Stevie Doherty was the lead singer with Underhand Jones #2, playing the Loch Lomond Rock Festival in 1979, He went on to front China White and Zero Zero, frequenting the Kelvingrove Rock Festival in the mid 80s and he later auditioned for AC/DC, In The 90s he performed with The Sensational Alex Harvey Band.  A great front man with an outstanding Rock voice, Stevie now lives in England and is still writing and  working on various projects. I caught up with Stevie in December 2009.

. What do you remember about the 1979 Loch Lomond Festival with Underhand Jones?

Where did those 30 years go!!! I remember bits and pieces of it like thinking ‘Christ this stage is f****n’ huge as we walked out onto it!! Someone told me at the time that the stage belonged to Pink Floyd I’m not sure if that was true but I like to think so! For some reason our bass player, Roger, turning up in a Ford Anglia sticks in my mind…..I don’t know why! Not the most rock ’n’ roll of cars perhaps!! As for the actual performance I remember absolutely loving every minute of it. We had some fans down the front which was great, I’m not sure just how well we went down with the rest of the crowd but who cares we had a good time! I remember trying to pluck up the courage to introduce myself to Brian Robertson (Thin Lizzy) who was with Wild Horses at the time. I’d been a big fan of his (even had the same dodgy perm!!) and regretted not saying hello, although he’d probably have looked at me and said ‘who the f**k are you!’ The Boomtown Rats were headlining and they opened their set with ‘I don’t like Mondays’, I was sitting on a wee slope to the side of the stage thinking ‘I could handle more of this!’ All in all a kinda surreal day and I only wish I could remember more of it. I don’t have any photos of the day although I still have one of the big billboard posters which is cool!

. You auditioned for AC/DC, how did that come about and how was that experience?

I got a call from John MacCalman, who had been the manager of Underhand Jones, to say that there was an audition with ACDC if I wanted it. So I thought about it for about a nanosecond and down to London I went! I walked into the rehearsal studios near Vauxhall Bridge and there they were….someone asked if I wanted a beer ….I said yes, (surprisingly!) and a can of McEwans Export was in my hand! I thought…’that’ll do.’ The band all said ‘Hi’ and Malcolm Young said ‘What do you want to sing?’ I said ‘Hell ain’t a bad place to be’ and it was……1..2..3..4… and one of the best ACDC riffs EVER, shook the room…..I thought….’f**K me, I’m actually gonna have to do this!’ I sang another 2 songs Problem Child and, of course, Whole lotta Rosie and we talked a bit. I knew at the time that they were looking for someone with more experience and I also know that, at the time, my voice wasn’t as strong as it has since turned out to be so I wasn’t under any illusions when I left the room but I’d just spent an hour or so singing with arguably the best rock band on the planet so I was as happy as the proverbial pig in Sh*”

. I saw you play at Kelvingrove with ‘China White’ in 83 or 84 tell us about that project ?

China White was a kinda strange one. We had our own 8 track studio In Yoker where we more or less lived and also had other bands like Scheme and Abel Ganz come in to record and rehearse. We went through a few drummers until we got Davie Edgar from The Dolphins. I’m not sure we actually knew what we wanted to be if you know what I mean. Myself and Ian Stewart were just finding our feet as songwriters and as such there seemed to be no real direction. We thought we wanted to be a hard rock/metal band but I don’t think it really suited us as we were really into more melodic stuff like Journey and Hughes and Thrall so the songs ,to me, didn’t seem to work that well. Having said that it did help us to get our songwriting together and establish a good line-up which went on to become Strangeways.

. You mention on your website that your band "Strangeways" signed to a Canadian label and you worked with top producer Kevin Elson (Journey) How did that recording go ? And what was it like working with Mr Elson ?

I was, and still am, a huge Steve Perry fan so to work with Kevin Elson was a dream come true. We spent a couple of days in the studio and recorded a couple of tracks. He helped me enormously during the session and I remember at one point he sent everyone else out for a few hours so we could get on with recording the vocals, it was surreal seeing him there through the glass talking to ME! I wasn’t happy with the melody line and lyrics on one of the songs and wanted to change it so he said ‘no problem, go and do it ‘cos if you’re not happy with it you won’t give it your best’ It took a couple of hours and when I re-did it he said ‘Oh yeah, that’s it!’ His un-official name on the session was Kevin ‘I’m just gonna hook up a gadget’ Elson ‘cos every so often he’d say ‘just hold on a second I’m just gonna hook up a gadget’! I asked him, as you might expect, quite a lot about Steve Perry and I wanted to know what Steve did to warm up for the sessions and he told me that he didn’t really do anything to warm up he just came in and did it and that he was also, at that time, a heavy smoker which really did surprise me! And he still sang like that………..!!!

. You are probably best known in Glasgow for fronting "Zero Zero" who almost got signed to Atlantic records, Tell us about Zero Zero ? and what happened with the Atlantic deal ?

The Zero Zero days are some of the best memories I have. Everything about it was just so right. I do believe in fate and, to me, that band was just meant to happen! We played some great gigs like the Kevingrove festival and Shadows in Glasgow, The Bruce Hotel East Kilbride run by Roberto Fields, The Jailhouse and Preservation Hall in Edinburgh, some great one off gigs like the Oil Aid for Africa gig in Aberdeen and of course we played both the old and new Marquee Clubs in London. We also did a couple of Highland Tours organised, well…. I say organised…,by ‘Robbie the Pict’ which were brilliant fun! We built up a great following especially in Edinburgh and eventually we signed to a London management company who brought us down to London to live on and off and organized showcases etc. We had a number of companies interested in signing us and we even had a deal from ‘Carrere’ records on the table. The deal was for, I think, one album but wasn’t very much cash up front and as we all wanted to do it full time we were trying to get more out of them! About that time Atlantic Records in New York became interested and the Carrere deal just kinda fell by the wayside. Again what Atlantic were offering wasn’t great but it was Atlantic Records!!! We were desperate for our manager to sort it out but he got a bit greedy and was asking for too much, which we didn’t ask him to do and eventually they pulled the plug on it. The guy who championed us in ‘Kerrang’, Derek Oliver, once said that if he had his own record label we would be the first band he would sign……..he ended up in the A+R department of ………….Atlantic Records in New York!!!! Ah well………that’s life!!#

. What do you remember about Zero Zero’s full week of gigs at "The Jailhouse" in Edinburgh ?

Not a lot if I’m honest!!! That was during my ‘lost weekend’… which lasted about 3 years!! I remember that it seemed like a good idea at the time and about half way through it we kinda got fed up with it! At one point we even had the theme to Coronation Street playing as we came on……what was all that about! I think most of the gigs were actually pretty good and we got good crowds most nights but we did have a couple of crackin’ nights and that made it all worthwhile. We shot a video while we were there for ‘Rock me (rock all night)’ which turned out pretty well. I’ve just posted it on You Tube if anyone fancies a laugh!

. What was it like playing with The Sensational Alex Harvey Band ?

What can I say…….a superb band and a great bunch of guys. I did find it a bit strange at first because a LOT of people were expecting another Alex which, let’s face it ain’t ever gonna happen!! The fans were a bit disappointed at first I think ‘cos I’m not really the ‘front man’ type, I like to just close my eyes and sing and, depending how drunk I am, give it a bit of headbanging down the front of the stage!! I’m also used to hiding behind a guitar so when that got taken away it was a bit weird! I have to say I’ve never played with another band who produce that much power on stage and I’m not just talking volume here…there was something happening that was really special, maybe ‘cos they’ve played together for so long, but whatever it was I kinda miss it and hope I can find it again!

. How many times have you played Kevingrove ? and with which bands ?

Well …now you’re askin’. The first one was with Underhand Jones (I’m not sure if we did another one you might have to ask Cammy Forbes on that one). The next time was with Fast Lix (Ian Stewart on guitar, Gary Groves on drums, myself on bass/vox and Dave Valentine, from Edinburgh based band R.A.F, on keyboards. Then it was China White ( Ian Stewart, myself on guitar this time, David Stewart on bass and Davie Edgar on drums) and I think the next one was the original Zero Zero with Andy McCafferty, Joe James, Duncan McRae on guitar and Dave Ramsey on keyboards. After that it was Zero Zero again, new line up with John MacMillan on guitar. Then with SAHB and that, I think is the lot although I stand to be corrected!!

. You have an amazingly powerful rock voice, How did you get a voice like that ? and was it influenced by anyone ?

My Grandfather had an incredible voice and my Mum is also a great singer so I guess it’s in the genes!
I can’t say it’s influenced by any one singer. Early on I loved the power of Ian Gillans’ voice it but couldn’t quite reach the notes that he could although I’d give myself headaches trying! Underhand Jones had a song called ‘All you creatures great and small’ and I used to give myself a headache trying to sing some of the high bits ….so much so that the song was unofficially called ‘Heids!’ I remember playing at a pub called ‘The Iron Maiden’ (would you believe!) in Bellshill with Underhand Jones and some guy coming up to me at the end saying ‘You sound just like Ian Gillan’ I don’t know just what he’d been smokin’ but it’s one of the best compliments I’ve ever had! Later it was Steve Perry, he had it all especially the melodic side of it. These days I don’t listen to much heavy rock I much prefer listening to Steve Earle, John Mellencamp and guys like that and I think my singing and writing has definitely been influenced that way! David Gilmour is another one of my favourite singers.

. On your Website you mention "Peter goes to Partick" a band with which you claimed to have had " a f**ng great Time" Can you elaborate ?

Well….that might be difficult in a public place! Here’s the clean version! I had decided, after Zero Zero split, to take a year off from the ‘chasing a record deal’ thing and do something else. The day I made the decision, Peter goes to Partick had an ad in the paper looking for a vocalist. I’d seen the band one very drunken afternoon in McSorleys and remembered thinking that they were a band that looked like they were having a great time! So I got in touch, went down to meet them and joined the band! They had such a great attitude, they put on a great show, knew exactly what their audience wanted and gave it to them. I explained at the time that I was only gonna do it for a year no matter what and the guys were ok with that. A few months into that year I’d been back in touch with John and Andy from the Zeros and one thing led to another and we decided to do something. We recruited Paul McManus on drums and thought about making a demo. We went to Sawmills Studio in Cornwall and recorded a few songs which turned out really well! I still held to my deal with PGTP and was gigging with them while putting together the band which would become ‘Monkey See’ in fact I did a gig in McSorleys on a Saturday afternoon with PGTP and that evening went on to play at The Barrowlands with Monkey See supporting Izzy Stradlin’ ( Guns ‘n Roses)…..that was a good day!!!!! It was almost a year to the day that I was offered the gig with SAHB and obviously I couldn’t turn that one down! Tommy from PGTP still says that I joined SAHB because they were paying me £20 more a night………..which they were…..20 quid is 20 quid!! PGTP were, for me, the perfect pub band and I think it’s about time we had a re-union gig!!

. You play in a Pink Floyd tribute band called "A Saucerful of Floyd" Tell us about that project and how you got Involved?

I’d been playing in a band called ‘The Racketeers’ doing mainly covers, you know, the usual stuff Bon Jovi, Green Day, The Who and such but we were doing more and more Pink Floyd in the set and it was going down really well so we decided to do a whole night of it and see how it went. We hired a club in Stowmarket, Suffolk and promptly sold it out! We hired in a light show with all the lasers and stuff and were so impressed that we asked the guy to join the band and he’s now our lighting designer/manager! At the end of last year we decided to end The Racketeers and concentrate full time on ASoF, we’re looking for a sax player and some crew at the moment so we can take the show around the country.

. There are two types of tribute band, one which plays the material in their own style to a high standard and  The other strives to emulate the original band (musically) as close as possible, does "ASoF" fall into any of these Types ?

We’re somewhere in between! We like to do the songs as close as possible to the originals but I also put in some guitar stuff from live or bootleg recordings so sometimes you’ll think we’re making it up and other nights it’ll be just like the album version! Other nights, of course, we just make it up as we go along!! I think there are some Floyd tributes out there that are just a wee bit too anal about the whole thing, I prefer to leave a bit of space to do our own thing here and there. We are all huge Floyd fans so we try to do it justice….whichever version we happen to be playing that night!

. Your favourite Pink Floyd hero and why, Waters or Gilmour ?

David Gilmour has been my favourite guitar player for as long as I can remember and Roger Waters was the force behind my favourite Floyd album ‘The Wall’ so I find it hard to say. I think that Roger Waters is a genius, lyrically, and that it wouldn’t be ‘The Floyd’ without David Gilmour! Let’s also not forget the contributions of Rick Wright and Nick Mason. It’s a debate that will rage on and on……!

. Tell us about "Wolfcreek Records ?

Wolfcreek Records was set up primarily to get my own stuff onto the web and to have somewhere to sell it from. I also have some info on there about Zero Zero, I’m re-mastering some of the old songs to make up a kinda ‘best of…’ compilation at the moment, and also some info on ‘ASoF’, we may record a live album this year. That’s really it as I don’t think I’d have the time to actually sign anyone else to it and to be honest I don’t think I could be bothered! So basically it’s a base for the three projects that I’m working on at the moment…although there may be another one in the pipeline soon..!

.You have released an album called "Desolate Horizon" tell us about that ?

I released a 6 track CD a couple of years ago called ‘Right time right place’ which was basically just a few songs that I’d written after not having written anything for a few years and during the mixing of that CD I wrote a track called ‘In this town’, an acoustic song, and I thought I’d put it on the CD. When I was designing the cover I, for some reason, put on there that ‘In this town’ was the acoustic version of a song from a forthcoming album called ‘Desolate Horizon’! There was no album, although I did have the title ‘Desolate Horizon’ in mind and I didn’t have any songs written and when ‘Right time…’ started selling people were saying ‘great….can’t wait for ‘Desolate Horizon’!!! Anyway I thought I’d better start writing some songs so I started with a full version of ‘In this town’ and everything just seemed to fall into place really easily! They’ve turned out to be probably some of the best songs I’ve written so I think the hand of fate was writing those sleeve notes!! It’s all about love, loss, friends, depression, moving on, war and finding yourself…..all the good stuff!! It’s a mix of rock and country (think Ryan Adams,‘ish, on the country side) and it’s going down very well so far …fingers crossed! I’ve resisted the temptation to allude to yet another fictitious album in the sleeve notes however!

. You have experienced the Live Band scene all over the country for the last 30 years, what do you think of the Current band scene ?  and what is the best/worst about music today?

Don’t think a lot has changed as far as the live scene is concerned I think it’s just as hard for young bands to find decent gigs to play, for decent money, and, certainly where I live in Suffolk, if you don’t play covers it’s even harder! The best (and worst!) thing that ever happened was the internet if we’d have had that back in the ‘80s……………..?

. Is there anything musically you would have done differently over the years ?

I think you can only follow your heart when it comes to playing and writing music and we all make decisions that we regret but I honestly think I made my decisions with the best intentions. I don’t think it’s healthy to dwell too much on that side of it and I’m very happy with what I’ve got so I think it’s worked out ok!

. Do you ever keep in touch with any of your old band mates ? 

Funnily enough I’ve just got back in touch with all of the guys from Zero Zero/Monkey See and a couple of guys from PGTP after a very long time and that has been great. I lost touch with just about everyone when I moved down south it was like I’d moved to another planet…..!! Thanks to ‘t’internet’ though I’m gradually getting back in touch with a lot of old mates so I’m pleased about that.

. Your favourite all time Venue ?

I really loved playing in Edinburgh with Zero Zero. ‘The Jailhouse’ was a fantastic place and the first time we jam packed ‘The Preservation Hall’ really stands out for me that was a brilliant place to play. ‘Shadows’ in Glasgow was also good as was The Bruce Hotel in East Kilbride and obviously playing at the original ‘Marquee’ in London was a bit special and of course The Kelvingrove Festivals!

. What has been your most memorable Gig and why ?

I think that playing at the Glasgow Apollo with Fast Lix was a bit special. Getting to stand on that stage was something I’ll never forget as I’d seen a lot of my heroes there. The year Zero Zero (Mk2) played the Kelvingrove festival, ’86 I think, was brilliant and also when we played at the original ‘Marquee Club’ in London supporting my old band Strangeways and blew them away!!!! I’m sure there are a few I’ve forgotten…!

.What  other  bands  do you  rate at  the  moment ?

I really like ‘Kings of Leon’, great songs, great voice and they’re just a wee bit different. At the moment I’m enjoying finding new bands on MySpace etc and as I’ve said before I love the whole country/rock, singer/songwriter thing so it’s great to find bands from all over the world

.What advice would you give to a young musician starting out in the business  today ?

Be true to yourself and do it from the heart………..oh yeah….and, Have a good time, all of the time!’ you have to end on the wisdom of Tap!!!

Thanks Stevie.