A journey through time...
It's 1977 and the height of punk rock. This picture was taken at the Central Bar at the Gateshead end of the Tyne bridge. The band at the time was called Electrix. The unusual guitar was built for Steve by guitar guru Stu Burns who later went on to play with The Squad. The body of the guitar was made from a church pew and modelled on Stu's own Gibson Melody Maker. The neck is from a Dan Armstrong Plexiglass guitar like that used by Keith Richards with a short scale neck and 24 frets. The pick-ups were Ibanez Super 70's. The controls were lifted from a Greg Burman valve preamp, so all in all a real Frankenstein's monster which he still owns to this day.
Later that year, Steve replaced Paddy McAloon as songwriter in the band Avalon when Paddy left to form Prefab Sprout. Avalon became part of the North East's thriving pub rock scene along side the newly reformed Junco Partners, Last Exit ( featuring Sting ), The Squad, Steve Brown Band, Neon and appeared at BBC Radio Newcastle's Bedrock Festival. They also featured in local rock fanzine Out Now whose contributors included Phil Sutcliffe who later became editor of Q magazine.
It was the summer of 1979 when Steve was introduced to vocalist Bren Laidler who was a member of girl group Hooker. It was a meeting that led to them creating the band Stiletto. Originally the intention was that Laidler was putting a band together to work on the North East club and cabaret circuit but Daggett had other plans. They rehearsed during July and August and their first gig was in September 1979, but by January 1980 every member of the band had quit or been replaced. Steve had written a handful of new songs and found in Bren, a vocalist and performer to deliver them.
A review of the band playing live appeared in Sounds (the big selling weekly music paper that rivaled Melody Maker and NME) and this attracted the attention of the record industry. Stiletto's next gigs at Newcastle University and The Gosforth Hotel were inundated with A&R men, managers, producers and media people. Alan Hull of Lindisfarne and their manager Barry McKay turned up. Bren was recruited to do backing vocals for Lindisfarne on two television shows and Barry wanted to manage Stiletto. Steve declined the offer but it was a decision he would later regret.
It was all happening so fast, a 2 song demo tape coupled with a few adrenalin charged live shows had the press comparing them to Blondie and the Pretenders. TV producer Malcolm Gerrie arranged for the band to perform a special show behind locked doors just for music industry people. February saw them enter the recording studio and by late spring they were signed to Phonogram's famous Mercury label.
More recording followed and in September 1980 the single 'Someone Like You' was released. The record was picked up by Radio One as well as many independent stations and the band toured extensively in Britain and Germany. Alas, big boardroom changes at the top of Phonogram spelt disaster for the band so early in their contract. Steve said at the time "We had good airplay, nationwide gigs, great press, Television - everybody seemed to know who we were and what we did except… the new people at the label. We were dropped and the record sank with us"
On returning from Germany, the cracks began to show, the rest of the band wanted to return to the club and cabaret circuit and cash in but Steve and Bren pursued their dream. A completely new line up of musicians, a fresh set of songs from the now prolific Mr. Daggett, this time with a more rock orientated sound due to the inclusion of old friend and guitarist Phil Armstrong.
A new deal with a small independent label Wonderful was found and a new single Video / Pin Up released. There was a promo video, the first ever directed by Geoff Wonfor (who later went on to be film director for The Tube and director of The Beatles Anthology) plus a live national TV appearance on The Oxford Road Show and a BBC2 Forty Minutes documentary, once again things were looking up. The problem was, those nice people at the distributors forgot to put the record in the shops! It was the final straw, now without a manager, no label and headed for the dole queue, the band bowed out on their home ground with a gig at Newcastle's Mayfair Ballroom. Funnily enough on the same stage as the next part of the story begins.
Following the rise and fall of Stiletto came the duo IT Hz ( pronounced "It Hurts" ). It's 1982 and electronic music is dominating the European charts. Steve had dabbled in analogue synthesis from its early days and used it as a backdrop along with tape loops, vocoders and early drum machines to perform a whole set of new material.
Once again, teamed up with vocalist Bren Laidler, they played their debut gig at a packed Newcastle Mayfair Ballroom supporting Bob Smeaton's final show with his band White Heat. Other notable venues on the scene which they played at included Balmbra's Music Hall, The Cooperage and Tiffany's Ball Room.
They wrote and performed the title music for the BBC youth arts series The Colour Programme and recorded a television live in concert from Newcastle Polytechnic Theatre. Many other TV appearances followed along with good press but alas no record deal. The duo became a six piece featuring two drummers, one of whom was old friend Bob Porteous and played four final shows before calling it a day at the Gulbenkian Studio Theatre in 1984.
As well as IT Hz Steve had met Rob Hubbard, a Hammond organ player who was discovering electronic music. Together they wrote a musical screen play titled Work - A Four Letter Word. Converting a spare room into a makeshift studio, Daggett and Hubbard created most of the soundtrack in a live take using about a dozen different analogue synthesizers. Often running from one keyboard to another tweaking controls. Rob Hubbard later became a major force in the pioneering of music sound tracks for computer games and moved to California in 1987.
The screen-play was shown on Tyne Tees Television as part of The Works series in 1986. Shot on film on location in Newcastle it starred Steve in the role of a market trader spiv and Bren Laidler as his long suffering girlfriend (see pic opposite).
In 1984 Steve was running a small 8-track studio in a converted stone masons in Gosforth Newcastle, this was often referred to as The Garage. It belonged to booking agent Bill Dixon who was a close friend and it was during this time that Steve met Alan Hull of Lindisfarne. Steve was working on a version of Winter Song with a group of primary school children and at the end of the session began to record some music to accompany one of Hulls' poems The Mocking Horse. A friend of Steve's, Brian Mawson ( who was manager of White Heat and the music store Windows) passed on the tape to Alan Hull. His reaction was one of indifference, hating Winter Song but loving The Mocking Horse. Alan was just putting the finishing touches to his solo album On The Other Side and had a live television performance coming up. A synthesizer player was required and Steve got the gig.
From then on Steve recorded lots of demos for Alan and Lindisfarne and when the band toured in 1985 they took him along to play keyboards. In 1986 the demo sessions became the basis of their first studio album for several years Dance Your Life Away and it was decided that Alan and Steve would co-produce. Together they wrote the first single from the album, Shine On, and it also saw Steve become a member of Lindisfarne for yet another Christmas concert tour.
This time the tour began in November and ran until the following January and was a grueling 47 shows in as many nights. Alan became ill after contracting Tuberculosis and the band were forced to perform 4 shows in his absence sharing Alan's vocal duties amongst them - Steve sang Stormy Weather. Alan making it back just in time for the Newcastle City Hall shows.
Steve continued to work in the Studio with the band on the 1988 double album C'mon Everybody and 1989's Amigos album. He also played keyboard, guitar and percussion on the 1987 and 1988 Christmas concert tours leaving the band in the summer of 1989.
Alan and Steve also worked together on sound tracks for the opening of the Gateshead Metro Centre and various corporate video productions. They became involved in the development of a young songwriter Ian McCallum who now after releasing 3 solo albums is rhythm guitar player with punk survivors Stiff Little Fingers.
In 1986 Steve took on the roll of house producer / engineer at Reeltime Recording Studios in Newcastle city centre. Many artists would record there including Alan Hull, Lindisfarne, Kathryn Tickell, Toxic Kangaroo Babies, V Corporation, and of course Ian McCallum. Alan had introduced Ian to Steve a few years earlier at the Gosforth studios where they recorded many demos together. Some of these songs were to turn up on Ians' 1989 debut album Left Handed, produced by Steve Daggett and Ken Howell and it contained some of Ian's finest work including A Matter Of Time, Back To The Land and We Can Have Everything.
Steve also wrote and produced a bundle of songs for the ex Bucks Fizz vocalist Jay Aston as she resurrected her career in a new direction. These songs have turned up fifteen years later on her new album ALIVE AND WELL.
Steve also produced the music to the touring stage play Heads Held High composed by Alan Hull. It celebrated the 50th anniversary of The Jarrow March and featured a performance at every stop the marchers made on route from the North East to the capital.
An album of the sound track Heads Held High was sold on the tour. Most of the vocals were performed by the cast but Alan recorded several of the songs including Faithful and Palais Glide. There were only 1000 vinyl copies manufactured so it's pretty rare!
In 1989 Steve moved from Tyneside to North Northumberland for in his own words "a long lie down". The exhausting schedule of long days and nights in the studio were beginning to take their toll. The retirement was short lived. Ray Laidlaw (drummer and now manager of Lindisfarne) had acquired the now run down Reeltime Recording Studios in Carliol Square, Newcastle once owned and operated by Steve and where Amigos had been recorded the previous year. He wanted Steve to re-vamp the studio and manage it. Together they planned to create the best recording environment in the region.
The newly refurbished and re-equipped Hi - Level Studios opened in March 1990. By October they were voted Studio Of The Month in International Muscian magazine and by November had a single at number two in the national chart. Only the Righteous Brothers re-issue of Unchained Melody from the Hollywood movie soundtrack of Ghost prevented them (and a few other acts) from being in the history books.
That recording, Fog On The Tyne (Revisited) by Gazza and Lindisfarne, ironically put the band in the charts for the first time since Run For Home in 1978. It was produced by Steve Daggett and Steve Cunningham (who had taken over bass guitar duties from Rod Clements, who in turn was playing guitar in the band ) and also saw the names Daggett / Cunningham at number 4 in the Music Week best selling producers chart for November 1990 sandwiched strangely between Phil Spector and Stock, Aitken and Waterman. It also earned Lindisfarne a silver disc to hang up in the studio among the many others earned in their seventies heyday.
Other projects included Ian McCallum's Big Bigg Market album on which Steve co-wrote five of the ten tracks. Steve left Hi-Level to do his own thing in 1992 and began work assembling his own recording equipment and writing some new material with a view to putting together a live band. During this time two Alan Hull / Kenny Craddock live shows were recorded on Steve's digital recorder, one show from The Mean Fiddler, London and the other from Blackheath Concert Halls, London. This saw Alan and Steve back in the studios mixing what was to become Alans' Back To Basics album.
After completing the recordings for his own studio album which featured Ex Stiletto guitarist Phil Armstrong, Stiletto bassman Del Natress and Christians' guitarist Paul Campbell the label who had promised to release it went out of business and the project was abandoned. Steve continued writing and began making occasional low key live performances around the North East.
These photographs are from the photo sessions for the un-released session which was to be called Territory.
As Steve entered the new century, he came to the conclusion that after the hundreds of sessions he'd recorded for other artists, it was time to be on the other side of the glass and make his own solo album. Recording began at The Cluny Studios in October 2000 and mixing took place at Trinity Heights in the December. The recordings became the album TROUBADOUR TERRITORY and the first song, Mandolin Moon, was inspired by the death of close friend and collaborator Alan Hull in 1995.
In 2001 Steve went out on the road to promote it with just his acoustic guitar and harmonica. 'Anywhere with a 3-pin plug' was the attitude towards the gigs and they have been a great success.
Support slots to Vigilantes Of Love, Slaid Cleaves, The Sorentinos, Ezio, Martin Stephenson, Steve Gibbons and Lindisfarnes' Rod Clements have saw him win many new fans and album sales.
Respected journalist, author and broadcaster, John Tobler, took the album under the umbrella of his 'Road Goes on Forever' label (RGF), securing worldwide distribution with both Proper Music and BGO International.
After a couple of years of performing solo, gigs Steve created a trio consisting of RACHAEL RHOADES on violin & accordion and MICHAEL BAILEY on upright bass and Fender bass. They gig consistently across the North East region mixing their original material with new arrangements of covers by Talking Heads, Bob Dylan, Ray Davies and Alan Hull.
It was a long hard haul with many highs and lows consolodated by the release of Thud, Thwack and Twang in April 2003. And now, with the release of 'Songs in a Carrier Bag', maybe the best is yet to come.