However, he and Beck didn’t get on, and when Wood was announced as Steve Marriott’s replacement in Small Faces in June 1969, Stewart joined him a few months after as their new singer, and they became Faces.Īt the same time, Stewart was making inroads with his solo career. He formed a long-lasting friendship with guitarist Ronnie Wood, began writing material, and his vocal technique developed into the rough rasp that made him stand out. It was The Jeff Beck Group that finally gave Stewart his break when he joined their ranks in February 1967. In 1966 he jumped ship from Steampacket to Shotgun Express, whose line-up included future Fleetwood Mac members Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood. His solo career continued, but without making much impact. Due to all being signed to different labels, Stewart’s group were unable to record any material. Steampacket were conceived as a white soul revue, and while supporting The Rolling Stones he had his first taste of crowd hysteria. His debut single was the blues standard, with a terribly dodgy title, Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, which featured John Paul Jones among the session musicians.īaldry’s group broke up, but he and Stewart patched up their differences and in 1965 became part of the line-up of new group Steampacket alongside Brian Auger. Two months later, after a performance at the Marquee Club, he was signed as a solo act to Decca Records. He made his recording debut with Baldry and the Hoochie Coochie Men that June, uncredited. Over time, Stewart overcame shyness and would dress up more, and would sometimes be billed as Rod ‘the Mod’ Stewart. In January 1964 the 19-year-old had been to a Long John Baldry gig and was playing harmonica at Twickenham Station when Baldry himself heard him and invited him to join his group. This was his introduction to London’s R’n’B scene, where he would take harmonica tips from Mick Jagger. He found his first professional job as a musician in The Dimensions. Later that year he became a full-on Mod, adopting his trademark spiky hairstyle and becoming enthralled with soul and R’n’B music. Around this time, he was considered as a singer for The Kinks, then known as The Ray Davies Quartet. They took their act to Europe, and Stewart found himself deported from Spain for vagrancy in 1963. In 1962 he took to playing the harmonica and would busk at Leicester Square with folk singer Wizz Jones. He later confessed he often used the marches as a way of bedding girls. Soon after, Stewart turned into a left-wing beatnik, listening to the folk music of Bob Dylan, Ewan MacColl and Woody Guthrie and attending protest marches, getting arrested three times between 19. In 1961 he decided to try his hand at singing, and along with The Raiders he auditioned for eccentric producer Joe Meek, but he wasn’t impressed. Stewart left school at 15 and had various jobs working in the family shop, as a silk screen printer and at a cemetery, but he longed to be a professional footballer. In 1960 he joined a skiffle group called The Kool Kats, and would play Lonnie Donegan covers. His first musical hero was Al Jolson, but he soon got into rock’n’roll, and he saw Bill Haley & His Comets in concert. Stewart’s other big obsession was football, and he became captain of his school’s team. His youngest’s main hobby, which he still loves, was railway modelling. After he retired, Robert bought a newsagent’s shop, which the Stewart family lived above. He was the youngest of five children, the other four having been born in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland, where his father Robert, a builder, came from. Stewart was born at home in Highgate, London on 10 January 1945. Were it not for its appeal shining through, Stewart may not have become as big a superstar as he did. And yet his first chart-topper, Maggie May, was tucked away as a B-side. Sir Roderick David Stewart, aka ‘Rod the Mod’, was one of the biggest-selling artists of the 70s and 80s, with over 120 million records sold worldwide, and six number 1 singles.
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