Eric Michael Stewart (born 20 January 1945, Droylsden, Lancashire , England) is an English musician, songwriter and record producer most known for his tenure with The Mindbenders in the 1960s, and 10cc from 1972 to 1995. He Appeared in the following films: Give My Regards to Broad Street (23-Oct-1984) To Sir, With Love (14-Jun-1967
BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Full Name: Eric Michael Stewart
Description: Guitarist, Composer, UK
Known For: 10cc (Band)
Instruments: Voice, Guitar
Music Styles: Rock
Location: United Kingdom
Date Born: 20th January 1945
Location Born: Droylsden, United Kingdom
BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE
Eric Stewart
An English singer, songwriter and guitarist.
Born in Manchester, England. Stewart is mainly known as a member of two major bands that include ‘The Minbenders’ in the sixties and ’10cc’ in the seventies.
In 1968, he became a co-owner of Strawberry Studios in Stockport, England, where he developed skills as a recording engineer and record producer. His involvement in Strawberry was instrumental in the eventual formation of 10cc.
Stewart was invited to join local band Jerry Lee and the Staggerlees, which after a year changed its name to the Emperors of Rhythm. Stewart remained with the band for two years and was at the Oasis club in Manchester in early 1963 on the evening that Wayne Fontana had an audition with a record company representative. Wayne Fontana’s drummer and guitarist did not turn up for the audition and Wayne asked Eric and drummer Ric Rothwell if they would ‘sit in’ for the audition. After a few minutes’ rehearsal, the quartet played three well known songs of the time. Wayne Fontana was offered a record deal on condition that the musicians who played at the audition formed the band. Wayne Fontana’s band was called The Jets, but due to an existing band using the name, an alternative name had to be sought – it was decided that the band would take the name “The Mindbenders”, which was the name of a film on release at the time – Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders then came into being. The band initially played rhythm and blues. Stewart, Fontana and bassist Bob Lang co-wrote “Since You’ve Been Gone”, the B-side of the band’s sixth single “The Game of Love” (April 1965), which hit No.2 in the UK and No.1 in the US. Stewart and Fontana also shared the songwriting credit on “Long Time Comin'”, the B-side of “It’s Just a Little Bit Too Late” (June 1965).
The band toured the US with Herman’s Hermits in July and August 1965, producing wild scenes Stewart compared with Beatlemania. “The hotels we stayed in were under constant guard by security people and there were always girls waiting outside in the hundreds,” he recalled. “They were always yanking off my glasses and pulling out tufts of hair, which was very, very painful.”
The Mindbenders split with Fontana in late 1965. They had a UK No. 2 hit with “A Groovy Kind of Love” in early 1966 with Stewart on vocals. They reached the top 20 later that year with “Ashes To Ashes”.
Stewart, who was devoting more time to songwriting, became disenchanted with the Mindbenders towards the end of its existence, realising the material they were playing was drifting further from the music for which they had gained chart success.
“Because of the sort of records we’d had, everyone thought of us as a sort of ballads group, but we really weren’t like that at all. I think we were probably the first of the three-piece heavy groups – but the sort of music we preferred to play was totally unacceptable to the sort of people who were prepared to book the Mindbenders,” he said.
YOUTUBE
The band came to an ignominious end. “There were some pretty horrid gigs,” he said. “One night we were booked to appear at a working men’s club in Cardiff and when we arrived there we found that the posters outside the club said that starring that night was some Welsh tenor ‘plus support group’ – which meant us. That really choked me, the fact that we’d reached the stage where they didn’t even bother to put our names up on the posters.” The band accepted a booking playing cabaret shows for a week, wearing white suits and red silk shirts and telling jokes between the songs. After one particularly disastrous gig the band argued and Stewart angrily declared the Mindbenders were finished. He dropped the other members off at their homes after the gig and said, “That was the end of the Mindbenders. We never saw each other again after that.”
1968–1972: Strawberry Studios, Hotlegs
According to Stewart, the flow of royalties and publishing income from his work with the Mindbenders had left him “fairly comfortable” financially. In July 1968 he was invited by former Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas road manager Peter Tattersall to become an investor in Inner City Studios, a small recording studio located above a music shop in Stockport. Stewart, who had been recording some demos of his own songs at the studio, invested £800. He explained: “I was infected with the idea of becoming a recording engineer and building a studio where I could develop my own ideas as to what a studio should be like.” The pair moved to larger premises at No.3 Waterloo Road in October and Stewart, who helped with renovations and painting, renamed the studio in honour of his favourite Beatles song, “Strawberry Fields Forever”.
Within months the pair were joined by a further investor – songwriter and former Mindbenders bassist Graham Gouldman, who injected a further £2000. In mid-1969 Stewart and Gouldman began working with two other musicians, Lol Creme and Kevin Godley, on a project rock manager and entrepreneur Giorgio Gomelsky was developing for his Marmalade Records label. Gomelsky was impressed with songs Godley and Creme had written and was planning to market them as a duo. Stewart was invited to play lead guitar at one session and he and Gouldman soon began offering the pair regular session work at Strawberry. (One single, “I’m Beside Myself” b/w “Animal Song” was issued under the name of Frabjoy and Runcible Spoon, plus two tracks on the Marmalade LP sampler “100 Proof” issued under the names of Kevin & Lol and Graham Gouldman, before Marmalade closed its doors.)
In December 1969 a deal was struck with US producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz of Super K Productions to book the studios solidly for three months to record bubblegum songs, using the talents of Gouldman, Stewart, Godley and Creme. The income from the period of intense sessions allowed the owners to buy more equipment to turn it into “a real studio”. “To begin with they were interested in Graham’s songwriting and when they heard that he was involved in a studio I think they thought the most economical thing for them to do would be to book his studio and then put him to work there – but they ended up recording Graham’s songs and then some of Kevin and Lol’s songs, and we were all working together,” Stewart said.
The trio of Stewart, Godley and Creme produced a song, “Neanderthal Man”, which was released in June 1970 by Philips Records under the name of Hotlegs. The single became a worldwide hit, reaching No.2 in Britain and No.22 in the US and was followed by an album, Thinks: School Stinks (1970), which Stewart later described as “a little ahead of its time”. The trio released another single, “Umbopo”, under the name of Doctor Father. The singles and album tracks were all engineered by Stewart.
Hotlegs embarked on a British tour supporting The Moody Blues in October 1970, with Gouldman playing bass. The tour was aborted after five nights when Moody Blues bassist and singer John Lodge became ill. When no further work for Hotlegs ensued, the band members agreed the band was defunct and resumed their session work.
He collaborated with Paul McCartney on three McCartney albums between 1982 and 1986, has recorded three solo albums and has another planned for release in 2008.
Bands
Jerry Lee and the Staggerlees/The Emperors of Rhythm – 1960–63 (featuring Vic Steele, later of The Hollies)
Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders – Guitarist/vocalist, 1963–65
The Mindbenders – Guitarist/vocalist, 1966–68
Hotlegs – Guitarist/vocalist, 1970
Doctor Father – Guitarist/vocalist, 1970
10cc – Guitarist/keyboards/vocalist, 1972–1983, 1991–95
Also supported:
Neil Sedaka – Guitarist/vocalist, 1972–73
Paul McCartney – Guitarist/vocalist/Cowriter, 1982–86
Alan Parsons – Vocalist, 1990–96
Eric Woolfson – Vocalist, 1990
Discography
Girls (Polydor Records, 1980)
Frooty Rooties (Phonogram Records/Mercury Records, 1982)
Do Not Bend (2003)
Viva la Difference (2009)
Filmography as actor
Give My Regards to Broad Street (October 1984)
To Sir, With Love (June 1967)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia