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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.
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 – 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). 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.
The band came to an ignominious end. "There were some pretty horrid gigs", Stewart later recalled. "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." The band accepted a booking playing cabaret shows for a week, wearing white suits and red silk shirts and telling jokes between the songs. After one particularly disastrous gig the band argued and Stewart angrily declared the Mindbenders were finished. He dropped the other members off at their homes after the gig and said, "That was the end of the Mindbenders. We never saw each other again after that."
Within months the pair were joined by a further investor – songwriter and former Mindbenders bassist Graham Gouldman, who injected a further £2000. In mid-1969 Stewart and Gouldman began working with two other musicians, Lol Creme and Kevin Godley, on a project that rock manager and entrepreneur Giorgio Gomelsky was developing for his Marmalade Records label. Gomelsky was impressed with songs Godley and Creme had written and was planning to market them as a duo. Stewart was invited to play lead guitar at one session and he and Gouldman soon began offering the pair regular session work at Strawberry. (One single, "I'm Beside Myself" b/w "Animal Song" was issued under the name of Frabjoy and Runcible Spoon, plus two tracks on the Marmalade LP sampler 100 Proof issued under the names of Kevin & Lol and Graham Gouldman, before Marmalade closed its doors).
In December 1969, a deal was struck with the American record producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffry Katz of Super K Productions, to book the studios solidly for three months to record bubblegum pop songs, using the talents of Gouldman, Stewart, Godley and Creme. The income from the period of intense sessions allowed the owners to buy more equipment to turn it into "a real studio". "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," Stewart said.
The trio of Stewart, Godley and Creme produced a song, "Neanderthal Man", which was released in June 1970 by Philips Records under the name of Hotlegs. The single became a worldwide hit, reaching No. 2 in Britain and No. 22 in the US, and was followed by an album, (1970), which Stewart later described as "a little ahead of its time". The trio released another single, "Umbopo", under the name of Doctor Father. The singles and album tracks were all engineered by Stewart.
Hotlegs embarked on a British tour supporting the Moody Blues in October 1970, with Gouldman playing bass. The tour was aborted after five nights when Moody Blues bassist and singer John Lodge became ill. When no further work for Hotlegs ensued, the band members agreed the band was defunct and resumed their session work.
By then they had recorded another song, Godley and Creme's "Donna", and realised the song "had something". Stewart phoned entrepreneur and producer Jonathan King, whom he had known since the Mindbenders days, and invited him to hear it. King was excited about the song, sensing a potential hit, and signed the band to his UK Records label, naming them 10cc. The song, released weeks later in August 1972, became a UK No. 2.
The first of the band's albums, 10cc (1973) contained four songs co-written by Stewart with various band members. His most productive writing partnership, however, was with Gouldman: the pair wrote some of the band's biggest-selling singles – including "Wall Street Shuffle", "I'm Not in Love" and "Art for Art's Sake" – and after the departure of Godley & Creme in 1976, Stewart and Gouldman settled into a strong songwriting partnership that lasted for the next six albums, though Stewart and Gouldman took a break from 10cc between 1984 and 1991.
By Mirror Mirror (1995) the team had dissolved as tensions between the pair grew. The album was an amalgam of solo material by Gouldman and Stewart, written and recorded separately, and was the final one for 10cc. Stewart has subsequently refused any offers and requests for a reunion.
The band had previously suffered a major setback in 1979 when Stewart was seriously injured in a car crash. He told the BBC:
Gouldman admitted in 2025 that the pair have not seen one another for decades. Godley doesn't speak to Stewart, but Creme and Stewart maintain a relationship of sorts, as both men are married to a pair of sisters.
Stewart released two solo albums sandwiched between 10cc's 1980s output – Girls (1980) and Frooty Rooties (1982).
After 10cc split, Stewart continued his career as a producer and worked with Sad Café ( Facades, 1979, Sad Café, 1980) and Agnetha Fältskog ( Eyes of a Woman, 1985).
Stewart became involved with Paul McCartney from the early 1980s. He played on three of McCartney's albums ( Tug of War, Pipes of Peace and Give My Regards to Broad Street), took part in the "Take It Away" and "So Bad" music videos as well as the Give My Regards to Broad Street film. Later Stewart started writing music together with McCartney which eventually led to Stewart co-writing more than half of Paul McCartney's Press to Play. Stewart's original role was also planned as a producer but during the early stages of work on the album he was replaced by Hugh Padgham, the choice he would later criticise. Padgham acknowledged their differences in 2024:“I remember it in a different way to Eric, and I kind of regret the way he talks about me. I had mucho respect for him, because I grew up listening to 10cc."Blitzed Issue 16, 'Hugh Padgham Interview'
From 1990, Stewart began to participate as a guest vocalist on the last The Alan Parsons Project album Freudiana (1990) and later on Alan Parsons' Try Anything Once (1993) and On Air (1996). Stewart reflected:
In 2000s, Stewart returned to recording solo albums with Do Not Bend (2003), while his fourth solo album, Viva la Difference, was originally planned to come out in 2007, but delayed until 2009.[1]
In 2017, Stewart released his autobiography titled The Things I Do for Love as iOS ebook. The release was backed with a career spanning compilation album Anthology, with remastered songs some of which were newly mixed and retitled. The compilation was also co-mastered by Stewart himself.
Discography
Studio albums
Compilation albums
With The Alan Parsons Project/Alan Parsons
As producer, engineer, composer or session musician
1979 Facades Sad Café producer, engineer 1980 Sad Café 1982 Tug of War Paul McCartney electric guitar, backing vocals 1983 Pipes of Peace 1984 Give My Regards to Broad Street 1985 Eyes of a Woman Agnetha Fältskog producer, writer "I Won't Be Leaving You" and "Save Me (Why Don't Ya)", co-writer "I Won't Let You Go" and "You're There", percussion, Fender Rhodes, backing vocals Explorers The Explorers backing vocals on "Falling For Nightlife" Moving Mountains Justin Hayward keyboards and engineer on "Goodbye" 1986 Press to Play Paul McCartney co-writer "Stranglehold", "Footprints", "Pretty Little Head", "Move Over Busker", "Angry", "However Absurd", "Write Away" and "Tough on a Tightrope", acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboards, backing vocals 1988 Crack The Whip Phil Manzanera & Andy Mackay additional backing vocals 2000 A Whale of a Tale! And Others Sourmash a.k.a. Herman's Hermits producer 2005 Nostalgia July for Kings producer, recording, mixing 2011 Chronicles Paul Young rhythm guitar, keyboards 2012 In Cosmic Winter Negativehate bass
External links
Categories: 1945 Births, Living People, Sophisti-pop Musicians, English Male Songwriters, English Record Producers, English Tenors, People From Droylsden, Musicians From Manchester, English Pop Singers, British Soft Rock Musicians, English Rock Guitarists, English Male Guitarists, English Keyboardists, Ivor Novello Award Winners, 10cc Members, The Mindbenders Members
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