New HAMISH STUART
The Hamish Stuart Band history
THE HAMISH STUART BAND
Over the years of having my own band it has become a bit like a football club - in that a pool of players has developed and evolved into a team. The reality of being a free agent - in musical terms - means that if a tour or any large chunk of work comes up then that individual could be away for anything from a weekend to a year or more. Consequently, the HSB lineup has changed considerably from the unit which played on "Sooner Or Later" and "Real Live". When Andy Wallace went off to tour the world with Roger Waters I was sorry to see him go. Graham Harvey came in and did an amazing job but we wound up with an embarrassment of riches in having three top soloists in Adam Phillips (guitar) Snake Davis (sax) and Graham on piano.
It became too difficult to divvie up the solos and when Snake had a busy spell away I decided to keep the band a five piece and move away from having a saxophone in the band.
We'd been without percussion for a while too as Jody Linscott had been touring the world with DIDO at that time, so I asked Bosco De Oliveira to join us. This lasted a few years until Bosco moved back to Brazil. The time with him in the band was special and moved us into some different and interesting musical territory. He is missed by all.
The pool of players has increased with the passage of time. Since kicking this band off with Ian Thomas on drums, he remains my initial call. The first time he was unavailable he suggested Ralph Salmins to fill in. Ralph came in and killed it (with no rehearsal I might add). This has led to a long and fruitful relationship where we've worked together on various projects outside of the band. Other great drummers such as Neil Wilkinson, Jeremy Stacey, Geoff Dunn, Frank Tonto and Andy Newmark have done the gig but Ash Soane who had been close to the band for a long time has played most over the last couple of years. He's done a great job and brought his own thing to the party.
Steve Pearce has been main guy on bass, almost from the inception. Pino Palladino was first man on bass but at the time he had started getting really involved with D'Angelo which consequently took him away a lot. Steve came in and has been a stalwart ever since, suggesting a couple of great songs along the way and with occasional deputies, Trevor Barry and Nick
Cohen, who have been fantastic. In the last couple of years Rob Mullarkey has stepped in on occasion bringing his unique sensibility to the party.
Adam Phillips was the guitar player from day one and it's been a joy to hear his playing develop. Timmy Cansfield, Paul Stacey, Tony Remy and most recently Nico Ramsden have been 'top class' on the deputy front and Jim Mullen has graced us with his presence often too. There are great new players surfacing all the time and one of those is Rob Luft who stepped in for the Glasgow Jazz Fest a couple of years ago.
Every player has those gigs which take them away, be it TV, recording or touring and when Graham Harvey was gone Robin Aspland, Mike Gorman and/or Simon Carter took the keyboard chair. Jim Watson came into the picture a few years back and blew us away . I had met Ross Stanley on another gig and most recently he's been doing a sterling job with the band. Gary Sanctuary has also joined us a few times in the last couple of years. More recently we've been doing shows with both Jim and Ross on organ and pianowhich is proving an excellent line up and something I utilised on recent shows with my dear friend and song-writing buddy, Ned Doheny. Over the last couple of years my old bandmate from the AWB days Malcolm ‘Molly’ Duncan has joined us as a special guest. All the shows have been great and we’ve expanded the band to a nine piece on occasion as we will for the annual couple of nights we do at the 606 in Chelsea just before Christmas.
