The Shetland Post
By Joanne Jamieson 'The Shetland Post'
Musical Stevie back on stage after a decade
Steven Spence is not your average musician.
He can’t read music and he only started playing the fiddle again last year after a ten year break. But the 39 year-old fiddler and composer from Unst is raring to get back on stage. He can’t wait until next month’s folk festival when he will launch his new book of tunes and his first CD. Both are called, quite simply, Spencie’s Tunes.
“A lot of folk said I should do a book of my tunes and it’s been in my head for about two years,Steven said. I can’t read music and I thought ‘there are probably a lot of folk the same as me who can learn by ear rather than by reading so I should really do a CD as well’.”
Steven has been working with Unst composer and arranger John Laughland to record the tunes for the CD, and John has been busy writing out all Steven’s tunes for the book.
“I’ve always wanted to experiment a little bit and I knew John was the man who could help.” As well as preparing the CD and book Steven and John will release the CD under their own recently formed record label – Berry Broke Recordings. It’s 22 years since Steven’s last recording, a tape called Me and My Shadows, on which he played all the instruments, fiddle, mandolin, guitar and bass. He wanted his CD to be a little bit ‘different’ and said Spencie’s Tunes might not be what everyone is expecting from him. “Some of the slower tunes have a kind of classical backing to them and John has slowed down some tunes and given them a bit of a jazz influence. He has arranged the accompaniment for the piano but he has used lots of other sounds as well. “Some people might be a bit surprised and think it is a bit unusual. It might take a while to grow on them.” Steven describes the book as a humorous one with photographs, cartoons and stories about the tunes featured. Turning point He comes from a musical family. His father plays and teaches the fiddle and his mother plays the accordion but Steven was only inspired to learn the fiddle after seeing Aly Bain in concert in Unst. “My mother was a big fan of Aly Bain and she more or less made me go and see him, I didn’t want to go,” Steven said. “When I saw him it was a turning point. I couldn’t believe somebody could play a fiddle like that.” Steven started playing at the age of nine and was taught by the late Dr Tom Anderson. Two years later he composed his first tune. Ruby’s Success was written for his mother when she won the first competition on the Robbie Shepherd Meet ye Monday programme. “She said that day she noticed I was up to something on the fiddle and she couldn’t believe the concentration. She couldn’t figure out if I was trying to learn a new tune or what I was doing. “Then I’d just said to her ‘I’ve made up a tune for you,’ she was so pleased.” Not long after that Radio Shetland started and Steven wrote a tune to mark Shetland’s first radio station. The then senior producer Jonathon Wills heard about Steven’s tune and recorded it. For one week it was used as the signature tune for the station. “I was only 12 and to hear my tune on the radio was just brilliant. From then on I realised I could churn out a tune.”
Steven has written about 40 tunes many of them were written on request from various friends and family to mark particular events such as weddings. “Sometimes when you are asked to write a tune for an occasion it is not too easy but if I put my mind to it I can usually come up with something.
“Occasionally I will write a tune when I feel I have something worth while to write about, like my peerie boy, he is just over a year now and I wanted to write something for him, something special to me,” Steven said. Steven continued playing throughout his teens and at 16 he started playing bass guitar as well. At 17 he joined local folk group Hom Bru. “The first time I saw Hom Bru they were in a talent contest in the Garrison Theatre. “They came second in the seniors and I won the juniors. I remember Davie Henry coming up to me and saying ‘if you keep practising some day you will get into Hom Bru’.” After ten years with the band work commitments meant it was difficult for Steven to make it to all the group’s gigs and he felt it was time to leave.
“I didn’t like leaving but at the same time I felt like having a break from the music. It was starting to get to me a little bit. “I stopped playing the fiddle altogether shortly after that. I meant it to just be a break but actually the break lasted ten years.”
During that time Steven was still composing tunes and playing bass in Unst rock band the Bonxies and various dance bands. “When you play the fiddle you are often the front man and I enjoyed being out of the spotlight and being more in the background. I never thought it would take ten years for me to start playing again.” As well as playing and composing Steven works part-time in the Valhalla Brewery where he is busy brewing Spencie’s Ale. He says it’s a new light ale to be launched at the same time as the book and CD. Steven and John are hoping to travel to America after the launch to promote Spencie’s Tunes there. Spencie’s Tunes and Spencie’s Ale will be launched on Saturday 1st May. It seems likely they’ll both go down a treat.
Joanne Jamieson
The Shetland Post
