, and even though they were a world away from punk, they were pure quality.

It all just goes to prove that there are thousands of excellent bands out there, many of whom we will never get to hear, so it’s good that there are folk in this world to give them a helping hand in whatever way they can. 

As I creep past my mid 50’s, I still attend punk gigs and I still get the same buzz I always did and hopefully that will never change.

Recent bad health meant I have to take things a bit easier than I used to, but I must profess to joining in with my mate Will Binks during a recent Skids gig and doing the Jobson kick in the middle of Into the Valley. In all honesty, a lie down afterwards would have been appreciated!

On a recent trip shopping with my daughter, I spied a young chap with a Dead Kennedys t shirt serving behind the counter. I was tempted to stay quiet but couldn’t resist almost bragging that I had seen them back in the day when they were at their finest.

The lad in question, who must have been about 20 years old, looked me up and down and said, ‘Do you know what it is mate? Old fella’s like you make the scene what it is!’ Cheeky young git, but you know what? I kind of like that comment.

So, to you all, like what you like and never apologise for it. For me, it will always be punk rock, and that is something I am especially proud of’.

Here are 7 songs that shaped Gary’s world.

1. Sex Pistols: Bodies (1977)

‘Being a punk in those days still upset a lot of people and we embraced the fact that it was fun being differently dressed to the majority of other people. With my tartan bondage trousers, Pistols t shirt and occasionally a chain and padlock around my neck, I revelled in the glory of it.

One day we were at my mate’s house and we spied the Jehovah Witnesses doing the rounds in the local area. Mischievously we tried to come up with a way to get rid of them.

The plan was to have the chorus to Bodies playing on full volume just as the guy knocked at the door. Anyway, my mate Geoff answers the knock and as the guy begins talking, the volume was cranked up, and the obscene chorus to Bodies kicked in.

Behind muted grins, we revelled in the profanities coming from Johnny Rottens mouth and we felt sure the fella would move on to his next person. To our surprise, he stood back and said ‘Ah, the Sex Pistols….great band!’  We just stood there open mouthed whilst the fella just laughed and walked off’.

2. B Movie: Nowhere Girl (1980) 

‘Like most people, I have never given up hope that one day I will discover a hidden talent that will enable me to play in a band, and when that day comes, I will write a song just like this one by B Movie.

My love of punk steps aside to find one of the catchiest pop tunes you will ever hear. I must stress that it is the 12″ extended version that captivates me, and I have always advocated a song going on and on…and on, if it is catchy.

The way the song starts with a simple tune and then just builds, and builds is a work of pure genius. It is a song I will never tire of’.

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3. Big Country: Chance (1983)

‘My love of The Skids endeared me to the talent that was Stuart Adamson and after their demise. I followed his next band Big Country with high expectations. I was not to be disappointed, and their first album The Crossing was magnificent.

Stuart took the reins on lead vocals and guitar and kept me enthralled until his sad passing several years later. One song in particular showcased the raw emotion of the band and it was Chance.

Watching them play live always was an awesome experience and to hear the crowd take over the chorus of this song at every gig never failed to move me. It is still a song I find it difficult to listen to for emotional reasons,but it is pure quality’.

4. The Boys: First time (1979) 

‘I bought my first ever compilation album, 20 of another kind, with a spikey, yellow haired punk on the front, which instantly grabbed my attention. It contained several classics, and amongst them was this song by The Boys, which remains one of my favourite songs of all time.

Aged 16, I never really got what the song was about, but years later I did ! It cemented my love for pop punk and that is something that has always stayed with me’.

5. The Stranglers: Always the Sun (1986)

‘On meeting my future wife in 1985, I persuaded her to join me in my passion for collecting 7″ singles, although a lot of the punk bands I liked had temporarily called it a day, which meant we bought quite a lot of poppier stuff.

Artists such as Status Quo, Madonna and A-ha took up residency in a red vinyl singles box under the bed, but the jewel in the crown was my copy of Always the Sun by The Stranglers. Since the release of the brilliant Golden Brown years earlier, The Stranglers were showing themselves to be a lot more commercial, and this song is just wonderful.

Even at recent gigs, you will be hard pressed to find a better performance of any song in their sets, and to hear the crowd singing the chorus just goes to confirm that’.

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6. The Ruts: Jah War (1979)

‘The Ruts debut album The Crack, showed them to be a cut above a lot of the other punk bands around at the time. Fusing punk with reggae was never gonna be easy, but they made it look so.

Documenting the vicious attack by the police on a black friend of theirs, they produced one of the best songs I’ve ever heard. Malcolm’s vocals are sorely missed and never bettered than on this recording.

It upset me greatly when he died prematurely and I still recall a friend telling me the news whilst at college doing my apprenticeship, ironically wearing my Ruts t shirt that very day. I immediately went home and put this song on’.

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7. Flux of Pink Indians: Neu Smell – Tube Disasters (1981)

‘I used to visit my local record shop, Callers at the Nook shopping centre in South Shields, and I would often buy most of the new punk stuff they had bought in each week.

Yes, I ended up with the odd rubbish single, but boy did I hit lucky with this one. I have never been a massive fan of the many bands that affiliated themselves to the anarchist scene, but this song by Flux of Pink Indians just has it all.

Angry vocals integrate with a catchy beat that just sucks you in. It is a song I still play regularly and love. Whenever I play it now for some reason I feel the need to text my mates and rave about how good this song still is. I’m sure they’re all sick of me, but I’m still gonna keep doing it !’ 

Interview by Gary Alikivi    July 2018.

Recommended:

VINYL JUNKIES:

Will Binks July 7th 2017

Martin Popoff July 12th 2017

John Heston August 3rd 2017

Neil Armstrong August 11th 2017

Colin Smoult August 29th 2017

Neil Newton September 12th 2017

Tony Higgins October 11th 2017

Vince High December 11th 2017.

GUARDIAN RECORDING STUDIO #3 with songwriter & producer Steve Thompson

/ Alikivi

Gaurdian Sound Studios were based in a small village called Pity Me in County Durham, North East UK. Pity Me features later in this story by Steve Thompson, songwriter and ex producer at NEAT records.

There are various theories on the origin of the unusual name of the village – a desolate area, exposed and difficult to cultivate or a place where monks sang ‘Pity me o God’ as they were chased by the Vikings.

Whatever is behind the name it was what happened in two terraced houses over 30 years ago that is the focus of this blog. They were home to a well-known recording studio.

From 1978 some of the bands who recorded in Guardian were: Neon, Deep Freeze and Mike Mason & the Little People. A year later The Pirahna Brothers recorded a 7”. 1979 saw an E.P from Mythra and releases in 1980 from Hollow Ground, Hellanbach and a compilation album, Roksnax.

From 1982 to 85 bands including Red Alert, Toy Dolls, Prefab Sprout, Satan, Battleaxe and Spartan Warrior had made singles or albums. I caught up with a number of musicians who have memories of recording in Guardian… 

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STEVE THOMPSON: (Songwriter) ‘I had quit as house producer at Neat Records in 1981. I had begun to realise that I was 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 side-line, not my main gig. So, I set about composing the song that is the subject of this story, Please Don’t Sympathise. This is what happened.

I had just cut a single with The Hollies. Bruce Welch of The Shadows was in the production seat for that recording in Odyssey Studios, London.

I signed a publishing deal with Bruce and remember signing the contract at Tyne Tees TV Studios in Newcastle, Hank Marvin was witness. Bruce had heard an eight song demo of my songs and selected four favourites from it.

He asked me to make some more advanced demos of those four. I could have gone into Neat/Impulse Studio but I still wanted to carve new territory 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 demos, Bruce Welch was paying, and he really wanted me to go to town on the production. Then a producer called Chris Neil entered the story.

Chris had worked with Leo Sayer, Gerry Rafferty, A-Ha, Rod Stewart, Cher and others. 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. Chris had asked Bruce to give him first dibs on any of my new songs that came along.

He picked up on two from the four songs I’d just demoed in Guardian. One of them he sang himself under the band name Favoured Nations. But the recording pertinent to this story is his production of Sheena Easton’s new album Madness, Money and Music.

He recorded my song Please Don’t Sympathise for that album. The album 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’.

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‘About a year later Celine Dion also recorded the song in French Ne Me Plaignez Pas. It was a huge hit single in Canada and certified gold status.

The album it was featured on sold 400,000 copies in Canada and 700,000 copies in France. I never did go back to Guardian but that is a lot of action from just one demo session.

Interestingly, the literal translation of Ne Me Plaignez Pas is Please Don’t PITY ME ! Spooky huh?’

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‘These days I’m doing this song and many others that I wrote for various artists with my own band. I’ve uploaded a video collage here https://vimeo.com/266141205. It starts with the Guardian demo with Dave Black singing.

The demo doesn’t sound that sophisticated after 37 years but that’s where it started. Then there are clips of the Sheena and Celine versions and then my band doing it live.

Sadly, Dave Black is no longer around to sing the song as he did on the demo, but Terry Slesser does a fine job of it. Jen Normandale comes in on the bridge in French ala Celine!’  www.steve-thompson.org.uk

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If anyone has information or recorded in Guardian studios it’ll be much appreciated if can you get in touch.

Interview Alikivi   July 2018.

Recommended:

Steve Thompson (NEAT Producer) Godfather of NWOBHM, 27th June 2017.

1980: The Year Metal was Forged on Tyneside, 11th February 2018.

ROKSNAX: Metal on the Menu, 9th March 2018.

NEAT BITES – Making Records in Wallsend

/ Alikivi

NEAT advert

Neat Records were based in Wallsend, North East England. The label was established in the late ’70s by Dave Woods, who was the owner of Impulse Studios.

It was notable for releases by Venom, Raven and Blitzkreig who are acknowledged as major influences on American bands Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax.

Songwriter and producer Steve Thompson helped set up Neat and produced the initial recordings…

‘One day Dave Woods came in and said there’s a band who are making a bit of noise out there why not get them in and sell a few records? So, in came Tygers of Pan Tang to cut three tracks.

Incidentally it was to be the third single I’d produced for NEAT. Now we know it is known as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and the tide was coming in that very evening haha’. 

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ROBB WEIR (Tygers of Pan Tang) ‘In 1979 we recorded, Don’t Touch Me There. It had a release number 003 so we were in at the beginning of the Neat Record label story. We were the first heavy metal band to be recorded in the studio. So, I’m very proud of the Tygers giving the Neat label a direction.

Impulse studios took a chance and pressed 1,000 copies, that was a lot for a small independent label. Don’t Touch Me There was reviewed in Sounds newspaper which made a massive difference, so the next pressing was 4,000 !

Then studio owner Dave Woods was approached by MCA record company, they wanted us! So Dave did a deal, essentially selling the Tygers to them. So MCA pressed around 50,000 copies of the single!’

BRIAN ROSS (Blitzkreig) ‘I remember the first time in Impulse Studio was great we made it feel like our second home.

It came highly recommended as Tyne Tees TV used it to record their jingles there and we recorded a jingle Hot n Heavy Express which Alan Robson used on his radio show. It went well so we extended it into a single. NEAT put it out on a compilation EP.

Now this studio was the label to be on, and I mean in the country not just the North East, I’ve recorded many tracks there as Satan, Avenger and Blitzkreig. It’s a shame it’s not there now’. 

ANTONY BRAY (Venom) ‘Conrad was tape operator at NEAT doing a few days here and there and he bugged the owner Dave Woods about getting spare time in the studio for the band. He kept asking him ‘can my band come in on the weekend ?

Woodsy got so sick of him he just said ok, just do it, but pay for the tape. So we recorded a three track EP and we thought it might get a little review somewhere.

I was still working at Reyrolles factory then and one morning I wandered in, and someone had a copy of the Sounds. Couldn’t believe it, there’s a two page spread about our EP, f’ing hell look at this.

When Woodsy saw it he thought, I hate the band, think they are bloody awful – but kerching!’

KEITH NICHOLL (Impulse studio engineer) ‘With Raven, their playing was always intensive but there were loads of stories and quite a few laughs. I think they simply wanted to do a better album than the first and then again, the third. Any band would. Can’t remember if there was an official tour but they did loads of gigs. Good live band’.

HARRY HILL (Fist) ‘The first single we put out was Name, Rank and Serial Number and You Never Get Me Up in One of Those on the b side. We done a lot of rehearsal and prep work, so we were tight, ready to record.

When we done Name, Rank we were on Northern Life TV. The cameras came down filmed in the studio that was 1980. Strangely the only piece of vinyl I have is our single The Wanderer. We started putting it in our set so yeah, went in and recorded it.

Status Quo released a version a couple of months after us but honestly thought our version was better haha’.

GARY YOUNG (Avenger) ’I worked in the Shipyards near my hometown but for about a year before that I worked at Impulse Studios in Wallsend which was where Neat Records were based.

Due to this I was involved in a lot of recording sessions and some of them for what are now landmark albums like Venoms – Black Metal and Ravens – Wiped Out.

I had my first experiences of recording there with my own bands and helping people out on random recording sessions. They were great times’.

DAVY LITTLE (Axis) ‘I remember Fist guitarist Keith Satchfield was in when we were recording. He was always track suited up. Getting fit and going on runs in preparation for a tour.

I had met him a few times when I was younger, I used to go and see Warbeck and Axe. Always thought he was a cool musician and writer. Plus, a nice fella.

We were very inexperienced and new nothing about studios. He gave us advice on how to set up amps. Was very supportive I never forgot that.

Also, when we were in there a very young moody boy was working there. Making tea, helping get kit in. Always drawing. Asked to see some of his drawings. All dark, tombstones, skulls, flying demons…nice kid tho’ said he didn’t think we were very heavy metal. I agreed.

He said, “one day I am going to have the heaviest band ever”. I met Chronos years later in a club in Newcastle when he was fronting the mighty Venom. A nice lad’.

STEVE WALLACE (Shotgun Brides) ‘There was a kid called Richard Denton who grew up in the same area as us and he was working A&R at Impulse records in Wallsend. He persuaded the owner Dave Woods to take us on.

We went into Impulse Studio and recorded the track Restless, that was engineered and produced by Kev Ridley in 1987. The b side of the single was Eighteen.

We recorded the song bit by bit, tracking it up. Unlike a few other bands it wasn’t recorded by playing all the way through and off you go add a couple of overdubs, no it was fully tracked. It eventually ended up on a NEAT compilation album’.

PHASSLAYNE NEAT

MICHAEL MAUGHAN (Phasslayne) ‘In the summer of ’85 Phasslayne were approached by Neat Records. Dave Woods was the main man there.

What happened was we recorded a demo at Desert Sounds in Felling which they really liked so the label asked us to record a live no dubs demo in their studio in Wallsend. On hearing that Dave Woods signed us to do an album.

But just before we got our record deal our singer left and everyone looked at me so that’s how I ended up doing the vocals. I think Keith Nichol was the engineer. For guitars I used my Strat and Maurice Bates from Mythra loaned me his Les Paul. We called the album Cut it Up, it’s on vinyl’.

KEV CHARLTON (Hellanbach) ‘We got a deal with NEAT records to record our first album. That was the best time. After rehearsing for months getting the new songs together, we recorded the album which is a very proud moment in my life. Now Hear This came out in ’83 and was produced by Keith Nichol.

I remember getting the first copy of the album, taking it into work thinking this might be me leaving the shipyards. It was one of the weirdest times of my life because it came out to amazing five-star reviews and some of the big bands weren’t even getting five stars.

I remember sitting in the toilets of Wallsend shipyard reading the reviews in Kerrang and Sounds, thinking this will be the last time I’ll be in the shipyard. But it wasn’t !’ 

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To read a comprehensive story of NEAT records get a hold of the book Neat and Tidy by John Tucker.

It examines the history of the label, its bands and their releases including interviews with many key players in the Neat Records’ story such as label boss David Wood, producer Steve Thompson, Raven’s John Gallagher and Jeff ‘Mantas’ Dunn from Venom.

https://www.johntuckeronline.co.uk/neat-and-tidy-the-story-of-neat-records.html

Interviews by Gary Alikivi     2018.

Recommended:

Brian Ross, SATAN/BLITZKREIG, Life Sentence, 20th February 2017.

Harry Hill, FIST: Turn the Hell On, 29th April 2017.

John Gallagher, RAVEN: Staring into the Fire, 3rd May 2017.

Kev Charlton, HELLANBACH/BESSIE & THE ZINC BUCKETS: The Entertainer, 23rd June 2017.

Steve Thompson (NEAT Producer) Godfather of NWOBHM, 27th June 2017.

Richard Laws TYGERS OF PAN TANG: Tyger Bay 24th August 2017.

Robb Weir TYGERS OF PAN TANG: Doctor Rock  2017

1980: The Year Metal was Forged on Tyneside, 11th February 2018.

Guardian Studio: Defender of the North 3rd May 2018.

ROKSNAPS #5 with Paul White

/ Alikivi
Motorhead1979

Lemmy, Motorhead 1979.

Roksnaps are fan photographs which captured the atmosphere of concerts on Tyneside during the late 70’s and early 80’s.

It was a time when rock and metal bands ruled the city halls up and down the country. On Tyneside we had the main venues of Mecca in Sunderland, The Mayfair and City Hall in Newcastle.

The gigs were packed with tribes of mostly young lads from towns across the North East. T-shirts, programmes and autographs were hunted down to collect as a souvenir – and some people took photographs on the night.

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Thin Lizzy, 1980.

One fan who kept his photos and shared them on this blog was Paul White…

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‘The pics I’ve managed to dig out here are scanned from my original prints as the negatives went walkabout many moons ago. Here’s what you’ve got. Whitesnake – Trouble and the Lovehunter tour. Thin Lizzy – Black Rose tour, Motorhead – Overkill and Bomber tour (I think). Enjoy.’

David Coverdale, Whitesnake.
Gary Moore & Scott Gorham, Thin Lizzy 1980.
Motorhead.

‘I went to my first gig in 1975. Status Quo’s On The Level tour. What a night. Back then when a band like that played, the first few rows of seats would be ripped up immediately the band came on.

Along with Glasgow Apollo the City Hall and Mayfair were the best gigs in the country for touring bands.

If there was a band like AC/DC on at the Mayfair, you could be lifted off your feet by the crowd and pushed from side to side. You certainly had to know how to use your elbows.

The exhilaration when the lights suddenly went down, and a massive cheer would go up. Nothing like it.

At some point I realised we had an old Minolta SLR lying round the house that nobody was using. With only a rudimentary understanding of how to use it, I bought some film and took it to a gig. The Scorpions first Newcastle gig I think it was.

I remember, because the gig tickets were white and loads of people had photocopied a mates and applied a perf with a needle, including me. The staff on the doors never had time to properly check tickets back then, it was easy peasy. That happened more than once I have to say.

The photos were crap though. I had no flash and was wary of the staff taking the camera. Worse, I was on the balcony and didn’t have a great view. No idea what happened to those shots. Just as well. I was luckier from then on’. 

Gary Moore, Thin Lizzy.
Scott Gorham, Thin Lizzy.

‘Next time it was the Whitesnake first tour to promote Trouble which had just been released. Better seats meant better pics. A few times I queued overnight for tickets and got great seats.

One time in a blizzard for Rush’s Hemispheres tour. The weather was so bad it made the local TV news. I just remember waking up under a foot of snow.

Queuing overnight wasn’t always a good idea though. One time me and a mate got the last bus from Blyth to Newcastle to queue for Rainbow tickets only to find a sign on the doors saying ‘Rainbow tickets will not be on sale’.

Unfortunately, the last bus home had gone, and we couldn’t afford a taxi. We kipped in a doorway of the Civic Centre and got the first bus in the morning. Wouldn’t swap those days for anything though. Happy days indeed.

The list of great bands we saw is hard to believe these days. Tell some young kid that you saw AC/DC or UFO at the Mayfair and their mouths drop open. We were blessed for sure’.

Phil Lynott, Thin Lizzy.
Lemmy, Motorhead.
Mick Moody, Whitesnake.

Interview Alikivi   June 2018.

Recommended:

Steve Thompson (Songwriter & NEAT records producer) Godfather of NWOBHM, 27th June 2017.

1980 The Year Metal was Forged on Tyneside 11th February 2018.

MARK MY WORDS with Ettrick Scott from Jazz Riot

/ Alikivi

ESTCLUB NCLE-20

‘I’m loathe to describe myself as a poet because I’ve studied the form in depth – Keats, Wordsworth, Shelley etc that’s your poets. Me ? I’m just a rhyming gobshite mate.

I went to Northumbria University in my 40’s and did a creative writing degree and I started studying and writing poetry. Something just clicked and ended up with me starting Jazz Riot.

Who are Staggerin’ Jon Lee on Lap pedal steel from Byker and I’m not entirely sure where guitarist Stevie G lives these days – near Killingworth somewhere, maybe? and me, I’m a talker based in Ovingham, Northumberland.’

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When did you start playing gigs and what venues did you play ?

’Around early ’89. The first proper band was The Legendary Harley Dread. Three quarters of this combo were sales assistants from Newcastles Grott Guitars. We were influenced by the Stooges, Doors, Stranglers and in my case Guns n Roses.

I’m fascinated by hedonism. Appetite for Destruction was an amazing album. I read an article about them once which said that had Dionysus – the Greek God of wine, ritual madness and theatre – been at large in Los Angeles in the mid ‘80s, he would have been a member of GNR. I totally agree with that.

They went all bloated and shite after Appetite mind, but that’s what inevitably happens when you throw millions of dollars at drug addicts and alcoholics. 

I’d estimate that around 90% of our gigs were at The Broken Doll and the Riverside in Newcastle. Our first gig was at the Doll supporting Mega City Four.

I tried to conquer my nerves beforehand by getting absolutely lathered on Southern Comfort. The end result being that I went all Iggy Pop for the gig and can’t remember anything about it.

The rest of the band were peeved at the clip I was in but also impressed that I managed to sing all the right words.

We also played there with Penetration’s Pauline Murray. The only other name act we gigged with was ex-Hawkwind guitarist Huw Lloyd Langton. Both at the Doll and the Kasbah in Sunderland.

Looking back we were incompetent and awful. But being in a band with your mates in your early twenties is like being pirates innit ? We wore tight leather trousers, abused substances, pulled some lasses and got paid, sometimes’.

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Who were your influences in music ?

‘I’m a writer. I’m all about words, my primary influence has to be my dad. I’m the offspring of an Art teacher mother and an English lecturer father.

So, I’m basically an arty little twat who likes words a lot. Sadly, the art gene passed me by. I can’t even draw a decent stick man. But the English bit got me big time.

My parents split up when I was 10-month-old and all of my early memories of my dad involve being in a car with him spouting assorted lyrics and folk songs at me.

The first rhyme I can remember committing to memory I was maybe 5 or 6, was by Leonard Cohen and it’s one I still love to this day. ‘I lit a thin green candle to make you jealous of me. But the room just filled up with mosquitoes, they’d heard that my body was free’.

To me that’s a perfect rhyming couplet; it’s unsettling, there’s a sadness there, and it’s quite funny in a dark sort of way. Whenever I meet someone who peddles the tired myth that L.Cohen Esq. makes music to slash your wrists to, I know I’m most likely talking to someone who hasn’t listened to him much and is just recycling an opinion.

I find his writing immensely touching and funny as fuck, loaded with humanity and dry as a bone humour.

The second couplet I can remember learning is from Time by David Bowie; ’Time, she flexes like a whore/Falls wanking to the floor’. Which is maybe not the sort of thing one should be reciting to a child still at infant school.

But here, that’s my old man for you. He rarely modifies his patter based on the age of the person he’s talking to’.

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How did you get involved in music ?

‘I always wanted to be the singer in a band because, to my mind at least, the singer is the one who writes all the lyrics – or he should anyway.

The one defining incident that made me want to be in a band was this; Aged 14 me and two other kids were jamming in our school music block one lunchtime – guitar, drums, me singing. The music room had a tiny window which looked onto an area where all the hard kids gathered to smoke.

Me and the hard kids did not get along at all. I was bullied a bit at school, not a severe kicking type, but a fair bit of hassle because I was different. Different in a way that’s hard to quantify but I suppose ‘arty little twat’ goes some way to explain my school years.

Anyway our playing quickly attracted the attention of the hard lads and they didn’t like it one little bit. They started screaming abuse and flicking the v’s at the window, and then began spitting on it.

After 10 minutes the window was completely covered in hockle. Y’knaa I’d be the first to admit I’m a bit of a wind-up merchant and as soon as I saw the possibility to piss people off – I can remember clear as day thinking ‘Oh aye, I’m fuckin’ having this’.

What were your experiences of recording

‘We recorded one three track demo at Newcastle Arts Centre, I can’t remember us sending it out to anyone. Just Say Yes, Heads Gone Crazy and Flesh Starts Creeping – yes we had live fast die young lifestyles then.

We started recording and drinking at 9.30am. We were mortal by the afternoon. I fell over the mixing desk. The bassist couldn’t nail down his parts.

The engineer sent us to the pub to stop distracting him any further. Years later I found that the engineer took over bass and stood in for him’.

Did you record any TV appearances or film any music videos ?

‘There used to be a video knocking about of us onstage and backstage at the Riverside supporting Mega City Four. We all lost our copies and it’s a real shame because I don’t think there’s any footage of the Riverside backstage area. It would be interesting to see again. Anybody got it ?’

Have you any stories from playing gigs ?

‘My favourite involves the two gigs we done with Hawkwinds Huw Lloyd Langton. A man who had possibly taken one acid trip too many, bless him.

After we supported him at the Broken Doll in Newcastle, we had a good crack on with him, got on really well.

Then we played with him again in Sunderland about three months later. We got chatting after the gig, but it quickly became apparent that he didn’t have the first clue who we were and no memory whatsoever of having met us before. Drugs man – just say no kids’.

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What are you doing now and are you still involved in music ?

‘It amuses me that I sang in bands for a few years and got pretty much nowhere. But as soon as I started talking instead I got a bit of recognition. I added music to my words because what I understand is rock n roll and I believe experiences should be shared.

I love coming off stage and hanging out with the same people that played the gig and getting the same buzz of it. I can’t perform at those spoken words nights. I don’t understand that world at all. That’s a very lonely place to be.

If you’re going to die on your arse on stage, it might as well be with your mates next to you.

To date we’ve opened for John Cooper Clarke, Penetration, TV Smith, Field Music and loads more. We played the International Psychology Conference in Liverpool last year.

This year we’re on a real strange festival bill with John Cleese, Gary Lineker, Pussy Riot and Hugh Grant – thinking about it – that line up get’s funnier every time.

When I went to University, I couldn’t have dreamt that this is where it would lead. If it all stopped tomorrow, I can honestly say I’ve had the very best of times in Jazz Riot’.

Interview by Gary Alikivi   June 2018.

Recommended:

ANGELIC UPSTARTS: The Butchers of Bolingbroke, 1st June 2017.

Simon Donald, VIZ: The Toon Show, 1st September 2017.

Steve Straughan, UK SUBS: Beauty & the Bollocks, 1st October 2017.

Steve Kincaide: A Life of Booze, Bands & Buffoonery, 11th January 2018.

ONE STEP BEYOND MIDDLESBROUGH – with Pete McDermott from ’80s ska band The Videos

/ Alikivi

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Who were your influences and was there a defining moment when you said “I want to do that” ? 

‘I was listening to Jeff Beck and Wishbone Ash. I remember watching Mick Ronson and Bowie on Top of the Pops playing Starman. Well that was it… game over!’  

When did you start playing gigs and what venues did you play ? 

‘At 15 years old I started playing the pubs and clubs of the North East. When I joined The Videos we went professional and played all over Europe supporting bands like Bucks Fizz, Racey, Madness, The Specials, Selector, Bad Manners all that Two Tone stuff and a bit of pop. Loved it. Was also in a band called The Jogging Waiters !’

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What were your experiences of recording ? 

’We recorded in Guardian Studio in Durham. We done Deo, Him or Me and Blitzo Calypso. We also recorded some demo’s for Miles Copeland manager of The Police. That was at Strawberry Studios.

The line up for The Videos was Ged Duffy on bass. Johnny Newsome on drums and myself on guitar. We all handled vocals with Ged the lead’. 

Did you record any TV appearences or film any music videos ?

’Around 1979 we were on Border TV where we played Deo. Also the Tyne Tees TV programme Northern Life. That came about because we had a manager Dave Connors from Middlesbrough who knew a couple of TV people, and somehow he got us on twice for our singles Deo and Blitzo Calypso – that led to our tour with Bucks Fizz. The Videos lasted until 82’.

(Check them out on You Tube at The Videos Ska/White reggae pop band).

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Have you any stories from playing gigs ? 

‘Well on stage there was a few electrocutions! There was a time in Guardian Studio when John Miles got the tea on for us. We met David Bowie at Julies nightclub in Newcastle, I remember he fancied my mate.

Once we were playing at a club in Newcastle and a flash bomb went off prematurely, just as a woman passed by with a tray of drinks – it set fire to her nylon dress’.

What are you doing now and are you still involved with music ? 

‘I run The Foxhead Cowboy home recording studio and just produced a few tracks for local musicians Mark Simpson and another for Jonathan Honour. They are on Spotify and Apple music.

I got two of my own songs Pallister Park and The Foxhead Cowboys through to the semi-final of a UK song writing competition. They can both be heard along with tons of my other songs on Soundcloud under Mac the Geetar. 

I’m also playing in a band with Spike -ex Chris Rea band. Doing some Tom Petty, Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal, Drive by Truckers and Ron Sexsmith. We have Steve Conway on vocals, Gary Cain drums, Bob Garrington on guitar, Martin Poole on bass and yours truly on guitar and vocals.

Also playing in pubs with The Rivals. Doing some power pop, ’70s and ’80s stuff plus some up-to-date tunes’.

Interview by Gary Alikivi    May 2018.

Recommended:

Steve Kincaide: A Life of Booze, Bands & Buffoonery, 11th January 2018.

LOUD AS WAR – with Def Con One drummer Antton Lant.

/ Alikivi

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Over the past year I have interviewed a few bands who take no prisoners when it comes to sheer power.

If ya want to hear good ol’ bone crunching, face ripping, spleen removing, 100% metal. Def Con One are the go-to band.

Check out the videos on You Tube for their tracks 10 Bullets, Warface, Brute Force & Ignorance – you can’t miss ‘em they look like extras from Sons of Anarchy with muscles, tatt’s and shaven heads.

Drummer Antton Lant looks back to where it started…

‘With my older brothers being in bands I’ve always been around music. I got an SG guitar one Christmas and used to jump around in my bedroom pretending I was playing Wembley Stadium haha.

Back in the day I was massively into bands like AC/DC, Kiss and Van Halen. I loved the imagery of American bands Twisted Sister and Motley Crue which played heavily on my first band Slutt. Then I heard a band called Pantera and after that it all got much heavier’.

When did you start playing gigs and what venues did you play ? 

‘In my first band Slutt I started playing in South Shields pubs and clubs. We then got to tour Poland playing huge stadiums – 20,000 a night. Later we toured the UK playing mainly rock clubs.

After Slutt called it a day in late ’91 I put a band together called Ezee but that fizzled out and I just kind of lost interest in playing but I was still writing.

I was finding it hard to find a drummer who would play the stuff I wanted to play. My oldest brother is a drummer and he let me play on his kit and showed me some stuff which I liked so I swapped him my Steve Vai guitar for his kit.

I then started looking for a band that needed a drummer so I could get some experience playing drums. I found some guys called Deadline, they didn’t really have a name set in stone and ended up being called Sanitys Edge. That was more metal in the vein of Megadeth, Maiden, that kinda stuff.

I wanted to go heavier so formed Def-Con-One. Then I was asked to help out black metal legends Venom in the studio and ended up being the drummer for 10 year.

We headlined some of the biggest festivals across Europe and played various tours. I got to play on three albums. Obviously having my name linked to Venom helped me a lot with Def-Con-One. Our record companies were big Venom fans.

I was also playing in another band full off ex Venom members called M-pire of Evil. This put me in touch with the record companies – contacts I wouldn’t of got without the Venom link.

Over the years I managed to achieve a lot for Def-Con-One. But it was hard, you had to put the work in’.

 

What were your experiences of recording ?

‘Recordings were great fun. Loved it in a studio compared to recording in your bedroom. Venom got to record in some huge studios.

I made one album with Slutt, three albums with Venom – Resurrection, Metal Black and Hell. Two with M-Pire of Evil – Creatures of the Black and Hell to the Holy and two with Def-Con-One – Warface and 2.

First album with Venom was Resurrection. We flew into Hamburg, Germany and lived in the studio it was crazy. The studio had a kitchen, showers, sauna, tv room the lot. It was awesome.

Charlie the producer hired me a Pearl masters kit with different size bass drums which he loved to record. We followed Motorhead into that studio and he played us some tracks he had just recorded. It sounded massive.

He was a real task master though. He had me play the songs through quite a lot of times so he could pick what he felt was the best performance. It was great fun.

Wen I recorded Metal Black we were in the Town House Studios in London, in the same studio that Queen recorded all their classic albums. So that was awesome too’.

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Have you any stories from playing gigs ? 

‘Wow too many too tell and most you couldn’t publish haha. But here’s one. We played Hammerfest a few years back and the food that the bands get is ok. A band I know, Cradle of Filth were headlining, so backstage I made my way over to them.

We’re sitting on their bus chatting and their vocalist Dani asked what the food was like. I told him and he said they don’t eat that, they had tokens for the restaurant. That sounded better. Next thing Dani askes their tour manager to hook me up and I was able to get the Def-Con-One lads big steaks and all the trimmings’. 

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What have you got in the pipeline for Def-Con-One ?

‘I helped out a few tribute bands last year which was fun. There was Ozzy, Twisted Sister and an AC/DC tribute. All really great guys, good fun and enjoyed it.

In the Def-Con-One camp we have been really busy sorting out a few things and will be back gigging soon. We are actually recording at the minute.

The band have got a few festivals booked but that’s very hush hush till they reveal the whole line up and announce it formally’.

Interview by Gary Alikivi   May 2018.

Recommendations:

VENOM INC: Hebburn or Hell, 28th July 2017.

WARFARE: No One Gets Out Alive, 8th October 2017.

OBSIDIAN: Bomb Tracks, 8th January 2018.

BLACK FORGE: Take No Prisoners, 18th January 2018.

SLUTT: Angels with Dirty Faces, 6th May 2018.