Opening the evening will be Smiley
Currently balancing touring and recording with UK bands the Alarm and Archive as well as playing with his ‘Friends’, Smiley has played with some amazing artists including the Mock Turtles (“Can You Dig It?”), Robbie Williams and the legendary Joe Strummer and the Mescalero’s.
He then joined the UK rock/electronica band Archive—an incredible collective whose history spans back twenty years and in 2010 joined the Alarm fronted by the enigmatic Mike Peters.
‘CLANG Smiley drops a few!’ is the book he released in 2020 giving an amusing insight into the music industry
The Other Side Of The World is James Stevenson’s second solo album and was released on July 9 2021. His first, the highly critically acclaimed Everything's Getting Closer To Being Over, was released five years ago.
The title track is about James' brother David's fight against the terminal illness Picks Disease.
"Not many people have heard of the disease - it's a really nasty one. The first lockdown was hard for us all but losing my brother in the middle of it truly broke my heart. The other side of the world is a reference to him living in Australia and also, because it's a neurological brain disorder, that he was on the other side of the world mentally." Says James.
James recorded the album remotely - first recording all the guitars and bass and lead vocals in his own studio to a drum machine, then sending them to Alarm drummer Smiley who added drums in his studio and finally to Peter Walsh (Simple Minds, Peter Gabriel, Scott Walker) who added keyboards and mixed the record in his studio.
"It was a long process, it took nearly a year - but it may be the way the world is going to go" says James.
Guest musicians include Henry Badowski (saxophone), Jessica Lee Morgan (backing vocals), Terry Edwards (saxophone), Elizabeth Westwood and Tracie Hunter (backing vocals), Mike Peters (Harmonica), Johnny Pisano and Thomas Trask (male New York voices), Rana Rains (female voice) and Harriet Stubbs (Piano)
All the songs were written by James except Take A Little Love which he co-wrote with Adam Masterson and Point It To Your Head written by his friend and Rich Kids guitarist the late Steve New. "I loved Steve" says James "Point It To your Head was a song he wrote that I always loved but it was never released - so I recorded a version of it as a tribute to Steve".
"The instrumental New York 10023 is about a crazy night I had with model Paula Hamilton in New York in the mid 80's" adds James.
James says: “Journalist Mick Mercer once cited me as having played in 72% of all known bands! and it does feel like that sometimes. It can be a bit of a juggling act" he laughs, "I love playing in bands but creating your own record is the ultimate creative experience. I do have 72% etched on my personal guitar picks though!”
