Colaboraciones de Stickistas : Steve Richardson

.
It was the hot, long summer of ’69 and I was only a year away from becoming a regular performing
musician, but I was preparing and working hard. Again there were two important things that happened.
Almost overnight I became a career Bass Guitar player,and unbeknown to me somewhere in Los Angeles
a young musician reached over his guitar neck with his right (and wrong) hand and started tapping!
Thank you Bass Guitar and Thank you Emmett Chapman.
.
To Infinity and beyond!
We never found a bass player for our Garage Band, so I regularly played chords and bass on my
Harmony H75 electric guitar. I started pestering my parents again chanting “get me a bass!’.
They did, bless them! I think the Eko semi-acoustic bass I eventually got, cost my dad around two
weeks worth of wages. I was a selfish teenager. It didn’t occur to me until much later,
but by then he was gone. I never got to say thank you.

.
Me and Dad the last gig we played together in Early ’84.
Clearly I’d mastered the art of playing and sleeping!

In the September of 1970 Dad took me to a music shop to buy the bass I’d been coveting for what felt
like a long time. On the way home I sat in the passenger seat of our car plucking away at this huge bass.
A car is not the ideal place to practice! Dad suddenly said with a smile “got any gigs? My band’s got one
tomorrow night and we don’t have a bass player”.
“But....gulp.....but (I thought quickly) I haven’t got a bass amp. I’ve not got a dinner jacket and bow tie.
I’ve never read bass clef.”
Dad of course had it all planned. I was to borrow my teacher’s bass amp, a WEM 15 watt Dominator as
I remember, and I’d wear my school jacket with a borrowed bow tie.
.
Needless to say I’ve never stopped gigging on bass. I must have been OK, because I then played in my
dad’s band for the next year or so.

In search of fame and fortune.........
.
Within five years I was a fully employed Fender Precision Bass session musician working for the
BBC and ATV/Central TV in Birmingham as well as playing concerts, dances, Jazz gigs and just
about everything else. I was lucky. I came into the business at the very end of that golden era,
when musicians could actually make a good living. For sure you’ve never heard of me, but you’ve
certainly heard me! But of course I was still dreaming and searching.
.
In ’75 I privately studied Classical Guitar, because I had no qualifications of any sort. Even though
I was a bright student and often top of the class, I’d given all that up in my pursuit of some imagined
musical nirvana. I managed to be the very first Grade 8 guitarist in Birmingham to pass with distinction,
and was duly offered a place at the Royal College of music. After much thought I turned it down, after
all I was having a great time being a cool TV musician. But the searching continued.
.
In ’77 it was suggested I give Pete York a call. For those too young to know, Pete was the drummer
in “The Spencer Davis Group” famous for the classic song “Gimme Some Lovin”. Pete was in the
process of forming his own band, so rather smugly I told him he needed me!!

A typical band ‘photo of “Pete York’s New York”. I’ve never been to the real New York,
I should remedy that. Have been to York. I’ve been told its so good they named it!

It took a few years for this to happen, so in the meantime I continued in my session work and found
time to tour with “Peters and Lee” who had had several hit records, most notably “Welcome Home".
It was a mildly confusing time for me. I had long hair, and my favourite band was “Gentle Giant”,
and yet I was touring with a very middle of the road act! I enjoyed every minute of it, but I could hardly
play my well-practiced “Jaco” riffs when I was supposed to be playing simple root and fifths bass lines.
I got into trouble a lot.
.
I finally met Pete in ’78 and we started rehearsing. By late ’79 we were regularly touring Germany.
Pete was also working with Eberhard Schoner who was a musical mover and shaker in Munich.
Because of this connection Eberhard asked me to replace his bass player/singer for a German TV
concert. We were to perform with a Balinese Gamelan and Rock musicians in what we would call
nowadays ”World Music”.
.
Pete played drums.
Clare Torry (from Pink Floyds Dark side of the Moon LP) Sang.
Ian Bairneson (Alan Parsons Project and the famous Solo from Kate Bushes “Wuthering Heights”
recorded with a broken arm no less!) played guitar.
Morris Pert (Brand X) Played Percussion.
.
I asked Eberhard about the singing bassist I was replacing. He told me said bassist was becoming
quite famous and was too busy to do the gig.
“Oh, anyone I know?” I asked. Eberhard looked at me and said “Oh, its Sting”.
No pressure then!!
It also occurred to me that in this gig, I was the only person I’d never heard of!
.
My time in Germany lasted around two years. We toured constantly and over the period I made
probably a dozen LP’s. I continued to work with Eberhard, and was fortunate to work with many
rock legends such as Brian Auger, Chris Farlow, Alexis Korner, Colin Hodgekinson, Simon Philips,
Zak Starkey, Graham Bonnett, Don Airey and the late great Jon Lord because of my association
with Pete. Pete’s band, “New York”, made four LP’s in that time and our first was called “Into the
Furnace”. Here's a track from the re-release version someone kindly put up on Youtube. https://youtu.be/jgMgNVdlKh4

The first LP recorded in Hamburg 1980. A busy year!

Our third LP was with another Spencer Davis Group luminary, Eddy Hardin. As a consequence
I spent a lot of time in Eddy’s Studio in the UK. Eddy passed away recently in a classic rock ‘n roll
swimming pool accident. He never did things by half! A sad loss.

Staring into space after a guitar solo, before I leap back onto bass. Germany 1980.
By this time I could sleep on stage with my eyes open.

I was playing mostly bass with Pete, but in recording I played a lot of guitar and also a classical
guitar solo in the live shows. This led me to ask a lifechanging question: is there a way I could
play both guitar and bass at the same time?
.
Pete said that he had an idea!!
.
I think its about time I mentioned the “Electric Stick”
.
Pete continued. “I have a mate in L.A., a drummer called Les DeMerle. He’s been playing with
this guy that’s invented a new instrument.” This is 1981 and there’s no internet search engine.
I had to do all the searching!
.
I’d worked with a newly invented instrument previously on Eberhard’s 1980 LP “Events”
Youtube https://youtu.be/atKdw0t7wQQ which feature the very first “Fairlight CMI” Sampler.
We recorded a track called “Fairlight 80” in honour of it. I spent an evening in a German bar with
the inventor Peter Vogel, getting stupidly drunk...happy days!

So what was my new instrument to be? I knew it was called (at the time) the Electric Stick.
Pete played me a track from the Les DeMerle “Transfusion” LP. And there was one of these in a
music shop in Hamburg! So off I went!
A classic Flathead Ironwood Stick, vintage now but cutting edge then.
“Can you play it please” I implored the shop assistant and in broken English I got the sad reply
“We haven’t got a clue” he said “We don’t even know how to tune it, why don’t you try?”
I did, but similarly I hadn’t got a clue either. I went away and filed my Stick experience under the
“tried it and failed” category. But I did continue to find out all I could about the “Chapman Stick”.
.
Ultimately I left Pete’s band in 1981 and came back to the UK to resume my TV work, which
amazing was still available to me. No younger bass player had usurped my position!!
.
It’s hard to imagine the amount of high profile work a musician can do, and still be “invisible”.
It’s always going to sound like name-dropping.
.
So, lets unashamedly drop some names!
.
Shirley Bassey, Mickie Rooney, Tony Christie, Anthony Newley, Cilla Black, The Nolan Sisters,
Vince Hill, Sandy Shaw, Neil Sedaka, Justin Heywood (Moody Blues), Englebert Humperdink,
Gerry Marsden (Yes, I was a Pacemaker!), Toyah Wilcox, Michael Ball, Gary Wilmot, Wayne Sleep,
Ruby Turner, Morecombe & Wise, Don Maclean (of Bye Bye Miss American Pie), Al Martino (who
sang in the “Godfather” movie), Matt Monro and others! (And did I forget to say Basil Brush?!)
.
I spent many happy hours in TV studios - BBC and LWT in London, ATV, Central and Carlton in
the Birmingham, and Granada in Manchester. Here I played on some of the famous British TV
shows including “Pebble Mill At One” (the original lunchtime talk show!), “New Faces” and
"This Is The Moment” (talents shows long before X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent), and Chris
Tarrant’s TV shows TISWAS and OTT (long before he did Who wants to be a Millionaire?), with
a young Lenny Henry.
.
I dipped my toe into orchestral work too, playing sessions with the BBC Midland Radio Orchestra.
London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
.
And lets not forget the Jazz artists I’ve not discussed at length:-
.
Ronnie Scott, Pete King, George Mellie, Art Themen, Jackie Dankworth, Don Rendall, Eric Burden,
Sir Roland Hanna, Chick Willis, Birminghams own Tony Richards and Musicians Union Chairman
John Patrick.
.
The list goes on. I was very lucky!!
.
The Folks Back In England

An Early Jazz gig at the Bartons Arms around ‘76
One of the few pictures of me playing with a pick! I never found out what a Barton was....
.

I met Ric Sanders accidentally one night in a Birmingham club. The same friend who had originally
suggested I call Pete York back in ’77 introduced us “Steve, this is Ric the electric violinist with Soft
Machine, and Ric this is TV session bassist Steve”. We exchanged pleasantries and that was that.
Except, it wasn’t and a very short time later I was playing at the oldest Pub in Birmingham, the
“Bartons Arms” when Ric showed up as the guest Jazz artist. There weren’t many forward thinking
Electric Violinist about, so Ric had cornered the market! Although a Jazz player, Ric had found himself
a niche in the folk music scene. We started working together in a duo format enabling us to stretch
out without restriction. In 1983 this culminated in an LP we made as a trio with my old buddy Pete.
As I remember it was at the ECM studio’s in Germany and was made “Direct to Disc” a short-lived
technique that cut the tracks straight into a disc. It was supposed to maintain purity of sound!
We didn’t care of course. We were much more concerned with playing each 20 minute side of the
LP in one go...........no pressure!!
I did find one of the tracks I’d written for this LP. Its called “Ebony Slide” and is on Spotify if the mood
takes you! Pete and Ric get a mention in the credits. I don’t and I wrote the tune! So Mr. Spotify,
if you’re listening where’s my credit and where’s my royalties!! I’ve suffered for my art, believe me!!
.

In’81/82 Ric and I spent hour upon hour in his studio. “Moor Green Studios” was attached to a
farm in the rural outskirts of Birmingham. I have a hazy recollection of a session we did there with
the great Folk singer June Tabor. Ric thinks it might have been for a BBC radio 4 programme
possibly called “Women and Song” and playing guitar could have been Martin Simpson, but it’s
so long ago! However, I do remember chatting to Dave Bristow the piano player on the session,
who later became a “Stickist”. We talked about the openness of the Stick tuning in 4ths and
reversed 5ths. At least I finally had some idea of Stick tuning!
.
Hurry up with the Stick already!!
.
It was the summer of ’82 and after a very long day of recording at 2am in the morning Ric insisted
I call Emmett. I wanted to know if the Stick could play normal music or was it just a gimmick?
Emmett said he would send over all the information. About a week later I received a brochure and
a thin folded 45rpm disc. The old style
.
7-inch single record. Sold!! I went to my bank to organise the £600 international money order
(a small fortune back then) and that was it. The newest member of the Stick Community in waiting.
.
My Ironwood Stick number 951 arrived in the UK around September of ’82 and was immediately
held up at customs. The UK authorities stored it away for 10 days until they were sure it wouldn’t
blow up, or unleash a deadly virus. I got my Stick, an import duty charge and a bill for the 10 days
storage. I don’t like customs officials!
.

What am I going to do with this thing?
.
I was prepared, or so I thought. I’d carefully cut out in cardboard a near approximation of the stick
shape, on which I’d written down the notes by each line representing the frets. Easy! I could fly
around this dummy Stick playing, in my overactive imagination mini orchestrations and soaring
melodic lines. The reality brought me down to earth.
.
This was a serious instrument demanding serious study, and to add to this it was, as Emmett
has said so many times, a blank canvas. How can one fit this into any musical environment,
without a clear understanding of its potential? A potential that each Stick player needs to invent
for themselves.
.
To my mind, given my background, I ought to have been on a similar road to that of the great
Tony Levin himself. So I wrote to Tony.
.
He was in the UK recording with Peter Gabriel. So using my Musicians Union contacts I managed
to send a letter. Sometime later I received a reply, which I still have.
.
I felt a lot better, just by being in touch with another player. Stick playing was an isolated pastime
in those days.

We’re going back to the future Marty!
.
I played and played, and made a lot of progress, but of course I was (and still am) a fulltime bassist.
In truth its only now as a more mature musician (don’t you dare say “old”) that I’m getting the time
to really play. I once asked Greg Howard how he did it. After all, I’ve actually been playing slightly
longer than he has. He told me simply, that he gave up everything else to become a fulltime Stickist.
Of course its not that simple, but no one will deny that Greg’s focus has paid dividends and made
him a powerful force in the Stick community.
.
Happily I’ve had some memorable Stick moments. In the early days I took it to every gig I could.
I also attempted to get people to write music for it, instead of just booking me as a bassist.
They never got that right!! They just wrote guitar and bass parts that really didn’t work. I sounded
totally incompetent and many times I had to put the Stick back in its case and go back to the bass.
But when it did work I was in Stick heaven.
.
I went through 2 more sticks – a black Polycarb, which turned out to be bent – I think Emmett had
some early trouble with the moulding process, so it was replaced by a white Polycarb.
.
In the very late 80’s I got my 4th stick - a beautiful Bubinga model, which I’d sacrificed a potential
girlfriend to get! I had been chasing her for a while, and at the point she finally agreed to meet,
I was already going to Rod Argents Shop in Denmark Street London to get the new Stick. I got to
our meeting point far too late, but I’d got my Stick!! So if ever your other half suggests you love
music more than them, they’ll probably be correct, so you better get your priorities sorted out!!
.
To this day my most successful Stick endeavour was in the middle 90’s. I played the Stick
exclusively for Arthur Millers play “Death of a Salesman” at the Royal National Theatre.
It was one of the best seven months of my life, and by then I’d had a lot of them! There were
many famous British actors in this show. Alun Armstrong starred and a young Mark Strong
was strongly featured. Louis Jameson, who played Leela, a scantily clad “Doctor Who” companion
and every gentleman’s fantasy, spent most of the play in a bed on stage. She had a lot of trouble
staying awake! The legendry Shane Rimmer was also in the cast. He’d been the voice of Scott
Tracy in the Television Puppet show “Thunderbirds”. I couldn’t help myself, I just had to ask
Shane to say his famous line from the series “F.A.B. Thunderbirds are go!!” He wouldn’t say it,
but he did suggest I go away in no uncertain terms!
.
With only three in the band, and locked away off stage in a room, we opened up a prohibition
like illegal bar. Anyone not on stage would hang out with us until they were called.
I never witnessed anyone staggering back on stage. But…
.
I left “Death of a Salesman” with two weeks to run because I was required elsewhere as a bass
player. This was a bit of a problem, since trying to find a replacement Stick player seemed impossible.
.
Dave Swift also from Birmingham had been playing bass in the Jools Holland Rhythm and
Blues Orchestra for a few years and had had a mild flirtation with the Stick. He came in to cover
for me, at the cost of a few concerts with Jools. So he got Pino Palladino to cover for him!
Both bass players are better known than me, but at least I felt important for a short time!
.
I would point out that Dave didn’t have his own Stick, so I let him use mine! He had to put stickers
all over it to help him navigate!
.
Dave has never stopped reminding me how he looked up to me when he was still at school and
I was at the BBC. Thanks Dave....er, I think!
.
I wasn’t till the mid 2000’s that I got another chance to be a British Tony Levin. This time with
Jerry Donahue, the “Bendmeister” and luminary of the “Hellicasters”.
.
If you know Jerry’s work you’ll be aware of the unbelievable behind-the-nut bends he employs
and his ability to bend one string sharp whilst simultaneously bending another flat! I spent our
first rehearsal being unable to play and giggling uncontrollably as I watched the magic unfold
before me. Our Drummer was Clive Bunker, from “Jethro Tull” and coincidentally one of the bands highlights was our support slot for “ JethroTull” at the Cropedy Festival, somewhere around 2004.

Looking over for a cue from Jerry. Cropedy 2004 I’m playing my prototype Jaydee bass.
Hand built by John Diggins, the bass remained unfinished until a factory fire burnt
the Jaydee building down, but oddly only mildly scorched the bass. Spooky!
.

Uppermost in my memory of the band was an incident on stage when the electrical supply faltered
and Jerry and singer Simon Van Downham’s (currently with “Big Country”) guitar amps shut down.
I was left with an unscheduled Stick solo!
.
I did eventually get to do a few gigs with “Big Country” and, as you can imagine, working with
Drummer Mark Brezecki was a pleasure. As is usual for a session player I went in cold without any
rehearsal, and I must admit to not being familiar with the material, but I really enjoyed it!
Sadly no Stick in that gig.
.
I met Greg Howard in 1999 in Holland and then again around ten years later in Beaconsfield for
a Stick convention I’d organised for him. We had an enjoyable couple of days in Beaconsfield and
this became the seed that grew into Stick UK which has a Facebook presence.
To this day Ian Rogerson has soirees at his house.
Nick Beggs of Kajagoogoo came down and played some great tunes. I have to admit being very
impressed. Greg played the brilliant “Blues for the Status quo” and many of his most popular tunes.
The Stick in a small way is flourishing in England. I’m happy to have helped a little.
.
Ch-Ch-Changes....
.
My Bubinga Stick was updated to a Tararah Grand in the summer of 2000 and further updated
to a compress 36’ scale Bamboo in 2006. This was the first Stick I really didn’t want to sell.
So in 2011 I got a Paduak Grand.
Both have silly names! The Bamboozler and Sir Dook
(a mash up of Padook and Sir Duke the Stevie Wonder tune)
I did say silly!!
.
Within a few weeks of writing this very article I’ll be getting a red grand Railboard. One of the
first 20 Emmett is producing. It will have gold glitter dots, so with the red and gold themed livery,
it will be called “The Iron Man” .....
Yep, as I said- silly!
.
Whooooo are you, do do d’ dooo!
.
As I’ve said time is plentiful now, so my next Stick project is ever looming.
.

The Tararah Stick starring in the only performance so far of ECG’s “Electric Planets”.
I’ve got the “top-gun” glasses and the required “Jazz-beard” for the optimum “cool muso, that’s been around a bit” look
.

I have a band called “ECG” The Electric Concert/Classical/Chamber Group. I’m on Stick of course!
We’ve recorded a version of Holst’s Planets. All I have to is mix it!
.
Back in 2006 we did the world premier of the arrangement at Hever Castle in the UK County of Kent.
A beautiful setting for great music. If you look closely you can just about see the lake in the background!
.
The musicians have changed over the years. I’ve now got Eric Ford playing the drums whose currently
playing in the fabulous Jazz trio “Partikel”, master sax player and Evil-knievel motorcycle nut Loren
Hignal, and top London pianist and musical director Tansy Aked!
.
I spent a full six months rehearsing each day for about three hours and of course spent the first 40
bars of the piece playing the famous octave G’s 5 beat Staccato Ostinato:
De-de-de-da, da, d’-d’ dah… … … you know how it goes!

When I eventually get the mixing finished I intend to score out all the Stick parts as a learning tool
for my fellow Stickists. Or at least to show them how silly I am to attempt something so, so complex.
Yep..... still dreaming!
.
I’ve a round 20 songs and tunes that I’m practicing like mad! I’ve always written music, so again I’ll
be scoring out the Stick parts. I hope to record these soon, in a trio setting with a singer and drummer.
.
There are also many solo pieces that I want to put in a collection - it only exists in my mind for the
moment, but I already have a title.
.
“The Invisible Stick Player”
.
Having read this, to you at least I’m not quite as invisible as I was.
.

All this writing is very tiring.....just like being on tour!!
.

P.S. I’ve not really talked about soundtrackmusic.co.uk with my manager and musical co-conspirator
Tansy Aked. We write music for film TV and Stage. But that’s for another time! Zzzzzzzzzz.........
.

Steve Richardson
London. - U.K.
March 2018.

https://www.facebook.com/steve.richardson

.
Thank you very much Steve for sharing anecdotes with the stick and letting us know your long and prolific career
as a musician
Epakta