R.I.P Bowburn Mag

Posted on December 12th, 2011 | 38 Comments |

RIP Bowburn Mag
RIP Steve

I was shocked to learn that Steve Thompson, aka Bowburn Mag, has passed away and I’d like to offer condolences on behalf of NUFCBlog.org and myself to his family and friends.

He was a great guy and I thoroughly enjoyed the banter we used to have. He will be missed.

It goes without saying that he was a passionate Toon supporter and he posted 234 articles here back in the early days of the ‘blog. He was an excellent writer, generally making his articles both informative and amusing, and he had a knack for great – and sometimes esoteric – headlines (“Haris, Haris who the Vuckic Haris” is one that springs to mind!).

Unfortunately, I never got to meet Steve properly, although we got to know one another well enough electronically that I feel like I’ve lost a friend.

A post such as this is hardly a worthy tribute but I felt the event should at least be marked in some small way.

R.I.P. Steve.

NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10). Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.

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38 Responses

  2. Rest in Peace Bowburn.

    Always enjoyed a bit craic with you mate, whilst not always sharing the exact same views, it’s a tribute to your excellent attitude that we never fell out.

    Deep condolences to your family!

    Proper Toon fan!

    Blog LEGEND!

  3. Sad news, all the more bizarre by the fact I played football with him for a few years for Lemington Social on a Sunday morning. I read this blog without commenting, have done for years, but never knew Bowburn was Thomma. RIP mate

  4. Awfull news, I remember Bowburn as both an interesting and at times humerous writer and was dissapointed when he no longer had time to contribute.
    He like others on this blog, called em as he saw em !
    But unlike some of us , was not someone who was confrontational.
    No doubt he was a passionate Newcastle fan and loved the club.
    My symphathies to his family, i’m sure he will be sorely missed.

  5. R.I.P bowburnmag , never met the lad in the flesh , but he was always good craic on the blog.
    i thought i’ve never read any comments from him for a while , though i’ve been too busy to come onto the blog , lately.
    hugh what’s happened? , has he had a battle against illness?
    my heart goes out to his family and friends.

  8. That’s awful news and very sorry to hear it. Puts the events of the weekend right in perspective. Thanks for the Tribute, Hugh, I’m sure his family appreciate your thoughtful gesture.

    RIP Bowburnmag

  10. hugh, makes it all the more heartbreaking , that he was so young.
    a sad sad day , tragic…

  11. I’ve only posted on here a few times…My thoughts go out to you all, as well as his family. I first met the legend that is…Bowburnmag on teamtalk; but like some of the posts-never met him in the flesh, and even though he left us… I still feel a friend’s loss, as I’m sure the others will! As I read through these posts I see the same characteristics that he was loved for; at our place. He certainly told it “how it was” and all though never aggressive-he held back no punches! He will be sadly missed… Every time I see a picture of Kenny Everette I’ll think of you… RIP Bowburnmag, God bless.

  12. Never met him in the flesh but regularly debated with him on this very blog back in the day & occasionally on TotT vital football forums where he ended up.
    Always enjoyed reading his blogs & comments and found he always had time for someone, even if their views were different.

    RIP Bowburnmag.

  13. VERY SAD NEWS!

    while paying my respects to Gary Speed at SJP this saturday i will also have Bowburn & his family in my thoughts.

    R.I.P.

  14. This was posted originally on TOTT and then on uk. For those of you who never met him or spoke with him he was a genuine bloke and Toon through and through.

    As I’ve said before he was a former Level 7 member before Fatman had his evil way and having to work away in Scotland meant he wasnt a season ticket holder this time around. However I’m hopeful that enough of the “Level 7 Gang” will be able to set up a “One Steve Thompson” chorus during the match on Saturday preferably after recording our first win in ages. I’ll probably break my exile just to pay my respects.

    mark says:
    December 12, 2011 at 11:41
    seemed a difficult condition to work with. hope nobody thinks i’m insensitive for putting this up but Bowburn explains his condition and shows what a nice bloke he was.. I welled up reading it !

    BBM “Fair to say the last couple of weeks has been unreservedly the longest and worst of my daft little life and the original help thread I sent out seems a lifetime ago. There’ll be time for pisstaking and I’ve managed a couple of times in the last week or so to get on read the banter, and it’s kept me going. I’m not going to claim I’m not cliched because I am. And I look to some of the lads on here as older brothers I never had and mates I’ve never met. They said it helps to express yourself and let it all out so here we go, I know most of you generally care. Part of the reason I haven’t tried to update is my brain has been f@@ked beyong belief with the drugs and sedatives I’ve been under so I’ve been misifiring like hell.
    Basically after being stabilised when I got admitted on the 31st, I ended up transferred to Glasgow to a specialist team. The diagnosis/prognosis was not right at the time but they’ve since discovered I had a rare, unique condition (less likely than Ashley spending money on NUFC) brought on rapidly by something as simple as the common cold, whereby the infection attacks your heart (giant cell myocarditis), and this results in heart failure. There’s literally no research data on this as they’ve single figure cases around the world, so I’m a working paper and they need work closely with some ‘leading world experts’ to help my recovery, even some the medical lads on here will struggle to fathom.
    In short, what they’ve done is install a pump in my heart so the bugger keeps ticking and they’re hopeful with mininmal data published I’m more ‘bridge to recovery, meaning they hope my heart can reover itself in time and I won’t need a transplant. Everything I do is f@@king hard work, sitting up, it’s uncomfortable but I keep thinking I’ve had a second chance. The staff here at the hospital are so utterly in my debt I always feel wrong when I don’t end a sentence by saying ‘thanks for saving my life.’ There are literally no words to express my gratitude. I was telling my surgeon how I felt knackered after simple short walk and I was a bit tender “Well we cut you in half and sowed you back up so it’ll probably smart a bit”. The man is cool as fk and my fking hero.

    So the upshot is, I’m safe for now and on a very tough trip to recovery with lots of life changing things to deal with, but I’m alive and by fk does it feel good. These lyrics played through my head when I felt myself on the way out and I realised I couldn’t leave my family behind just yet”

    God bless you BBM.

  16. Awful news. I remember Bowburn as the one who used to try to make sense of whatever was going on. If you were skimming through the blog and saw that a post was by him, you always stopped to read, because you knew it would be worth it.
    Bye kidda. The world has lost a lovely friendly lad. You’ll be missed mate.

  17. “BBM”
    My best mate from school, through our teenage years, then followed the drunken years trying to find our future mrs. He found her and what a perfect match they are with a beautiful daughter…… The cherry on the cake,
    He was the kindest, softest well mannered young man u could ever wish to meet, a glowing tribute to his much the same parents,
    This is the first time I’ve been on here, and upsetting and heart wrenching it is I’m so very very proud of my best mate, he managed to touch all u guys, most by only a column piece…… How amazing was he, is a privilege to know him and I can’t wait to see him again,
    Thanks to u all for his tributes, a know his family and close friends will b truly touched xx

  18. nice one mark , tell his family that this board and another board , run by toonsy , have a tribute for him.

  19. Mark,

    If you’re still reading this, I’m very sorry that your comment was held in moderation for a couple of hours, I can’t imagine why. I got a bit carried away reading through some of Steve’s old stories for this blog, and there were quite a few of them! All funny, entertaining, and in a style all his own.

    RIP Steve, you’ll be missed.

  22. Although I ain’t spoken to BBM for a long while, he was always one of the boys for me, in the NUFC blogging world.

    I never met the bloke, but I exchanged much jovial banter with Bowburn Mag over the years. He was a person I held a lot of respect for. Articulate, fair and funny. Three traits not often found in the same person.

    My love and comforting thoughts go out to the Thompson family.

    Rod from Whitley Bay

  23. Steven Thompson known to his friends as Thoma aka Bowburn Mag was one of my best and closest friends. Along with Mark Rooke, Gareth Edwards, Simon Grebby and Phil Anthony we grew up together and shared some amazing experiences which I’ll treasure forever. Although I’m filled with an enormous sense of loss reading these comments has filled me with pride for my best friend. His honesty, integrity and passion and sense of humour clearly resonated with a lot of you. He was a man who was liked by everyone and he was truly one of the good guys. I’m going to miss him so much and along with Mark want to pass on my thanks to you all. Thoma I love you pal rest in peace x

  25. Steve’s Letter in comment 14 is so poignant and sad in view of what consequently happened, it does bring a lump to the throat. He was so full of hope and optimism after such a drastic operation. It’s sad for friends and relatives to lose someone, even worse when they are so young, My condolences to them.

    RIP Bowburn Mag

  27. Absolutely gutted finding this news. I used to love reading his articles; by the way he wrote I felt like I knew him. If I was skimming through the comments, I would always stop and read what Bowburn used to say. Total respect. Top top bloke.

    Thoughts go out to his family.

    Rest in peace, mate.

  29. I played football with tomma for years. Textbook tomma we called him, if you seen his playing style you’d know why, loved a ‘meg’, normally on the edge of our own box mind! He was the most positive lad you could meet. And even though he was only 3 years older than me I used to look up to him so much. He was just so nice, broke my heart when I found out on Sunday. Miss you tomma mate, take care and don’t try and meg to many in heaven mate.

  30. I am very privileged to have known Steve (BBM), he was a genuine great person who a pleasure to spend time with. He had a great sense of humour and was very charitable person (several Great North runs and a bike from Newcastle to London to name a few. He was passionate about family, friends, work and of course the toon. He is a great loss to the blogging world and the North East. Gone but never forgotten RIP Bowburn Mag

  31. Another one of Thomma’s old team mates from Lemington Social, I know I speak for us all when I say how devastated we all are to have lost you fella. One of the most genuine, honest, handsome and memorable gentleman I have ever been honoured to have as a friend.
    The lads will share a drink for you mate and will never forget you.
    X

  32. No need for apologise workyticket, sorry for the delay in my response, we’ve all been terribly busy organising relevant things, one of which is the Stephen Thompson Foundation. We are currently taking donations and being the time of year it is and how expensive it can be, we would appreciate anything people could afford,
    We’ve opened a secure account on paypal, just enter email of mdjrooke@hotmail.com which is myself and got to send money, those of u who have the capacity to repost these details on their blog please do so, it would be much appreciated.
    Many thanks
    Bowburn mag aka Stephen Thompson Foundation

  33. Hi all,

    I have spoken to Newcastle United and there will an annoucement at half time in the game on Saturday so that the Level 7 gang and the rest of SJP can pay their respects to the BowBurn Mag/ Thommo / TextBook. Gone but never forgotten. RIP Steve

  34. Mark Rooke says:
    December 16, 2011 at 10:57 am (Edit)

    “No need for apologise workyticket, sorry for the delay in my response,”

    Mark, I think I’ve found out why your comments have been held. Once again really sorry about that but it should be fixed now.

  35. I am so saddened. I have known of Steve’s illness, his fighting spirit, the love of his family, wife and very young daughter. Their continual travelling between Durham and Edinburgh with no financial assistance. There was always hope, there always is where love exists. It is totally unexplainable illness is not logical. Young, fit, very fit and a cracking lad. Steve has been spoken about to me by my daughter almost daily since the first day he was taken to hospital. My daughter and son in law and grandsons are very close friend of Steve and his family and naturally very upset. It is only tonight that I have been told that Steve is, always will be Bowburn Mag. Sad, very sad. Give him the respect on Saturday, My wife and I will from the East Stand. RIP

  36. This is just horrible, unbelievable news. I’ve been an occasional visitor to the site over the years and always enjoyed BBM’s writing. I suppose with Steve Thompson not being that unusual a name I never made the connection but it’s only this last week I’ve realised that this was Stephen Thompson, one of my best friends when we were little lads. We drifted apart a bit as teenagers and I never knew him at all as an adult but I just have so many happy childhood memories of him. I used to wish I could be even half as good at football as he was, although I could at least keep up with him on the hours spent together playing football games on his Spectrum. His Mam & Dad were such lovely people too, they used to put with me as a constant house guest when they lived in Heaton. I feel so desperately sorry for them and for his wife and daughter. Rest in Peace, Stephen.

  37. Not sure if this will get to those who can help,
    My names mark, bowburn mags best mate, I’ve written on here just after Stephen passed away,
    I’m looking for anyone and everyone who has any contacts within Nufc or any other club who could help getting some signed shirts, balls etc that we could auction off for the Stephen Thompson foundation.
    We are in the process of registering it as a charity and have lots of plans to help under privileged kids in football from putting on coaching days, days out to Nufc matches, even to buying them kit that they might nit afford,
    Any ideas or help would be much appreciated, you can contact me on mdjrooke@hotmail.com
    Thanks again

  38. Mark Rooke says:
    January 31, 2012 at 7:24 am

    Mark, I would recommend putting this comment in a newer blog now. The latest one is a bit old too (it’s from early yesterday morning), but I’ll be doing a transfer deadline blog which should be busy. I can put a duplicate of your comment above in that one if you like? I’ll make it the first comment too, which would also be a good thing.

    Keep letting us know how you get on with the Charity.