James Stevenson | |
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| Instrument | Guitar |
| Years active | 1977–present |
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| Website | www |
James Stevenson is an English punk/alternative rock guitarist, at one time a member of the Alarm, [1] Gene Loves Jezebel, [2] Gen X, [3] the Cult, [4] Holy Holy, the International Swingers and Chelsea. [5]
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Stevenson started his career with the London-based punk band Chelsea in 1977, while he was still at school studying for A Level exams. He contributed to their early singles and also the first album Chelsea and second Alternative Hits . He was asked to join Gen X featuring Billy Idol as its lead guitarist in 1980/1981. [6] After Gen X broke up in early 1981 he worked with Kim Wilde, contributing to her first album, Kim Wilde, and second album, Select, and performing in all of Wilde's early videos including "Kids in America". Stevenson then formed Hot Club with former Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock. [7] They released two singles on RAK Records.
In 1983, he toured as a member of Fischer Z singer John Watts' band in support of Watts' album The Iceberg Model. In 1985, he was briefly in a band formed with Glen Matlock and Gary Holton called the Gang Show. Later that year, he was asked to join post-punk band Gene Loves Jezebel when their guitarist left suddenly at the beginning of their first U.S. tour. Stevenson performed on the band's albums Discover, House of Dolls, Kiss of Life, Heavenly Bodies, VII, The Thornfield Sessions, Dance Underwater (2017) and Love Death Sorrow (2023). He produced Gene Loves Jezebel singer Jay Aston's solo album Unpopular Songs, Beki Bondage's solo album Cold Turkey and Gene October's solo album Life and Struggle, among others. [8]
During 1994 and 1995, he provided additional guitar playing for the Cult during their world tour. [9] He also contributed guitar to the song "Brand New You're Retro" by Tricky from his Maxinquaye album. He has contributed as a session guitarist on numerous recordings including artists as diverse as Scott Walker (the Drift and Bish Bosch), Henry Badowski (who he was at Chiswick Community School with), Charlie Harper of the UK Subs, Duncan "Kid" Reid of The Boys, Jimmy Nail, Helen Terry, Annabel Lamb, Louise and the Hothouse Flowers among others, and has composed music for TV and film. [10]
In 1998, seven years after Mike Peters left the Alarm, he called upon Stevenson to back his solo projects, and the latter has been a permanent fixture in Peters' subsequent musical incarnations, resulting in minor chart success, first under the guise of the Poppyfields with the top 30 hit "45 RPM" in February 2004, [11] and as the Alarm MMVI with the No. 24 single "Superchannel" in February 2006 (from the album Under Attack). He has played on all Alarm albums recorded since 2000 including In the Poppyfields, Under Attack, Counter Attack, Direct Action, Guerilla Tactics, Blood Red, Viral Black, Equals, Sigma, War and Forwards
Stevenson still plays with the Alarm and Gene Loves Jezebel (Jay Aston's version). He also rejoined Chelsea, performing on their Faster, Cheaper and Better Looking (2006), Saturday Night Sunday Morning (2015) and Mission Impossible (2017) albums. He also plays in Matlock's band the Philistines, and has contributed to Matlock's Open Mind and Born Running albums. [12] He sometimes turns up in New York singer/songwriter Willie Nile's band when they play in the UK. [13]
In 2011, Stevenson and Matlock formed supergroup the International Swingers with vocalist Gary Twinn and drummer Clem Burke. [14] [15] Via PledgeMusic, the band raised the money to record their first full-length album, The International Swingers (mixed by Peter Walsh), which was released in 2015. [16]
In January 2013, Stevenson released a three-track CD, "The Shape of Things to Come", via his own website. An album, Everything's Getting Closer to Being Over, followed in March 2014. The album, produced by Peter Walsh, featured Matlock, Steve Norman, Barriemore Barlow, Geoff Dugmore and others.
Stevenson rejoined the Cult as second guitarist for their "Electric 13" world tour throughout North America, Europe and Australia in summer 2013 and continued to tour with them in 2014. [17]
Since 2014, Stevenson has been playing in the band Holy Holy, performing the music of David Bowie, alongside Mick Woodmansey, Tony Visconti and Glenn Gregory, among others. [18] [19] A recording of their London gig in September 2014 was released by Maniac Squat Records in 2015 as a live album, The Man Who Sold the World Live in London. [20]
In the spring of 2017, Gene Loves Jezebel (Jay Aston's version) released their first studio album in 14 years on Westworld Recordings, Dance Underwater. He also contributed to the 2018 Daphne Guinness album Daphne and the Golden Chord, and her 2020 album Revelations, both produced by Tony Visconti.
Recently he has adopted a multi-instrumentalist role in the Alarm playing guitar, bass guitar, bass pedals and a bass/six string double-neck guitar made for him by Gordon-Smith Guitars.
On 9 July 2021, Stevenson released his second solo album The Other Side of the World, dedicated to his younger brother David and his fight against the terminal illness Pick's disease. It was recorded remotely during lockdown and again produced by Peter Walsh. As well as all guitars and lead vocals, Stevenson played all bass guitars too. Guest musicians include Harriet Stubbs and Terry Edwards, among others.
In his review of Love Death Sorrow for Goldmine Magazine, Dave Thompson wrote "guitarist Stevenson is simply blazing. Indeed, anyone who thought his recent (2021) solo album The Other Side of the World was the cat’s pajamas has just been introduced to its dressing gown. In terms of (re-)establishing Stevenson’s credentials as the hottest guitarist to emerge from the new wave (he was first sighted in Chelsea, in the first wave of punk), Stevenson is playing some of the most grandiosely incisive guitar of his life right now." [21]
His father was the writer John Stevenson. James has been married twice. His second wife was Westworld singer Elizabeth Westwood. He has an adult son, Oscar, from his first wife.
Glen Matlock is an English musician, best known for being the bass guitarist in the original line-up of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. He is credited as a songwriter on 10 of the 12 songs on the Sex Pistols' only officially released studio album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, although he had left the band early in the recording process, credited as bassist and backing vocalist on only one song on the album, "Anarchy in the U.K.". However, on the bootleg album Spunk, Matlock played bass on all the songs, which included earlier studio recordings of 10 of the 12 songs that later appeared on the Bollocks album.
Ian Robert Astbury is an English singer, best known as the lead vocalist, frontman and a founding member of the rock band the Cult. During various hiatuses from the Cult, Astbury fronted the short-lived band Holy Barbarians in 1996, and later from 2002 to 2007 served as the lead singer of Riders on the Storm, a Doors tribute band that also featured original Doors members Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger. Astbury replaced Rob Tyner during an MC5 reunion in 2003, and has contributed guest vocals on several recordings by other artists.
Stephen Philip Jones is an English guitarist, best known as a member of the punk band Sex Pistols. Following the split of the Sex Pistols, he formed the Professionals with former bandmate Paul Cook. He has released two solo albums, and worked with Johnny Thunders, Iggy Pop, Cheap Trick, Bob Dylan and Thin Lizzy. In 1995, he formed the short-lived supergroup Neurotic Outsiders with members of Guns N' Roses and Duran Duran. He played with Suicidal Tendencies frontman Mike Muir's Cyco Miko, which is still an ongoing project. Jones was ranked #97 in Rolling Stone's 2015 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Rich Kids were a short-lived new wave band from London, founded in 1977 by Glen Matlock following his departure from the Sex Pistols. The band also included teenage guitarist Steve New, former Slik and future Ultravox member Midge Ure and Rusty Egan, who both later founded Visage together. They released one album and three singles during their existence, from March 1977 to December 1978.
Clement Burke is an American musician who is best known as the drummer for the band Blondie from 1975, shortly after the band formed, throughout the band's entire career. He also played drums for the Ramones for a brief time in 1987, under the name Elvis Ramone.
Glenn W. Schwartz was an American guitarist who first came to the attention of rock music audiences as the original guitar player of the James Gang, based in Cleveland, Ohio.
The Alarm are a Welsh rock band that formed in Rhyl, Wales, in 1981. Initially formed as a punk band, the Toilets, in 1977, under lead vocalist Mike Peters, the band soon embraced arena rock and included marked influences from Welsh language and culture. By opening for acts such as U2 and Bob Dylan, they became a popular new wave pop band of the 1980s.
Warwick Alan "Wally" Nightingale was an English guitarist. He co-founded the band that went on to become the Sex Pistols.
Gene Loves Jezebel are a British rock band formed in the early 1980s by twin brothers Michael Aston and Jay Aston. Initially associated with gothic rock and post-punk, their 1983 debut album Promise reached no.8 on the UK Indie Chart. The band's popularity peaked a few years later with their 1986 album Discover reaching the top 40 on the UK Albums Chart and five singles entering the UK Singles Chart in 1986-1987, including "Heartache", "Desire " and "The Motion of Love", and also gaining success in the US. The Aston brothers later parted ways and formed two different band versions of Gene Loves Jezebel.
Michael Aston is a Welsh musician. He is the founder and current leader of Michael Aston's Gene Loves Jezebel.
Stella Nova, born Stephen Charles New, was an English guitarist and singer who performed with a number of punk rock and new wave bands in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including the Rich Kids. In the 2000s, he changed his name to Stella Nova, whilst performing with the band Beastellabeast.
Todd Schofield, known as Todd Youth, was an American guitarist, best known for his work with Warzone, Murphy's Law and Danzig.
Chelsea are an English punk rock band which formed in 1976. Three of the four original band members went on to found Generation X.
Michael Leslie Peters is a Welsh musician, best known as the lead singer of the Alarm. After the band split up in 1991, Peters wrote and released solo work, before reconstituting the Alarm in 2000. Additionally, he is co-founder of the Love Hope Strength Foundation. Between 2011 and 2013, Peters was the vocalist for Big Country as well as the Alarm.
Walter Lure was an American rock guitarist and singer. He was a member of the rock group The Heartbreakers.
Henry Badowski is a British multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and composer, who was a member of several punk rock bands in the 1970s before embarking on a solo career.
The International Swingers is an American–British rock supergroup based in Los Angeles Formed in late 2011, the band is composed of Clem Burke (drums), Glen Matlock (bass/vocals), James Stevenson and Gary Twinn.
Gary Twinn is an English singer-songwriter, musician, TV host and editorial writer, currently fronting punk rock supergroup The International Swingers, which also features Clem Burke, Glen Matlock and James Stevenson.
Dance Underwater is a 2017 studio album by the Welsh gothic rock band Jay Aston's Gene Loves Jezebel. It was released on 30 June 2017 on CD and digital download, and on 29 September it was available on vinyl. It is Jay Aston's first studio album under the Gene Loves Jezebel name since The Thornfield Sessions in 2003.
Steve "Smiley" Barnard is an English musician, songwriter and music producer, best known as a drummer for The Mock Turtles, Robbie Williams, The Mescaleros, Archive, Holy Holy, From the Jam and The Alarm.
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