About

Musician : composer : vocalist

Steve Alexander

 

 

 

Steve grew up on the north Kent coast in a large working class family which emigrated to Australia when he was aged nine.It was there that he taught himself to play the guitar at the tender age of eleven with a song book from the New Christie Minstrels,a teach yourself book of Bob Dylan songs and a passion for Wes Montgomery and Eddie Condon. After returning to England in the late sixties he wasted no time in catching up with the youth culture of the day with the more credible Beatles and Stones,evolving into a love of blues,rock (a la Cream and Hendrix) as well as progressive rock,country rock and a burgeoning love of the new English folk such as Pentangle,Fairport Convention et al.When he was just fourteen he joined a succession of local cover bands playing electric guitar and bass and found a liking and a knowledge of earlier fifties and sixties rock and roll classics.

Moving to London in the early to mid seventies Steve made a living in the London night club scene,playing in dive bars,strip clubs,hotels and pit orchestras constantly adding to his knowledge and skills of many different genres on the way.There were jazz trios,funk rock bands,country bands ,pub rock bands ,tours backing recording artists of the day and a brief flirtation with the new wave scene.After forming and gigging with a couple of his own outfits, he married in the eighties and from then on followed where the money was with his own "dance band" playing on cruise ships,hotels,military bases in Europe and Britain,clubs ,social clubs,weddings and bar mitzvahs at home and abroad. After returning to work in a succession of club and cabaret bands in London in the mid eighties,he gave up music as a full time endeavour to work as a self -employed carpenter and builder whilst teaching music and still playing part time at weekends.

After bumping into an old musical collaborator in the heart of Kent in the late "noughties" and reawakening an interest in acoustic instruments,Steve was now playing mandolin,banjo,bouzouki,harmonica and banjolele as well as guitar ,bass and piano.This led to a songwriting collaboration with Carl Burgess and recording sessions performing on his album "Wood" which was released in 2012/13.This new found energy lead to the writing and recording of his own album "Kings and Queens and Patchwork Dragons", a combination of songs written over an eighteen month period from 2013 to 2015 as a mainly acoustic album inspired by and dedicated to his late daughter Lucy, with help from Bob Loveday on fiddle and Irish whistle,released in the summer of 2016.

Nowadays Steve lives in North London with his wife of 34 years,Maria and daughter Sophia and Ollie the spaniel,still working hard,building bookshelves,plastering ceilings, playing mandolin,guitar and banjo with Carl Burgess and the "Roosters" as well as solo, duo and trio gigs in London and the Home Counties .Steve is currently working on his follow up album soon to be released in 2017.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Telephone: 07994672219

Email: admin@stevyalex.com