April 11, 2020
Steve 'West' Weston interview
Steve West Weston is the man in the hot seat in episode two. Steve grew up among the vibrant music scene in Essex, listening to Dr Feelgood among others. He started out playing in various bands on keyboard before finding his harmonica mojo as the front man in West Weston and the Bluesonics, and he hasn't looked back since. He has become the harmonica player of choice for Mud Morganfield when he's touring Europe, as well as playing with Trickbag in Scandinavia, and then playing on the number 1...
Steve West Weston is the man in the hot seat in episode two.
Steve grew up among the vibrant music scene in Essex, listening to Dr Feelgood among others.
He started out playing in various bands on keyboard before finding his harmonica mojo as the front man in West Weston and the Bluesonics, and he hasn't looked back since.
He has become the harmonica player of choice for Mud Morganfield when he's touring Europe, as well as playing with Trickbag in Scandinavia, and then playing on the number 1 album with Wilko Johnson and Roger Daltrey, no less.
Select the Chapter Markers tab above to select different sections of the podcast (website version only).
Steve's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/steve.w.weston.3
Marble amps:
https://www.marble-amps.com/
Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com
Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB
Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ
Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at SEYDEL HARMONICAS
and Blows Me Away Productions: http://www.blowsmeaway.com/
01:18 - Essex roots
02:27 - Playing piano
04:23 - First blues album listened to
04:50 - First harmonica heard
05:55 - First harmonicas played
08:10 - Watching bands
10:10 - Listening to blues albums
11:18 - Went to see Muddy Waters
12:55 - Playing with Mud Morganfield
17:25 - More harmonica influences
21:48 - Became full-time musician
22:57 - Bluesonics band
25:01 - First harmonica recording from Steve
26:05 - Playing with Trickbag
29:00 - West Street album
31:00 - Advise to upcoming bands
32:42 - Being a band leader
33:27 - Album with Wilko Johnson
35:52 - Australian tour
37:25 - Harmonica players who influenced Steve
38:06 - Steve's playing style
39:04 - Blues Chromatic
40:31 - How Steve learnt harmonica
41:19 - Being a singer
43:10 - Songwriting
44:43 - 10 minutes question
45:44 - Harpin' By The Sea event
47:05 - Teaching
48:35 - Tone
50:37 - Steve's custom harmonicas
51:32 - Steve's harmonica of choice
52:30 - Favourite key of harmonica
53:21 - Amplifiers, mics and pedals
57:19 - Future gigs
WEBVTT
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Hi, Neil Warren here again and welcome to another episode of the Happy Hour Harmonica podcast with more interviews with some of the finest harmonica players around today.
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Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and also check out the Spotify playlist where some of the tracks discussed during the interviews can be heard.
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Quick word from my sponsor now, the Lone Wolf Blues Company, makers of effects pedals, microphones and more, designed for harmonica.
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Remember, when you want control over your tone, you want Lone Wolf.
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Steve West-Weston is the man in the hot seat in episode 2.
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Steve grew up among the vibrant music scene in Essex, listening to Dr.
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Feelgood amongst others.
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He started out playing in various bands on keyboard, before finding his harmonica mojo as the frontman in West-Weston and the Bluesonics.
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and he hasn't looked back since.
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Steve has become the harmonica player of choice for Mud Morganfield when he's touring Europe, as well as playing with Trickbag in Scandinavia, and then playing on a number one album with Wilco Johnson and Roger Daltrey, no less.
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.
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Hello, thank you.
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Welcome to Steve West-Weston to the podcast.
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So, hi Steve, how are you doing?
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I'm fine, thank you.
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Thanks very much for talking to me.
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And you live in Essex, yeah?
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Is it in Southend you live?
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Well, I live in Leon C now.
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I've always been an Essex guy.
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I was born in South Bend Fleet and then when I was 10 I moved to Canby Island and stayed there until I was about 17 or 18.
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I left home, went to Croydon.
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finished my apprenticeship and engineer up there and then moved back down again and sort of lived in Southend and the Lee area ever since.
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Did you grow up on playing the harmonica around there?
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Was there any particular scene or did you go
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to London to do that?
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No, there
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was a massive scene because when I was at school kind of a few years ahead of me was all the Dr.
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Feelgood guys which were Canby boys and And when I was at school, I saw them on a program called The Dirty Scene on TV.
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And I can remember just thinking, this is everything I love about music.
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I've mucked around on the piano since I was a kid, not having any lessons, but it was just...
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In the 60s, every British house had a piano, more or less, you know, it was always part of the furniture.
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Yeah, you played piano with the big town playboys.
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Yeah, I played in a band called Rent Party for years, South End Band, Jump Drive Band.
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Were you playing harmonica then as well?
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I did towards the end of my time, you know, I was five or six years with them.
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You started more as a piano player, though.
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Oh, definitely, yeah.
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Yeah, I was playing, I guess, I mean, I was completely self-taught.
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I mean, totally.
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I can't really know music.
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So I was playing in the playground in a school room with the windows open in the junior school playground.
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And I would have been 10 then, I guess, 9 or 10.
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And really basics kind of stuff, something around in a kind of a rock and roll way that a 10-year-old might do.
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But an all...
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My mate stopped and didn't say a word.
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It was quite bizarre when I look back, you know.
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So, yeah, I started on the piano.
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Right.
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And so when did you pick up the harmonica?
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Was it later?
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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It was later.
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I was, I'm guessing, I'm trying to remember, I must have been about 13, 14.
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My dad bought, we got a record player.
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We never had a record player, but someone gave me a record player.
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And my dad said, I'll go and buy you some records.
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So he went to Woolworths and he bought four or five LPs.
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And I can remember they were 50p each.
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One was a reggae one.
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I love that one.
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One was by 10.7.
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One was Boogie Woogie Explosions by a bloke called Precious Clarence Turner.
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Boogie Woogie piano player.
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I learned most of my piano playing off of that record.
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And This Is The Blues.
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which had various artists on it.
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I mean, it had Muddy Waters on there, Sonny Boy, Junior Wells was on there.
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Loved it.
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Absolutely loved it.
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So Woolworths was the source of all your musical influences then?
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Well, yeah, the rotary rack with the 50p bargains on, you know, and he went there.
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But I had an interest in the harmonica before that.
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I'd heard it on the television.
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I heard two things.
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I just loved the sound of it.
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One was Hard Day's Night when John Lennon was playing I Should Have Known Better on the train and the other one was actually a guy I've sort of researched it later in life.
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Robert McClung was his name and he was a Hollywood harmonica player, played in Hollywood films and he was in a 1936 film called Pigskin Parade with Judy Garland and he had a bit part in it and he was just this country yokel bumpkin who played harmonica and it was proper sort of fox chase harmonica and I saw it on a black and white telly and just remembering thinking what the hell was that all about I love it I love that I really loved it.
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So after that and all those influences, then we got this record.
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It's something I really want to get the hang of.
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And I got my dad to buy me a harmonica for a Christmas present, I think.
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But I've got a chromatic.
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I thought I wanted a chromatic because I knew nothing about it.
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Is that the first harmonica you got was a chromatic?
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Yeah, a chromatic.
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Yeah, just a regular 12-hole chromatic.
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in C and I just assumed that the button would give you the blues notes if you wanted to be bluesy that's what I thought so I spent a long time trying to play these bits on records and thinking it doesn't sound anything like this thing on the record player, you know, it just doesn't sound the same at all.
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Okay, so you had a chromatic for quite a while, and so that's...
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I did for a couple of years, so I guess I took two or three years, lots of really, I remember really sore lips with it, really hurt my lips, and just not understanding why it wouldn't do, why the sound is so completely different to this, you know.
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Yeah, so obviously you do play chromatic now, is that Did that help you develop, and did you carry on playing chromatic for that time, or did you go back to it as a blues thing later on?
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I went much, much later.
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So I gave up.
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I just thought, kind of giving up on it.
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And then I know I must have been 17, and I was in Southend, in Hodges& Johnson's, the local music shop at the time, and in the Hohner Harmonica case, there was one, and it just said blues harp written on it.
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And I just thought, that's got to be the fun, you know.
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Yeah.
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And I bought one in, it was in E, a ridiculously high thing, and loved it, and it just fell into place.
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Your first one, Daytonic, was in E, was it?
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Yeah, it was an E one, I remember it being in E.
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I didn't know anything about anything, you know.
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You would have found too many songs to play along with that.
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No, but I just played along by myself on that, you know, and I just thought, I'm breathing in and, breathing out, and it's making calls, and it's sounding like a train, you know.
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Yeah, well, you had a tough start, because you started playing on a chromatic, hoping to play blues e-diatonics, and then you had an e-diatonics, so yeah, you had to go through adversity to get to where you are.
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Yeah, that was fantastic, you know, and then, you know, also, Phil, because Libre Love playing harmonica, there's a local, a guy, Lou Lewis, playing harmonica, we, you know, once we were old enough to get it, watching these bands, you know, massive fans of them and really big influence.
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So you had a really good scene around Essex at that time.
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It was every single night.
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I mean, sadly, at 17, I went to Croydon to finish my apprenticeship.
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So I was on my own in London for two years, finishing off this apprenticeship while my pals were back here in Southend.
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you know, having a great time because it was, it was around, you know, 76, 77.
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I've got an older brother as well, he's 13 years old and he was, he was 13 years old so when you're much younger than you look up to your older siblings and he loved Georgie Fame and Voot Money and all these guys and I loved that music I really loved it so it sounds like you've got quite a wide variety of influences you certainly weren't bedding in the usual Little Walter, Sonny Boy yeah it's root stuff but it wasn't traditional blues harmonica stuff did you go through a phase of the more traditional blues harmonica you know 1950s type stuff Well, yeah.
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I mean, back in motorbike days, you know, we used to go in, you know, when I was 17.
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I was a young looking 17.
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I used to get thrown out of pubs when I was 21, you know, for not being old enough.
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So I was never really on the pub scene with my pals because I was just too young.
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You still look 21 now, so that's an advantage.
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Oh yeah, it's gone totally quick.
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That's when I got a proper job.
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My parents were particularly old, so they never really had any record collections, but other friends at school, they had uncles and and dads that grew up with the Rolling Stones and things and I can remember around my pal's house and there was blues albums there and we used to go through them and play them you know to see what it was all about and we We played a compilation, and I had my blues compilation as well, that this is the blues, and we looked at these people, listened to these people, and Muddy Waters came up, you know, and I can't even remember what songs were on there, probably Hoochie Coochie Man or some sort of classic one on these compilations.
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.
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And we loved it.
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I absolutely
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loved it.
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Who'd have known back then you'd be playing with his son in years to come, Walter?
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Well, I mean, the story about that is that I had a bike, he got a car license, and his dad would lend him the car.
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It's my pal Paul Jones, we were pals for lots of years.
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And he said, do you fancy you saw on the NME that Muddy Waters was playing in London?
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He was playing the new Victoria Theatre in 1976, I think it was.
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No, 1977, I think it was.
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And he said, can I see him?
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I said, wow, yeah.
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Wow, that's great.
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So, you know, he bought tickets.
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We went up, and his dad's not, Mark Tuchel, Tina, he took it up there, parked out where he went, his new Vic, and of course, the band come out, and we didn't have a clue what he looked like, because we only had a record, and there was no picture of him, so we looked at all, because Muddy doesn't come out, he's about three songs before he comes out, and the band, I found out, you know, looking into it later, that it was Jerry Portnoy playing harmonica, and Bob Markoving was on there, I think John Primer might have been in the band, but it was, We were saying, it must be him on the guitar.
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No, no, I reckon it's him on the harmonica.
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I mean, who he was, all we knew was, Muddy Waters was next to this song, and we liked it.
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We thought we'd go and check him out.
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And he came out, like our three songs, like he did.
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He came out, and then it was obvious it was him.
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You know, this guy come out, and everyone cheered, and he got on the stall and played a set.
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So I got to see him twice, actually.
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I think I saw him again about 1979 at the Rainbow in London.
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you're so fortunate I really I've never seen never saw him play and actually I'm in my house now looking I've got a painting of Muddy Waters on my wall in the room that I'm in now he's my absolute favourite and of course he's had all the best harmonica players play with him all the years so it's kind of like that was the that was the cheer to get wasn't it to be Muddy Waters oh god it's the best I mean and I've Every time I play Mutt with his son, Mutt Morgan, I feel like I've got the best chair, the envy of every harmonica player.
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It's a wonderful job to have.
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I'm really, really honoured and humbled to have it.
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There's so many great harmonica players around.
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To be honest, Mutt never chose me.
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When he came to England, I was in the band that was picked to back him.
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So I was the first one he got.
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So I think that's how I ended up with the job.
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It was Big Joe Louis.
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I was playing with Big Joe Louis at the time, and it was his band that was booked to back him.
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So it was all his band backed him.
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We had Pete Wingfield on piano, the only extra.
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He wanted piano, so we got Pete in.
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And we did a few shows up in Peterborough when he came over.
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And he'd never been to England before.
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And he loved it.
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He just absolutely loved it.
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He couldn't believe that we all played like this over here.
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Yeah.
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And of course, he's been back so many times and he loves coming to England.
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And I'm the only one out of that regional lineup that's still playing with him.
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Oh, really?
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Yeah.
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I've seen you play a good
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few times with him, yeah, so it's always great.
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And again, being such a big fan of Woody Waters, to hear those songs, you know, kind of, you know, the versions of the songs that he does, I've heard some of the new ones that he does now as well.
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Yeah, he does his own stuff, you know, as well.
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But those classic, you know, numbers that are kind of played to death by everybody, but There is a reason they play to death by the way.
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They're great songs.
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Well, exactly.
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They're really great songs, but to do them with that voice, full-on powerful Chicago voice, which is so much like a dad.
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It's just wonderful, you know.
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You know, old songs that a lot of old harmonica players bring, you know, no old solos, note for note.
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Do you generally play the songs like the original?
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Well, they've always got the flavor there, you know.
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I've never really learned anything note for note, ever.
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Actually, I did a recording for someone who wanted a little Walter thing done.
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One thing you could guarantee for sure, the next night or the next session, if Walter did that song again, Walter would play something else.
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And for me, blues is a conversational thing.
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You're actually speaking through music, putting your point across.
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to pinch somebody else's conversation is kind of weird, you know.
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It's not an orchestral piece.
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It's not a concerto.
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It's not written down.
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It's an improvised piece of music.
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But as people say, the meat and potatoes of a song has to be there.
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You couldn't play Coochie Coochie Man and play stuff by a different riff.
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You know, you couldn't.
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It wouldn't be there.
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It needs that in it.
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but so again that 40 days and 40 now you've got to have that thrill in there yeah exactly you know it's got that there and it's got that there okay it's that kind of thing and then I just try and remember them when we play the song, that it goes a bit like this here.
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So it's never exactly the same, but it has the flavor of it.
00:16:41.355 --> 00:16:41.576
Yeah.
00:16:42.017 --> 00:16:46.123
So when you're playing with Mud, you do the UK gigs usually, don't you?
00:16:46.202 --> 00:16:47.325
Because he also goes to Europe.
00:16:47.365 --> 00:16:48.846
Does he use a different place?
00:16:48.907 --> 00:16:49.488
No, no, no.
00:16:49.548 --> 00:16:50.690
I usually do the Europe things.
00:16:51.150 --> 00:16:55.998
He used to pick up a lot of bands, but now he tends to like to take us.
00:16:56.354 --> 00:17:27.446
but if there was a show where they booked him I'm sure that's his business but if the band are going to book him he's not exclusive to us last year we went to India we played in Mumbai didn't we we went out there and played there for two nights he chose to take us with him who does he have playing with him in America obviously he did the album with Kim Wilson but he doesn't have Kim Wilson playing with him no it's Harmonica Hines I think the guy I only have different people in America playing along with him I think Yeah, great.
00:17:27.507 --> 00:17:33.276
It's great to see, you know, I mean, I'm sure Muddy would be delighted to see his son, you know, be able to carry it on and do some of his songs.
00:17:33.296 --> 00:17:36.401
And he's also, yes, he's doing that and still going strong.
00:17:37.403 --> 00:18:15.510
Yeah, but getting back to, I mean, once I got started getting into the feel goods and listening to more of the high energy stuff, I thought, discovered um jay giles band i had friends that you know always helped we always helped you spend a lot of time listening to records in people's houses back then you know yeah you went to your mate's house and you sat indoors and he said look what i've found i've listened to this and and i've got friends i'm still friends with now in south then that that had all all the stuff You know, they put me as Paul Batterfield.
00:18:15.530 --> 00:18:16.873
I mean, I loved Paul Batterfield.
00:18:17.393 --> 00:18:19.836
I can believe how he plays.
00:18:20.376 --> 00:18:20.698
Yeah.
00:18:20.837 --> 00:18:22.760
I loved his style.
00:18:34.737 --> 00:18:35.198
Yeah.
00:18:35.521 --> 00:18:40.696
all the early piazza stuff, you know, when they had the Dirty Blues Band.
00:18:40.717 --> 00:18:42.221
The Dirty Blues Band, yeah, that's right.
00:18:42.241 --> 00:18:43.144
Yeah, it's called that, wasn't it?
00:18:43.224 --> 00:18:44.166
Yeah.
00:19:02.145 --> 00:19:04.810
They put me into all those guys, you know, these friends.
00:19:06.534 --> 00:19:08.817
And I met Mike Vernon, didn't I, in the early days?
00:19:08.857 --> 00:19:11.843
I think I was about 23 when I did a session for him.
00:19:11.883 --> 00:19:15.950
That was my first harmonica session ever, was for him.
00:19:16.451 --> 00:19:19.075
Right, so yeah, just going back to your development and history.
00:19:19.095 --> 00:19:23.182
So you sort of started playing piano first, then you did pick up harmonica 13, 14.
00:19:23.241 --> 00:19:25.165
So were you then more...
00:19:25.826 --> 00:19:27.949
Were you playing both as you sort of got to your 20s?
00:19:27.989 --> 00:19:34.155
Well, when I'm starting to play, these are playing at home, you know, for my own pleasure.
00:19:34.195 --> 00:19:53.339
My first gigs would have been, I played in a Canvey band that was doing, what do you call it, psychedelic stuff, all the Pink Floyd stuff, and I played a Vox Continental organ single manual with them, and then a little bit of harmonica towards the end with a band called the Rubies on Canvey.
00:19:53.359 --> 00:19:54.422
That was my first gigs.
00:19:54.945 --> 00:19:58.951
And so you were gigging first on piano and then harmonica came along.
00:19:58.971 --> 00:20:03.238
So what age were you when you started gigging harmonica a little bit more seriously?
00:20:03.578 --> 00:20:04.440
Well, I wasn't serious.
00:20:04.579 --> 00:20:06.663
Again, this wasn't actually serious.
00:20:06.743 --> 00:20:08.946
I wouldn't say I was particularly any good at it.
00:20:09.067 --> 00:20:12.571
I've got to think, probably about 1920.
00:20:14.535 --> 00:20:45.634
And then when I was 21 or 22, I got the offer to play ready in a Hot Wheels, another band from Canvey and Southend they made an album with Al Cooper their last album was made with Al Cooper he put a lot of keyboards on it so they wanted keyboards on it when they went and did the live shows and I lived on Canvey.
00:20:45.776 --> 00:20:49.099
They lived on Canvey, most of them.
00:20:49.401 --> 00:20:50.903
And so I got picked.
00:20:50.923 --> 00:20:54.387
To be honest, I wasn't really qualified for the job, but they were good guys.
00:20:54.468 --> 00:20:55.568
And they said, oh, yeah.
00:20:56.190 --> 00:20:58.153
Steve, Dave Higgs, he sadly passed.
00:20:58.333 --> 00:20:59.634
He said, yeah, you come and do it.
00:20:59.654 --> 00:21:00.596
You'll be great, you know.
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