After being captivated at an early age by the sound of The Beatles it became Steve's greatest desire to start creating music. With the encouragement and guidance of percussion teacher John Veal he played a drum solo in a school music assembly (Rock and Roll Part 2). After this Steve started to think about guitar playing and song writing. Soon he was playing gigs and working on sound and light with local bands which helped him onto a debut single release on J.S.O. Records with his first proper rock band The Crack featuring his songs Easy Street and Making The Effort. The Crack's original line-up was Bernie Laverick on Lead Guitar/Vocals, Gus Wilson on Bass Guitar/Vocals, Paul Hewson on Drums/Vocals and Steve Larkman on Guitar/Vocals. The band were great but split after 2 or 3 years following some legal and personal troubles. Then Steve turned to Studio Engineering and Record Production.
He established and started producing music in the now legendary Angel Music Recording Studio in Saltend. As well as working with Howard Gray (who produced U2, Orchestral Manoeuvres, UB40, Van Morrison, The Cure and many others). Steve also worked alongside Dave Bowie’s legendary guitarist Mick Ronson who was also from Hull. Later Steve moved onto various production projects notably in Amazon (Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Icicle Works, Ian Broudie), Mayfair (Elton John, George Michael) and Townhouse (UB 40, 10cc, Simple Minds) Studios. Then at Trevor Horn’s (aka “Buggles” Video Killed The Radio Star, Pop Music) Sarm West Studios in Basing Street where the first Band Aid single was recorded and at it's sister studio Sarm East (Ann Dudley, Art of Noise) in Osborn Street, London and with Engineer Bob Kraushaar (Jennifer Ellison, Robbie Williams, Marc Almond, Pet Shop Boys).
After many successful years helping great acts to achieve quality recordings Steve released his first solo album TEARJERKER in July 2003. This record received extensive radio play and very fine reviews and was followed by a second album THE START OF THE END OF THE WORLD in mid 2004. These two albums and the singles Chasing Rainbows (released April 2004) and Saved By Rain (released January 2005) were critically well received and are achieving good sales.
During a series of acoustic dates from October 2005-May 2006 Steve recorded ACOUSTIC TAKES a 13 track album of his songs stripped down to guitar and vocals from which the acoustic version of Chasing Rainbows was selected for inclusion on the Mi5 Recordings Q Sheet CD. Steve's next single Rockin' Up The World/You Don't Have To Answer Me Now (July 2006) achieved widespread radio playlistings. During late 2006 and early 2007 Steve worked with Jeffrey Kruger MBE, the CEO of TKO Records, to produce another album WORD GAMES (his only recording featuring covers) which was released late in 2007 to fine reviews and extensive radio success. Steve's fifth album LOVE, HOPE AND GLORY will be ready in early 2008.
Steve Larkman Biography
(includes extracts of text written by Darren Bunting freelance music journalist)
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