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Ian Stewart (musician)

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Ian Stewart

Ian Andrew Robert Stewart (18 July 1938 – 12 December 1985) was a Scottish keyboardist and cofounder of The Rolling Stones. He was dismissed from the line-up in May 1963 but he remained as road manager and piano player.

Role in the Rolling Stones

Born in Pittenweem, East Neuk of Fife, Scotland, and raised in Sutton, Surrey, Stewart (often called Stu) started playing piano when he was six. He took up banjo and played with amateur groups on both instruments.[1] Stewart, who loved rhythm & blues, boogie-woogie, blues and big-band jazz, was first to respond to Brian Jones's advertisement in Jazz News of 2 May 1962 seeking musicians to form a rhythm & blues group.[2] Mick Jagger and Keith Richards joined in June, and the group, with Dick Taylor on bass and either Mick Avory or Tony Chapman on drums, played their first gig under the name The Rollin' Stones at the Marquee Club on 12 July 1962.[3][4] By January 1963, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts had joined, replacing a series of bassists and drummers.[4]

Stewart had a job at Imperial Chemical Industries. None of the other band members had a telephone; Stewart said, "[My] desk at ICI was the headquarters of the Stones organisation. My number was advertised in Jazz News and I handled the Stones' bookings at work." He also bought a van to transport the group and their equipment to their gigs.[5]

In early May 1963, the band's manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, said Stewart should no longer be onstage, that six members were too many for a popular group and that Stewart didn't fit the image.[6] He said Stewart could stay as road manager and play piano on recordings. Stewart accepted this demotion. Richards said: "[Stu] might have realised that in the way it was going to have to be marketed, he would be out of sync, but that he could still be a vital part. I'd probably have said, 'Well, fuck you', but he said 'OK, I'll just drive you around.' That takes a big heart, but Stu had one of the largest hearts around."[7]

Stewart loaded gear into his van, drove the group to gigs, replaced guitar strings and set up Watts' drums the way he himself would play them. "I never ever swore at him," Watts says, with rueful amazement.[citation needed] He also played piano and occasionally organ on most of the band's albums in the first decades, as well as providing criticism. Shortly after Stewart's death Mick Jagger said: "Stu was the one guy we tried to please. We wanted his approval when we were writing or rehearsing a song. We'd want him to like it."[citation needed]

Stewart contributed piano, organ, marimbas and/or percussion to all Rolling Stones albums released between 1964 an 1983, except for Beggars Banquet. Stewart was only one keyboard player; Jack Nitzsche, Nicky Hopkins, Billy Preston and Ian McLagan supplemented his work in the studio and on stage. In 1975 Stewart joined the band on stage again, playing piano on numbers of his choosing throughout tours in 1975-76, 1978 and 1981-82.[4] Stewart favoured blues and country rockers, and remained dedicated to boogie-woogie and early rhythm & blues. He refused to play in minor keys, saying: "When I'm on stage with the Stones and a minor chord comes along, I lift me hands in protest."[8]

Stewart remained aloof from the band's lifestyle. "I think he looked upon it as a load of silliness," said guitarist Mick Taylor. "I also think it was because he saw what had happened to Brian. I could tell from the expression on his face when things started to get a bit crazy during the making of Exile on Main Street. I think he found it very hard. We all did."[citation needed] Stewart played golf and as road manager showed preference for hotels with courses. Richards recalls: "We'd be playing in some town where there's all these chicks, and they want to get laid and we want to lay them. But Stu would have booked us into some hotel about ten miles out of town. You'd wake up in the morning and there's the links. We’re bored to death looking for some action and Stu's playing Gleneagles."[9]

Other work

Stewart contributed to Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" from Led Zeppelin IV and "Boogie With Stu" from Physical Graffiti, two numbers in traditional rock & roll vein, both featuring his boogie-woogie style. Another was Howlin' Wolf's 1971 London Sessions album, featuring Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Klaus Voorman, Steve Winwood, and Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts. He also played piano and organ on the 1982 Bad To The Bone album of George Thorogood and the Destroyers.

Stewart also played with the back-to-roots band Rocket 88, a late-70s/early-80s venture which included Watts, Alexis Korner, Cream frontman Jack Bruce on stand-up acoustic bass, Bob Hall sharing piano with Stewart, and a horn and brass section including Colin Smith, John Picard, Dick Morrissey and Don Weller.

Death and posthumous recognition

Stewart contributed to The Rolling Stones' 1983 Undercover, and was present during the 1985 recording for Dirty Work (released in 1986). In early December 1985, Stewart began having respiratory problems. On 12 December he went to a clinic to have the problem examined; he suffered a heart attack and died in the waiting room.[10]

The Stones played a tribute gig with Rocket 88 in February 1986 at London's 100 Club, and included a 30-second clip of Stewart playing the blues standard, Key to the Highway at the end of Dirty Work. When the Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, they requested Stewart's name be included.

Basis for fictional detective Rebus

According to a Sunday Herald article in March 2006, Stewart was the basis for a fictional detective:

...Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin has revealed that John Rebus, the star of 15 novels set in the grimy underbelly of the nation's capital, may have more to do with the Rolling Stones than any detective could have surmised. The award-winning novelist admits during a new Radio 4 series exploring the relationships between crime writers and their favourite music that he took some of his inspiration for the unruly inspector from the "sixth Stone", Ian Stewart.

Rankin says the lyrics to a song by Aidan Moffat & The Best-Of's about Ian Stewart. "The Sixth Stone" is the first release by the new band of Aidan Moffat, formerly of Arab Strap. It is included on Chemikal Underground's Ballads Of The Book compilation, which has Scottish authors and poets writing lyrics for contemporary Scottish bands.

References

  1. ^ Wyman, Bill (2002). Rolling With the Stones. DK Publishing. p. 19. ISBN 0-7894-9998-3.
  2. ^ Wyman 2002. pp. 34–35
  3. ^ Wyman 2002. pp. 36-37.
  4. ^ a b c Zentgraf, Nico. "The Complete Works of the Rolling Stones 1962-2008". Retrieved 2008-02-23. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  5. ^ Wyman 2002. p. 45.
  6. ^ Oldham, Andrew Loog (2000). Stoned. St. Martin's Griffin. p. 222. ISBN 0-312-27094-1.
  7. ^ Jagger, Mick (2003). According to the Rolling Stones. Chronicle Books. p. 62. ISBN 0-8118-4060-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Wyman 2002. p. 482.
  9. ^ Connelly, Ray. "Stu". Out-take.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-03-23. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |1= and |2= (help)
  10. ^ http://www.beggarsbanquetonline.com/decades.htm Accessed: 6 February 2007
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