David L. Stewart

David Lloyd Stewart (born December 30, 1950 in London ) is a British keyboardist , arranger and producer .

Life

The early years

Stewart played with Steve Hillage in the band Uriel in the late 1960s and early 1970s , then with the avant-garde rockers Egg , Arzachel and Khan . From 1973, his keyboard and his arrangements shaped the sound of the British jazz rock formation Hatfield and the North . In addition to Stewart, the band also included bassist and singer Richard Sinclair , guitarist Phil Miller and drummer Pip Pyle , as well as the background singers The Northettes , consisting of Barbara Gaskin , Amanda Parsons and Ann Rosenthal. Hatfield and the North - named after the street signs in north London that pointed "to Hatfield and the North" - released their first LP of the same name in 1974 and the single Let's Eat (Real Soon) / Fitter Stoke Has a Bath in the same year .

At the same time Stewart worked for Steve Hillage's solo album Fish Rising and released another LP with Egg . Around the same time he managed to record another LP with Hatfield and the North . The Rotters' Club came out in 1975 - like the first LP on Virgin Records  - and cemented the band's reputation as a jazz rock formation. But although the LP penetrated the lower regions of the British charts , the band members decided a few months later to break up the group. Stewart, Miller, Parsons formed the band National Health with bassist Neil Murray and drummer Bill Bruford, which Pyle soon rejoined. Dave Stewart also worked again as a studio musician. Among other things, he played with King Crimson and on the solo albums of Yes drummer Bill Bruford.

From studio musician to pop star

In 1981, planned as a one-off attempt, Stewart recorded a version of Jimmy Ruffin's hit What Becomes of the Broken Hearted . The voice on the instrumental track was provided by the former singer of the zombies Colin Blunstone (born in Hatfield ). Stiff Records released the single on the Broken label - and placed it in the top 20 (highest rating: 13th). A successor was needed - and Stewart worked again according to the successful recipe: He recorded an instrumental version of Lesley Gore's 1963 hit, It's My Party , and asked his former chorister Barbara Gaskin to sing the vocal part on it. This time it worked even better: on October 17, 1981, the single climbed to number one on the British charts and stayed there for four weeks before Police ousted it with Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic .

After the hits

It's My Party was the highlight of Dave Stewart's pop career so far. Two more singles, again with the voice of Barbara Gaskin (1983: Busy Doing Nothing and 1986: The Locomotion ), could only place in the lower regions of the charts. In addition to his recordings with Barbara Gaskin, Stewart wrote music for television and formed a follow-up band for the Hatfields called Rapid Eye Movements .

Hatfield and the North came back together for a few concerts in 1989/1990, but without Dave Stewart (he was replaced by Sophia Domanich). The gigs were recorded on phonograms and released on the album Live - 1990 in 1993 . In 2006 Hatfield and the North performed at the Burg-Herzberg Festival.

Discography

Egg

Albums

• 1970: Egg
• 1971: The Polite Force
• 1974: The Civil Surface

Hatfield and the North

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1975	The Rotters' Club	-	-	-	UK43 (1 week) UK	-

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More albums

• 1974: Hatfield and the North
• 1980: Afters (compilation, compiled by Dave Stewart)

National Health

Albums

• 1977: National Health
• 1978: Of Queues & Cures

With Colin Blunstone

Singles

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, , Placements, weeks, awards, comments)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1981	What Becomes of the Brokenhearted	-	-	-	UK13 (10 weeks) UK	-

Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin

Albums

• 1987: The Singles
• 1990: The Big Idea
• 1991: Spin
• 2009: Green and Blue
• 2009: The TLG Collection

Compilations

• 1986: Up from the Dark
• 1988: As Far as Dreams Can Go
• 1990: The Singles Broken Records
• 1993: Selected Tracks

Singles

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, , Placements, weeks, awards, comments)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1981	It's my party	DE3 (23 weeks) DE	AT3 (14 weeks) AT	CH6 (8 weeks) CH	UK1 gold (13 weeks)UK	US72 (8 weeks) US
1983	Busy doing nothing	-	-	-	UK49 (5 weeks) UK	-
1986	The Locomotion	-	-	-	UK70 (4 weeks) UK	-

More singles

• 1981: Johnny Rocco
• 1983: Siamese Cat Song
• 1983: Leipzig
• 1984: I'm in a Different World
• 1986: Up from the Dark (Excerpts)
• 1988: As Far as Dreams Can Go
• 1992: Walking the Dog
• 2009: Hour Moon (5 bonus tracks for the album Green and Blue )

Web links

• Dave Stewart at Discogs (English)
• Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin at Discogs (English)
• Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: Singles: Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin with Colin Blunstone ; Albums: Hatfield & The North ; UK1 UK2 UK3 UK4
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Gold / Platinum Database: UK