biography

Born in England in the heady days of the Swinging Sixties, George Best, Twiggy, and the original Brit-Pop, Stephen entered a world still celebrating the World Cup victory over Germany thanks to the Russian linesman. One day in 1966 after putting Stephen into his little car-seat in the back of their Mini Cooper, as his Dad brushed some dust from his winkle-pickers and his Mum straightened her bee-hive and smoothed out her mini-skirt, the Beatles came on the car radio. I guess that’s when it all began…

Fast forward 10 years, and he and his brother both got Woolworths guitars for Christmas, and practised until they could get a few chords together. Meanwhile, the world changed. Disco was out, and despite a deep affection for at least one of Abba, he fell in love with his brother’s record collection: The Clash, The Damned, The Vibrators, Sex Pistols, Elvis Costello, Squeeze, The Only Ones, Generation X, Talking Heads, Television and so on. Simultaneously, and to his brother’s disgust, he was finding out about rock music and learning how to play rock guitar, practising in the cold garage for hours with his cheap fuzzbox playing along with Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, The Who, AC/DC, The Stones, picking up the riffs and slowly learning the classics.

They started to play in a band – The Revs – and their first gig was at The Pier Ballroom in Redcar in a talent contest. The judges were not impressed by their blend of teenage enthusiasm, badly-played punk rock and swearing, and they came last. By a long way. Fortunately, this opinion was not shared by everyone, and the band went on to get a lot of gigs. For the next 5 years Stephen was a bit of a novelty, a special case – needing a special licence to play in bars and clubs because he was underage. But the band were learning their stuff, paying their dues. Fast forward another couple of years and Stephen was a teenage rebel without a clue, hanging out with older guys who were cooler than him and learning about the darker side of rock and roll, Iggy and the Stooges, The MC5, The Velvet Underground, The New York Dolls, and seeing the Stones in a whole new light. After several different hairstyles and hair colours, he got himself some big hair and some eyeliner, and dropped out of school to go to the big city and make his fortune.

That never quite happened, in fact he actually spent a fortune, but instead he learnt a lot, met some cool people, did some great gigs, got on MTV and got some great experience. However, in his twenties Stephen developed psoriatic arthritis, a disease that hit him hard and damaged his hands and his feet, leaving him unable to play the guitar for many years. It took a long time, but slowly he started to recover, and began to play guitar again. Since then he has lost both the hair and the eyeliner, and has played with various UK bands including The Weekend Millionaires, Tuesday Sometimes and Sod’s Law as well as writing and performing his own material.

Stephen moved to Germany in 2005 and since then, has played solo throughout Baden-Württemberg, and also plays with the excellent Stuttgart rock band Fireball who play classic rock music extremely well all over Baden Württemberg and Germany.

Stephen is a well-respected and well-liked singer/guitarist who – in the words of Marlon Brando “could’ve been a contender”. Nowadays though, he brings a load of experience and enthusiasm, some great songs, and all he is looking for is a good crowd that appreciates good music, a good performance, and men with not so much hair…

If that sounds like you then come along to one of the gigs and say hello.