Steve Waller

Stephen Charles Waller (30 June 1951 – 6 February 2000) was a British musician best known as the lead guitarist and a vocalist for Manfred Mann's Earth Band between 1979 and 1983. He featured on the albums Angel Station, Chance, I (Who Have Nothing), Somewhere in Afrika and Budapest Live and was the replacement for Earth Band guitarist Dave Flett, who left the band in 1978.

Raised in Herne Hill, South London, England, and described himself to others saying, "I am an entertainer first".

From 1974 onwards, Waller was a mainstay of the renowned Sunday jam sessions at the Half Moon, Herne Hill, alongside his school friend Stevie Smith. He went on to join Manfred Mann's Earth Band after Manfred Mann was, "recommended to check out a popular South London circuit musician – a singer and guitarist" who played there. It is noted that, "Waller was indeed the right man for the job. One quick audition and it was all settled".

Stevie Smith recalls that in the mid-1970s, the Sunday jam session featuring Waller at the Half Moon, Herne Hill, "was the place where the musos used to check out what was going on – we had the guys down from the Rory Gallagher Band, Thin Lizzy and the Jeff Beck Band." He is also credited for guitar on the 1996 album Sentimentally Yours by Peter Skellern. Earlier in his career, Waller worked with Roger Ruskin Spear, and Kevin Coyne. In 1990, he had an acting role as a pianist feigning a heart attack in the British movie Paper Mask. from Family, and drummer Glen LeFleur. Peter Stroud, the bass player in Steve Waller's Overload, described him as the, "Lowell George of South London – he could play with such soul and depth." in Stroud. His last album was called Last Tracks to Freedom. He collaborated on albums of Melanie White's stories, for example The Cardboard Cut-Out, for which he wrote a song – the ballad "One Rule for Him, One Rule for Her", quoting Melanie's catchphrase of the moment. and that "everybody wanted to be on stage with him".

The sleeve notes for the "Night Life" CD of Steve Waller's Overload, originally recorded in February 1990, but remixed and remastered for release after his death in 2000, state, "Equally at home playing blues, r&b, soul or rock, he and the band thrilled many an audience. He had musical ears, forever hearing different melodies, phrases or rhythms to the delight of both audience and fellow musicians. He was an inspiration."