I’m so pleased to announce that I will be supporting Martin Stephenson (and the Dainties) on his autumn tour. My brother and I are overjoyed that this is happening, as we have both been fans for decades. I think I can take the credit for introducing my Big Brother to Martin back in the day – although I suspect, as ever, he would dispute this fact. I was first introduced to Martin’s music back at college in Stockton-on-Tees – as I recall, I think her name was Claire, but I could be wrong. Time has eroded the memory banks. But anyway, thanks, Claire. It’s entirely something to be able to play support for someone who’s been a musical hero to me for some 34 years.
Tickets are available from here
London, Half Moon Putney – Sat, Sep 7 – 2pm – AFTERNOON MATINEE
https://tickets.halfmoon.co.uk/events/2024-09-07-martin-stephenson-afternoon-show-half-moon-putney
Manchester, Band on the Wall – Sun, 6th Oct – 7.30pm
https://bandonthewall.org/events/martin-stephenson-the-daintees/
Sheffield, Samuel Worth Chapel – Thu, 5th Dec – 8.00pm
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/sheffield-general-cemetery/the-samuel-worth-chapel/martin-stephenson-and-michelle-laverick/e-kbezkd
For me, the pivotal album was “Salutation Road”, which became the soundtrack to my life at University. I’d put on my Walkman (yes, we are talking tape cassettes) and listen to it on my train journey home to the Northeast with a big blue Eurohike rucksack on my back. The two stand-out tracks for me were “Salvation Road”, a song of homecoming which I still sometimes put on the car when the cooling towers of Teesside appear on the horizon of the A19.
The opening track, “Left Us to Burn,” is an anti-Thatcher song that still resonates with me to this day. It takes me back to the 1980s when I was a teenager leaving school.
One striking memory that you still see repeated on the telly is of Mrs Thatcher with her handbag and middle-heels walking through some desolate waste ground. Legend/Urban Myth says she arrived by helicopter using the same security protocols used to visit Belfast at the height of the troubles. She said something had to be done – and zipped off in her helicopter. That place is Teesside. The area that not only built most of this country but most of the world. A fact is conveniently forgotten by the people who profited from the sweat of my ancestors and fellow Teessiders [Steps of her soapbox – you know, like Murphy’s, I’m not bitter].
The event became known as the “walk in the wilderness”. She was caught on camera walking across the derelict site of former steel foundry Head Wrightson, which closed in 1984 – I was a mere slip of lass at 14. She did, indeed, leave us to burn…
The rivers run through us in the North East whether your a Tynesider, Wearsider or Teessider. And that love and affection are close to our hearts. My brother was born South of the River Tees (I imagine that is as important a distinction to Londoners!), which technically means he was born in Middlesborough in the North Riding of Yorkshire. He will always be a Teessider, and as is the modern way, I’ve told him if he wishes to “identify” as being from County Durham – who am I to cast doubt on his self-identification? But it shows how these man-made borders cut across the natural ones that are based on the river.