Stuart, Eric

Stuart was invited to the local group Jerry Lee and the Staggerlees , a year later changed his name to The Emperors of Rhythm , and stayed in it for two years. In early 1963, he was at the Oasis Club in Manchester that evening, when Wayne Fontana was in there was an audition by a representative of a record company. Wayne Fontana, the guitarist and drummer, did not attend this audition, and he asked Eric Stewart and Rick Rothwell to “sit out” the auditions as a guitarist and drummer, respectively. After a short rehearsal, the quartet performed three famous songs of the time. Wayne received an offer to record in the studio on the condition that the musicians who played during the audition join in a group. Wayne Fontana's band at that time was called The Jets , but a new band also needed a new name. The team decided to use the name of the feature film “The Mind Benders” just released in the UK This is how Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders came about. At first, the musicians played traditional rhythm and blues , then their own compositions began to appear in their repertoire. The three of them - Stuart, Fontana and bassist Bob Lang - wrote the song “Since You've Been Gone”, which appeared on the “B” side of their sixth single , “The Game of Love”, released in April 1965, and became hit No. 1 in the UK and hit No. 2 in the USA . Stuart and Fontana also co-authored the song “Long Time Comin '”, which appeared in June 1965 on the “B” side of their other forty-something “It's Just a Little Bit Too Late” ^[2] .

In July and August 1965, the band toured Herman's Hermits together in the United States, causing wild scenes that Stuart likened to Beatlemania . He recalled ^[3] :

“The hotels we stayed in were under the constant guard of the security service, and hundreds of girls were always waiting outside. They constantly stole my glasses and tore out tufts of hair, which was very, very painful. ”

Original text

The hotels we stayed in were under constant guard by security people and there were always girls waiting outside in their hundreds, "he recalled." They were always yanking off my glasses and pulling out tufts of hair, which was very, very painful.

At the end of 1965, Fontana separated from The Mindbenders . In his absence, at the beginning of 1966, their song “A Groovy Kind Of Love”, in which Stuart performed the vocal part, became the No. 2 hit in the UK. In the same year, they entered the top twenty national hit parade with the song "Ashes To Ashes".

Toward the end of the band's existence, Stewart, who devoted more and more time to composing songs, became disillusioned with The Mindbenders , realizing that the material they performed led them away from the music that brought them success on the charts . He described what was happening as follows ^[3] :

“Thanks to the recordings that we had, everyone considered us something like a ballad group, but in reality we were not at all like that. I think we were the first heavy band of three performers, but the music we played was completely unacceptable for the kind of people who were ready to order The Mindbenders ' performance. ”

Original text

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.

The command came to an inglorious end. Stuart told:

“At some concerts it was just disgusting. Once we were invited to speak at a work club in Cardiff, and upon arriving at the place, we found posters glued on the outside, which said that some Welsh tenor “plus a musical accompaniment” was playing that evening, which meant us. I simply suffocated at the mere thought that we should go on stage, where we did not even bother to put our names on posters. "

Original text

There were some pretty horrid gigs. 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.

On November 20, 1968, after a particularly disastrous performance on the team, friction arose and the angry Stuart announced that The Mindbenders had come to an end. “We never met again,” he later recalled. ^[3]

According to Stuart himself, thanks to the flow of royalties and the income from publishing his works as part of The Mindbenders , after the breakup of the group, he felt quite comfortable financially. In July 1968, Peter Tattersall, a former tour organizer for Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas , invited him as an investor to a small recording studio Inner City Studios , located above a music store in Stockport . Stuart, who repeatedly recorded demos of his own songs in this studio, accepted the invitation by investing £ 800 in it. He explained his decision as follows ^[3] :

"I was infected with the idea of ​​becoming a recording engineer and building a studio, putting my vision into it of what it should be."

Original text

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.

Then the studio moved to a larger room at 3. Waterloo Road, 3. Stuart, who helped with the restoration and painting work, renamed it Strawberry Studios in honor of his favorite Beatles song - “ Strawberry Fields Forever ” ^[4] .

A few months later, another investor, songwriter and former The Mindbenders bass player Graham Gouldman joined Tattersall and Stewart, who contributed £ 2,000 to the venture. In mid-1969, Stuart and Gouldman began work on a project that rock impresario and entrepreneur Giorgio Gomelsky led for his label Marmalade Records (a division of Polydor Records ). Gomelsky was very impressed by the songs written by Lol Krim and Kevin Godley, and he planned to promote this duet. Stuart was invited to play lead guitar parts, and Goldman offered his services in recording sessions at Strawberry Studios.

In December 1969, American producers Jerry Cosenets and Jeff Katz from Super K Productions they hired a studio for three months to record songs in the style of Bubblegam pop , using the talents of Gouldman, Stuart, Krim and Godley ^[3] . The revenue from these intense sessions allowed Strawberry Studios co-owners to buy equipment and turn it into a "real studio." Stewart told ^[3] :

“At first, they were interested in the songs Graham wrote, and when they heard that he is also connected with the studio, I think they decided that it would be most profitable for them to hire his studio and put him to work in it. But in the end it all came down to the fact that we recorded Graham’s songs, then a few songs by Kevin and Lola, and we all worked together. ”

Original text

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.

In June 1970, the song “Neanderthal Man” was released under the Philips Records label , which Stuart, Godley, and Krim recorded under the name Hotlegs . The single became world famous, reaching 2nd position in the British charts and 22nd in the American. The single was followed by the Thinks: School Stinks album ( 1970 ), which Stuart called "ahead of his time" ^[3] . And then the trio released another single - “Umbopo” - under the name Doctor Father . While working on the album and both “forty-fives,” Stuart acted as a sound engineer, bringing together all the tracks included in them.

In early 1972, American singer Neil Sedaka began recording his Solitaire album at Strawberry Studios . Stuart took part in the recording as a sound engineer, and Gouldman, Godley and Cream as an accompanying group . The success of this album inspired four musicians to create and perform their own musical material. They recorded Stuart and Gouldman's song Waterfall, and Stuart took the record to London for demonstration at Apple Records , where Sedaki's album was being prepared. A few months later, Apple, however, rejected the song, citing its commercial weakness ^[3] .

By that time, the team recorded another track. This time it was a song by Godley and Krim “Donna”. Stewart called entrepreneur and producer Jonathan King whom he knew from the time of his participation in The Mindbenders, and invited him to listen to the song. King was delighted with the song - he saw a potential hit in it and signed a contract with the group on behalf of his label UK Records giving the team a name of 10cc . A few weeks later, in August 1972, the song saw the light of day and took second place in the British charts.

The band's first album, which was called 10cc , was released in 1973. Together with other members of the group, Stuart participated in the writing of four songs for this album. The most fruitful was the co-authorship of Stuart with Gouldman: their creative duet created such popular songs as “Wall Street Shuffle”, “I'm Not In Love” and “Art for Art's Sake” , and after leaving the team, Godley and Krim in 1976, the close collaboration between Stuart and Gouldman resulted in the band's next six albums.

After 1983, there was a lull, and in 1995, the Stuart-Gouldman couple recorded their last joint album, Mirror Mirror , all of whose songs, however, were composed and recorded separately by the former partners.

During his musical career, Eric Stewart released four solo albums:

1. Girls (1980)
2. Frooty Rooties (1982)
3. Do Not Bend (2003)
4. Viva la Difference (2009) ^[5]

• Eric Stewart - The official website