Steve Ellis obit

Steve Ellis: Making Peace with Everlasting Love

 

He was not on the list.

I have just heard that Steve Ellis has passed away (from David Courtney’s Facebook page – David is in contact with Steve’s wife Val). I spoke to Steve on 4th February for The Strange Brew, this was over an hour long interview and could possibly have been one of his last lengthy interviews. Steve covered every possible detour and was warm, amiable and willing to share his thoughts on everything I raised. Most people will know him from the number one hit ‘Everlasting Love’ for Love Affair in early 1968. He was seventeen and sang it throughout his life. As he said to me, it was used in “a lot of weddings and funerals.”

We previously spoke in 2015 for the release of the box set Time Hasn’t Changed Us. This time it was for the release of a live album.

Soul music

Edinburgh Live 95 was recorded at the Cavendish Club. Steve’s band would play there 2-3 times a year. There would be a queue round the block. This was a spur of the moment thing. Steve said, “One evening, around seven or eight o’clock our agent called us. He said, ‘Are you kidding?’ We weren’t usually on until around eleven o’clock. But the PA guy at the club was lovely and said we’d be alright. The manager (Stuart) helped, they brought all the kit across and we played that night. It was just a little bit of time with the band. It was mostly Motown and soul.”

The track listing reflects this. There are tracks such as ‘Get Ready’ and ‘My Girl’. There are also the Love Affair hits. ‘All or Nothing’ is there for Steve Marriott. The notes on the label have Steve saying girls would jump on stage and sing the choruses hence the random off pitch voices. The band mantra was “have a good time all the time.”

Soul was what Steve wanted to play as he was a mod. Although the Beatles were making some great records, Steve said that the Black American singers really inspired him. His friends felt the same. He was fifteen and still at school. An older friend of his, Brian Carroll, would turn up. Brian was a mod since ’63 and went to school with Steve’s sister. He would tell Steve and his friends what to play next. Steve said around 25-30% of the live set was down to Brian’s recommendations.

School discos would play the same records. “When A Man Loves A Woman” was the big one in 1965.

One of their managers (they had 3 early on) told them to try and see as many live acts as they could. They got tickets to see James Brown in 1966. Steve said, “It was in Stoke. I couldn’t believe it, I just sat there with my mouth wide open. There were two drummers and the whole show was put on. I thought I would never be able to do that.”

Years later Steve was on a bill in Antwerp with the man whose record was playing at the school discos. They had Martha Reeves on the bill and Steve said they became mates. Eddie Floyd and George McCrae were also there. There were around a dozen bands. Percy Sledge was next to Steve for the finale. They did an encore of ‘Shake, Rattle and Roll’. Steve didn’t know the lyrics and Sledge was shouting them in his ear! “You can’t buy that memory. I was dancing to him at school and here I am standing next to him.”

Steve and his friends liked a few British bands. They liked the Small Faces and Spencer Davis Group. The Small Faces were mods and “All or Nothing” got them.

In December 1966 Steve played the Royal Albert Hall for a benefit for the Aberfan Disaster Fund. This was less than two months after the colliery tip fell on the Welsh village killing 116 children and 28 adults. Steve was sixteen. The bill had the Small Faces and Gene Chandler. He told his friends the following day at school he had played the Albert Hall with the Small Faces. He said the disaster was awful.

He always felt a connection with Steve Marriott. He said Marriott and Ronnie Lane were great songwriters. He recalled a Top Of The Pops where the Small Faces played ‘Tin Soldier’ with P.P. Arnold. He was at the soundcheck and said, “They were blazing.”

Everlasting Love

Steve said it was two takes. “Two takes and done.” The version we all know was recorded with session players. The CBS producer Mike Smith and arranger Keith Mansfield were there. Steve was the only member of the band there. In 2015 he told me he walked in and there was forty piece orchestra. He was confused where his band were. This time he said it was everyone else. “It was a great song, great arrangement, great producer. Everything. I was lucky to sing it.”

He remembered asking the drummer Clem Cattini to play something like the Temptations ‘Ain’t Too Proud To Beg’. The intro was done by Clem. “He did the intro. I’m saying he did.”

The record got noticed because of a stunt. In November 1967 the band’s PR guy Brian took them out with a photographer to Piccadilly Circus. They posed at the bottom of the Eros statue. They were silly kids and it was freezing. They got into a right old fuss. Steve climbed to the top and couldn’t get down. The traffic stopped. The fire brigade came to get him. The band were arrested by the police and taken to the cells. In court they were fined £12 each. It was on the front pages of the Sunday papers. “My dad wasn’t pleased.”

The single started to gain momentum. Tony Blackburn was one of the DJs who promoted it. Steve was keen to mention that Blackburn is an expert on soul music. It then topped the charts.

Steve wasn’t always so relaxed about the song. He used to think of it as a blessing and a curse. He left Love Affair at the end of 1969 because he couldn’t hear himself over “that screaming nonsense.” He formed a band which was the complete opposite and played the universities. It was a great band but the crowds still wanted to hear ‘Everlasting Love’ and ‘Rainbow Valley’. He thought it was too much of a change.

By February he was at peace with it. “I can’t fault that record. It’s a great song.” He always played it in his shows. The song had a second wind at the end. It was used in the film Belfast by Kenneth Branagh in 2021. Steve’s friend sent him the DVD and he watched the actor mime to his original version. Everyone kept telling him the actor had a great voice but Steve kept telling them it wasn’t him. “Eventually you just give up.”

Back on the road

In 1981 Steve had an accident on the docks in Shoreham. He had gone there to work as he had given up on the music industry. It took years for him to walk properly again. “My feet were really messed up. I took up karate to get moving again.” His friend told him he needed to start singing again.

He formed a band with local boys and got back on the road. They would play anywhere a couple of agents would send them. They worked very hard for around ten years. They would do forty dates in a row. He laughs now when he reads in magazines that they did six shows and it was a world tour. He loved the band. “I think the key to a great band is getting on. You’re stuck with them 24/7.”

One gig in Scotland during the winter was on a small car ferry. They had broken down and the AA had come to rescue them. Halfway across a nuclear submarine came up next to them “like a whale.” “I swear to God,” Steve said. They were late arriving with no road crew. Everything went in the back door and they walked straight on. They were a bit unsure of what they were doing for the first three numbers.

There was also an issue with the name. They were touring as Love Affair and one of the members had registered it. Steve took it up with lawyers and it was sorted out out of court. He was allowed to put his name in front of Love Affair which he wasn’t happy with.

I asked about Scarlet which was a project Steve sang on from Germany. I was surprised how good ‘The Great Deserter’ was. Steve said it started with a knock on the door. He had just come back from karate one night and there was this long haired young German guy at the door asking if he would sing on his album. He thought it was a joke. His friends were always winding each other up. He had once fallen for a friend who had got his secretary to phone him pretending to be This Is Your Life. He saw the little Volkswagen with German plates and started to think he was serious. The guy wanted Steve to come to Germany with a drummer and bassist and write songs together. They did. “It was just a one-off project.” Steve wanted to include ‘The Great Deserter’ on his box set but couldn’t find him.

After Steve Marriott’s death in 1991 Steve and his friend Dean Powell (boxing promoter) organised a tribute night at the Ruskin Arms in East Ham. Steve said no one had done a proper one before. Loads of his friends came up from Brighton in coaches. Over the years they had a variety of guests. P.P. Arnold, Dennis Greaves (Nine Below Zero), Mick Talbot (Style Council), his friend from Ocean Colour Scene etc. They did them every year. Steve was involved for around four or five years and then pulled back. He told them he wasn’t Steve Marriott and didn’t want to sound like him.

Kay (Marriott’s mum) became very important to him. He called her his second mum. He looked after her in her later years as “the vultures came in.” People would come to the house to see her. Things like photos of Steve would go missing. He stopped them coming. She came to some of his gigs. After one of the tributes she told him he had brought her to tears. “She was a lovely lady.”

The tribute moved to the London Astoria in 2001. Steve remembered Peter Frampton coming over from America. Jerry Shirley (Humble Pie drummer and a friend Steve had known since childhood) were on the bill. Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher were there. They were filmed without them knowing. It was filmed without the performers realising. When you get a night like that, Steve said, “it’s just magical.”

Solo albums

I mentioned ‘Ten Commitments’ which Singsong have re-released. Steve said he loved ‘We Got It’. “I think that album should have done better.” He said he is quite proud of the album.

‘Best of Days’ (2008) has Paul Weller and Roger Daltrey on it. How did that happen? Steve and Daltrey had been best friends for a long time. Steve wanted some blues harmonica on a track so he gave Roger a call. He said yes and turned up on a Thursday. The track was ‘Nuclear Blues’. Steve was delighted I knew the track. Daltrey was warming up and started playing ‘The Yellow Rose of Texas’ as a joke. It was so silly they included it on the album. The laughter is on the album.

Steve told me he couldn’t tour anymore due to his lungs. He blames it on Covid but he was unwell and under the care of his doctor before the virus was well known. His doctor kept giving him antibiotics and eventually sent him to a specialist. Covid happened and he blames it on that. “It’s a bit like being a carpenter and losing your arm.” He can still sing but can’t tour. It’s too much. The crowds think you just appear from outer space but you have been sat in a car for six hours.

He kept going until last year. He did a farewell tour in Scotland (his favourite country). They were on bills with Marmalade and the Fortunes. Herman’s Hermits were around. He had nice things to say about their drummer Barry Whitwam. He used to play tricks on Keith Moon on tour in the early days. They are still playing tricks on each other and Steve thinks he has one over on him.

Steve always had a joke about his part-time job at the Co-op. His manager told him he could be an under-manager when he left school. His mum found out and never really forgave him. “She used to drive me crazy.” He has told a lot of interviewers this story over the years.

He isn’t a fan of streaming. “I think it’s lost that enjoyment.” He remembers going to record shops as a kid and having the booths. He is sad to see them close. Even HMV. “It’s life. Everything is always changing.”

New album

Steve had some news. “I’ve got a new album in the bag!” The music is done. Now it’s the hard part. The admin and pitching. Paul Weller let him use his studio for three or four days. They co-wrote a couple of tracks. There are a couple with Carrie Knott. One was written by Carrie and Paul. There is also a remix by one of Paul’s drummers Ben. Steve seems relaxed with the direction. “I’m not 21. I’m not running around in my Widowmaker.” He never really wanted to be famous. “I’ve just done what I wanted to do.”

Towards the end of the call he mentioned a song he and Carrie have been working on. He asked me to send him the finished programme so he share it on his Facebook page. “Take good care.”