LIFE as a professional footballer can be both tiring and stressful.
Rarely do we get the chance to find out more about our professional players and the other talents or passions they have away from the field, to unwind from the demands of football.
Upon meeting St.Mirren striker and SportScene pundit Steven Thompson, his love for the beautiful game comes across strongly. He is thrilled to be asked questions about his career and his love for the Buddies.
However, as I begin to ask him about his love of music it is easy to see he is equally as passionate about picking up his guitar as much as past silverware.
“I learned the guitar when I was 18 or 19 when I moved up to Dundee United to play when I left school. You spend a lot of your time away from home just bored in digs, so my old man bought me a guitar and that was it. I just self- taught myself for hours and hours in the house, I’m not bad but I’m not brilliant either!”
The conversation quickly swings to Steven talking about his guitar collection and his favourite styles of music.
“I’ve got a Yamaha semi-acoustic and a Gibson Les Paul (the wine red colour one). There’s also an Epiphone Les Paul up in the garage and a miniature Taylor acoustic guitar that I think is pretty smart.
I’m a bit of an Indie man, I like a lot of that sort of stuff. I’m a big fan of Paolo Nutini, Coldplay and there’s a Scottish band called Admiral Fallow that I’m right into at the minute. Mostly guitar driven music, not too heavy guitar, just the slightly more mellow stuff.”
Whilst playing for Cardiff City; 2006-2008, Thompson composed a song for the club upon reaching the FA Cup Final at Wembley in 2008.
“There was an official song that somebody else had done for Cardiff reaching the FA Cup Final. We were in a studio to record that and we just used the studio time.
"I was like well can I do mine? I told the guys the chorus, wrote it up on a whiteboard and they all joined in. It was pretty cool, they actually used it in an edit for the Match of the Day programme before the game, so they played the song on the footage.”
He chuckles as I ask him about a rumoured song penned for St.Mirren winning the Scottish League Cup in 2013.
“It wasn’t as good, it was alright. It was just me messing about, it wasn’t as serious.”
The mood of the interview lightens further when I ask about anymore of his own songs.
“I don’t have spare time I’ve got two kids” he says with a broadened smile.
“When I started out to get music you had to go out and buy the music books. Then the internet came along and you’d be printing off sheets and there wasn’t that many website whereas now I can just go on my phone anywhere."
"If somebody says can you play this, I can get it up in two seconds and play it, which is great when you’re at parties and things. Before somebody would say can you play this? And you’d be like how does it go? I don’t know the chords for it, what’s it like? But now two minutes and you’re playing it!”
Steven enjoys playing immensely, both football and guitar. His enthusiasm for both leaves you feeling refreshed that there is more to the former Scotland international than just football.
The final question, ‘Who would be your dream artist to appear on stage with?’ leaves him pondering for a few seconds before laughing and answering:
“Noel Gallagher maybe, just because I know most of his songs!”
This article was written in 2014.
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