Research by Nick Catford.
Steve Canham was born on 25th March 1948 in Bethnal Green Hospital and was brought up in Peckham in South-East London. Wanting to learn guitar, his parents bought him a Ukulele and later a guitar. He helped form his first group with a friend, and he began playing country music a few years later. Most of Steve’s years working in the entertainment business had been as a singer but he was also a mobile DJ in the late 70’s and early 80’s using the name Steve Scott.
He also took a great interest in pirate radio station Radio Caroline when it was launched in 1964 and would eventually join the station in later life.
In the early 1980s he joined Rio, a pre-existing band and it wasn’t long before he became their lead singer. At that time the line=up was Steve Scott (lead vocals and rhythm guitar), Steve Wilson – real name Steve Hackwell (lead guitar), Roger T Ford (bass) and Tommy O’Donnell (drums).
Sometime in the early 80s, Rio released a 4-track vinyl EP ‘Looking For Love’. It was on the Ten Record label (Rio 1) and was produced by Andy McEdit who later worked with many established artists including Steps and Atomic Kitten.
In the late 1980s Rio released a cassette album ‘Farther Down The Line’. Clive left in March 1990 and was replaced on bass by Francis Wootton. On my 1992 video of Steve Scott and Rio (see link to it below) you may notice that Francis is referred to as Wayne by Steve Scott. This is a reference to Francis’ previous band before joining Rio. Francis co-launched a country rock band called Slowpoke. All the band members had joke names – Duane Pype, Rich Head (He was Mark Bickerstaffe who would later form Trading With The Natives), Les Miserables, and Francis was Wayne Kerr. As that name wasn’t acceptable on the British Country scene he was just called Kerr and it was a bit of an in-joke on Steve’s part calling him Wayne!
Another cassette album, ‘We’re On The Move’ was released in summer 1990. Although Clive Grant had left the band he did play bass as the tracks that had already been recorded. By this time the band were called Steve Scott and Rio.
In 1992 Glyn Long and Steve Wilson left to form their own band, Longshot. Steve Wilson was to be the longest serving member of the band staying with Rio for nearly 10 years. Steve was replaced by Dave Luke on lead guitar (his first Country band) with Luce Langridge coming in on drums.
Another cassette album, ‘From Where We Stand’ was released that year and a third cassette album ‘Hard Times For An Honest Band’ followed in 1993. On this, bass guitar is credited to Francis Kerr! Neither Dave Luke nor Luce Langridge stayed long. Dave left in 1993 and was replaced by Roger Manning. (Dave is now a member of the Clint Bradley Band, a band he joined in 2015) By that time Luce had moved on too because he had other commitments including tours with George Hamilton IV and Slim Whitman. Luce was replaced by Wol Webster with Steve Jackson depping occasionally when Wol wasn’t available.
By 1994 gigs were in decline and Steve launched a duo called Changes that ran alongside the band. The name was inspired by the Heather Myles song ‘Changes’ and was initially Steve Scott and Roger Manning. Roger left both duo and band c1996 and Alan Hutchinson replaced him in both. Alan had previously worked in a trio called Arrival based in Ashford.
By now Changes was far busier than Rio so when Francis was offered a job in the Mary Rose Band, Steve decided to fold Rio with the final gig at the Harlow CMC on 6th June 1996, a club where the band had always been very popular. Changes remained busy and c2003 Alan was replaced by Mike Norton and the duo became Steve Scott’s Changes. Mike was an experienced guitarist from Essex who had spent 12 years in Sounds Around, the house band at the Circus Tavern nightclub in Purfleet, in the 90s.
As mentioned earlier, Steve had always had an interest in Radio Caroline and in recent years he started presenting programmes for Caroline which had, by then, become an internet station. He had regular shows, including co-hosting the ‘Archive Roots Americana Show’ and his own show on Caroline Flashback from his studio in Chatham. In 2016 Steve decided to retire from singing and concentrate on his radio shows.
On 7th August 2017 Steve passed away suddenly at home. Steve had a rich clear voice and will be very fondly remembered by many. As a tribute, Steve Scott’s 100th programme on Radio Caroline was re-broadcast shortly after he passed away and can be heard here https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/st…
I videoed Steve Scott and Rio a number of times during the 1990s. This video was made at the Blacksmiths CMC, Epping, Essex on 22nd June 1992.