James Stevenson (born 12 October 1958) is an English

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

guitarist, at one time a member of

the Alarm The Alarm are a Welsh rock band that formed in Rhyl, Wales, in 1981. Initially formed as a punk band, the Toilets, in 1977, under lead vocalist Mike Peters, the band soon embraced arena rock and included marked influences from Welsh languag ...

Gene Loves Jezebel Gene Loves Jezebel are a British rock band formed in the early 1980s by identical twin brothers Jay (born John) and Michael Aston. Gene Loves Jezebel's best-known songs include "Heartache", "Desire (Come and Get It)" (1986), "The Motion of L ...

Gen X Generation X (or Gen X for short) is the Western demographic cohort following the baby boomers and preceding the millennials. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1960s as starting birth years and the late 1970s to early 1980s as ...

the Cult The Cult are an English rock band formed in 1983 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury's ...

, Holy Holy,

the International Swingers The International Swingers is an American–British rock supergroup based in Los Angeles Formed in late 2011, the band is composed of Clem Burke (drums), Glen Matlock (bass/vocals), James Stevenson (lead guitar/vocals) and Gary Twinn (lead vocal ...

and

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

Music career

Stevenson started his career with the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

-based punk band

in 1977, while he was still at school studying for A Level exams. He toured with

as its lead guitarist in 1980. After Gen X broke up in early 1981 he worked with

Kim Wilde Kim Wilde (born Kim Smith, 18 November 1960) is an English pop singer, DJ and television presenter. She first saw success in 1981 with her debut single "Kids in America", which peaked at No. 2 in the UK. In 1983, she received the Brit Award f ...

, contributing to her first album, ''Kim Wilde'', and second album, ''Select'', and performing in all of Wilde's early videos including "

Kids in America "Kids in America" is a song recorded by English pop singer Kim Wilde. It was released in the United Kingdom as her debut single in January 1981, and in the United States in spring 1982, later appearing on her Kim Wilde (album), self-titled de ...

". Stevenson then formed Hot Club with former

Sex Pistols The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they were one of the most groundbreaking acts in the history of popular music. They were responsible for ...

bassist

Glen Matlock Glen Matlock (born 27 August 1956) is an English musician, best known for being the bass guitarist in the original line-up of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. He is credited as a songwriter on 10 of the 12 songs on the Sex Pistols' only alb ...

. They released two singles on RAK Records. In 1983, he toured as a member of

Fischer Z Fischer-Z are a British rock group and main creative project of singer, guitarist and poet John Watts. In 1982 Watts temporarily dissolved Fischer-Z and started a solo career under his own name. John Watts has gone on to release both solo and ...

singer John Watts' band in support of Watts' album ''The Iceberg Model''. In 1985, he was briefly in a band formed with Glen Matlock and

Gary Holton Gary Frederick Holton (22 September 1953 – 25 October 1985) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and actor from London. He was the frontman of the band Heavy Metal Kids (1972–1977), worked with Casino Steel (1981–1984), and played ...

called the Gang Show. Later that year, he was asked to join post-punk band

when their guitarist left suddenly at the beginning of their first U.S. tour. Stevenson performed on the band's albums ''Discover'', ''House of Dolls'', ''Kiss of Life'', ''Heavenly Bodies'', ''VII'', ''The Thornfield Sessions'' and ''Dance Underwater'' (2017). He produced Gene Loves Jezebel singer Jay Aston's solo album ''Unpopular Songs'',

Beki Bondage Beki Bondage (born Rebecca Louise Bond) is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known as the frontwoman of the punk band Vice Squad. She appeared on the front cover of a number of influential music papers such as ''Melody Maker'' ...

's solo album ''Cold Turkey'' and

Gene October Gene October is a British singer and songwriter who was a formative figure in London's punk rock movement in the late 1970s. Music career In 1976, October was involved in the creation of The Roxy when he suggested to the management of Chagu ...

's solo album ''Life and Struggle'', among others. During 1994 and 1995, he provided additional guitar playing for

during their world tour. He also contributed guitar to the song "Brand New You're Retro" by Tricky from his ''

Maxinquaye ''Maxinquaye'' is the debut album by English rapper and producer Tricky, released on 20 February 1995 by 4th & B'way Records, a subsidiary of Island Records. In the years leading up to the album, Tricky had grown frustrated with his limited ro ...

'' album. He has contributed as a

session guitarist Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

on numerous recordings including artists as diverse as Scott Walker (

the Drift ''The Drift'' is the thirteenth studio album by American solo artist Scott Walker, released on 8 May 2006 on 4AD. Apart from composing the soundtrack to the film '' Pola X'', the album was Walker's first studio album in eleven years and only his ...

and

Bish Bosch ''Bish Bosch'' is the fourteenth and final solo studio album by American singer Scott Walker (singer), Scott Walker. It was released on 3 December 2012 on 4AD. Walker described it as the final installment in a trilogy that also includes ''Tilt ( ...

), Henry Badowski (who he was at

Chiswick Community School Chiswick School is an English secondary school with academy status in Chiswick, West London. It educates more than 1,200 pupils, aged 11 to 18 years. This number includes 200 pupils studying at the upper school sixth form within the school grou ...

with), Charlie Harper, Duncan "Kid" Reid,

Jimmy Nail James Michael Aloysius Bradford (born 16 March 1954), known as Jimmy Nail, is an English singer-songwriter, actor, film producer, and television writer. He played the role of Leonard "Oz" Osborne in the television show '' Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'' ...

Helen Terry Helen Terry (born 25 May 1956) is a British singer and television producer, known for her backing vocal work with Culture Club. As a solo performer, she scored a Top 40 hit single in 1984 with "Love Lies Lost", and released one album in 1986, ' ...

Annabel Lamb Annabel Lamb (born 1955) is an English singer-songwriter. Career Annabel Lamb has released eight albums to date. She had a British Top 30 hit in 1983 with her cover version of The Doors song, "Riders on the Storm", her only hit record, hit in t ...

, Louise and

the Hothouse Flowers Hothouse Flowers are an Irish rock band that combine traditional music of Ireland, Irish music with influences from soul, Gospel music, gospel, and rock. Formed in 1985 in Dublin, they started as street performers. Their first album, ''People ...

among others, and has composed music for TV and film. In 1998, seven years after Mike Peters left

, he called upon Stevenson to back his solo projects, and the latter has been a permanent fixture in Peters' subsequent musical incarnations, resulting in minor

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

success, first under the guise of the Poppyfields with the top 30 hit " 45 RPM" in February 2004, and as the Alarm MMVI with the No. 24 single "Superchannel" in February 2006 (from the album ''Under Attack''). He has played on all Alarm albums recorded since 2000 including ''In the Poppyfields'', ''Under Attack'', ''Counter Attack'', ''Direct Action'', ''Guerilla Tactics'', ''Blood Red'', ''Viral Black'', ''Equals'', ''Sigma'' and ''War''. Stevenson still plays with the Alarm and Gene Loves Jezebel (Jay Aston's version). He also rejoined Chelsea, performing on their ''Faster, Cheaper and Better Looking'' (2006), ''Saturday Night Sunday Morning'' (2015) and ''Mission Impossible'' (2017) albums. He also plays in Matlock's band the Philistines, and has contributed to Matlock's ''Open Mind'' and ''Born Running'' albums. He sometimes turns up in New York singer/songwriter

Willie Nile Willie Nile (born Robert Noonan; June 7, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter. In 1980, Nile released his self-titled debut album. His early career was interrupted by various problems, but he eventually returned to recording and performing i ...

's band when they play in the UK. In 2011, Stevenson and Matlock formed supergroup

with vocalist

Gary Twinn Gary Twinn (born 7 December 1956 in West Ham, London, England) is an English singer-songwriter, musician, TV host and editorial writer, currently fronting punk rock supergroup The International Swingers, which also features Clem Burke, Glen Ma ...

and drummer

Clem Burke Clement Burke (born Clement Anthony Bozewski; November 24, 1954) is an American musician who is best known as the drummer for the band Blondie from 1975, shortly after the band formed, throughout the band's entire career. He also played drums f ...

. Via

PledgeMusic PledgeMusic was an online direct-to-fan music platform, launched in August 2009. It was started to facilitate musicians looking to pre-sell, market, and distribute projects; such as recordings and concerts. It bore similarities to other artist p ...

, the band raised the money to record their first full-length album, ''The International Swingers'' (mixed by Peter Walsh), which was released in 2015. In January 2013, Stevenson released a three-track CD, "The Shape of Things to Come", via his own website. An album, ''Everything's Getting Closer to Being Over'', followed in March 2014. The album, produced by Peter Walsh, featured Matlock,

Steve Norman Steven Antony Norman (born 25 March 1960) is an English musician who plays tenor saxophone, guitar, percussion and other instruments, for the English band Spandau Ballet. Biography Early years Steve Norman was born in Stepney, east London, and w ...

Barriemore Barlow Barrie "Barriemore" Barlow (born 10 September 1949, Birmingham) is an English musician, best known as the drummer and percussionist for the rock band Jethro Tull, from May 1971 to June 1980. Christened Barrie, 'Barriemore' was an affectation ...

Geoff Dugmore Geoff Dugmore (born 12 April 1960) is a Scottish drummer, musical director and producer. He was a member of the bands The Europeans, and Wildlife. Career Educated at Kelvinside Academy in Glasgow, Scotland, Dugmore started his musical care ...

and others. Stevenson rejoined the Cult as second guitarist for their "Electric 13" world tour throughout North America, Europe and Australia in summer 2013 and continued to tour with them in 2014. Since 2014, Stevenson has been playing in the band Holy Holy, performing the music of

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

, alongside

Mick Woodmansey Michael "Woody" Woodmansey (born 4 February 1950) is an English rock drummer best known for his work in the early 1970s as a member of David Bowie's core backing ensemble that became known as the Spiders from Mars in conjunction with the rel ...

Tony Visconti Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of man ...

and

Glenn Gregory Glenn Peter Gregory (born 16 May 1958) is an English singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose music career spans more than 40 years. He came to prominence in the early 1980s as co-founder and lead singer of the new wave and synthpop b ...

, among others. A recording of their London gig in September 2014 was released by Maniac Squat Records in 2015 as a live album, ''The Man Who Sold the World Live in London''. In the spring of 2017, Gene Loves Jezebel (Jay Aston's version) released their first studio album in fourteen years on Westworld Recordings, ''Dance Underwater''. He also contributed to the 2018

Daphne Guinness Daphne Diana Joan Susanna Guinness (born 9 November 1967) is an English designer, actress, producer, and musician. Early life Her father is Jonathan Guinness, 3rd Baron Moyne, the eldest son of Diana Mitford and Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne, ...

album ''Daphne and the Golden Chord'', and her 2020 album ''Revelations'', both produced by Tony Visconti. Recently he has adopted a multi-instrumentalist role in the Alarm playing guitar, bass guitar, bass pedals and a bass/six string double-neck guitar made for him by Gordon-Smith Guitars. On 9 July 2021, Stevenson released his second solo album ''The Other Side of the World'', dedicated to his younger brother David and his fight against the terminal illness

Pick's disease Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), or frontotemporal degeneration disease, or frontotemporal neurocognitive disorder, encompasses several types of dementia involving the progressive degeneration of frontal and temporal lobes. FTDs broadly present as ...

. It was recorded remotely during lockdown and again produced by Peter Walsh. As well as all guitars and lead vocals, Stevenson played all bass guitars too. Guest musicians include Harriet Stubbs and

Terry Edwards Terry Edwards (born 10 August 1960) is an English musician who plays trumpet, flugelhorn, saxophones, guitar and keyboards. Biography Edwards gained a degree in music from the University of East Anglia in 1982, where he was also a founding me ...

, among others.

Personal life

His father was the writer John Stevenson. James has been married twice. His second wife was

Westworld ''Westworld'' is an American science fiction-thriller media franchise that began with the 1973 film ''Westworld'', written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film depicts a technologically advanced Wild-West-themed amusement park populate ...

singer Elizabeth Westwood. He has an adult son, Oscar, from his first wife.

Discography

Solo albums

* ''Everything's Getting Closer to Being Over'' (2014) * ''The Other Side of the World'' (2021)

Gene Loves Jezebel

*''Discover'' (1986) *''The House of Dolls'' (1987) *''Kiss of Life'' (1990) *''Heavenly Bodies'' (1993) *''Discover'' (1995) *''In the Afterglow"" (live) (1995) *''VII'' (1999) *''The Thornfield Sessions'' (2003) *'' Dance Underwater'' (2017)

Jay Aston

*''Unpopular Songs'' (1998)

References

External links

*
The International Swingers' official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stevenson, James Living people 1958 births English punk rock guitarists English session musicians English new wave musicians Generation X (band) members The Alarm members Gene Loves Jezebel members The International Swingers members Holy Holy (tribute band) members