Songwriter, producer, muso and Community Media expert Steve Thompson doesn't hail from Coventry but he does
Steve relates a great story of being commissioned to write lyrics for the Jaws theme by Pete Waterman which can be viewed on Steve's own site ST Media but first a bit of background. (Note the direct link to the Jaws Post is below).
The connection began in 2004 when I began work on The Writers Cafe - one of my current commitments - one of the liveliest spoken word and music venues in the North East of England. Now at the Georgian Theatre, Green Dragon Yard in Stockton (a converted tithe barn used by the Teesside Music Alliance(ie Stockton and Middlesbrough music Collective) as a rock venue. However back in 2004 / 5 we were based at the plush Stockton Arts Centre called the ARC. The ARC were working with CIRA who were An ERDF funded project based at the University of Teesside to work with Community groups and enable them to construct their own websites. None of us at the cafe could 'speak' HTML or PHP and so we linked in with CIRA who helped us build our first Writers Cafe website using a content manager system. The support was excellent. I mentioned that I had a vast archive of material on all the Creative Writing initiatives on Teesside - many of which were mine - which I wanted to put on line (as I have done with the earlier Coventry material here). Soon I had two sites going Outlet and The Writers Cafe and Cira were talking about making Outlet into a funded programme documenting the full literary history of the Teesvalley area. However Sod's law kicked in and ERDF funding was pulled from many projects in the area and CIRA was closing down along with the websites.
Just when I thought that was the end of the websites I got an e mail from Steve Thompson who was coordinator of Teesside Uni's Community Media Project who wanted to rescue and facilitate some of the valuable work that Cira had begun. I arranged to meet Steve at the Uni and expecting a young be-suited techno-lecturer type I went along suitably be-suited my self. However this guy was more my own age, casually dressed and well bearded. As you enter his office you have this strange perception that this guy is not your normal go-ahead acedemic. It was more like wandering into a London music publishing office, with CD covers all over the walls, press cuttings, pictures of musical artists. His conversation bedecked with colloquialism and a few choice expletives were more in keeping with a rock n roller than with an acedemic.
However Steve is brilliant at his job, pioneering and developing community media throughtout the North East of England. He soon had us up and running with new and much improved websites for Outlet and the Writers Cafe and his support was 24/7 (well over and above the call of duty). Over the last year or so Steve has helped us to move venues - is working on webcasting the Writers Cafe and giving excellent support for our projects.
However my initial perceptions were correct. Steve had begun in a heavy metal band in Consett in his youth supporting many a name band, playing bass in the main but capable of playing guitar and keyboards and singing. He is listed on a site called Metal Godz. The long hair has long since gone but the spirit survives. In 1981 he became a staff songwriter for Pete Waterman, writing songs for Elkie Brooks, Celine Dion, The Searchers, Bruce Ruffin, Sheena Easton, Alvin Stardust, Sara Brightman, Elaine Page, Tygers of Pan Tang, Wavelength and many more (to be found on his own site), he went on to be an assistant producer working with Andy Taylor (Duran Duran) Toni Haliday (Curved Air / Police / Tygers of Pan Tang / Venom) Gus Dudgeon (Elton John's producer) and much more before (in his own words) giving up the three minute pop song to work on Community media which he finds just as satisfying - hence the long hours he works on it.
Steve has a great tale on his site of being asked by Pete Waterman to write the words to JAWS If you think the theme to Jaws has no words - think again - it wasn't for the want of trying on Pete's behalf.
Steve is still working on his music though, these days developing collaborative projects with poets and and photographers and film makers around North East Industrial themes. Find out details from his own site.
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