Stephen Hopkins (born 14 May 1951) is a British former musician who worked (as Steve Hopkins) with different

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

punk and new wave artists including John Cooper Clarke, Pauline Murray,

Morrissey Steven Patrick Morrissey (; born 22 May 1959), known professionally as Morrissey, is an English singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the frontman and lyricist of rock band the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987. Since then ...

and Ed Garrity amongst others. After retiring as a musician, he pursued a career in experimental cold atom physics.

Biography

Between 1970 and 1990, Hopkins worked as a musician. He was primarily a session keyboard player and pianist. However, during his career he also worked as a composer, programmer, lounge lizard, record producer, teacher and recording engineer. His role began to be shown with his collaboration with John Cooper Clarke, playing keyboards and co-producing his discs alongside producer Martin Hannett. Both formed The Invisible Girls in Salford to be the Cooper Clarke's backing band in the rest of the years. However, the band also helped to relaunch the careers of former Penetration singer Pauline Murray, with whom they released one album and two singles between 1980 and 1981, and of Nico, of

Velvet Underground Weave details visible on a purple-colored velvet fabric Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabri ...

fame. Hopkins also collaborated with

Jilted John ''Jilted'' is the past tense of jilt Jilt or may refer to: * Jilț, a tributary of the river Jiu in Romania * Jilț Coal Mine, an open-pit mine in Romania * ''The Jilt'', a 1922 American drama film directed by Irving Cummings * A B-girl (archa ...

, Ed Garrity (former Ed Banger and the Nosebleeds frontman), and later with

and

Distant Cousins Distant Cousins were an English band from Manchester. They are grouped within the Madchester scene, though the music was a blend of soul and pop. The group consisted of Doreen Edwards (vocals), Neil Fitzpatrick (ex- Smirks, guitar/sax), and "Sn ...

. Following his music career, in 1991, he began a PhD in experimental atomic physics at the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

. This was followed by postdoctoral positions at Oxford and Sussex, as well as a teaching fellow post at the Manchester Photon Science Institute. In 2010 he joined the Atomic and Molecular Physics group at Durham University where he worked as a postdoctoral researcher until 2016. His father is Billy Hopkins, author of seven bestsellers, including ''Our Kid'' and ''Kate's Story''. His sister is the author

Cathy Hopkins ''For The Apprentice (UK) candidate, see Katie Hopkins'' Cathy Hopkins (born January 23, 1953) is an English writer with over 70 published titles. She has recently been writing for the popular fiction market with The Kicking The Bucket List publis ...

, best known for her teenage books ''

Mates, Dates series ''Mates, Dates'' is a series of books written for teenagers by Cathy Hopkins. The characters later cross over into her other popular book series ''Truth, Dare, Kiss or Promise''. The ''Mates, Dates'' series is about four best friends: Lucy, Izz ...

''.

References

External links

Steve Hopkins personal web pages
Official site * allmusic - Steve Hopkins
Author Billy Hopkins
Official site British rock keyboardists Living people 1951 births Suns of Arqa members The Invisible Girls members {{UK-keyboardist-stub