Eddie St. James

Eddie St. James (born August 1962) is a guitarist, singer and composer–arranger born in Hollywood, California and raised in and around the L.A. area (currently residing in the Mannheim – Baden-Württemberg area of Germany ). He is most noted for his work with many well known musicians. Some of the guitar, vocal and songwriting work he has contributed can be heard on his first solo release Out of Nowhere (Capitol records-1989).

Biography

It all began in the early 1960s, as a young child after hearing and seeing one of the first legendary live The Beatles performances on The Ed Sullivan Show. Soon afterwards at the age of 8 years, Eddie had the guitar in his hands and at age 15 began to perform at friends' birthday and garage parties as he gathered his first experiences and honorary. In the mid 1980s, he joined a local glam metal act called "Northstar", a band that during the height of the Hollywood Sunset Strip era opened for such groups as: Great White, Warrant, Poison, Guns N' Roses, etc. The group also achieved status as a headliner at all the well known clubs such as Gazzarri's (where the Doors and Van Halen got their start), The Roxy, The Country Club, and The Troubador, etc., but failed to generate a lucrative record deal. In 1989, he began a solo career with the "Eddie St. James Project" as well as doing some studio work for other artists; this same year saw the release of the Capitol supported album Out of nowhere.

By 1991, St. James reformed the band with Steff Fontaine, Marc Droubay and Wayne Hutsell. The band played a few dates with changes occurring in the line-up and even opened for Lynch Mob (George Lynch, guitar ex-Dokken) on part of the wicked sensation tour and shortly thereafter the "ESJ project" dissolved. St. James is also an ex-member of the Jon Dunmore Band and performed on two Jon Dunmore CDs – Hypnotica (ClearAudiorecords-1994) which also features performances by Kelly Keagy (drums: Night Ranger), Phil Soussan (bass: ex-Ozzy Osbourne, Vince Neil, Billy Idol, etc.), Mayron Grombacher (drums: Pat Benatar), Bobby Gianetti (bass: ex-Edgar Winter, Dave Mason) and Kris Gustofson (drums). In 1995 Eddie worked concurrently on the second Jon Dunmore CD entitled Baptized by fire (Seagul/Semaphore records-1995), while also at the same time contributing guitar and backing vocals for the actor Richard Grieco (actor: 21 Jump Street, A Night at the Roxbury etc.) CD- Waiting for the sky to fall (Edel records-1995). Some previous members of the Eddie St. James Band include: Steff Fontaine (vocals, ex-Uriah Heep), Marc Droubay (drums: Survivor), Bobby Gianetti (bass) and Wayne Hutsell (bass: ex-Swift kick, Tracy G.(Dio)). In 1998, Eddie was also shortly involved as guitarist with American singer/ songwriter Mark Pont(currently the lead vocalist of Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods whose hits include "Billy Don’t Be A Hero" and "Who Do You Think You Are") on the independently released CD Flying. In an interview, St. James stated that he moved to Germany with just $250 in his pocket, 1 suitcase full of clothes and 3 guitars and nothing else. Since 1996 the area of Mannheim, Germany has become his home base and to date, Eddie continues with his solo career and is currently fronting his own group "The Eddie St. James Band" as lead vocalist and guitarist. The ESJ Band has released 2 CDs, the newest in 2007- Living with the bomb an 18-song double CD and makes regular live, TV and radio appearances in Europe. The group was even featured at the FIFA Soccer WM2006 in Kaiserlautern, Germany- in the main stage programm along with Reamonn, Xavier Naidoo and Revolverheld, etc. Eddie also does a one man acoustic rock show called "Eddie St. James' Akustik-Underground".

As of June 2006 Eddie also became the new guitarist–songwriter for the newly reformed infamous L.A. hard rock band London (heavy metal band) alongside Nadir D'Priest (vocals). The "New" London is currently working on song demos for a new CD as well as some live dates in Europe in 2007. St.James was involved as a songwriter in conjunction with the singer Nadir D'Priest during 2006-2007 and due to scheduling conflicts unable to work in person with the group. Some of the duo's compositions are now being showcased by the group as stipulated in a U.S. on air radio interview by the singer Nadir D'Priest. Currently 2009 (newspaper: Rhein Pfalz, Germany)reported Eddie is working on a new ESJ band CD in L.A., Ca., entitled "Streets cry freedom" with drummer John "JR" Robinson, (Michael Jackson-etc.) amongst other notable guest musicians. There was also mention of a new project with the ex-Uriah Heep singer Steff Fontaine.

Current ESJ Band lineup

Eddie St. James: Vocals / guitar
Jon Diven: Bass / b.v.
Willy Diven: Drums
Michael Leukel: Keyboarder/ b.v.

Notable Ex-ESJ Band members

Bastian Fricke: Drums
Michael Quast: Keyboards
Steff Fontaine(ex-Uriah Heep): Vocals
Marc Droubay(Survivor): Drums
Wayne Hutsell(Tracy G.): Bass

Discography

Solo/Eddie St. James Band

• Out of nowhere (Capitol/Amie) 1989
• Under something blue (Mega Media) 2003
• Living with the bomb (Mega Media) 2007

Jon Dunmore Band

• Hypnotica (ClearAudiorecords) 1994
• Baptized by fire (Seagul/Semiphore) 1995

Richard Grieco (actor: 21 Jump street, Booker, Marker-etc.)

• Waiting for the Sky to Fall (Edel Records) 1995

Mark Pont

• Flying (Grand Scale Records) 1998

TV and film music

• 1995 to 1996
  • sub theme song "The elephant man" for the ABC-Ch.7 program The Extremist with Gabby Reece,

written by Eddie St. James and performed by Eddie St. James and the Dunmore Band.

• 2005
  • sub theme song "Suicide machine" for A&E's reality TV-show, Knievel's Wild Ride,

written by Eddie St. James.

External links

• http://eddie-st-james.com (Official Eddie St.James Web-site)
• http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=114721419 (My space site for Eddie St. James)
• http://www.travellersintime.com/UniversalWheels/November08reviews.html (Living with the bomb CD Review,Universal Wheels)
• http://www.fullinbloommusic.com/nadir_dpriest.html (Interview D'Priest's New London)
• http://www.travellersintime.com/uw/uwest.html (Interview Eddie St. James, Canadian rock magazine Universal Wheels)
• http://www.melodic.net/newsOne.asp?newsId=6769 (News-Artikle, D'Priest / St. James)