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Eric Stewart
Eric Michael Stewart (born 20 January 1945) is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer, best known as a founding member of the rock groups the Mindbenders with whom he played from 1963 to 1968, and likewise of 10cc from 1972 to 1995. Stewart co-owned Strawberry Studios in Stockport, England, from 1968 to the early 1980s, where he recorded albums with 10cc and artists including Neil Sedaka and Paul McCartney. Stewart collaborated with McCartney extensively in the 1980s, playing on or co-writing songs for McCartney's solo albums Tug of War (1982), Pipes of Peace (1983), Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984), and Press to Play (1986). Since 1980, Stewart has released four solo studio albums.
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. Fontana's drummer and guitarist did not turn up for the audition, and Fontana asked Stewart 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. Fontana was offered a record deal on condition that the musicians who played at the audition formed the band.[citation needed]
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 relying on outside material; however, Stewart and Fontana co-wrote several songs during that period: "Since You've Been Gone" (with bassist Bob Lang), 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, "One More Time" and "Long Time Comin'", the latter 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 and continued with a successful UK and US No. 2 hit "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 was also devoting more time to songwriting having written several B-sides ("Love Is Good", "My New Day and Age", "Yellow Brick Road", "The Man Who Loved Trees") and album tracks ("You Don't Know About Love", "The Morning After", "Rockin' Jaybee", the latter written with band members Bob Lang and Ric Rothwell). Stewart 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.
The band came to an ignominious end. "There were some pretty horrid gigs", Stewart later recalled. "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."
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 that 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).[citation needed]
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Eric Stewart
Eric Michael Stewart (born 20 January 1945) is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer, best known as a founding member of the rock groups the Mindbenders with whom he played from 1963 to 1968, and likewise of 10cc from 1972 to 1995. Stewart co-owned Strawberry Studios in Stockport, England, from 1968 to the early 1980s, where he recorded albums with 10cc and artists including Neil Sedaka and Paul McCartney. Stewart collaborated with McCartney extensively in the 1980s, playing on or co-writing songs for McCartney's solo albums Tug of War (1982), Pipes of Peace (1983), Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984), and Press to Play (1986). Since 1980, Stewart has released four solo studio albums.
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. Fontana's drummer and guitarist did not turn up for the audition, and Fontana asked Stewart 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. Fontana was offered a record deal on condition that the musicians who played at the audition formed the band.[citation needed]
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 relying on outside material; however, Stewart and Fontana co-wrote several songs during that period: "Since You've Been Gone" (with bassist Bob Lang), 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, "One More Time" and "Long Time Comin'", the latter 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 and continued with a successful UK and US No. 2 hit "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 was also devoting more time to songwriting having written several B-sides ("Love Is Good", "My New Day and Age", "Yellow Brick Road", "The Man Who Loved Trees") and album tracks ("You Don't Know About Love", "The Morning After", "Rockin' Jaybee", the latter written with band members Bob Lang and Ric Rothwell). Stewart 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.
The band came to an ignominious end. "There were some pretty horrid gigs", Stewart later recalled. "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."
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 that 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).[citation needed]