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IRON MAN OF NORTON – with Teesside songwriter & producer Steve Thompson

/ Alikivi

Thompson releases two compilation albums this month, the first Iron Man of Norton on Friday 20 and another to follow, Second Shipment  on 27 August.

‘Iron Man is my cycling name and it speaks of the prowess of my ability to go for miles and miles (laughs)’.

Toward the end of last year Thompson signed a licensing deal with Cherry Red Records and since the turn of 2021 has been busy releasing his back catalogue of songs.

‘The Bullfrog stuff (Steve’s first band) gave me the idea of a boxed set, then tracks I produced for Southbound 30 odd years ago, plus some stuff I did with Alvin Stardust and other bits and pieces’.

Thompson first appeared on the radar working at Impulse Studio in Wallsend, the home of Heavy Metal label Neat records – he produced the first singles by Raven and Tygers of Pan Tang.

‘When I quit as Godfather of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal I moved out of Impulse Studio and needed somewhere to create. Luck would have it six month later I had a massive hit with ‘Hurry Home’.

Not long after that an even bigger one with Celine Dion – that’s a whole other story’.

After the band Wavelength went on Top of the Pops with ‘Hurry Home’, the royalties started piling in and Thompson bailed out of Wallsend and set up a new base further along the North East coast in Whitley Bay.

Demo’s were made of the Tygers of Pan Tang albums ‘The Wreckage’ and ‘Burning in the Shade.

‘That studio became the ‘Brill’ building in Whitley Bay for several years with a lot of muso friends dropping in and adding bits and pieces. A lot of tracks have ended up on these two compilation albums’.

‘We recorded a bunch of tracks with a guy who became Baby Ford. There was one track from those sessions, I don’t know what it referred to but it got us a BBC ban – although it didn’t stop it becoming a chart hit.

Actually Lorraine Crosby (who sang on the Meatloaf hit ‘I’d Do Anything for Love’) sang a lot of backing vocals on those’.

Tygers fans will be interested in the original version of Paris By Air that appears on the Second Shipment album. The Tygers covered the song and had a hit with the track, it also appeared on their top 20 album The Cage.  

‘On the second album is the original sung by Toni Halliday, she was only 16 at the time. There was another young 16 year old guy who hung around the studio called Andy Taylor. He played on some Toni Halliday stuff, he was one of my session guys. You could see he was soaking it all in’.

Recently, Taylor recorded an interview on Planet Rock radio where he gave credit to Thompson for giving him his first break in production.

‘It’s really nice of him to do that as it was a while ago’.

(link: www.bit.ly/andyplanet)

‘I was 25 then and Andy used to call me and the other muso’s around who were my contemporaries – boring old farts. He said he was going to be a major rock star. He wanted to cut a couple of tracks on vocals and guitar’.

‘Toni Halliday talked a lot about her life and ambitions while living a hum drum life on a council estate in Washington. Out of that the story of ‘Paris By Air’ emerged…..

‘I don’t know a soul in this neighbourhood, who can afford the fair, and I’m stuck here for good’.

‘But I didn’t know much about Andy’s background other than how ambitious he was’.

‘A guitarist friend of mine, Stu Burns, God bless him he’s not with us now, was in a band called The Squad. I was taken by their ballsy, Phil Spector type songs. They had a song ‘Hey Gene’ and I thought that would be good for Andy’.

‘It was written by John Farmer of The Squad. Stu engineered the session for me in the bands makeshift basement studio’.

‘Hey Gene’ is on the Iron Man of Norton album, the original b side of that record Catch a Fast Train can be found on Second Shipment. Thompson remembers one unforgettable day in the studio with Andy Taylor.

‘He looked in The Melody Maker and he saw a notice bigger than all the others and said… ‘I’m gonna audition for this’. So he went to Birmingham to audition for this band. He came back and said…

‘I got the gig’. We said ‘what they called ?’  

We all fell about laughing saying ‘you’re going to get nowhere with a band called Duran, Duran’. How wrong can you be.

Both compilation albums contain a couple of tracks by Tony McPhee of The Groundhogs.

‘Tony called me up one day to record in the studio. He wanted me to record two songs in one day but also wanted a drummer and a bass player for the session.

I got in Paul Smith who I used a lot, I played bass, we were the Geordie Groundhogs. He paid Smithy, and for the day session. I played and produced for free’.

‘When the session was over he said have you got a bed to put me up for the night ? I phoned up my wife and said we’re going to put this guy up but he says he’s a vegetarian. We hadn’t a clue what he ate’.

‘Anyway he did sleep over but next day he woke up and just pissed off without saying goodbye – I might hear from him when these tracks come out (laughs)’.

Find both albums here:

Iron Man Of Norton: Boxed Set out on Friday 20 August 2021.

http://steve-thompson.org.uk/iron-man-of-norton-boxed-set-various-artists/

Iron Man of Norton: ‘Second Shipment’ out on Friday 27 August 2021.

http://steve-thompson.org.uk/iron-man-of-norton-second-shipment-various-artists/

Alikivi   August 2021

JAZZ PARTY – in conversation with drummer & first leader of the Green Party Group on South Tyneside, Councillor David Francis.

/ Alikivi

I really believe there are pivotal moments in your life. There are times when things happen and put your life in a different direction.

I remember as a kid getting the first Van Halen album and it totally blew my mind, I thought it was amazing – still do now. When I put the record on the turntable, and hearing for the first time Eruption.

I started playing guitar first, and at school had a good teacher who encouraged me on the drums. Then I completed a degree at Leeds College of Music and came back to the North East and got into a bit of teaching, gigging and working in a drum shop.

Around 2010 I was in a bookshop in Newcastle when I picked up Labour MP Tony Benn’s diaries and thought, well there’s more important things going on in the world than drums.

I wasn’t happy about how things were going under the coalition so looked at the Green Party – and joined in 2014.

FIRST LOVE

The first music I was into was Michael Jackson then quickly got into rock like Hendrix, Cream then more modern stuff like Iron Maiden.

I would go to Pet Sounds in Newcastle and pick-up second-hand vinyl for £3.00 and also visit the record fairs. I progressed to listening to Frank Zappa and lots of jazz.

There is links with musicians in the North East who have played with known musicians, some are a bit tenuous but others are more legit.

I’d point out that my own links to anyone well known where more tenuous than legit, but I did cross paths with people like Gerry Richardson and Ronnie Pearson who were in Last Exit with Sting when he lived up here in the ‘70s.

Gerrie was an organ player and went onto teach music at Newcastle College then The Sage Gateshead. Ronnie was the drummer and went on to have a drum shop in Newcastle.

I met them and played in bands a few times with Gerry and worked with Ronnie’s son who also had a drum shop.

Although I doubt Gerry remembers me now as a lot of jazz gigs were thrown together and you would meet loads of other musicians that would lead to getting gigs. It would often be –  ‘We need a drummer next week, can you do it?’

GOING LIVE

I was in loads of bands over the years playing jazz. When it first opened the Sunderland Glass Centre had a posh restaurant and on a Friday and Saturday they would have a trio playing in the corner – I was the drummer from time to time, that’s where I met Gerry.

When I first started playing jazz gigs after my music degree in the late ‘90s there wasn’t an easy way to find out what was going on, then there was a guy called Lance Liddle from South Tyneside who started a Jazz blog. He would review gigs, then add what was coming up.

There was a number of venues in Newcastle like the Jazz Café run by Keith Crombie, there was The Bridge Hotel, and a pub called Beamish Mary, we played those venues a lot.

I was also playing in a bluesy rock band at the time, plus doing corporate gigs in places like Edinburgh and Birmingham.

Then a few gigs for the Royal Television Society awards dinner at The Sage. They were a bit surreal as you’d be playing when Aled Jones or Reeves & Mortimer come up on stage to get an award (laughs).

The Customs House Big Band

BIG BRASS SOUND

Through those bands I ended up at South Shields Customs House in the late ‘90s playing in the Big Band which was first put together by Joe Peterson (Community Arts Officer) and first ran by Tommy Moran, then Keith Robinson when I was there.

We’d have a rehearsal once a week then go for a drink in The Steamboat. I met my wife at that time – Elaine was a saxophone player.

Most of the time I spent learning how to be a good musician but not spending time out hustling getting gigs, I was waiting for people to call me.

I’d get a message to go to Harrogate on a New Year’s Eve and if you done well one of the musicians would recommend me to another gig.

In those jazz gigs you’re playing a fairly standard set rather like rock covers doing Hendrix, even if you haven’t worked it out note for note you know how they go. A lot of musicians have a back catalogue of songs in there (points to head) that they can play.

THAT’S THE TONIC

I did play a lot of gigs where it was written out and as a decent enough music reader I got through. You learn a lot of improvisation and skills on some gigs.

One time I got a call off a bass player who I regularly worked with, ‘Can you do a gig in North Allerton with an American keyboard player called Dave Keys’. ‘Yes, sounds good’ I said.

He directed the songs, all his, all original, you really had to pay attention and follow his lead. He’d say things like ‘This is a shuffle and a couple of stops, I’ll nod my head at the stop’ those sorts of things you know, directing the song as its being played – in front of the audience (laughs).

But music has common phrases and chord progressions that come up time and time again and you can work through it. I enjoyed the buzz of jazz and improvisation, the not knowing keeps it fresh.

There is a saying ‘It’s never the same way once, never mind twice’ (laughs).

Drumming on stage with Tony Bengtsson.

THE MARKET

You’ve got to work on your business, and I did eventually take control of that side of things, around 2010. What happened was I was teaching in schools, doing some private lessons, playing gigs but not earning much because I was travelling all over the place.

So, I started to build up work closer to home and getting contacts, it’s the working on your business, not just in it, that was needed.

Lately in music I’ve played on an album with singer/songwriter Tony Bengtson, he plays a folk, country, Americana style, he’s a really good player and maybe not getting as much recognition as he deserves.

WATCHING THE WORLD GO ROUND

I suppose the performance aspect is a parallel between musician and politician, there may be something in the saying that ‘Politics is showbusiness for ugly people’. It wasn’t in the family at all, my parents took an interest in, but weren’t active in politics.

When I was a kid we lived in the States for a year and on a basic level I became aware of the American history, like Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, the  Civil Rights movement, and as I got older I took an interest in current affairs and politics.

I remember being a student in Leeds watching TV shows Spitting Image and Have I Got News For You and then the 1997 election and Tony Blair getting in, a real air of optimism after the Thatcher decade.

I’d always listen to Talk radio and listened to the political commentators, watched Question Time, but always observing not taking part.

Around 2010 when I was in a bookshop in Newcastle I picked up a copy of one of Tony Benn’s diaries, then read other volumes and thought, well there’s more important things going on in the world than drums.

With Green’s Deputy Leader, Amelia Womack in South Shields.

GO GREEN

A musician friend who I mentioned earlier, Tony Bengston, was standing as a Green candidate. I wondered what was going on and I wasn’t happy about how things were going under the coalition plus not being enamoured about The Labour Party so I looked at the Green Party and found they weren’t just a one issue party.

Actually, they were somebody I could connect with and feel more comfortable with, so I joined in 2014.

We’d done a beach litter pick and it felt good to do this in South Shields with nice people, but importantly it was a tangible thing to do, a contribution to improving the area.

Then within weeks we were out on the streets knocking on doors. Not long after an opportunity arose to meet the Green’s Deputy Leader Amelia Womack when she came to South Tyneside – the result was I got more involved.

I got elected a few years ago then a few more candidates followed so we aren’t looked upon as the party in South Tyneside who have no chance.

Labour has a long history in this town and some responses on the doorstep are ‘I’ve always voted Labour and not interested in anyone else’. Which is fair enough, I get that.

In the council chamber, Town Hall, South Shields.

I HEAR YOU KNOCKING

I’ve only had experience of knocking on doors for the Greens so don’t know what it’s like for everyone else but when I first started in this area (Beacon & Bents, South Shields), a lot of people weren’t sure who we were, some people thought we were the same as Greenpeace.

At first, we’d hear on the doorstep ‘Are you all about saving the whales?’

Some people aren’t interested, or are watching TV, or got the dinner on, but generally people are really nice and give you a bit time even when they don’t agree with you.

Then it got to the stage when people knew of what we were doing, they’d see or hear us working with people and trying to improve the local area.

It surprised me how favourable the response was becoming when people got to know us, and even if they don’t want to talk to you they are still civil about it. You aren’t going to please all the people.

I remember the worst reaction I had was when someone answered the door and he was trying to be polite and his other half was upstairs shouting ‘Just tell him to f*** off’. I’m glad I wasn’t face to face with her – he just looked a bit embarrassed (laughs).

A lot of people just want to talk to you if they have an issue with fly tipping in their back lane or sorting out wonky pavements in the street. They want to talk to somebody who can go away and get something done.

Interview by Alikivi  August 2021

A TYNESIDE HERITAGE – new book by author, Peter S. Chapman

/ Alikivi

Cleadon born Chapman has enjoyed a varied career – educated to Master’s degree level leading to a housing career in London.

He’s devoted time to being chair of a number of charities – manuscript restoration in Egypt, Archaeology & Anthropology in Cambridge and even found time for a local youth football team – The Kensington Dragons.

But Chapman, who lives in London, still retains close links to the North East…

The South Shields Local History Group invited me to give a lecture on the lives and public service of my grandparents, Sir Robert and Lady Chapman. It was their lives, and their exceptional contribution to South Shields and Tyneside, which inspired me to write ‘A Tyneside Heritage’.

It was quite an undertaking and took me six years. My research into family and Tyneside history was fresh in my mind and if I didn’t write the book now it would never get written.

Summer fetes at the Chapman home, Undercliff, were popular events throughout the 1930s.

As a teenager I became fascinated by my grandparents’ collection of scrapbooks at Undercliff, their house in Cleadon where I was born.

These scrapbooks recorded family events over three decades from the 1930s, and some newspaper articles covered events in early nineteenth century Tyneside.

The 424 page book weaves the Chapman family story with local history.

He features the boom on Tyneside of the industrial revolution and the bust that followed culminating with the Jarrow March of 1936 and Ellen Wilkinson MP taking the Jarrow platform in one of her speeches “The unemployment rate was over 80 per cent, 23,000 are on relief out of a total population of 35,000”.

With his family heavily involved in local politics I mentioned to Peter about my Great Uncle Richard Ewart who, after working at Whitburn Colliery, was Sunderland MP in 1945.

He and my grandfather would have known each other on the South Shields Borough Council in the late 1930s.
My Grandfather was Col Sir Robert Chapman (1880-1963), at the time of the First World War he was Major Robert Chapman.

He became a South Shields Borough Councillor, MP for Houghton-le-Spring 1931-1935 and Chairman of the Team Valley Trading Estate. He had numerous business and charity directorships and chairmanships.

Richard Ewart’s life, including at Parliament, was extremely interesting to read about, and there would have been numerous Parliamentary bills on which he would have brought his ‘real life’ experience to bear – no full time professional politicians in those days.

He would have been in good company in the House of Commons, with many former miners representing County Durham constituencies, including Jack (later Lord) Lawson at Chester-le-Street and Bill (later Lord) Blyton at Houghton-le-Spring. Both feature in my book, which has a good index.

Outside Undercliff July 1941, left to right: Col Robert Chapman, Major Robin Chapman & wife Barbara, Helene Chapman, Nicholas Chapman. (pic. James Cleet)

Chapman features the invaluable work of South Shields historian & photographer Miss Amy Flagg (1896-1965), who I made a documentary about in 2016.

Yes I watched it, a really good film, and Amy Flagg’s history writings and World War Two photos feature in my book I am very pleased to say.

When researching the book, I also came across some unusual stories including the one about new potatoes during the Battle of the Somme, in World War One.

Food rations were basic during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Major Robert Chapman told his junior artillery officers that a field of potatoes had been discovered nearby.

Under the pretext of searching for a ‘forward observation post’ they dug them up and enjoyed their first new potatoes since leaving England eighteen months earlier. 

Are you working on any other projects?

I have one or two ideas for future projects. Meanwhile I am writing articles and am busy preparing for upcoming lectures and events.

I have already had what my wife Joan and I called a ‘book warming’ party for ‘A Tyneside Heritage’ in London. However, the focus of book events will be in the North East with a launch in the afternoon of October 20 at a venue to be confirmed.

A talk has been arranged in Sunderland at 2.30pm on Monday 18 October during Sunderland Libraries Literature Festival and a talk at the Lit & Phil in Newcastle at 6.00pm on Thursday 21 October. 

The cover price for the book, published by History Press, is £25. Peter Chapman is offering it to followers and their friends in the UK for £15 including package and postage (payable on delivery).

If you live overseas contact Peter for a p&p quote.

email: peterschapman@chapmanlondon.com or

write to: 53 Highlever Road, London W10 6PR.

Provide your full name and postal address. Peter will send the invoice with the book.

Interview by Alikivi  August 2021

LIFE IN COLOUR – with Sheila Graber at South Shields Museum & Art Gallery

/ Alikivi

An exhibition is being held in South Shields to celebrate the 81 years of inspirational art and animation of Sheila Graber. I asked Sheila how the exhibition came about ?

I was invited by Geoff Woodward, Museum Curator at Tyne & Wear Museum to start planning the show in 2017 with an aim to celebrating 80 years of ‘Making’ – Drawing, Painting, Animating and Teaching, an exhibition to fill Shields Museum in May 2020. However COVID had other ideas.

Thanks to this, the show has gained in power as I think now everyone knows the importance of making things to ‘help pass the time’  and stop them going crackers.

It is great for me to see it is attracting all ages from my cousin Malcolm 90 year old who, being an ex-Chief Engineer, liked the view of the Industrial River Tyne I painted in 1970, to little Amelia aged 3, who loved spotting Cats knitted by my friend Jen in the ‘Quizicat Trail’ and gained a prize and hi-five from me and QC.

The show is unusual in that it covers not only my own work but that of over 30 ex-pupils – now in their 60’s, and in turn, work by up to five generations of pupils or families.

I have been looking in most Fridays from 12 to 3pm and it has been brilliant to meet up with some of them and see how they are still enjoying making today. 

Everyone has a life-story to tell – it’s just by lucky chance I happened to have illustrated mine as I lived it. So the paintings, drawings and videos of Shields and Shields people, is also bringing in a wide range of folks from all walks of life. 

I hoped that this show might spark off memories for others about their life and work – I am very pleased to see it is doing just that. Why not come along and see what memories it sparks for you.

Sheila from Shields exhibition runs to October 30th 2021.

Check out Sheila’s work on the official website:
http://www.sheilagraberanimation.com/SSCRAINBOW/

Interview by Alikivi   August 2021

SHEILA from SHIELDS #2 – Exhibition at South Shields Museum & Art Gallery

/ Alikivi

An exhibition is being held in South Shields to celebrate the 81 years of inspirational art and animation of Sheila Graber. Invited to the exhibition was former pupil Allyson Stewart.

‘Sheila was my art teacher at the Grammar school and when I first went into the class I was thinking I don’t know what I’m doing here.

I can’t draw, I can’t paint, but over a period of weeks I think it was the way Sheila was teaching us without it feeling like she was teaching us’.

‘And I began to realise it wasn’t about how well you can paint it’s more about how you can be creative. When I started to learn about perspective that’s when it kicked in for me, I suddenly realised I could draw street scenes and buildings that actually looked like a building’.

‘That was quite a revelation and since then I’ve done a few bits and pieces that have been done with pen and ink, that’s my favourite medium. I can’t paint I’m useless with a paint brush, but with pen and ink it just feels right to me’.

‘But then I joined Sheila’s Cine Animation group and that was great, something completely different at the time at the Grammar school it was pretty radical. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.

That taught me all about timing, getting things right and putting them in the right order, keeping accurate records. I gather that the animation film that I made is now on You Tube thanks to Sheila – so hopefully I can live that down’.

‘First person that taught me that anything was possible was a teacher called Stan Coates at Stanhope Juniors.  The last thing he ever said to me when I left school was I expect to see your name in writing someday young lady. And then nothing ever fired me up until Sheila was teaching me.

And she taught me you haven’t got to be a brilliant painter, you haven’t got to be a great designer, you haven’t got to know how to structure a painting, it’s all about how you feel and how you can interpret it’.

‘And that was a revelation to me and I think that’s what rekindled the spark that you don’t have to paint you can write. You can find a creative outlet some other way, and that was really helpful for me.

Now I’m back into doing the writing, loving every minute, so thanks to Stan and thanks to Sheila I’m loving every minute, I’m living the life and love it’.

Also invited to the exhibition was writer and retired Shields Gazette journalist, Janis Blower, who started off with a piece of poetry by James Henry Lee Hunt.

Abou Ben Adhem may his tribe increase, awoke one night from a deep dream of peace.

And saw within the moonlight in his room, making it rich and like a lily in bloom,

An angel writing in a book of gold.

‘I have a love of angels as they are depicted in art and stained glass, and also in one of the loves of my creativity – which has been sewing. The angels started with my oldest sister Pam, who we lost in 2019 unfortunately.

As a child I used to share a bed with her in the attic bedroom. I was frightened of the dark so to comfort me she would sing songs and recite poems that she’d learned at school’.

‘One of the poems was Abuben Adden and that image of the angel writing in his book of gold really seized my imagination. The words seemed to come off the page already burnished and glowing and that struck me as the writer I’ve become – the power of words’.

‘Angels has become a favourite motif too stitch, I’ve had a lifelong love of sewing and embroidery going all the way back to the days when I first made a tea tray cloth at Ocean Road school when I was aged about 8 or 9 which I still have to this day.

It was the start of a lifelong love of sewing, embroidery and cross stich which has been a great comfort at times over the years’.

‘I’ve known Sheila for many years because she actually taught me art when I was a pupil at South Shields Girl’s Grammar School. I remember very vividly her enthusiasm and her belief that anybody could be creative.

I’m not sure that I believed it at the time, but I’ve come to realise that it’s true, and it’s something you pick up from this wonderful exhibition that she has of her life and art.

The message being that there is creativity in everybody if you know where to look for it’.

The exhibition runs from 17 May – 30 October 2021

Interviews by Alikivi  2021

SHEILA from SHIELDS – Exhibition at South Shields Museum & Art Gallery

/ Alikivi

An exhibition is being held in South Shields to celebrate 81 years of inspirational art and animation of Sheila Graber.

Invited to open the exhibition was Pam Royle, Tyne Tees newsreader for more than 30 years. I caught up with Pam who told me how she first met Sheila.

‘I first met Sheila when she was doing some animation work for Tyne Tees Television in the 1980’s and we’ve been firm friends since.

I’ve always admired Sheila’s work from animation to illustrations to absolutely everything she does and the fact she teaches it with such patience and wisdom’.

‘Sheila has also met some members of my family. We’ve always been quite creative in my family, just love expressing ourselves through paintings, drawings, Sheila met my son when he was about 8 and he drew some things for her.

Basically, things like machinery, cars, tractors, aeroplanes that sort of thing. And then he went on to work in the countryside and on the land.

Sheila said it’s really interesting because what happens when you are young you draw things that have a relevance to your later life because you draw what you are passionate about’.

‘I think this exhibition reveals that art is so important to all our lives, it’s a way of expressing ourselves, it’s a connection with your soul and your mind. I just think this exhibition is fantastic and I’m so grateful that Sheila asked me and my family to be a part of it’.

Also invited to the exhibition to record a quick video message and talk about why she loves art so much was South Shields MP, Emma Lewell-Buck.

‘Art is so universal no matter where you are in the world no matter what language you speak it always can send a message to you and speak to you. Some of my favourite types of art are the religious ones.

Like Caravaggio where you can spend absolutely hours and just get lost in all of the detail.

Also I’m here to look at Sheila’s exhibition. Sheila Graber is a great friend of mine, a local legend, so please if you have an opportunity get yourself down here to have a look you won’t regret it’.

At the exhibition opening was Ray Spencer MBE, Director of the Customs House, South Shields. He talked about his first experience of art.

‘When I was a kid about the only art I saw was in museums or books, in books they were only little plates. I used to look at these fantastic portraits, landscapes and seascapes, but they were just little plates. If you went into museums you saw big plates or the originals’.

‘When I done my degree I went to the Louvre in Paris and it was the first time I walked into a room and seen the works of Delacroix and El Greco. I went to Amsterdam and saw Rembrandts – these huge massive things.

I was so excited so fantastically elated seeing something I couldn’t comprehend from those little books. That’s what I‘ve wanted to do all my time in culture to make people feel as excited as I did in the Louvre. Sheila has done that throughout her life’.

‘You look through this exhibition and you see how many lifelong friends she’s had, how many people she has influenced, not just to go professionally into the arts, but to always love and appreciate the arts’.

‘She has this enormous capacity to be interested in everybody, to light a flame in everybody to get involved in the arts. And importantly to believe in their creativity, not to be measured by somebody else’s creativity but to believe in your own creativity and to know what you do is important’.

‘That is something that we will all be thankful to Sheila for, for the hundreds and thousands of people that she has engaged with the arts’.   

The exhibition at South Shields Museum & Art Gallery runs from 17 May – 30 October 2021

For more info check the official website:

http://www.sheilagraberanimation.com/SSCRAINBOW/

Interviews by Alikivi  2021

RUSSIA’S ROSWELL – The Alien Mystery of Kapustin Yar

/ Alikivi

Through lockdown I caught up with films on the ‘must watch’ list, one of those was Alien Autopsy, a British film released in 2006 starring Geordie duo Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly. Alien Autopsy is a story of an alien recovered from a crash at Roswell, New Mexico where the autopsy was filmed.

The original footage was reported to be supplied by a US military cameraman to UK record and film producer Ray Santilli, and his business partner Gary Shoefield. Originally Santilli was in America buying Elvis memorabilia but was also offered the autopsy footage.

The original 17 minute black and white footage was released by Santilli in 1995 causing a sensation among millions of American TV viewers.

The background is that on 8 July 1947 a crash was reported in Roswell, New Mexico. A press release stated that ‘a flying disc’ had been recovered. The army retracted the statement saying it was just a weather balloon.

Thirty year later in an interview with a UFO researcher, a retired lieutenant colonel said the weather balloon was a cover story. More first hand witnesses came forward stating that extraterrestrial occupants of the craft were recovered by the military, and a cover up was put in place. Conspiracy theorists went into overdrive.

Kapustin Yar, reverse-engineering plan.

Today, noted for its highly sensitive and classified operations, Groom Lake is a secret airbase in New Mexico, USA. The facility known as Area 51 has strong connections to alien and UFO research.

If you ever find yourself in Russia and travel 600 mile south of Moscow you come to Kapustin Yar, an official rocket launch and development site, also believed to have strong UFO connections.

One year after the incident in Roswell, MIG fighter jets flying over Kapustin Yar, detected a cigar shaped object on their radar and caused it to crash.

Three bodies were found in the wreckage, two were already dead, the Soviet pilots made attempts to keep the third alive, but it passed away. The occupants were reported to be around 4 feet tall, had bluish green reptile skin, with long fingers, dark eyes and large bald heads.

Alien body in 1948 at Kapustin Yar.

Their craft is believed to have been taken inside the Kapustin Yar underground military facility where scientists undertook meticulous experiments of how the craft and its systems worked. The Russian space program, Sputnik, benefitted from the results of the tests and in 1957 launched the first satellite from Earth.

Kapustin Yar and the surrounding area has been reported to experience UFO sightings in more than any part of Russia. A second crash was reported in 1961, in the area it is reported that the human pulse rate is affected and animals won’t go near.

The KGB hold a tight grip on files featuring UFO experiences recorded by Russian military. One file has seven witnesses who observed UFO activity on 28 July 1989 over the base of Kapustin Yar. They reported that between 10.12pm and 11.55pm three flying disc shaped objects, about 5 metres in diameter with semi-circular spheres on top, hovered quietly about 200 feet above the base.

It’s been over 70 years since Roswell, in that time a whole industry has grown around the UFO incident and Area 51, that same industry might have competition from Kapustin Yar – Ant and Dec might make a film there.

Alikivi  July 2021

TYNESIDE ON MY MIND with musician Ed James

/ Alikivi

In the Newcastle music scene in the ‘70s we used to go to The Gosforth Hotel and watch Last Exit with Sting before he went off to London.

A great musician Dave Black, had a band called Kestrel, was also in the Spiders from Mars, and had a big chart hit with Goldie, I knew him well, he used to call me ‘cop oot’ because I spent more time on my day job than music.

(Ed’s day job was C.E.O of a global construction company, he stepped down to run his own business which is now in the safe hands of his son Chris).

Sadly, Dave died a few year ago so that’s when I retired the ‘suit’ and went full time in music and producing a podcast with my writing partner, Ed Thompson.

I’ve always played over the years, I was very shy when I first started playing I played with my back to the audience. But being on stage and playing live you push it and tend to play a bit faster.

It’s all about rehearsing and when you arrive on stage you are very comfortable with the rest of the band.

In the ‘90s I was working in Denmark where I got a regular gig in one of the bars, they called me the ‘Singing Suit’ owing to my daytime job. It was all Irish songs, stuff like ‘Whiskey in the Jar’ you know.

Around 2004 I was playing guitar and harmonies in an original folk rock band, Morgan La Fey, we went on a small European tour. I was too busy working to follow it through full time but I was still writing songs and have a book full of lyrics.

I wrote a song called ‘Love Will See Us Through’ for the diabetic research charity because my Grandson is a Type 1 diabetic and it’s a serious disease, no child should have to deal with that.

A few of my songs have been picked up by charities, Cancer research took up ‘This Sweet Life of Mine’. I wrote it for a friend of mine who died of cancer a few years ago.

When he was told he had terminal cancer he said he was going to carry on working. But he said when you see people and they know you are ill they have that look in their eyes which says they are seeing a pitiful person. He said I will not let that define me. I thought that was a brave sentiment.

TOON TUNES

Currently I’m putting together a number of songs called ‘Together Alone’ about lockdown and the sentiments around it, it’s on a personal level but will appeal to people because of what we have all been through. That will be out in the next month or so.

For recording I was after an analogue type sound and we worked hard at that. I like Irish music with my Irish roots but I also like to change things around and get different sounds.

Earlier albums I played lots of different instruments, some influences were flamenco and then I’d play the Irish bouzouki. It can have a middle eastern sound, almost world music.

PRESS RECORD

I record with Tony Davis at Newcastle’s Cluny Studio. We brought in a few session musicians when we needed them. I had everything written and ready to go when entering the studio.

I ultra-rehearse a song, you’ve got to put the time in. We recorded one or two songs per day then you have mixing and mastering.

I love the recording process it’s almost as good as playing live when you hear the whole song coming together after laying down a guide vocal or guitar and adding the layers. Although there comes a time when you stop adding sounds or harmonies because you can make a bit of a mess.

Tony is an excellent engineer he can cut it and fix the piece that sometimes you just can’t get right – in the end he used to say ‘Fuck it, we’re there!’

HEAR & NOW

For live gigs I’m making contact to 300 community concerts where venues are out in the sticks and can hold from 50-150 people, it can be big back gardens or community fields. They come out of their houses to really listen to you, they love it.

I have three different sets I’ll be playing. Ed James Sings will be covering a number of Car Stevens songs, Ed James in Concert where I will be playing my original songs and Jammin’ with James where I put on shows with guests and we all take to the stage for the finale.

 Link to the show:  https://www.ents24.com/north-shields-events/cullercoats-crescent-club/ed-james/6293966

Next year I will be looking to add UK festivals to that list. I’m a planner for these things and have a few friends around the country so will be able to stay overnight at someone’s house near the venue.

HOWAY THE LADS

After seeing Ed Waugh’s show The Geordie Songbook about Ned Corvan and Geordie Ridley, my writing partner, Ed Thompson sent me a few poems and one of them was ‘Howay woman, man Howay’ about his Dad going to working men’s clubs. I put a bit of piano to it and it worked well.

We also done a song about the three Cullercoats brothers who went off to World War One and never came back. That worked well so we decided to make an album of Geordie songs.

Some have serious subjects, some recount events that have happened on Tyneside while others are reflections of Geordie life. There are some great stories out there. The album should be out next year.

I have a radio plugger who gets me on local BBC radio around the country so that opens up our music to a new audience which is great – although I doubt I’ll get 2 million streams on Spotify to make a hundred quid (laughs).

For more info/pics/gigs/discography check the official website: https://edjamesmusic.co.uk/

Interview by Alikivi  July 2021.

NOTHING LIKE SHOW BUSINESS in conversation with writer & actor Alison Stanley 2/2

/ Alikivi

“I left school and went to college, then for a steady pay cheque I worked at the Inland Revenue. But once I got out of there I really appreciated the work I’m doing now.

You could work 50 years somewhere, retire and write a book – but nobody knows how long retirement is. There are people that have passed away not long after they have retired from work”.

Alison Stanley (pic.2021)

In the second part of the interview with writer and actor Alison Stanley, she talks about new project ideas developed by LOR Productions.

We are a theatre group supporting new writing, stage entertainment and deliver Theatre in Education projects. We are based in Cramlington and it’s the second largest town in Northumberland but it doesn’t have a theatre.

The closest is the 350-seater Phoenix in Blyth which is wonderful, or you have to come into the centre of Newcastle.

I would really like to change that with developing a creative hub to put on plays. Something around 100-150 seater, nothing too glamourous, just a small black box theatre for new writing.

I am very creative with the characters in my head that I write about, but they have to be reined in by the other half of the business, Christine Stephenson, who runs production. She asks things like ‘Where you have that scene going on there, can we do that differently ?’

The business side has got to be looked at carefully, how much will it cost ? Your profit margins might be able to keep the new writing going, people like Christine are very important to the smooth running of the company.

WHAT’S THE ISSUE ?

We are putting together a series of hard hitting Theatre in Education projects dealing with issues like drugs, gambling and revenge porn. The shows will be going in schools and pupils will be different ages so we’ve got to use appropriate language for that.

Research has shown kids running up debts on parents credit cards and we need to explore the reasons for that. We will talk to young people in those situations and young men who have felt peer pressure about sharing images and the consequences of that.

SPIRIT OF RADIO

I’ve done a few recorded shows for Radio Northumberland and recently been asked to go back to Radio Koast and present a live show. It’s hard to fully commit with a lot of projects coming together but I have aspirations to work for Newcastle radio.

I tell my PR, John Corbett at JAC media, to let the producers know and he always says ‘I’ve told them ten times’ but I reply ‘Well tell them eleven, John, tell them eleven’ (laughs).

There is more to do and the good thing is that there’s no age limit on acting or writing, yeah I can see myself still doing it until I’m very old. There is no time limit on it.

‘Sex is Hard Work’ is on at Newcastle Cluny, 19 August 2021.

The Cluny, 36 Lime St, Ouseburn. NE1 2PQ (tel: 0191 230 44 74)

Tickets:   https://www.ticketweb.uk/event/sex-is-hard-work-cluny-2-tickets/11214755

Interview by Alikivi   July 2021

COME AGAIN in conversation with writer & actor, Alison Stanley part 1/2

/ Alikivi

“After the first night Radio Newcastle were talking about the show with music from The Full Monty film in the background. The reporter said it’s so immersive even from when you go in to take your seat the playlist includes raunchy songs.

We also have a friend who is a burlesque dancer handing out sanitizer to the audience”.

The new play by Stanley is Sex is Hard Work based on real life sex workers and their stories. The show played over six nights in June at Newcastle Cluny. I asked the writer how she thought the show was received.

The show was everything I could of hoped for and more. We done the tests for covid everyday and were hoping everything would be ok and luckily it was.

The venue, which is a music venue really, had everything organised and it worked well for the stage, we sold out with standing ovations on two nights.

People were also really glad to get out and see a live performance. They were at the bars and restaurants before the show and sitting around the bars for a drink afterwards. It was really nice to see that.

The actors were great they knew each other’s parts so if anything happened like a positive test, they could easily do a bit of improvisation and keep the show running. We got plenty feedback and good reviews with four out of five stars.

The audiences were varied with a group of older ladies in their 70’s that loved it. One of them asked an actor if he got a physical reaction during the simulated sex scenes (laughs).

PUTTING ON A SHOW

In fact we’ve been asked back to do a for one night only on 19 August which will be great as there will be no social distancing then. That will set us up for a short UK tour next year, we are in talks with certain venues to take the show.

For now we are looking at two nights each in Newcastle, Manchester and London. Then see where else we can get scheduled with venues opening back up.

I will be slightly tweaking some scenes, I think you’ve got to have an end point but they make it better. Up to now it’s been a pilot really and a few additions will happen for the UK tour. If it enhances the performance why not?

Alison Stanley, pic. 2021.

YEAH, WE’VE DONE THAT

The first half of the show is a series of scenes and anecdotes where people can connect straightaway and laugh out loud saying yeah we’ve done that. But in the second half one of the sex workers is in trouble and it gets more serious, a bit of darkness edging in.

In feedback some people said they almost felt guilty for laughing at situations that turned out to be serious, but I like challenging the audience. There is some violence and the prostitutes end up hurt and broken.

When writing I don’t censor myself. For the opening I wrote a hook to grab the audience and set the tone for the whole show, it was a simulated sex scene – some people couldn’t look the actors in the eye (laughs).

The show is advertised with an age limit on it and with the word sex in the title I don’t think the more gentle people will come to see it. I use appropriate language and not gratuitous swearing.

THE SHOW GOES ON

For production of the show we always work on a three quarters full show so pricing of actors, ticket prices, stage set, venue hire, everything comes into that. A massive sold out stamp across the posters is great anybody would want that, but you’ve got to be realistic about it.

You want to make a profit, for another of our shows we sold merchandise at the end. There was cups with lines from the script on, one had ‘I baked a chocolate cake once, but I’m not Mary fuckin’ Berry’.

For Broadway I can see Sex playing there, yeah love to see that, why not ? These characters are too good to not be seen. I would rather fail than not try. I’m not afraid of failing, it’s a step on the way to success. I can’t live with regret, thinking ‘if only’. In life you have to be fearless.

‘Sex is Hard Work’ is on at Newcastle Cluny 19 August 2021.

The Cluny, 36 Lime St, Ouseburn. NE1 2PQ (tel: 0191 230 44 74)

Tickets:   https://www.ticketweb.uk/event/sex-is-hard-work-cluny-2-tickets/11214755

Interview by Alikivi  July 2021