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.

Eric Stewart was born 20 January 1945 in Droylsden, a housing overflow area for neighbouring Manchester, and now part of Greater Manchester. Around 1960, he joined 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.

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). The group appeared in the 1967 film To Sir, with Love. 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.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.