| David A. Stewart |
Dave Stewart at Nürburgring, June 1987
|
| Background information |
| Birth name |
David Allan Stewart |
| Born |
9 September 1952 (1952-09-09) (age 57) |
| Origin |
Sunderland, England |
| Genres |
Pop-rock, folk |
| Occupations |
Singer-songwriter, musician and record producer |
| Instruments |
Singer, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist |
| Years active |
1971-present |
| Labels |
Anxious Records, The Artist Network, Weapons of Mass Entertainment |
| Associated acts |
Eurythmics, Platinum Weird, The Tourists |
| Website |
http://www.davestewart.com |
David Allan Stewart, often known as Dave Stewart (born 9 September 1952 in Sunderland) is an English[1] musician and record producer, best known for his work with Eurythmics. Stewart has written songs with many famous musicians, including Gwen Stefani, Jon Bon Jovi, Mick Jagger, t.A.T.u., Bono and Katy Perry and cites as one of his strengths his ability to coax personal stories from his co-writers.[2] He is normally credited as David A. Stewart, to avoid confusion with another English musician also named Dave Stewart.
Personal life
Previously married from 1973 to 1977,[3] Stewart married former Bananarama member Siobhan Fahey (who later formed Shakespears Sister) in 1987. The couple have two children (Sam and Django) but divorced in 1996. On 4 August 2001, Stewart married Dutch photographer Anoushka Fisz with whom he has two daughters, Kaya and India.
During the time that they were in The Tourists, Stewart had been in a relationship with Annie Lennox, though they had broken up by the time they formed Eurythmics. In 2004, Stewart and his wife relocated to Hollywood so Stewart could concentrate on his soundtrack work.
Biography
In 1971, whilst still in his teens, Dave Stewart secured a record deal as part of folk-rock band Longdancer, but they did not achieve commercial success. In the mid-1970s he was promoted through the progressive rock band 'Child' just as the market for progressive rock died. Stewart then spent several years living in squats in London.
Promotional literature released in 2006 states that Stewart belonged to a band named Platinum Weird in 1973-1974. This group was in fact formed in 2004, with the 1970s history a story recently admitted to by Stewart as "80% true".[4][5]
In late 1976, he was introduced to Annie Lennox by a mutual friend. Soon Stewart and Lennox became lovers. By 1977, the pair had teamed up with Sunderland musician Peet Coombes, releasing a single on Logo Records as The Catch. This band developed into The Tourists who enjoyed modest success, including a hit with a cover of the Dusty Springfield hit "I Only Want To Be With You".
Eurythmics
Both the Tourists and Stewart & Lennox's romantic liaison ended in 1980. At this point, Stewart began a new musical project with Lennox, Eurythmics. Eurythmics proved to be one of the most consistent pop-rock duos of the 1980s. The group split after the release of We Too Are One and the subsequent tour in 1990, renuniting in 1999 for the album Peace and a world tour. Lennox and Stewart last worked together on two tracks that appeared in the 2005 greatest hits package Ultimate Collection.
Post-Eurythmics
When Eurythmics dissolved in 1990, Stewart immediately released a solo album with the Spiritual Cowboys. Throughout the 1990s, Stewart released albums, including Greetings from the Gutter, in 1994 and a 'fictional autobiography' Sly-Fi in 1999. Stewart was married for several years to Siobhan Fahey of Bananarama with whom he has two children.
In 1999, Eurythmics reunited to release Peace. Stewart continues to be involved in a variety of projects, relocating to the United States in 2004 to concentrate on soundtrack work. In 2007, he announced on his MySpace page that he would be playing live concerts showcasing his entire career. According to the announcement, he will be accompanied by various guest musicians as well as a 30 piece orchestra. Additionally, Stewart has stated that for the first time in many years, he has been writing new songs on his guitar, although there are no plans for a new solo album.
Stewart was brought in by Ringo Starr as producer of his 2008 album Liverpool 8, after the album's original producer, Mark Hudson, fell out with Ringo. Hudson's work on some tracks earned both Stewart and Hudson credits as co-producers (along with Starr himself).
On his recent project The Dave Stewart Songbook he re-recorded 21 hit songs which have been co-written or co-produced by him during the past decades and originally released by artists such as Jon Bon Jovi, Celine Dion, Bob Geldof, Shakespears Sister, No Doubt, Bryan Ferry, Tom Petty and Eurythmics. Also included is the song American Prayer written by Dave Stewart and Bono of U2 to which Dave Stewart shot a video clip in support of the campaign of presidential candidate Barack Obama featuring various film and music stars premiered on 23 August 2008, on YouTube.
Stewart released his new song "Let's Do It Again" in the form of a £1,000 diamond-studded vibrator with attached lyrics, a guitar pick, and free digital download code called Little Steel Tonight in December 2008.[6]
Other projects
Soundtrack
Dave Stewart started his involvement in the film industry in 1989 by writing the soundtrack Lily Was Here for the Dutch movie De Kassière. The single with the same name, featuring saxophone player Candy Dulfer, topped the Dutch charts for five weeks. The same song peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1990. He also performed the song Everybody, All Over The World (Join The Celebration) for the 2004 remake of the film Around the World in 80 Days.
Stewart appeared in an Apple Inc. advertisement in 1993 for the Power Macintosh in which he riffed on the word "power". He also had a small cameo as a British hacker in the 1995 film Hackers.
Stewart in conjunction with his brother John J. Stewart of the Oil Factory, and in collaboration with music critic and author Robert Palmer and documentary filmmaker Robert Mugge made a documentary dealing with Delta Blues music. Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads, released in 1991, was filmed in Memphis, Tennessee and various north Mississippi counties. Palmer narrated.[7]
He made his directorial debut in 2000 with Honest, a black comedy set in Swinging London in the late 1960s featuring members of the British/Canadian girl group All Saints. The movie received abysmal reviews, with one critic remarking, "It is the worst kind of rubbish, the kind that makes you angry you have wasted 105 minutes of your life."[citation needed]The Times however called the movie a "cult classic".[citation needed]
In November 2002, former South African president Nelson Mandela gave his prison number 466/64 to Dave Stewart so that he could use it to help in the fight against HIV/AIDS in South Africa by raising money for the Nelson Mandela Foundation, leading to the 46664 campaign and series of concerts.
Musical
Stewart wrote the musical Barbarella, based on the 1968 film, which premiered in Vienna on 11 March 2004.
Stewart has production and multiple song writing credits on the Jon Bon Jovi solo album "Destination Anywhere" (1997). He collaborated with Mick Jagger to record songs which appear on the soundtrack to the movie Alfie, released in 2004. The soundtrack includes the critically acclaimed "Old Habits Die Hard", which won a Golden Globe award for Best Original Song from a Motion Picture. He also recently co-wrote "Friend or Foe" for the Russian pop duo t.A.T.u., which is on their 2005 album Dangerous and Moving.
He co-wrote the theme song for the comedy Ruthless People with Mick Jagger and Daryl Hall. He co-wrote and played on Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Don't Come Around Here No More as well as appeared in the video for the song. He has been described by friend and collaborator, Bob Dylan, as a "fearless innovator".[8] He created the comic books Walk-In and Zombie Broadway, both published by Virgin Comics.
On 21 March 2007 Stewart unveiled an initiative called "Greenpeace Works," which he labelled a sort of "think tank" to dream up ways celebrities and Greenpeace can work together on green issues.[9]
One of his current projects is as the main interviewer for an HBO series called Off the Record which is a show that highlights song writing and is slated to feature some very prominent musicians. The pilot aired on HBO 24 November 2006 and featured Bono and Edge from U2.
Record label
Stewart also formed a record label called Anxious Records. Dave Stewart's catalogue from the final Tourists album and Eurythmics, to hits he has written for other artists, to film scores, has been released by BMG Music Publishing since 1982, with the sole exception of Eurythmics' 1984 soundtrack album 1984 (For the Love of Big Brother), which was released by Virgin Records as the film was released by Virgin Films.
Platinum Weird
Main article:
Platinum WeirdIn 2006, Stewart resurrected Platinum Weird, a band he allegedly formed in the early 1970s in London with singer Erin Grace, but which was in reality created in 2004.[4] According to the fictional account, Erin was moody and mysterious, and disappeared shortly before the band's eponymous album was due to be released in 1974. Platinum Weird features noted songwriter Kara DioGuardi on vocals and the band has re-recorded some of the fictional original band's songs and some new ones as well for an upcoming album. The album was produced by John Shanks.
In July 2006, VH1 premiered a mockumentary entitled Rock Legends – Platinum Weird, an examination of the band’s unusual story, complete with cameo appearances from such rock legends as Mick Jagger, Annie Lennox, Elton John, and Ringo Starr, all reminiscing about the former band’s short-lived heyday and their impressions of the mysterious Erin Grace. The album was further promoted by a series of bogus World Wide Web fan sites, some of which are registered by the New Media Department of Interscope Records and hosted on the same server as interscope.com,[10][11][12] and related false documents for the "lost" group.
Much of the Platinum Weird story line is apparently identical to an earlier promotion by the unrelated band Unicorn.[13][14]
Discography
For Dave Stewart's discography with The Tourists, please see The Tourists.
For Dave Stewart's discography with Eurythmics, please see Eurythmics Discography.
For Dave Stewart's discography with Platinum Weird, please see Platinum Weird.
Studio albums
| Year |
Album |
Notes |
| 1990 |
Dave Stewart and the Spiritual Cowboys |
as Dave Stewart and the Spiritual Cowboys |
| 1991 |
Honest |
as Dave Stewart and the Spiritual Cowboys |
| 1994 |
Greetings from the Gutter |
|
| 1998 |
Sly-Fi |
|
| 2008 |
The Dave Stewart Songbook Vol. 1 |
|
| 2008 |
Let's Do It Again[6] |
|
Collaborations & Soundtrack albums
References
External links
