Born on 13 July: Steve Gibbons, over 50 years of British rock

Born in 1941 in Harborne near Birmingham (England), he is a British singer, guitarist and songwriter. Despite his low profile, his career spans more than half a century.

Starting out as a plumber's apprentice (which could have come in handy for composing hits!), he joined the group The Dominettes in 1960, which quickly changed its name to The Ugly's in 1963. With this group, he toured the bars and clubs of Birmingham, building a reputation for his rhythm and blues-tinged rock and roll style. It was a style to which he remained generally faithful throughout his career...

After changing bands several times (notably Balls with Denny Laine, the future Wings), he joined The Idle Race, which quickly evolved into the Steve Gibbons Band. An obvious choice that could have been made much sooner. The band enjoyed success in the 1970s, notably with their cover of Chuck Berry's ‘Tulane’, which reached number 12 in the British charts in 1977. The Steve Gibbons Band shared the stage with such legends as The Who, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Electric Light Orchestra and Little Feat. His greatest achievement, however, was the title track of ‘Down In The Bunker’ (1978), which is reminiscent of Dire Straits. Today, the description of this ‘girl from the bunker with such a Beautiful body’ could easily be labelled misogynistic...

Steve Gibbons is also renowned for his interpretation of Bob Dylan's repertoire with The Dylan Project, long before Cat Power explored the same niche. True to the spirit of British rock in the sixties and seventies, he doesn't play his home town much any more, but continues to give a few intimate concerts from time to time, as he will this September at Joe Joe Jims in his home town.

Finally, Pete Townsend, guitarist of The Who, has nothing but praise for Steve. "Steve is able to convey the authentic spirit of Nashville, Dylan's New York, or the urban heritage of Bruce Springsteen or Paul Simon. Steve is originally from Birmingham, but his musical culture is a mixture of fifteen years of rock harvest".

(MH with Stéphane Soupart - Photo : © Etienne Tordoir)

Photo: Steve Gibbons on stage at the Beursschouwburg in Brussels (Belgium) in January 1978.