Stage Door Chat; Steve Steinman from Vampires Rock

Stage Door went backstage to find Steve Steinman ahead of his one night at Hall for Cornwall with Vampires Rock. The combination of Rock Music and Vampires seemed worthy of discussion!

To start with I observed that the show had a storyline. I asked Steve whether he felt Rock Anthems are a particularly good medium for telling a story - and had he found it easy to find songs to fit the key moments?

"Rock music is very good for telling a story," Steve replied. "We didn't fit music around the story in Vampires Rock - the story came from the songs which flowed naturally from one to the other.  When we were picking the set there was a natural progression of songs; you know what should follow each one and a story emerged."  Steve was quick to emphasise that Vampires Rock isn't a musical in the traditional sense.

"It's a Concert first, we tie it together with a bit of dialogue and storyline but it's not a musical."  He explained that in musicals he'd seen he'd often felt that the dialogue got in the way of the songs. "It's a speeded-up musical in a way.  I think of it as a theatrical concert. There isn't really a name for it!" I asked if he felt this was a new concept unique to him. "I suppose it is. There isn't anything else quite like it."

This show is very flamboyant!  Is it important to have that type of backdrop to some of these numbers?

"Definitely. Classic Rock needs that; its what it is. Rock is over the top.  I think audiences do expect that at a rock concert.  The theatrics add to the experience."  Steve pointed out as well that since many of the original artists are known for the theatrics in their shows that the pyrotechnics etc are almost part of the music.  He remarked that if many of the well-known acts like Alice Cooper "just turned up on stage and strummed away quietly" their audience would be baffled!

You're a well-known singer of Meat Loaf's songs.  What makes these songs special for you, and what do you think is their more universal appeal?

"Those songs are how my career started on Stars in their Eyes so they're very important to me for that reason," Steve answered. "It was that show that gave me a taste for performing - before that I had a "normal" job.  The show and those songs have got me where I am and allowed me to create a career in music."

With regard to their universal appeal, Steve said "They have great storylines.  Songs are a moment in time for people and music takes them back to that moment.  Bat out of Hell was a huge seller, for instance, and so the music means something to a lot of people. It takes them back to that moment when they were listening to it for the first time. The music is big, epic - not unlike Queen's stuff."  Steve was quick to praise the writing and music as well as Meat Loaf's performance of the material.

"Jim Steinman wrote it and deserves a lot of credit.  A lot of the inspiration for Vampires Rock comes from his lyrics."  Steve added, "We could easily have done Vampires Rock using just Meat Loaf material.  But we decided to use a range of rock classics as it gave us more scope."

I asked if this was Steve's first visit to Hall for Cornwall and if there was anything particular he liked about coming down here.

"I've visited three times now, I think," he replied. "Sure, its a great place to visit; feels like coming down to the end of the world!  It's nice to get a good crowd in and filling the venue is important, because of the distance.  It's great when you do, though, because you feel very positive about the rest of the tour.  If you sell well in Cornwall you feel that the tour will do well elsewhere."  he added that he was very pleased with Monday night's audience.  "People know the product now of course. I imagine it is harder for new acts.  People have to take Vampires Rock for what it is - it's not too serious but it's entertaining.  We really do aim to impress and give people ten times more what they're expecting.  Beating expectations is important for us."

Going back to the show, do you think Vampires Rock has bought Rock to a new audience via the vampire theme, given how in fashion vampires seem to be at the moment?

"No, I don't think so, " Steve answered. "Our audience has built steadily over the years.  The recent films aren't about proper vampires anyway!  Twilight, for instance, it's just High School Musical with teeth!  It's about kids and non vampires falling in love with vampires - nothing like Rock Vampires!"  Steve did acknowledge that it was good that it raised awareness and got people talking and thinking about vampires. "But it's nothing to do with Rock."

He described Rock Vampires as much darker and more edgy. "I'd say Lost Boys is closer to Rock Vampires really - there's that edge to it.  Interview with a Vampire is probably the best vampire movie."

Given that vampires are famously immortal, do you think Rock Music will, in fact, live forever?

"Yes!" Steve was pretty positive on this point!  "Queen, AC/DC are still going strong, in fact they're bigger than ever!  There's lots of bands coming back."  The music still has appeal and Steve feels that its become "cool" again with lots of different people listening to it.

Finally I asked him whether he felt anyone new will take the baton from the older groups and continue the Rock story.

"I'm not sure," Steve replied. "People tend to do new stuff so I don't know whether anyone will, or could, take over from the classic groups.  Mind you, you do get new groups that do that.  Oasis, for instance, they were just The Beatles, weren't they?  Maybe a group will do the same with Rock."

We'd like to thank Steve for his time and we very much hope he'll be back again soon!

Stage Door Chat; Dancing in the Streets

 l-r (Paul Hazel, Rob Grose, Courtney Buchannan, Adebayo Bolaji)

Stage Door went backstage to talk to some of the cast of the West End show Dancing in the Streets during their run at the Hall for Cornwall.  We talked about the music and the great Motown artists that inspired the show.  I started by chatting to Paul and Rob.

Firstly I asked whether the cast were inspired to be portraying such great artists and performing their music.

“Absolutely!” was the reply from Paul who performs Smokey Robinson’s numbers in the show. “How could you not be?”  Both agreed that they were very aware of the history of both the songs and artists.

“We’re not mimicking them, that’s very important,” Rob told me.  “We recreate the look as best we can but the main thing the show recreates is the energy of these performers and their music.”

 I asked whether they had put something of themselves and their own interpretation into the performances.

 “More than a little” they both agreed. “The performances are mostly us.  There are aspects we can recreate; dance moves, and obviously some artists like Stevie Wonder and Diana Ross have a certain style.  But a lot of these artists can’t be mimicked.  They don’t have any “isms” and that’s where we are able to perform with the same energy but in our own way.”

I also asked them if any of the artists were particular favourites of theirs.  

“You naturally get attached to your own set,”  Paul replied. Rob agreed but they both added that the Stevie Wonder numbers are particularly special to perform, even as backing singers, and that the Temptations were a favourite prior to the show.

My next question was how they felt that these artists compared to modern pop stars.

“No comparison!” they replied instantly. “We’re talking about these performers and enjoying their music 50 years later.  Do you think they will be doing that with who we’ve got at the moment?”

They agreed though that there are similarities, particularly in how the groups then, and now, were very carefully put together by the recording companies.  This opinion was echoed by some of the female actors who also noted that the groups were created in a quite artificial way not unlike today.

As a follow-up I asked the cast how they thought their acts might fare on a show such as the X factor.

“The problem would be getting through in the first place,” Rob explained.  “Quite a few of the Motown stars were very raw at the start.  They had no social graces, some may well have been in trouble with the law in the past.  The studio managed them very carefully.  I don’t know whether they would have made it past audition for that reason. But on the show, absolutely.  They’d blow the competition away.  There was such raw talent and energy.”

“Take Smokey, for instance,” Paul added “It wouldn’t matter what he performed, he’d always attack it hard and put in a great performance. There was such raw talent there it would definitely shine through… if they got on.”

Both the male and the female actors were quick to point out that these groups were every bit as manufactured as modern bands.  In that sense they might have fitted the X Factor format.  They also commented that Motown’s studio auditioned in a not dissimilar way, with queues around the block on occasion.  However the sense was that Motown had an eye for spotting talent in very rough diamonds which modern promoters and studios might not be prepared to take on.

The consensus of the female artists was much the same – getting on might have been an issue but there is no question that The Supremes would stand out!

Turning to the music itself, I asked what they thought it was that made some of these songs such classics.

“The lyrics" Rob answered at once.  “They are very powerful, and full of meaning.  Lots of them tell stories and they just resonate. There is lots of double meaning there as well.”  They explained that these artists were true all-rounders writing a lot of the songs themselves.

“The way they combined lyrics and dance moves was very clever too." Rob added. "You see it during some performances, the audience are automatically doing the steps and actions they’ve seen on old clips.  Like “Stop in the Name of Love” everyone remembers that.  The visual element with the music was very important.”

I then asked how hard some of these numbers are to sing given their wide vocal range.

“Very hard indeed!” both replied.  “They were written right at the top of the register.  This was deliberate, to create that pleading, sincere sound.  But singing eight shows a week, this puts a real strain on our voices.  There are a couple of numbers where we’ve dropped it an octave.  Performing on tour is a very different game. You couldn’t hit those notes every night as you would in a studio recording.”

They also explained that protecting their voices was a tough job. “It’s unbelievable what you have to do!  Cold draughts are really bad for us. Obviously you avoid anyone with a cold etc. You’ll notice a lot of us wear scarves!”

 Finally I couldn’t leave without giving them a chance to comment on the wigs.

“You get attached to them!” Rob replied dryly.  “No, seriously, it’s something that gives the audience a quiet smile.  A couple are actually a bit more extreme than the artist’s real hairstyles but that’s part of the drama of the show.  The visual effect on stage is important. They’re not too bad.”