Born September 9: Dave Stewart, pop alchemist and architect of the Eurythmics

Dave Stewart was born in 1952 in Sunderland, in the north of England. A genius all-rounder and accomplished guitarist, he also produced countless artists. And not just any artists!

As a teenager, Dave Stewart harbored the desire to play football with the best and perhaps even bring home the European Cup, but a serious accident decided otherwise. A very bad fracture of his foot forced him to be immobilised for a long time. During his convalescence, he taught himself the basics of guitar, thus discovering a new passion. And an undeniable talent that had been well hidden up until then...

In the 1970s, he founded The Longdancer, his first band inspired by folk-rock, with which he toured Europe. In a twist of fate, another road accident, this time in Germany, put him in the hospital for several weeks. His lungs were damaged. Dave Stewart was thus a miracle survivor, and, without excessive exaggeration, it can be said that it was largely his meeting with Annie Lennox in October 1976 that saved him. Although already married, Dave immediately fell under her spell, and they enjoyed a professional as well as emotional relationship for several years with their first band, The Tourists, and then with the early days of the Eurythmics in 1980.

The band quickly became a global hitmaker with hits like "Never Gonna Cry Again" (1981) to gently kick things off, "Love Is A Stranger" (1982), then, in quick succession, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" in 1983, "Here Comes The Rain Again" and "Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty Four)" in 1984, and "There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)" in 1985. Over the course of eight albums, a collaboration that gradually disintegrated, Stewart and Lennox became icons of a new wave that oscillated between pop and rock.

When the Eurythmics adventure took a hiatus after the album "We Two Are One" (1989), Stewart reinvented himself as an insatiable producer. He was referred to as a "workaholic," a workaholic. Sometimes as a producer, sometimes as a guest guitarist (and often both at the same time), he collaborated with U2, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Sinead O'Connor, Cary Simon, the Spice Girls, Geri Haliwell, Gwen Stefani, Bob Geldof (Boomtown Rats), Ringo Starr (former Beatles drummer), and even Russian rock star Boris Grebenshikov for "Radio Silence" (1989), his first English-language album. An impressive track record indeed!

Always eager for new experiences, he's invested in a multitude of projects: The Spiritual Cowboys (1990) and Vegas (with Terry Hall of the Specials) and, in his spare time, a few film scores like "Lily Was Here." In 2017, surrounding himself with talented voices, as he has always enjoyed doing (Alison Krauss, Joss Stone, and even Stevie Nicks), he headed to Tennessee to pay homage to country music on "Nashville Sessions: The Duets Vol. 1," the second chapter of which remains in limbo until now. And recently, after taking his daughter Kayla on tour, he recorded "Dave Does Dylan" in tribute to the only singer who also holds a Nobel Prize in Literature. All he needs is his voice and his acoustic guitar...

In the early 90s, I asked him if he didn't sometimes feel like taking it easy and taking a vacation. Unsurprisingly, he replied: "I've never asked myself that question. Never! The reason is simple. I'm constantly on the move, experimenting in new areas, digging into unexplored directions, at least for me. That's the engine of enthusiasm. I discovered photography and I got involved in cinema. When I find my guitar again, I'm really excited. Sometimes I don't touch that damn six-string for more than three weeks and then I miss it terribly." More than three decades have passed and nothing has probably changed in his mind. Moreover, on "Dave Sings Dylan" (2024), he notably chose to put "Forever Young" front and center. Happy 73rd birthday to him!

(MH with Stéphane Soupart - Photo : © Etienne Tordoir)

Photo: Dave Stewart with the Spiritual Cowboys on stage at Ancienne Belgique on November 7, 1991