Bret Harding
In a rock world full of loud people, there are a few small countries who contribute to the pool of available superstars at a level well above their ‘fighting weight’. Last week’s AC/DC-centric mumbling led me to look towards their land of birth (well some of ‘em, anyway), namely ‘Scotland’.
Having already addressed AC/DC’s family connections (the Young’s were all born in Scotland), my mind turned to others of similar origins – and the first to spring to mind was one Mr. R. Stewart.
So, gentle reader, join with me now as we take a journey through the life of Mr Stewart.
First things first – turns out he was born in London on 10th January 1945, the youngest of 5 children born to Robert Stewart and Elsie Gilbart. Mr Stewart has described his childhood as “fantastically happy” and his first sojourn into music came as a 14 year old in 1959, when his father bought him an acoustic guitar. Before too long it was skiffle groups, singing and harmonica playing, like his heroes Little Richard, Bill Haley & His Comets, Eddie Cochran and Lonnie Donegan.
By 1960, Mr Stewart had left school and contemplated a career in football, with his father’s support. Despite progressing to the point of trialling for an apprenticeship with Brentford FC, he was not successful in this regard. By his own admission, he was only good at two things – “football and singing” – he opted to pursue a career in music, which had (according to Mr Stewart) the added advantage of enabling him to “drink beer and party with girls” as often as he would like – something a career in football might have curtailed to at least some extent.
Between 1960-1963, Mr Stewart progressed his musical fortunes by playing with a number of different skiffle bands before obtaining his first truly professional gig with The Dimensions, a rhythm and blues band working the London circuit.
In January, 1964, whilst busking with a harmonica on the train station at Twickenham, Mr Stewart’s career took a healthy leap when he was ‘discovered’ by one Mr Long John Baldry, who was destined to have a pop hit with a syrupy number called Let the Heartaches Begin, but who had hitherto been known as a kick-bot-bot rhythm and blues singer involved with the Cyril Davies All-stars and others born of the Marquee Room (Rolling Stones et al).
For a period of time Mr Stewart became Mr Baldry’s back up vocalist standing on stage to the side and barely visible in amongst his then backing group, a combo called Bluesology, which in itself featured a bespectacled Mr R. Dwight of Pinner, later to gain fame and a name change as Mr Elton Hercules John.
Mr Stewart came more to the fore after Mr Baldry and the chaps in Bluesology parted company and Mr Baldry formed Steampacket, a vocal group which featured himself, Mr Stewart, Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger (the latter two of which found fame and a hit song in the form of Wheels on Fire, which featured as the theme music for that English comedy with thingo and Patsy and Saffy and bugger can’t remember … if only there was a tool available where I could search for the details … damnation, I digress.
Within a very short space of time, Steampacket folded but it was just the lift off that Mr Stewart needed to make good. Working in a band setting with both Jeff Beck and The Faces (following the demise of The Small Faces) and as a solo artist, Mr Stewart went on to become one of the world’s most beloved recording artists, and to turn his hand to a variety of genres, all with reasonable success.
For me my favourite Mr Steward songs came from this early period and my favourite album was 1974’s Smiler. Of his early work, it would be difficult to go past a song like Maggie May when looking for a signature tune etc, so I have provide a link below to same, just so you don’t miss out.
However, on a personal level, I have selected a couple of other tracks, from the Smiler album as performed by Mr Stewart – the first, actually performed by Mr Stewart and The Faces (a version of Sweet Little ‘n’ Roller, by Chuck Berry) and the second an album track called Let Me Be Your Car (written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin and performed as a duet with Mr John).
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