NORTH EAST UK MUSIC

LISTEN TO YOUR HEART in conversation with Tyneside songwriter Rosie Anderson

/ Alikivi

Now living in South Shields, retired teacher Rosie Anderson still feels there is work to do and more stories to tell.

‘Sometimes I feel as though I’m just getting started. I sing whenever I can. This year my musical partner Adam Holden and I have played at The Watch House in Cullercoats, The White Room in Stanley and Cockermouth Festival which were all great. I’m determined not to just bow out because I’m getting older’.

‘I grew up in Wylam in the Tyne Valley, in a house full of music. Both my Grandparents played piano. My dad listened to The Beatles, both parents loved the theatre and musicals and they took me and my brother there – I still love all that’.

‘When I was a kid I told my parents I wanted to be a performer but they were worried I wouldn’t be able to afford a home like them, they wanted me to have a ‘proper’ job. They wouldn’t let me study performing arts so I trained as a teacher’.

‘My first job was in Benwell, Newcastle. Then I went to the Middle East where I spent 10 years teaching in Kuwait and Qatar, before returning to Newcastle. I taught at Walkergate Primary School where I would do all the music shows and drama productions. Loved doing the shows there, I never gave lyric sheets out to the kids, they learned by listening and singing the songs back’.

‘When I left teaching I saw an advert for facilitators for  Singing for the Brain with the Alzheimers Society. I really loved doing that. I did that for six years until covid hit. Singing on-line with people on the screen in front of you didn’t work really’.

‘People love stories in whatever form, be it a book, a film or a song. Some people write songs about being in love, and about their feelings. My songs are mostly about people and places. I find stories present themselves to me and I take them and turn them into a song’.

‘There are two songs that I have written that stand out for me. Sally Smiths Lament was written after my husband Chris and I worked on a film about soldiers from County Durham during World War One’.

‘Sally was the wife of miner Fred Smith, who featured in our film. They lived in a tiny terraced house and every day Fred and his sons needed a bath, a clean shirt, a clean bed and a dinner. The kids needed to get to school – how did she cope with all that, especially when Fred was away at war. I wanted to give Sally, and all the women like her, a voice.’

‘When I wrote it the song just seemed to be presented to me, her whole life. I got to sing it at a celebration in West Auckland and her family came to hear it – it was very moving. It travelled well and won three competitions – the Newcastle Folk Club, Rothbury Traditional Music Festival and first prize at Morpeth Gathering’.

‘I can’t just decide to sit down and write a song – some people do and I applaud them for the discipline but I have to wait until they come. Three things happened to me in my life that I put together in a song called Breakdown’.

‘When I was a kid I lived at Chapel House Estate in the west end of Newcastle. One night me, my mother and a friend went for a walk. This woman came out of her house in her dressing gown, she wasn’t in control of herself, didn’t know what time or day it was. I had never seen that behaviour in an adult before. Now I believe she was having a nervous breakdown’.

‘That always stayed in my head and another one was when I was living in Fenham. I went to the shops with my children who were only small then, and a woman came out of her house with a letter and asked if I would read it to her as she was confused and couldn’t understand it’.

‘Then about 30 years ago I went on a blind date in Newcastle with this very nice bloke. He said I need to tell you something before we go any further ‘When I was working in Canada I had a nervous breakdown in the car park of a Burger King’. It was hard to concentrate on anything else after that’.

‘But I remembered those incidents and those three individual people are lodged in my heart for their own traumas. They gave me that song’.

‘This year we went to Kjerringoy a former trading post in the Norwegian Arctic Circle, out in the middle of nowhere, it was beautiful. A family ran it in the 19th century and had 3000 fishermen working for them, catching and processing thousands of tons of cod’.

‘The father and husband died and the wife continued to run it single-handed for many years until she eventually remarried. I asked the locals if there was a song about her and there isn’t. So that’s my next song – Annalisa from Kjerringoy. Her story needs to be told’.

‘I’m also aware we need to start telling more stories about people and their lives and jobs today otherwise in 100 years time there will be no one singing about us!‘

‘What does music mean to me? It’s hard to describe it, it’s so deeply embedded, there’s no life without it. Music is at the core of my being, there is no day without singing and because I have grandchildren now I have a new audience! We sing folk songs and songs from musicals, they’re word perfect when they sing them back’.

‘Music gives such joy, when I was singing with the Alzheimers Society the collective joy and reminiscences of songs from the past and enjoying it together was just so valuable for the families’.

‘We had people who wouldn’t sing at all but liked being there and that was fine. Once, two women brought their mother to a session and she sat between them. She didn’t communicate at all, had her head down, closed off you know. But when we started singing a song, I can’t remember which one, she lifted her head up and actually got up and started moving around in the middle of the circle’.

‘One daughter got up and started dancing with her. When we got to the end of the song the daughter turned round and said to me ‘She’s just said my name for the first time in years’.

‘Music gets right in there (pointing at heart) we’ve got to keep it going and expose our youngest children and oldest adults to music because it really does reach parts that others can’t reach. It’s like hearing the heartbeat in your mother’s womb’.

‘As a child I wanted to do music, as an adult I taught it with kids then people with dementia, despite my age I’m still committed to what I always wanted to do. Women who’ve had careers and families can still chase their dreams’.

Alikivi   September  2024

TOO FAR NORTH in conversation with Boldon author Ian Fawdon

/ Alikivi / 3 Comments

‘There’s been nationally recognised music scenes in Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Glasgow and Bristol but there hasn’t been one in the North East. So, I thought there’s a story to be told’.

Retired former Nissan worker Ian Fawdon decided to write a book about his passion. ‘Too Far North’ features over 30 interviews with musicians talking about what it means to be a musician from the North East.

‘I started talking to musicians like The Kane Gang and Lindisfarne drummer Ray Laidlaw, they were all fantastic to interview. White Heat frontman Bob Smeaton was a great storyteller and I found the Heavy Metal section really inspiring’.

‘John Gallagher from Raven and John Roach from Mythra were so enthusiastic – after all these years. When I met Robb Weir from Tygers of Pan Tang I took their first single to the interview I bought in 1980 to get autographed. Robb was more shocked than me!’

‘I start off looking at the 60s and The Animals. I talked to people from then, it was a really vibrant scene. Then I look at the folk scene and Lindisfarne, then punk and New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Then the Kitchenware record label and Sunderland bands Field Music and the Futureheads and finish off by bringing it up to date with Nadine Shah’.

‘Did I come across any unexpected stories? When putting this book together good management really stood out it really made a difference. Tom Noble at Tygers of Pan Tang went to MCA and got them a four album deal. Fist got an album deal but didn’t do as well’.

‘I talked to Keith Armstrong, owner of Kitchenware Records a really interesting guy. Until they came along there was only one choice for bands and that was to go to London. Kitchenware thought no, you don’t have to move we can do it up here. That for me was a refreshing attitude’.

‘They had four bands – Prefab Sprout, Kane Gang, Hurrah and Martin Stephenson and the Daintees. Keith got them all really good deals. Kitchenware still managed the bands but were licensed to the major companies’.

‘Prefab Sprout had already recorded a single and were selling them in HMV when Keith heard them. He went to CBS for Prefab and they asked him how much he wanted. ‘£100,000’ he replied. They made a quick phone call to their boss and agreed the price. He said he had ‘no idea where that number came from!’

‘He later went on to Editors and Jake Bugg. Keith could spot talent and he always hoped that each band recognised that he was doing his best for them’.

Lindisfarne at Newcastle City Hall.

‘Further interviews with Keith revealed that around 1982 there wasn’t much happening in Newcastle. ‘There was me and a couple of mates looking to start something. There was Viz, Trent House bar and a club called World Head Quarters. We wanted to put bands on in the town, there was plenty Heavy Metal gigs but nothing else’.

‘We got a few bands from Scotland like Aztec Camera and a few other nights started up. Our favourite band was New Order so we thought of getting them’. They phoned the manager up and he demanded cash on arrival, which they agreed to. Tickets sold quickly so they transferred the gig to Newcastle Mayfair, that sold out and set them up’.

‘The New Order gig money was enough to record singles in a London studio for Hurrah, and Martin Stephenson and the Daintees. One day Keith Armstrong, who was manager at Newcastle HMV, had Martin Stephenson’s Daintees busking outside the shop. But they were getting some grief so Keith asked them to play inside. He liked some of the tunes – that’s where he asked them about going down to London to record’.

‘Just every now and again you get people from the North East who have that drive, that ambition, and Keith was like that. He was just a young lad at the time, in his early 20s and a manager of a record shop’ said Ian.

‘Keith told me that he got hold of Malcom Gerrie who was the top boss at The Tube and said to him ‘you’re not doing much on the North East why not do something on Kitchenware?’ It wasn’t long till a segment on Kitchenware records was broadcast on The Tube. Keith was pushy with enough belief in the North East. He’s still active now and has Soul Kitchen Recordings and gets young talent from the North East to put records out’.

‘If you are looking for a sad story in the book I did an interview where I did feel sorry for those concerned. There is a lot of tales of woe. One of the bands in the punk section were from Durham, called Neon. I really liked them, they were so arty and interesting and played a lot in the North East. One of the famous gigs at the Guildhall in Newcastle was with Angelic Upstarts and Punishment of Luxury where a massive fight broke out’.

‘Punishment got signed by United Artists who were also sniffing around Neon. In an interview Tim Jones (vocals, Neon) told me there was a guy called Martin Rushent (Buzzcocks, Stranglers, Human League). He was a big name producer starting up a new label. He asked Neon to ‘come down to our independent label and we’ll put your single out give you plenty of attention’.

‘They went with them and started touring but the van was breaking down, the PA was knackered, there was just no money. They went to the studio where Martin was recording XTC and told him about the situation, he replied ‘What do you expect me to do about it?’

The band were devastated and not long after split up. Tim was shocked at the treatment and said ‘at first someone gave us the dream, then just dropped us. How could he treat a bunch of 18 year old kids like that? It seems we got picked up then they got bored of us’.

‘You want a funny story? Maybe not comical but the book has a number of incidents that occur around musicians and gigs. This one included top Hollywood film director Spike Lee’.

‘Believe it or not Spike has a brother who is a massive Prefab Sprout fan. A few year ago Spike wanted to develop a fairy tale animation based on the music of Paddy McAloon. Everything was going alright until they met in London and Spike had changed his mind because he had fallen out with his brother’.

‘Hurrah got the gig supporting U2 and found themselves in a big venue in Birmingham where they didn’t understand the scale. Their little curly guitar leads wouldn’t stretch across the huge stage’. 

‘They also told me they didn’t play the game. After gigs they didn’t go in the green room to rub shoulders with other bands and music biz people. They’d stay in their dressing room turn the light off and shout at each other while throwing their rider about, which was usually fruit. At one gig The Edge and Larry from U2 opened the door to someone shouting ‘bananas’!’

‘I spoke to Brian Bond and he told me Punishment of Luxury were on a European tour and the last gig was in Holland. The stage manager said why not do something special? So, on their last song Jellyfish he got a bucket of raw fish and threw it at the audience – who threw it straight back all over the guitars and amps. Brian said it was the worst thing he had done on stage he couldn’t believe he had done it and had to apologise to the band’.

Ian adds ‘I wrote the 400 odd page book in a positive fashion, I didn’t include stories about drugs and not everyone’s favourite is in but I favoured the North East bands, always loved them and saw plenty when I was younger’.

‘Too Far North’ on Tyne Bridge Publishing is out now for further information contact >

https://www.waterstones.com/book/too-far-north/ian-fawdon/9781739223342

Alikivi    September 2024

BANJO IN BOGOTA – in conversation with Tyneside storyteller & folk musician Tony Wilson

/ Alikivi / 1 Comment

Tyne Dock in South Shields was an interesting part of the town to live, with its churches, terraced houses and huge industrial Victorian arches next to the river. It was in the early 80s when a lot of the old housing stock was being demolished and in Porchester Street I watched Ascendency being filmed. Julie Covington of hit TV show Rock Follies was the star, not long after that The Machine Gunners was set in Porchester and filmed for BBC TV.

‘Up to when I was 7 year old I lived in Porchester Street. It’s not there now but St Mary’s Church around the corner is where I used to sing in the choir and the scouts’ said Tony.

‘Now I live on the Lawe Top beside the roman fort. It’s almost aspirational for someone who comes from Tyne Dock to wind up being a skuetender’ (native to the Lawe Top).

‘I’m proud of coming from South Shields and when you were young trips to the fort were absolutely mind blowing. The area it’s in is incredible, with the whole vista of the river and parks and beach nearby – we’re lucky here’.

Being a former Tyne Docker now Skuetender he’s not wrong there. Tony featured on the site back in May 2018 talking about storytelling and songwriting and what music means to him.

‘I turned back to folk singing in 2017 after the government education cuts made it too expensive for schools to have extra-curricular practitioners, like me, to come in. Before that I was storytelling in schools for 20 years covering hundreds of issues such as the steelworks when I was in Ebbw Vale, the Romans here in South Shields, the coal industry and iron stone mining in Teesside and Northumberland. It was an extremely successful time’.

‘Storytelling is very important, its communication, social history, emotional control, drama, its use of vocabulary. For me it was learning how to be a performer and developing stamina to be able to do four hour sets a day, then drive 100 miles to go to a hotel, get up next day and do it again’.

‘Cities like Manchester, Oxford, Cambridge, all over the UK. I’d stay in these areas year after year for a fortnight at a time and, unlike a music tour where you could be in Aberdeen one day and Bournemouth the next, I’d plan easy distances to plan a route back home – loved the life.’

‘Then around 2009 I got an email. The message was ‘would you like to tell stories in Argentina?’ I wasn’t sure it was kosher at first but I received a phone call a few weeks later confirming it was. I was given contacts of previous storytellers who recommended it’.

‘Me and my wife went out and ended up over the years going to about 15 countries for six weeks at a time. They were international schools where the kids had already learnt English but mostly from American cartoon shows and they wanted them to hear colloquial language, more English. With my accent, I knew I would have to speak a bit slower – and there’s nothing worse than a posh Geordie!’

‘When we were in a Spanish speaking country, for the youngest ones, you’d have someone to explain the context of the story and then I’d still tell the story in English. Half of their lessons were in English, to make it an immersive experience’.

‘To accompany the lessons it was helpful to use British sign language, or borrow a guitar. I always took a banjo with me as it was such a different instrument for them to hear. Once the banjo was broken en-route and we found the only banjo repairman in Bogota in Colombia’.

‘It was hard work getting up at 5am, into a taxi for a two hour drive to tell stories to 3-400 children in ampitheatres – but what an experience! The last time we went over was Peru in 2016. We’d been to Uruguay, China, South Korea, all over – loved it. Sometimes I look back and think how did that happen – you’ve got to seize every opportunity’.

‘I’ve been songwriting for years and always have a songwriting project on the go. I write about 15 songs per year. Ideas can come from a book, a documentary or what someone says in a street… then I do a lot of research and add some ‘meat’ to the story. Songwriting can possess and obsess you’.

‘Recently I wrote a number of songs about Iron Stone Mining, the workers and how dangerous it was working there, although I do try to stay away from disaster. It’s not all ‘Grim up North’.

‘A friend of mine gave me a diary about his distant relation who had been captured by the Portugese and transported to Portchester Castle in Hampshire! Having lived in Porchester Street I didn’t know about this place. The songs can take you anywhere!’

‘I wrote a song with local playwright Tom Kelly about ‘the seven lads of Jarrow’ who, in the 1830s worked in the mines under diabolical conditions so tried to form a union with union organiser Tomas Hepburn. They ended up being brought up on jumped up charges – 10 were captured 3 escaped. 7 ended up in a kangaroo court and were transported to Australia never to return. It’s such an emotional subject’.

‘In 2019 I was planning to write autobiographical songs, one was about the day they tarmacked the cobbles in Porchester Street and as kids we could roller skate across the street. Another was the times walking through Tyne Dock arches with my dad and me being on his shoulders. Or another about my sister playing with her friends in the backyard in Porchester Street – then covid came along’.

‘I didn’t want to write about the pandemic or what happened around it, like being scared or having a feeling of waiting for death to come. I wrote nothing about that. I just wanted to write about the one’s I love and keep sane’.

‘All the performances I did in South America and all of the daily storytelling work I did in schools I now channel into what I present now as a musician. I still do regular open mics, folk club spots and am a paid guest in clubs and festivals throughout the UK’.

‘I love performing, it’s like an out of body experience. I’m not hippy dippy, mystical or spiritual but enjoy giving people enjoyment, sharing moments with people…and it beats the hell out of singing in the bathroom!’

Tony has placed all of the stories, CPD and instructional DVDs for parents and children on You Tube at ‘Tony Wilson Storyteller.

For further information contact the official website > http://www.tonywilsonfolksinger.co.uk

Alikivi   September 2024

HOME COMFORTS for Whitley Bay Tygers

/ Alikivi

A wave of steel is planned this autumn as standard bearers of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal North East Division, Tygers of Pan Tang, map out a series of live European dates.

They include October – Belgium (4th), Germany (5th) and Netherlands (6th) and November – Barnsley, UK (7th) then crossing the border on Friday 8th to play the Classic Grand in Glasgow with Scotland’s very own granite plated rock band Lyin’ Rampant opening.

Rampant lead vocalist Stewartie Adams is looking forward to the gig…

“It should be a great show we’re all up for it and looking forward to a great night with the Tygers. It’s the first time opening for them.”

“We’re back in the studio in Glasgow to work on some new material to add to our set…so we’ll be ready to rock. We’ve had a much needed break after the Graham Bonnet tour. We made great friends with Graham and his band. They were a joy to work with. It was a blast”.

Link to interview >> TARTAN SPIRIT with former Tytan & Lyin’ Rampant vocalist/guitarist Stewartie Adams | ALIKIVI UK : NORTH EAST CULTURE

The legendary Tygers then march back down to Tyneside to celebrate a homecoming return in the seaside town of Whitley Bay on Saturday 9th November 2024. The show is being promoted by the local town council to celebrate over 45 years of the Tygers.

Whitley Bay was the headquarters of the original four Tygers. They had a residence at local club Mingles where they honed the tunes that would make up most of their first album ‘Wild Cat’.

The Tygers most recent album ‘Live Blood’, released on Mighty Music, features songs from across their career including tracks that were first played in Mingles.

Support on the night will come from Shannon Pearl, a North East neo-folk band that was specially chosen by the Tygers.

“I’ve lived in the area for most of my life and being invited to play at the prestigious Whitley Bay Playhouse has long been a dream of mine” guitarist Robb Weir commented.

“I think the current band will really enjoy visiting where it all started. It promises to be one helluva night”.

Wrapping up the autumn dates is a visit to Grimsby (10th) and finally Marseille, France at the South Troopers Festival (16th).

Tickets for Whitley Bay are available here.

Buy/stream ‘Live Blood’ here.

Check the official website for further information on albums, gigs, photos, videos >  

Tygers Of Pan Tang – The Official Site

Alikivi    September 2024

THE BAND PLAY ON – in conversation with Tyneside musician Tony Bengtsson

/ Alikivi

Music is a massive part of our lives. Not only do we want to listen to it, but read about it and talk about it. Tony Bengtsson is no different.

‘Music was around the house when I was growing up. My Dad was a rock n roll fan of the ‘60s, we had the sound of Creedence Clearwater Revival in common. My Mam was a massive Elvis fan and encouraged us to listen to music’.

‘My Mam worked in a news agents shop in South Shields where they had a stack of old jukebox 45’s for sale. One of them was Wages Day by Deacon Blue which I loved. I played it many times – still got it now, although it has a little chip in the record’.

‘One day I walked past Music Maker shop in South Shields with all its instruments and speakers displayed in the window and saw a set of harmonicas. I was around 13 when my parents bought me them. I was just trying to make sounds out of them, plus my Nana had a small Casio keyboard that I played little tunes on, I liked experimenting’.

When he was younger Tony had his eye on being a journalist so he went down to local newspaper, The Shields Gazette.

‘One of their top journalists, Janis Blower, looked after me when I was there on work experience. She got me searching through the microfiche with its old stories from the Gazette, the history of South Shields was all there. Loved it’.

‘I love studying local and family history, my ancestor came over from Helsingborg in Sweden around 1850. He was a merchant seaman who lived in Orange Street, South Shields. My grandfather passed on a family tree which I’ve updated with recent family additions’.

After leaving school and enrolling on a Music Production course at Newcastle College, then slogging away for hours in a factory, Tony saved up enough dosh for a set of drums.

‘I made a good living playing in club bands for a while. There was a Bryan Adams tribute and a punk band called Sound of the Suburbs. Then I played in original band Poker Face who played 80s melodic pop rock around Durham’.

Listening to a wide range of sounds and improving on his songwriting Tony made the move from the back of the stage to upfront – drums to guitar.

‘The UK had such a diverse range of music from different parts of the country, there was Liverpool, there was Manchester, and here on the Tyne we had the blues with bands like The Animals. Unashamedly I’m a bit of a country and western fan and love the Scottish/Irish folk sound, that’s why I like the acoustic music we play’.

A decision to play cover gigs helped finance Tony’s musical career. He also has the small matter of a wedding coming up in October so every little helps.

‘Yeah, at the minute I’m doing a lot of cover gigs cos that’s where the money is and this is my full-time job. At a booking I do two 45- minute sets with a break in between’.

‘Recently I played a wine bar where they talked all through the first half, so if the gig’s going bad like that, I have a shorter break between sets and get on with the second one. But the good gigs are when you get to talk to people beforehand and after’.

‘Having work organised by an agent is great, he just phones me up ‘Can you do this gig’. That’s it, I don’t have to organise anything just make sure I turn up on time’.

‘With the original band I have to decide a lot like where we are playing and how much for, organising transport if it’s outside the North East. There’s a lot of extra logistics and admin to do that people don’t see’.

The single Sometimes a Man from 2020.

‘I started writing my own songs around 2006, I’ve a recent song called These Wars which is anti-war and highlights the problems we have today. Why are we spending money on wars when people at home are struggling to eat, heat and get a job?’

‘If you do have a job like the nurses, who after all they’d done for us during covid, when they decided to strike hoping for a pay rise, they got attacked by the media for being greedy. It’s an unfair situation’.

For a hard-working full-time creative professional isn’t the saying ‘do what you love and you never work a day?’

‘Yep! I also gig with the original band. This August we supported Martin Stephenson & the Daintees at Falloden Hall near Alnwick – that was brilliant. It was a lovely sunny day, we played in a court yard with hay bales, a little festival vibe, and I sold out on cd’s’.

‘It can be hard to keep the band all together in one place.  There is violinist and guitarist Niles Kreger who is living here but is originally from Connecticut, USA, and there’s Liam Fender (Sam’s brother) on keys who has his own band so there’s other stuff going on, we’re all busy’.

‘We’ve played a couple of gigs outside the North East – in London and Manchester but would love to play in Ireland. My partners family live in Waterford so when we visit them I take my guitar cos there’s plenty of places to play every day. Live music is in their culture – I love Ireland’.

‘You know I consider myself an introvert, I like staying at home but once I’m out there I love it. I’d be worried if I didn’t get nervous or anxious butterflies before a gig’.

‘I’m now at the stage where if anything goes wrong like a speaker going off well that just happens, can’t do anything about it, just sort it out and play on’.

Gig dates until December 2024 >
https://www.insangel.co.uk/bands/tony-bengtsson 

For further information contact > Facebook > Tony Bengtsson Music

Alikivi   September 2024

VOTING DAY for Teesside’s Emma Wilson

/ Alikivi

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.’ said Emma.

‘I’m the only UK artist to be nominated in both categories of Best New Artist and Best 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!

Voting closes on 15 September 2024. 

Voting link:

https://www.makingascene.org/survey/index.php/573499?lang=en

Download the album ‘Memphis Calling’ >

https://EmmaWilson.lnk.to/MemphisCallingNE

Visit the official website >

www.emmawilson.net

Alikivi  August 2024

EMMA’S AUTUMN SURPRISE

/ Alikivi

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

Tickets https://downbytheriver9.com/

Saturday 5 October at Diseworth Blues Club, Diseworth Village Hall, Hall Gate, Derby. 

Info & tickets call 07731 435 758 or contact info@muckyduckpromotions.co.uk

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.

Tickets  https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/emma-wilson-music

Free daytime event on Sunday 13 October at the Tyne Bar, Mailing St, Newcastle.

Friday 22 November at Leeds Blues Club, Cross Keys from 6pm.

Tickets https://www.ents24.com/leeds-events/the-cross-keys-1/emma-wilson/7062016

Saturday 7 December 2024 at Messajero in Monchengladbach, Dusseldorf, Germany.

Download the new album ‘Memphis Calling’ >

https://EmmaWilson.lnk.to/MemphisCallingNE

For further info & tickets contact the official website >

www.emmawilson.net

Alikivi   August 2024

ANOTHER JOURNEY UP THE RIVER – New album from ex White Heat frontman Bob Smeaton

/ Alikivi

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 ‘Nervous Breakdown’. 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.

Links to previous interviews >

THE BOY FROM BENWELL with Film & TV Director, Bob Smeaton | ALIKIVI UK : NORTH EAST CULTURE (5 Nov ’18)

PLAY IT AGAIN – on TV & Stage with music documentary director, Bob Smeaton | ALIKIVI UK : NORTH EAST CULTURE  (6 April ‘21)

Alikivi   July 2024

THE COPS with TV actor & musician Michael McNally

/ Alikivi

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.

RUN FOR HOME with North East actor & musician Michael McNally | ALIKIVI UK : NORTH EAST CULTURE

Alikivi   July 2024

NORTH EAST MUSIC & VIDEO with Hartlepool based VainGloriousUK

/ Alikivi

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”.

Get in touch at  info@vaingloriousuk.com

Check out the official website at > http://www.vaingloriousuk.com for links to biogs, compilation albums and books.

Watch music videos at >  VainGloriousUK – YouTube

Alikivi   July 2024