Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin
Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin
News June 2024
C r y s t a l W a v e s
Today we celebrate a glorious Midsummer with a track from our album Spin (Special Edition). This piece of musical escapism combines two classic '60s songs whose origins and styles could hardly be more different: 'Cast Your Fate to the Wind' was originally an instrumental composed by jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi to which Carel Werber added lyrics, while 'Louie Louie' is the archetypal garage band anthem which went on to become the most recorded rock song of all time. Why bring these two diverse pieces together? The simple explanation is they're both summery sea songs that use the same three chords (A, D and E), but there were deeper personal undercurrents at play.
Barb recalls, "'Cast Your Fate to the Wind' had special resonance for me: when I was 10 or 11 my older brother John built me a crystal set (aka 'cat's whisker') in a matchbox. It was a tiny radio receiver with a big, pale green, plastic on-off switch in the middle and one enormous Bakelite earpiece that he'd found in an army surplus store. (Evidently the British army was composed entirely of one-eared men.) It was perfect for smuggling into bed and illicitly tuning in to Radio Luxembourg when I was supposed to be going to sleep - I could press the earpiece between my head and the pillow with no chance of my parents ever hearing anything. Radio Luxembourg would drift tantalisingly in and out of range like a voice from beyond, occasionally coming in loud and clear only to disappear after a few seconds into ethereal radio interference. Frustratingly, the monumentally boring tones of Horace 'Keynsham' Batchelor (who advertised his surefire method of winning the Football Pools nightly on the station) always seemed to come through loud and clear."
"One night, in a rare moment of crystal-set clarity, I heard a girl's voice singing 'Cast Your Fate to the Wind'. I was bewitched by its magic and longed to hear it again. Perhaps I never did, but the impression it made on me was so strong that I never forgot it. Due to the evanescent nature of 'Radio Luck, Lucky Luxembourg' it was more or less impossible to catch the names of the records played and who had performed them. That probably added to the beauty and the mystery." Dave adds: "I also heard 'Cast Your Fate' on the radio in the sixties - I could swear it was sung by an English female singer rather than the US version sung by Shelby Flint, but I never found out who she was. We've had an enormous amount of correspondence about it from people who, like us, were searching for the version we heard that seemed to vanish into thin air."
'Louie Louie' is another story. Dave explains, "As a guitar-playing 14-year-old (keyboards came a little later) my favourite bands were The Who and The Kinks. The Kinks' 'You Really Got Me' remains my number one '60s noisy rock single, mainly on account of its wild guitar solo. I also loved Dave Davies' solo on the Kinks' version of 'Louie Louie', which appears on their 'Kinksize Session' EP. At the time that solo seemed to me the acme of all musical achievement, I just wish they'd mixed it louder! Many years later it was great to revisit and record our own arrangment of these songs which Barb and I had enjoyed so much as teenagers. If you can't afford a Caribbean cruise this summer, put on your Bermuda shorts, pour yourself a Tequila Sunrise, turn on the sunlamp and enjoy the sea scenes in our YouTube video of 'Cast Your Fate to the Wind / Louie Louie (medley)'.
G i g R e g i s t e r 2 0 2 5
As mentioned last month, we've postponed our 2024 London Kings Place summer concert till next year in order to complete work on our new album. We're now planning our 2025 concert schedule - if you'd like to receive early alerts about the dates, please feel free to add your name to our Stewart-Gaskin Gig Register and we'll communicate with you directly. Simply email us at [email protected] with the subject line 'Gig Register', tell us your name, country of residence and how many tickets you're likely to need. You'll then be on our priority list for info and offers associated with our live performances. Rest assured we won't share your contact details or overburden you with emails! In the meantime, keep well and enjoy the warm weather.
S t a r C l o c k s
Some listener comments on our latest album. Thanks to the kind folks who sent them!
"Utterly, utterly beautiful. A great and sublime creation. There's so much depth to this album... both of you show development and even greater maturity since the last album. I love 'Everything Sings' in particular. It's anthemic. But all the tracks are faultless in both production and performance."
"Awesome, just awesome. Dave's lyrics and music are fantastic and so is Barbara's immaculate voice - still to my mind one of the best female voices of her generation... 'Everything Sings' is about as perfect as perfection can get. Amazing poetry, composition and performance."
"My copy of Star Clocks arrived today and I am very happy. It's beautiful and on repeat. The subtlety and poignancy of the music still grows and progresses."
"Thank you for your music!! It's golden, classic pop that keeps on giving. Barbara's singing is just lovely, it's sweet and true."
"Their mellow songs continue to be among the most gorgeous anywhere."
"The pure definition of intelligent pop music. I treasure every release!"
"STAR CLOCKS IS BEAUTIFUL."
"Totally in love with the wonderful new album. Brings me to tears."
"A great album by two artists still at the top of their game. Overall the whole album just sounds great!"
"I received yesterday your Star Clocks CD and I'm already at the third listen. What I can say? As always it's a GEM!!!"
"Barbara is sounding better than ever. Like good wine, your voice gets better with time. Thank you for your wonderful music!"
"I put on Star Clocks as soon as I received it and love the new songs & lyrics! VERY inspiring! Excellent mix & recording (as always)... love the great keyboard patches (and performances) and Barbara sounds better than ever! Gavin Harrison is fantastic (as always) and the guitar parts fit right in and are very complimentary as well. Congratulations on another musical success! 'The magic remains'."
"The house is shaking with the thunderous sounds of Star Clocks. How does Dave manage to create such sounds from just a handful of keyboards? Why is Barbara not lauded far and wide as one of the UK's great vocalists? A resounding musical success... again. Play on repeat."
"'Everything Sings' and 'Time's Arrow' feel like the emotional essence of Star Clocks. More sedate and introspective, they are suffused with a languid melancholy. Gaskin's gloriously multitracked voice articulates the wonder of being alive in the former and one's inevitable mortality in the latter. Incredibly poignant, Stewart's meticulous orchestration on these deeply affecting melodies is equal to his best work. Magical and moving, they are quietly devastating."
About Us
Dave Stewart (keyboards) and Barbara Gaskin (vocals) are English musicians who began their respective careers as band members in the early '70s. During this time Dave won a reputation as a leading keyboard player and composer, while Barbara's pure, unaffected vocals wowed the listeners of the day. In 1981 the two joined forces and enjoyed immediate success with 'It's My Party', a worldwide hit which reached no. 1 in the UK and Germany. Since then the Stewart-Gaskin partnership has evolved into one of the UK's most respected, innovative and intelligent Pop acts, characterised by Barbara's heavenly vocals and Dave's complex, musically adventurous arrangements. The duo have released seven albums to date and continue to create new music.
Dave & Barbara release their music on their own Broken Records label (distributed by Burning Shed) and perform live as a trio or quartet. Having enlisted guitarist Beren Matthews, the Stewart / Gaskin band performed successful Autumn 2018 headlining concerts in Tokyo and London, the latter also featuring master drummer Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree, King Crimson, The Pineapple Thief). Dave, Barbara and Beren returned to Tokyo in November 2019 and emerged from lockdown with a memorable 40-year anniversary concert at London's Kings Place on Saturday July 9th 2022. Having performed three further Tokyo concerts in April 2023, the trio made a triumphant return to Kings Place Hall One on August 5th 2023.
This site focuses on the work of Stewart / Gaskin, which can best be described as intelligent pop music. Our CDs, signed vinyl singles and Dave's Inside The Music ebooks are available from our Stewart / Gaskin online store, operated by our musician colleagues Burning Shed. All sales revenue goes directly to the musicians with no record company involvement.
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Live photos of Stewart / Gaskin band, Tokyo 2009-2023 copyright Harumi Maezawa.
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