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Singing Stewarts

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The Singing Stewarts were the first major British Gospel group.[1] The five brothers and three sisters of the Stewart family were born in Trinidad and migrated to Handsworth in Birmingham in 1961.[2] They were all members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and under the training of their mother began to sing in an a cappella style songs that mixed traditional Southern gospel songs with Caribbean calypso.[2]

In 1964 they were the subject of a TV documentary produced by the BBC's Charles Parker, which brought them to national attention, and in 1969 they were the first British gospel group to be recorded by a major record company when PYE Records released their album Oh Happy Day.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Smith, Steve Alexander (2009), British Black Gospel, Oxford: Monarch Books, p. 86, ISBN 1854248960, retrieved 16 January 2014
  2. ^ a b Cummings, Tony (15 April 2012), The Singing Stewarts: Recalling the pioneering work of the Midlands harmonizers, Cross Rhythms, retrieved 26 January 2014