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Jamie Stewart | |
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![]() Jamie Stewart playing with Death Cult at Birmingham O2 Institute 14 Nov 2023 | |
Background information | |
Birth name | James Alec Stewart |
Born | Harrow, Middlesex, England | 31 January 1964
Genres | |
Occupation | Musician |
Instruments |
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Years active | 1983–1994, 2009, 2013, 2023 |
James Alec Stewart (born 31 January 1964) is a retired British musician who was the bassist of the post-punk/hard rock band The Cult. [1] [2] He recorded on The Cult's first four albums, Dreamtime , Love , Electric and Sonic Temple . [2]
Stewart was born in Harrow, Middlesex, on 31 January 1964. His mother, Myra (née Kidd), was a dancer with the International Ballet, and his father, Donald Stewart, was a violinist with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Stewart's musical career began playing guitar in Harrow-based band Ritual. Ritual gigged extensively in London's gothic rock/post-punk scene but rarely outside. Ritual's first output was a four-song radio session for BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel in 1981. This led the way for a self-compiled and released cassette album, Songs for a Dead King, [3] which was available only at gigs and by mail order. In 1982, Ritual signed to Red Flame Records and released one single, "Mind Disease" (1982) [4] and one EP, Kangaroo Court (1983). [5]
In 1983, Ritual drummer Ray Mondo was recruited by Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy to form a new act entitled Death Cult (later The Cult). Stewart, after prompting from Mondo, attended auditions for the Death Cult bass player role and was subsequently hired. [6] [7]
From their beginning, Death Cult had a commitment to Beggars Banquet Records. In April 1983, Death Cult released an EP, Death Cult, [8] on Beggars offshoot label Situation Two. In Sep 1983, Ray Mondo was replaced by Nigel Preston, Duffy's former bandmate in Theatre of Hate. At the time, Preston was playing with post-punk/goth band Sex Gang Children. A drummer swap was agreed between the bands, feeling that the playing styles of each drummer were better suited to the future direction of the other band. In October 1983, Death Cult released a single, "God's Zoo", [9] with Preston on drums. The group changed their name to The Cult minutes before a live performance of the song "Spiritwalker" on the Channel 4 series The Tube. Stewart continued to play bass on all Cult recordings until 1990. He also played keyboards on several songs on the and Sonic Temple album. [10]
Following the recording of the band's third long-player, Electric, in 1987, the band felt that a second guitarist was needed on tour to reproduce the music of Electric. [11] The role was filled by Stewart, having a familiarity with the songs and style, and being a former guitarist. For the tours, Kid Chaos (formerly of Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction) was recruited as bassist. [12] Stewart continued to appear on bass in the first two promotional videos for Electric: "Love Removal Machine" and "Lil Devil". The five-piece line-up with Stewart on guitar was used for the 3rd video, Wild Flower. Stewart moved back to bass for the recording and touring of the Sonic Temple album. Keyboards for the recording were played by John Webster (Aerosmith, Tom Cochrane), [10] and by Webster [13] and John Sinclair (Ozzy Osbourne, Uriah Heep) on tour. [14]
In 1990, following the tour, Stewart left the band, citing the distance that had grown between Astbury and Duffy, and a wish to start a family, as the main reasons for departure. [11] His final appearance with The Cult was at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles on 3 April 1990.
Having relocated to London, Stewart moved into studio work, producing an EP on Beggars Banquet Records for Goat, featuring Adrian Oxaal, later guitarist with James. During this time, Stewart joined Adrian Smith of Iron Maiden in a low-key band The Untouchables (which became Psycho Motel), playing informal gigs, mainly around London. In 1991, following the birth of his daughter, he moved with his family to Toronto, Canada, to pursue a production career. In 1992, Stewart produced the Joni Mitchell song "A Case of You" with Toronto-based band Sloan for the tribute album Back to the Garden . The song became the album's most successful single. In 1993, Stewart worked at Le Studio, in Morin Heights, Quebec, with the band Les Respectables. The recordings remained unreleased until some songs surfaced on their 1996 album Full Regalia. Stewart worked with Ripped in 1994 to produce songs for their debut album Bloodshot. While in Toronto, Stewart also took other opportunities for studio performance. In 1993, he co-wrote, produced and played bass on an EP for Polygram Canada with Toronto singer/guitarist Ed McDonald, entitled Masterstroke. In 1994, he played bass on Memory Thief, the second album by Polygram artists Lost & Profound. [15]
Stewart retired from the music industry in 1994 [16] and moved back to the United Kingdom with his family. He now works in software and user interface design, and lives in Oxfordshire with his family.
On 10 October 2009, on a tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of the release of the Love album, Stewart played bass again with his former bandmates on stage at London's Royal Albert Hall for two encores, Phoenix and She Sells Sanctuary. He was also joined onstage by the original drummer for one of the recordings, Mark Brzezicki (then formerly of Big Country). [17]
Again, for the 25th anniversary of the release of the Electric album in 2013, Stewart made several other guest appearances:
For the 40th anniversary of the release of the Death Cult EP (the band's first release), Stewart made two guest appearances:
The Cult are an English rock band formed in Bradford in 1983. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band had performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead vocalist Ian Astbury's previous band Southern Death Cult. They gained a dedicated following in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s as a post-punk and gothic rock band, with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking into the mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s establishing themselves as a hard rock band with singles such as "Love Removal Machine". Since its initial formation in 1983, the band have had various line-ups: the longest-serving members are Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, who are also their two main songwriters.
Ian Robert Astbury is an English singer, best known as the lead vocalist, frontman and a founding member of the rock band the Cult. During various hiatuses from the Cult, Astbury fronted the short-lived band Holy Barbarians in 1996, and later from 2002 to 2007 served as the lead singer of Riders on the Storm, a Doors tribute band that also featured original Doors members Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger. Astbury replaced Rob Tyner during an MC5 reunion in 2003, and has contributed guest vocals on several recordings by other artists.
Dreamtime is the debut studio album by the English rock band the Cult. Released on 31 August 1984 by Beggars Banquet Records, it peaked at No. 21 on the UK Albums Chart and was later certified silver by the BPI after having sold 60,000 copies. The first single, "Spiritwalker", peaked at No. 1 on the UK Independent Singles Chart. Dreamtime has subsequently been reissued in roughly 30 countries worldwide.
Bush Tetras are an American post-punk No Wave band from New York City, formed in 1979. They are best known for the 1980 song "Too Many Creeps", which exemplified the band's sound of "jagged rhythms, slicing guitars, and sniping vocals". Although they did not achieve mainstream success, the Bush Tetras were influential and popular in the Manhattan club scene and college radio in the early 1980s. New York's post-punk revival of the 2000s was accompanied by a resurgence of interest in the genre, with the Tetras' influence heard in many of that scene's bands.
Acid Bath is an American sludge metal band from Houma, Louisiana that was active from 1991 to 1997. Regarded as one of the first and most influential sludge metal bands, they combined a doom metal foundation with elements of hardcore punk, death metal, gothic rock, blues, grunge, and Southern rock to create their unique sound. The band broke up following the death of bassist Audie Pitre in a January 1997 traffic collision, but announced a reunion in October 2024.
Situation Two was a British independent record label founded in 1981 by Peter Kent as an offshoot of the Beggars Banquet label. The name is a reference to Bauhaus's old management company, Situation 1.
Sonic Temple is the fourth studio album by British rock band The Cult, released on 10 April 1989. The album features some of the band's most popular songs, including "Fire Woman" and "Edie ". Sonic Temple was the last album recorded with longtime bassist Jamie Stewart, who left in 1990, and the first to feature session drummer Mickey Curry.
Love is the second studio album by the English rock band The Cult, released on 18 October 1985 by Beggars Banquet Records. The album was the band's commercial breakthrough, reaching number four in the UK and staying on the chart for 22 weeks. It produced three Top 40 singles in the UK, "She Sells Sanctuary", "Rain", and "Revolution". It has been released in nearly 30 countries and sold an estimated 2.5 million copies. Love was recorded at Jacob's Studios in Farnham, Surrey, in July and August 1985.
William Henry Duffy is an English rock musician, best known as the guitarist of the band The Cult.
Pure Cult is the first of several greatest hits compilations by the British rock band The Cult, released in 1993. The title of the original release was Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners while the 2000 reissue was titled Pure Cult: The Singles 1984–1995.
Electric is the third album by British rock band the Cult, released in 1987. It was the follow-up to their commercial breakthrough Love. The album equalled its predecessor's chart placing by peaking at number four in the UK but exceeded its chart residency, spending a total of 27 weeks on the chart.
Death Cult is the debut four-track EP by the post punk/gothic rock band Death Cult. Released in July 1983 on the Situation Two label, the EP reached No. 2 on the UK Independent Chart. The EP is often erroneously referred to as Brothers Grimm.
Psi Com was an American post-punk band of the early 1980s, consisting of Perry Farrell (vocals), Aaron Sherer, Vince Duran (guitar) and Kelly Wheeler (bass). Prominent in the underground Los Angeles music scene, the group were noted for being the first band of Farrell, who went on to achieve greater fame in the bands Jane's Addiction, Porno for Pyros and the Satellite Party.
Pure Cult: The Singles 1984–1995 is a singles compilation by The Cult, authorized by the band to replace the previous unauthorized High Octane Cult. It is also a reissue of the 1993 compilation Pure Cult: for Rockers, Ravers, Lovers, and Sinners, with minor changes.
High Octane Cult is a United States and Japan greatest hits compilation featuring every single The Cult had released at the time, with the additional "Beauty's on the Street" and "In the Clouds". It was released by The Cult's then record company Beggars Banquet Records without The Cult's participation. In the years since its release, singer Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy have occasionally been vocal about their dislike of this release, with Astbury calling it "sad" on their official website in 2006. Beggars Banquet had planned on using handmade drawings by Ian Astbury for the album's artwork, but when the drawings were lost, the record company subsequently replaced it with less than stellar car photos, and the band photo from The Cult's Sonic Temple record was used in the jacket sleeve, along with a short bio about the band, which guitarist Billy Duffy publicly expressed his disapproval about.
"Spiritwalker" is a single by the English rock band The Cult and was released on 11 May 1984. "Spiritwalker" is the lead single from the Dreamtime album, although it was released nearly five months before the album was released.
Ritual was an early 1980s Harrow-based post-punk band that were later aligned with the early UK-based gothic rock movement. The group is commonly associated with Death Cult, which two Ritual members later joined.
Jonathan Darbyshire, widely known by his stage name Mr Dibs or Dibs Hawkwinder, is a British musician, best known as a former member of the space rock group Hawkwind.
Rare Cult is a limited edition, six-CD box set from British rock band the Cult, released in November 2000. The chronologically-organized set contains 90 tracks of studio B-sides, radio sessions, 12-inch mixes, alternate mixes, demos and the complete then-unreleased Peace album. The set is packaged in a matte black box with gold lettering, containing three 2-disc gatefold digipaks and an extensive 80-page booklet of liner notes and photos.
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