Steve Thompson, a songwriter and producer from the North East of England has spent a career in the unglamorous machinery behind artists; Sheena Easton, Elkie Brooks, Celine Dion, a teenager called Conrad Lant who would go on to front Venom and, by most accounts, accidentally invented Black Metal. However, his own group Bullfrog have largely been forgotten. The master tapes from the band that got the deal and then didn’t, sat in storage until copyright law set them free. He’s remastered them now, and tells Jason Barnard that the tapes are a symbol of adventure and creativity.
What made you finally dig out those master tapes rather than leaving them in a drawer for another decade?
It’s a long story. I have mixed feelings about those tapes. We channeled all our creativity and finances into them and went off in search of a record deal. They’ve been with me ever since. A symbol of adventure, creativity and to a certain extent failure. In 2020 I did a deal with Cherry Red Records on a load of back product including the Bullfrog Demos. They also re-released my own album “The Long Fade” (which I recall you reviewed) plus the follow up “Distant Destination.”
Cherry Red’s plan was to release the Bullfrog stuff on vinyl. But our old record company came out of the woodwork and muddied the waters. But in 2024 it was 50 years after our record deal and the demos dropped out of copyright. I started thinking about doing something with the tapes at last. But hold up, I had sold the tapes to Cherry Red! So I negotiated a license with Cherry Red and they were very helpful.
You’ve been open about using some AI in the remastering process. Where did you draw the line between restoration and reinvention?
To be honest it started with a bit of experimentation. I worked on one track and posted it to a Facebook group dedicated to 1970’s North East Bands. The response was amazing. People remembering particular shows and the excitement of being at a live gig.
The band now sounds how it would have done in a modern studio. Do you think that’s actually a good thing, or does it sand off something real?
It’s subtle. The remasters sound bigger than original demo tapes. But they match our fans recollection of the excitement produced by the band.
Rodger Bain produced your first sessions for Cube and those recordings never came out. What was wrong with them?
My recollection was that they were fine. Possibly Rodger was producing us as a rock band which is what we were. Maybe the record co wanted a pop band, which we were not.
Cube Records insisted “Riddley Tiddley Tum” was your hit single. You thought it was a joke. Who do you think was right?
It was a joke song written in a moment of lunacy. They declared it would be a hit. It wasn’t, so clearly they were wrong.
You signed to Cube in a working men’s club dressing room with fans banging on the door and no legal advice. Thinking back, what was the worst clause in it?
No idea, it was written in hieroglyphics.
The copyright on those recordings has sat with Cube’s successors for fifty years. What’s it felt like watching other people own your work for that long?
No problem at all. I had other things to do and I just waited patiently until the copyright ran out.
Gus Dudgeon turned up at Basing Street as a mate of Rodger’s and you later worked with him extensively. What did he say about that first version of you?
In later conversations we talked about those sessions and I had to admit he did not make much of an impression on me. I was young and in a bit of a daze. But I seemed to make an impression on him. In later years he described me in great detail at those Island sessions almost like he’d marked me out as someone he’d be working with a great deal in the future. People who knew Gus would not be surprised by this thought process
When Pete MacDonald left to join the Spiders from Mars lineup, Cube effectively broke up two of their own signed acts. Did you ever get an explanation for that?
I had a lot of resentment about that. They effectively killed off two acts. Clearly they could not have given a F*** about people. Still it instilled in me a determination to succeed in spite of them so I guess I owe them that.
You quit the steelworks without a second thought the moment the record deal came in. Your colleague was counting down 4,537 days to retirement. Do you ever think about what happened to him?
He didn’t last 4,537 days and make it to day zero. The Steel Works shut down in 1980 and everyone was “retired”. They tore down a vast 700 acres of industry. 140 years of steel making founded by German sword makers trashed with nothing remaining. As you might expect, I wrote a song about this and went back one day to make a pop video.
Your original Bullfrog bass ended up in Conrad Lant’s hands for the Venom session that effectively created Black Metal. Did you have any idea at the time what you were watching happen in that studio?
The Venom session was my last recording for Neat Records. I was feeling it was time to move on. Conrad was on a youth opportunity scheme and working as a tape op/tea boy. He regaled me with tales of his own band and imploring me to give them some studio time. One day I gave in ans gave them an afternoon of down time. Conrad has just recently taken on bass duties and had no bass so I loaned him mine from the Bullfrog days – a Gibson EB3. (I feature a pic of me with that bass on my second Cherry Red album: Distant Destination)
The three Venom guys were all just 16 years old and very raw. But they had energy and were naively original. Tony has since said the following in a NWOBHM forum
I’m still in touch with Tony and Geoff from Venom but I’m afraid Conrad has gone a bit weird. I’m also in touch with the Raven guys and the Tygers and various members have played on my more recent records.
So what happened next?
I mentioned that I was getting a little restless at impulse/neat. I had recently spent quite a bit of time away from the Studio. Firstly, I went to Odyssey Studios in London to work with Wayne Bickerton. Wayne had chosen one of my songs to record with Chris Farlow. Wayne loved my demo and asked me to go to London and play guitar on the recording along with session musicians. (The session guys were Simon Phillips, Drums and Mo Foster, Bass. I was only playing guitar with The Jeff Beck Band!) I enjoyed that trip and Odyssey was a good deal different to Impulse in Wallsend. Then something else happened. I got some interest from Phonogram records in an act I had put together around my songs. They wanted to travel to Wallsend and hear a showcase of the songs and the act. so I set up a showcase in Impulse Studios. The Head of A & R was none other than Bullfrog’s old producer, Rodger Bain, and guess what? He was bringing his mate Gus Dudgeon who he wanted to produce us. On the day of the showcase Gus loved the songs and also my session musicians. So he asked us all to come to his fabulous The Mill Studio in Cookham, Berkshire.
One of my session players was Alan Clark on Keyboards who later joined Dire Straits. The youngest of my session players was a guy called Andy Taylor who was later to find fame with Duran Duran. I had recorded a couple of tracks with Andy for Neat records. Andy could’ve been neat 03 if the Tygers of Pan Tang had not walked into the studio around that time. The songs I recorded with Andy can be found among the tracks that Cherry Red released. There is a track from Andy on each of the “Iron Man of Norton” albums.
Andy recently did an interview on planet Rock with a charming reference to our time together Back in our wallsend days.
Anyway, back at Impulse Studios, in the stark and cold Wallsend I missed The glitzy mill studios. On top of that Gus began to call me asking if I had any songs for some of his other projects. And so having produced my last session for Neat records, Venom, I quit the label and the studio to begin a new adventure.
Further information
Bullfrog 50 Years On is available on 12 inch Vinyl and CD (bonus tracks)
