INTRO
Can I please first start by saying, rather than a band, I am solo artist Steve Skidmore aka
Skidders – song writer, producer and session guitarist. Born in Smethwick in the centre of
England, within an area known as the Black Country due to steelworks, furnaces etc during the Industrial Revolution.
Most of my live performances revolve around other projects and bands rather than my solo
music, for reasons I explain below. For example, I gig regularly with my duo Bukechi, with the
fabulous Sammi Roberts’ on vocals. I produce all my own material and play all instruments,
apart from the human voice, which I am eminently rubbish at! So my compositions are 95%
guitar instrumentals. On my three albums to date, I have not really limited my compositions to be “gig friendly”, hence me gigging mainly with other projects, as I call them.
SOCIAL ISSUES & CAUSES
Politically, I am middle of the road and believe in common sense and acceptance of each others values, but without being evangelistic in any way. I was strongly against the bringing down of historic statues, especially when it came to the dispute of Sir Francis Drake and Winston Churchill’s statues. History is something we should learn from and not try to delete. Hitler tried and failed.
NERDY THINGS
I despise people who watch the likes of Comic Relief without donating and they think it’s ok to
do this. Also people who buy bargains from charity shops and sell on for great profit. Shame on those who do that! Bad rivers are also a particularly loathing of mine. About 90% of drivers
believe they are above average, which of course is mathematically absurd. So I undertook the Advanced Driving Test so I could say I was at least average. There are some right arseholes on the road!
TRAVEL RELATED, TOURING
I hate being away from my family, but love the whole gig scene. I haven’t done much of it lately because of the pandemic and also, I have been writing and recording more and more recently.
I think the best part of playing live music however, is meeting other people – sound engineers,
promoters and other bands. Playing top venues is also fulfilling and the Cavern in Liverpool and the Forum in Old Kentish Town were probably my highlights. At the Forum, we had our own dressing room with a fridge full of Bud, but our Sound Engineer insisted we were only allowed one until after we had performed! Another band that night, kindly put balloons in our dressing room wishing us luck – that was a really nice touch. I don’t eat before gigs but normally find a nice curry house afterwards. Rick Wakeman used to have a vindaloo before his performance on his rider, but I’m not sure how he could have performed enthusiastically after that.
BUCKET LISTS
Bucket lists I have none. I am happy with my lot, but if I could play at the Royal Albert Hall and
on the Jools Holland Show, that would make me very happy indeed. But I can’t see that
happening unfortunately. I’ll be starting work on my fourth album shorty – “Feckem Hall” and it will be geared towards playing live, so I will look forward to enjoying that in a few years time.
MUSIC RELATED
So my latest album, “Friends & Family Vol. 2” was released only 4th May this year. I’m still busy
promoting the album which is my favourite to date. There are three videos for three of the
tracks, one which has vocals and two were released as singles prior to album release. It is
available on all streaming platforms and if you have a subscription, please do take a listen.
It is a very eclectic album with 13 electric and acoustic guitar instrumentals tracks and one song. I drafted-in the fantastic Cotswold legend, Andrew James for vocals on that one. Don’t think it’s all ‘pretty pretty’ guitar music. Take a listen to track one – “Aunty Bulgaria”. It’s a rock
instrumental for which I was very proud of the end result. My Stratocaster sounded lovely on
that track, thanks to Leo Fender! There’s also jazz, reggae and even Celtic.
SUMMER STUFF
Summer and Music to me means sun, fun, festivals & BBQs. I played the prestigious Godiva
Festival in Coventry with Coventry musician, Malc Evans a few years back, which was a gas.
But I’ve played many other Summer Festivals that are always great fun and have awesome
atmospheres. It would be lovely to play “Feckem Hall” at the Godiva Festival in a few years
time, so I suppose I do have one thing for my bucket list after all.
TRUTHS, SECRETS ETC
My first cousin twice removed was Randolph Turpin who was Middle Weight Champion of the
world in the ’50s after beating Sugar Ray Robinson; I’m a qualified Mechanical Engineer;
William the Conqueror was my 29 times Great Grandfather.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. Thank you to Chasing Destino for the
opportunity of doing this guest post. Do keep safe and please do take a listen to my music on any streaming platform or even from my website www.skiddersmusic.com. Thank you!
Links
Web – https://www.skiddersmusic.com
Twitter – https://twitter.com/skiddersmusic
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/skiddersmusic
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/skiddersmusic
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/user/skiddersmusic
Soundcloud – https://www.soundcloud.com/skiddersmusic
Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/artist/4zqTExvjnWSFTP2vKXG83v
Apple Music – https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/skidders/259672296
The post 116 Days of Summer Guests: Skidders appeared first on chasing destino.
