Dave Stewart- (Stewart Gaskin, Bruford, National Health, Egg)

[@bobpurcell8357]

The depressing truth is that Dave Stewart won't be around forever, and neither will we. I hope to spend a lot of my remaining time explaining why he was so great, generally accompanied by Hatfield & The North or Nat'l. Health ,to people who will hopefully remember and pass on Whatever The Hell Happened With Music in the late 60s/early 70s...it was a sort of feedback loop of inspiration that I still hear echoes of here and there. Thanks for this...

[@grahamhowes6904]

One of the best keyboard players! Saw him with EGG, HATFIELD AND THE NORTH and NATIONAL HEALTH live numerous times.

[@MrProgKeys]

IMHO the best player technically and melodically

[@molotulo8808]

Dave Stewart is a great musician. I got into him through Bill Burford. Then I found Egg! Awesome. I play keyboa, ds but i originally got into guitar at 13 (1973)but my original Acustic guitar had a worped neck, so it was impossible to play. Instead of buying a new guitar, i bought a Marantz stereo system and preceeded to buy music and become an avid music listener/collector. It wasn't till i was 32 (1992) i bought my first keyboard ,a Yamaha PSS270 portable mini electric keyboard . I loved it, so i bought a month later a Yamaha PSS570 Multi-programable keyboard. Awesome little ditty that had digital synthesizer capability. In the next year I bought ... A Yamaha PSR 70, a Yamaha PSR 36, a Yamaha DSR 2000, a Roland S10 sampler, a Roland HS60 polyphonic synthesizer, a Casio DG 20 digital guitar, a bunch of Lee Oscar Harmonicas and a SSM 1200 Stereo sound mixer from RadioShack, a Realistic 4 channel stereo microphone mixer, and added a Hamon-Karden amplifier with my JBL HP 420 speakers. I then added a Peavy MCR 4A multi-track cassette recorder and a Realistic Computer (can't remember the model With PassportPro studio software) and a DOD Tec8 multiple effect pedal! I had my first home studio! But, having 2 children and a wife who didn't want me getting in to music, i recorder 7 cd's then retired. Advance to 2017 at 58 years old, i had to retire from Roswell Park Cancer Institute due to severe Atrial fibrillation. After a year, my wife suggested that I bring my studio upstairs into the living room. I was so psyched (and happy) that my wife finally exceeded my interest in being a musician, I accepted her offer and brought my equipment up from the basement ( little did I realized that some of my equipment was ruined from moisture by being in my basement, three of my keyboards died [Yamaha DSR 2000, Roland S10, and my Roland HS60), so i had to buy a Moog Matriarch, a Roland FA06, and a Roland RD88! I bought a Tascam Model 24 mixer and a Tascam CD-RW900MKII cd rewritable recorder, a Boss ME-80 multiple effects pedal, some microphones, some LP congos and Bongos and other assorted percussion goodies. Then I kept going and added an Ibanez AEG70 acoustic guitar and a Epiphone Les Paul Custom electric guitar!. I got a QSC GX3 power amplifier and a pair of QSC E110 passive speakers. My point being? I don't care how old you are. If you want to be a musician, JUST DO IT! For only playing guitar for 7 months, since I am retired, i play 3-to7 hour a day and am playing pretty good. Please check out my KZbin videos under Molo Tulo and let me know what you think. Thank you for reading my lengthy post. God bless music, musicians, and those who love to listen to music @

[@rembeadgc]

So great to hear THE Dave Stewart talk about his history in music and especially mentioning his time with Bruford, Holdsworth and Berlin, some of the greatest modern music ever recorded, IMO.

[@oobenoob]

Bruford really was such a great band.

[@bluetv6386]

Thank you for this! An absolute master. And to think he did it all without a cape!

[@TBro2024]

So happy to see/hear this extensive interview with Dave Stewart who, in my view, merits more recognition as one of the best musicians/songwriters from the Prog era (to present day). Thank you, Dave and Sean!

[@paulnerval7632]

My favorite keyboardist!

[@Videosop23]

As Dave Lloyd Stewart is one of the few people on planet Earth who comprehends Allan Holdsworth's harmonic language, it'd be great if he were to write a book on it. It would be an excellent companion to Holdsworth's tutorial video.

[@brianmcguire5175]

I'm a drummer who discovered the incredible and jaw dropping amazing Dave Stewart keyboardist and song writing, producing genius via a chance sound byte of a track included in a Gavin Harrison audio drum lesson drum book package. The segment blew me away and not because of the drum playing intended as the feature but for some reason unknown to me, my ears actually, was drawn and subsequently obsessed with the keyboard part. Checking the credits discovered it was Dave Stewart and after that got the album in question:the big idea by gaskin and Stewart! Listening to Stewart talk about Holdsworth here blows me away again! I've always been a fan of Holdsworth and far longer than I had of Stewart until finally discovering him by name atleast. That said, for me to agree with Stewart's humming bird comments on Holdsworth explains for me why I enjoyed many a Holdsworth solos but equally hold Stewart in the same light and if not more so! Stewart perfectly exhibits a careful and thoughtful solo performance on the keys on his records while Holdsworth perfectly exhibited his more full on lean in playing style. Both legitimate. Both justified by sound philosophy as explained by their proponents. Just rejoicing here that Stewart isn't only a player I love for his output but that his guiding philosophy is as sound too in my humble opinion

[@Phlakaton88]

One of my very favorite musicians ever - LOVE all his music - a true original and a funny dude!

[@3243_]

Great interview of one of my favorite musicians, who had a lot to do with quite a bit of my favorite music (especially The Polite Force by Egg).

[@3243_]

P.S. And Barbara Gaskin has certainly been a significant part of a lot of my favorite music, especially as part of Spirogyra.

[@SOALNightLive]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@strawberryrbicks]

So great that Dave is so talkative!

[@guitarchannel5676]

A great interview of one of the great musicians/composers of the last 50 years.

[@wietzejohanneskrikke1910]

Great to hear Allan Holdsworth and Jacob Collier getting credit where credit is due. Dave Stewart belongs in that same league. What a treat it is to listen to this comprehensive, insightful and oftentimes wickedly funny interview. Thanks.

[@Stewart.Gaskin]

Hey, thanks for all the nice comments, I'm glad you enjoyed our marathon chat! Please forgive this shameless plug, but Barbara Gaskin and I are playing a special London concert in a great seated concert hall on August 5th 2023. Tickets are available from our pals Burning Shed, hopefully some of you will be able to come along and hear what we're doing nowadays :) Best wishes, Dave Stewart.

[@SOALNightLive]

Good luck with the show, Dave!

[@Stewart.Gaskin]

@@SOALNightLive Thank you! We're enjoying rehearsals :) DS

[@dieromantischebahn8786]

This interview has to be the best I've heard so far at permitting us to hear just how talented and knowledgable this man is, not via the music he plays/played (we don't hear any of it) but via his thinking and opinions in relation to the issues discussed. The tragedy, for me, is that it is only latterly that he's achieved the recognition he has long deserved and he's done so via music that is so diametrically opposed to anything he did with Egg, Hatfield & The North and National Health. In relation to that success, luck appears to have played a large part and while it is idle to speculate as to what he would have ended up doing had he not fallen into 'intelligent pop' (an oxymoron if ever there were one), this enthusiast for his earlier work had hoped that he would progress on to even more interesting and challenging music, not necessarily as part of a band (The mechanics of which he appears to have become disillusioned with) but in collaboration with other like-minded souls as and when thought beneficial. We will never know. But there is at least that very solid body of remarkable work that he and many other collaboraters have bequeathed us. For that continuing listening pleasure, I'll always be grateful. And, despite my disinterest in what he's doing today, I'm glad he appears to be happy in the making of it (and it's great that he got together with Barbara Gaskin!).

[@arnaudb.7669]

Great interview! BRAVO Sean \o/ I hope you will ask next time to Dave to talk a little more in details about his time in Egg, Hatfield and National Health. ;o)

[@fusionhar]

Glad somebody validated my recognition for Genius of Allan Holdsworth

[@garybeaudette4208]

What a great interview, Dave's work with Hatfield and the North/National Health, Bruford and Egg has been a big part of my musical evolution! Thank you, this was fantastic!!!

[@SOALNightLive]

Thanks so much, Gary! Glad to share!

[@pauldemond4311]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I've NEVER heard or read anything from Dave, one of my favorite musicians ever. A couple years ago, I contacted Dave with a request to arrange a music lesson for my oldest son (I had purchased both of Dave's theory books for him). While he declined, his reply to me was so very gracious.

[@davemilnes1147]

I shall be seeing them on July 9th!

[@colinings1282]

Great interview with Dave. I have been following him for forty odd years and met him once at Swansea University when he signed an autograph. An extremely talented musician, I wish I had the opportunity to see Hatfield and National Health, their records are still titans in my music collection. I enjoy his albums with Barbara too. They deserve wider exposure so hopefully this interview will help achieve this. A witty writer and raconteur and all round great bloke!

[@markspooner1224]

What an absolute treat, you've pulled off another great coup here Sean.A very entertaining guest, he'd be a good drinking buddy.

[@mhiraldo]

Some might be surprised if you consider the obscurity of these musicians, but me and my friends (when we were young) were HUGE fans of everything in the Canterbury style, bordering on obsession. And we were fans of Dave Stewart in particular. He was always way up on the list of our preferred musicians (and we are talking about some VERY heavy hitters like Robert Wyatt, Hugh Hopper, Phil Miller, Pip Pyle, Richard Sinclair, Alan Gowen, etc., etc.). I also like his more pop-oriented work as it is always interesting and very well composed/played. Glad he is still making music. Great interview!

[@pythonflying]

This is absolutely awesome! As a long time fan, I always wondered if there would ever be an extensive video/audio interview with Dave discussing the days of yore. Thanks for putting this together.

[@Lesiga1]

Gosh this is a treasure indeed, and DS is such an eloquent story teller that it never gets dull. Thank you for posting this gem!

[@Michael_Geyre]

Hi first of all, thanks a lot for making an interview of Dave Stewart he's been so rare ... i've (of course) listened to his whole interview, and wanted to react, talking directly to him (i'm not sure he'll read my comment, but let's try ...) Mr Dave Stewart, I wanted to thank you for ALL your work you've achieved throughout your long career (i'm sorry if i do write some clumsy sentences, excuse my frenchness ...) I am a professional musician/composer/sound designer and can say that you had a major influence on my playing, and on my tastes as i was born in a 6 generations musicians family, i have been lucky enough to discover your older discs quite early, and i spent some time playing your keyboards parts and music when being a teenager at that age, i did not understand your choice of making pop music instead of keeping playing some sophisticated music (with a lot of humor) as you did earlier later, after growing in my career of musician and composer, i understood your choice (that i highly respect), and also, took a more careful listening to your work with Barbara Gaskin to notice that your music and playing was equally sophisticated, just for a music that has a more popular aesthetic (i'm not writing that in a negative way, i mean, a music that could touch more people) while listening that current interview, i have been a bit surprised to learn that you had hard times playing the rhodes, tried to learn and play jazz to play Hatfield music, and many other points but, it confirms me on some points about jazz, as example, the fact you had a very personal approach of jazz, not to become and sound like any jazz player is a really interesting point, in my opinion as well as you mention being highly influenced by Keith Emerson when you were a teenager i admit he's been a major figure in rock keyboards player history, and was a talented musician, but, he had a much more classic playing than you do have (in my opinion) each time i'm listening to him, i have the impression to hear a classical trained pianist that plays another style of music I mean, when you've listened to him playing, you managed to recycle and use what you liked with your personality, as you did about jazz (as did Allan Holdsworth who you are mentioning in the interview, who's created his own style, and played his own music), and that's precisely what i enjoy when i listen to your music, regardless what style you are playing you mention Jacob Collier as being a sort of new generation of prog artist that opens jazz harmony and the way to make it sound honestly, despite i admit he is a very talented musician, i don't like his music, and think he does not have a strong personality (i mostly hear large opened chords with many harmony changes, sure, it's interesting, but it does not tell much to me) that's possibly a matter of tastes, but i do think you have quite a lot in building your chords, their changes, the choice of your notes when soloing ... to pay homage to your work (well, very thin, i admit), i sometimes make some presets for synthesizers makers, so, sometimes, i can put a "age of information" brass patch, or a "travels with myself" solo lead i hope you'll understand what i meant in my message thanks a lot for your whole contribution to music best wishes !!!

[@progfrogian9226]

Superb interview Sean. Dave's talking about his old days, that's rare outside of some liner notes. Really cool. You are good at this. Keep them coming. Prog on!

[@georgedavis-stewart4225]

A thoroughly interesting and entertaining interview, with a great rapport between questioner and subject. Delightfully full of anecdotes, memories and reflections from an adventurous and insightful musician. Thank you, both, very much. We have our tickets for July 9th 😁

[@SOALNightLive]

Glad you enjoyed it, George!!

[@aidanhallett5590]

Absolutely fascinating Sean. Thank you so much. Thank you to Dave for ela orating on so many points in a really interesting way. I have to confess Stewart/Gaskin don't float my boat in the way that HatN still do - maybe it's because I'm still finding new things in Phil Miller's harmonic contributions! However, that's 2 1/2 hours very well spent in my book. Thank you again. I have some things to follow up...

[@dantean]

I've always held that all "popular" musical forms (i.e., anything not classical music) is better learned "in the street," as it were, rather than in school. Ever since the rise of jazz and popular music education in universities, the number of chops-meisters has gone through the roof yet this has become--definitively--an inconsequential musical age the last 50 years or so. There's no more Motowns, no more revolutions like bebop or cool jazz, just a million or more heroes of guitar, piano, and drum workshops and seminars the world over wowing the credulous with how they can keep up in 15/16 time. Jazz education has effectively brought an end to the musical genius, of which we not only had no shortage in America in the period beginning with New Orleans and ending in the early 1970s, but practically a glut. Unless you'd like to name me the Robert Wyatts, Jimi Hendrixes, Charlie Parkers, or Louis Armstrongs of today. Or the Frank Zappas. The Beatles. Dylan. Must I go on? SIDE NOTE: Wonderful interview with a hero of mine. I love the Canterbury bands to which he contributed so beautifully and brilliantly. Thanks! 🎹🥁🎸

[@myworms]

This is amazing…I always got the sense that there were many struggles and hardships in his 70’s heyday, and it’s a shame that he has musically avoided progressive rock for 40+ years aside from string arrangements and so forth with a variety of Kscope related artists.

[@plectrum71]

Great interview, but I wish they'd talk more about National Health, Hatfield and the North and Bruford.

[@SOALNightLive]

Dave isn't one to talk too much about the past, though he did bring a lot of it up on his own in our chat. Thanks for checking it out!

[@hamidyeganeh7340]

👌🍃💚🕊🍃💕🌹🌸👑☄what can say any one about Masterpiece musision in these years in progresive rock or sweet kinds of artistic music that i don't like to name on it 👉but i know this great man i"Egg"band and☝their magical works which if youhear that you would 'nt forget at all .........we can sit and talk about Daves works also his bass player awesome human 👑☄👉"MontCamble" and egg ..........days ,years and handreds of years but hear is not the wright place i only want to say in "music world" egg and Dave's work are the first &last word in beauty and awesome works ever&ever heis miracle indeed✋💚🏹🍃💕🌹🌸👑☄🕉holy love🌟

[@MychaelPollard]

WOW!!!

[@D97Music]

Great interview!

[@SOALNightLive]

Thanks, D97!

[@croiners4166]

❤

[@katesjanice]

Hi Sean. I enjoy your channel and your appearances on SoT. But I would be delighted if you did some shows concerning the band Kansas. I absolutely love them - especially the 1970s incarnation. The fact that Kerry Livgren is known as "The Maestro" says it all. Thanks for listening & rock on.

[@SOALNightLive]

I did an extensive chat with Rich Williams not too long ago. Check it out on my page!

[@howardsherwood8834]

Oh Dave! I've followed and appreciated your music for over 50 years from Egg, Hatfield and The North, Bruford and your work with Barbara Gaskin. In your discussion about 'The New Jerusalem', I fail to understand why you think that nationalism means thinking "that you're better than everyone else" and that populism should be despised when it is at the very heart of democracy. I'm very disappointed that as somebody with an acute musical intelligence you fail to grasp the logical inconsistency in this. Indulge your curiosity (much in the way you refer to astrology) and be less dogmatic in your opinions (musical and otherwise). Totally agree that "harmony is a cultural construct", but it is a powerful one.

[@yes_head]

Bloody hell, great interview but the number and frequency of ads was eye-popping.

[@SOALNightLive]

Sorry about that, I'll see if I can put it on a setting where it does that less.

[@babybua1993]

Every adblocker blocks them