Steven's music career began in the 1970s , a love of ukulele and George Formby ( later followed by Gilbert O’ Sullivan and David Bowie) spurred him on to become a popular entertainer with dyed hair , plastic trousers and ‘rocking the uke’ in the Clubs and Pubs of his native ‘North East ‘.
Just a matter of time before in 1980 he became a Butlins Redcoat Entertainer at their ‘Filey’ holiday camp. It went quiet in the ‘80s for his uke playing but he started writing songs on guitar and in 1988 joined a Gloucestershire based band called School of thought, who released ‘Dance with me ’as their first single on 7”vinyl in 1989. (Later in the late ‘90s played on BBC Radio 2 Ed Stewart on his ‘Where are you now ‘ slot.)
A surprise invitation around 1990 from The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain to be a guest performer at a Ukulele Yuletide extravaganza at Ronnie Scotts London came as a welcome surprise along with being chosen for a place in BBC Radio 1 regional finals for Musician Style ’89, hosted by Bruno Brookes, who said onstage “this guys gonna make it “.
Later the legendary Mike D’abo interviewed Steven on Severn Sound Radio and said “ I think we are gonna hear a lot more from this young man”
The ‘90s came and went but then came an unexpected -massive-worldwide ‘Ukulele revival’ in the early 2000s and all of a sudden Steven was the ‘go to’ man from celebrities to publishers and in the following years encouraged by Harry Hill -he wrote bestseller ‘Absolute Beginners Ukulele ‘ ( books 1 & 2) plus ‘Starting Ukulele ‘ (and ‘The Next Step’) published worldwide into several languages by Hal Leonard Publishing -along with a successful DVD tutorial , now marketed by ‘Groove 3 ‘ online.
At the same time Steven had the great pleasure of making the acquaintance with Sir Tom Courtenay and giving ukulele lessons to Tom in London.
The explosion of the ukulele revival prompted many opportunities for Steven including taking ukulele workshops and performances in UK, Ireland , New York. and Singapore, as well as some teaching and demonstrating on ITVs Alan Titchmarsh Show. Perhaps the biggest airtime Steven has received in the much repeated BBC 4 Documentary about the life of George Formby -presented by Frank Skinner (watch clip on Videos page )
In 2009 TV and Radio presenter Nicky Campbell invited Steven to perform live with his band onstage in London and to record ukulele parts for Nickys’ cool, swing numbers on his great album ‘Moonlights back in style’.
Steven was one of Jools Hollands support acts in 2012 and did 6 shows in various parts of UK including Edinburgh Jazz Festival. Around the same time he performed ‘live’ on Aled Jones Show Good Morning Sunday BBC Radio 2 (clip can be found on YouTube) and also had a main feature in Cotswold Life magazine.
One of Stevens songwriting heroes is Gilbert O’ Sullivan who has taken an interest in Stevens music and been encouraging and taking his time out to give advice and feedback over the years and was kind enough to meet up with Steven in Jersey several years ago .
Jeremy Vine played ‘Full Circle’ Stevens single on BBC Radio 2 and shortly after Aled Jones played it two weeks running on his Show.
Shortly after Stevens’ Classical version of ‘Watersmeet’ was used as continuity music on Good Morning Sunday BBC Radio 2
Stevens’ latest album 'After all these years' is a collection of his best work -singles and selected album tracks from the last 25 years , Thank you for taking an interest in Stevens work , do check his songs out on i-Tunes, Deezer, Amazon, Spotify , Soundcloud etc .and feel free to reach out to him on his contact page . Occasionally CDS and even the vinyl single turn up on record sites and Ebay for those that prefer ‘tangible’ products .