Paul Fitzpatrick: June 2023

Colin and I were invited to contribute a piece to TURNTABLE TALK on Dave Ruch’s blog, ‘A Sound Day.‘ This is an excellent site to visit and satisfy your musical curiosity on all genres of music, mainly focused on the 60s, 70s and 80s. Dave is a prolific writer and the articles are filled with fascinating facts and trivia.

This months Turntable Talk is titled HOMETOWN it’s all about that song or artist that reminds you of your roots and the environment you grew up in…..

So, my home-town pick is a guy whose band had number one records on the American soul charts and who has recorded and wrote songs for…. Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Chaka Khan and George Benson.

He’s appeared on Soul Train and his songs have been sampled by Snoop Dogg and NWA.

He’s not from Detroit or Philadelphia, he’s a pasty Scot from the south side of Glasgow and his name is Hamish Stuart.

I first came across Hamish when the Average White Band appeared from nowhere with their breakthrough hit, “Pick Up the Pieces”.  

Like most people, on first listen I thought I was listening to James Brown’s backing band, the JB’s, or some other US funk band, so it was a joy to discover that AWB were a band of six Caledonian soul brothers, with Hamish hailing from the same ‘no mean city’ as myself.

Along with bass player Alan Gorrie, Hamish Stuart was the main songwriter and vocalist and possessed an incredibly soulful voice which ranged effortlessly from a Ronald Isley falsetto to a Donny Hathaway tenor.

The other great thing about his voice was that there was no mid-Atlantic twang… he may have loved Marvin & Donny but Hamish was authentic.

I’ve been fortunate enough to see Hamish live many times and he never plays it safe, always striving to hit the notes, like this live version of “Work to Do” by AWB from c.1975.

“Pick Up the Pieces” and the album it was lifted from (AWB – the White Album) would be the platform for the band’s success but in truth there was a seventh member of the band – Arif Mardin the legendary Atlantic Records producer who along with studio boss Jerry Wexler saw the bands potential and invited them over to Miami’s Criteria Studios where he’d worked his magic on Aretha Franklin and where he would later transform the Bee Gees into the biggest selling band of the 70s.

As a mentor and friend, Mardin produced the majority of the band’s albums in the 70s with the quality rarely dropping.
 
After a run of 7 albums AWB released the album Shine in 1980 featuring the hit single “Let’s Go Round Again” which gave the band its biggest UK hit since “Pick Up the Pieces”.

There would be one more album from the core line-up, Cupids in Fashion, released in 1982, but in truth after 10 years together the band needed a reset and decided to call it a day.

Post AWB, Hamish was in demand as a gun for hire, writing and recording with some of New York’s finest session-players like the Brecker Brothers, Cornell Dupree, Marcus Miller and Richard Tee on sessions for Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin and George Benson.

Around this time, David Sanborn, the great alto sax player and the guy who played on Bowie’s Young Americans invited Hamish to sing lead vocal on his version of Al Green’s “Love and Happiness” it was an inspired collaboration and made a big impression on the R&B and Jazz charts.

In the late 80s Hamish’s career took another twist when he got a call from Paul McCartney who asked him to join his band.

A big Beatle’s fan, this was an offer Hamish couldn’t refuse.

A rhythm guitarist by trade, Hamish could also play a mean bass. Inspired indeed by McCartney’s melodic playing style and funk brother James Jamerson. This led to Hamish taking over bass playing duties whenever McCartney picked up a 6 string or manned the keyboards.

The clip below is from an MTV unplugged rehearsal with Hamish fronting the band on a version of Bill Withers “Ain’t No Sunshine”, featuring McCartney on drums and backing vocals.

I’d seen AWB play live a couple of times in the 70s but the next time I saw Hamish perform was when I went to a Hall & Oates gig in London around 2001 and to my great surprise and delight the Hamish Stuart band were supporting. I had no idea that he was even back on the scene, but was blown away by his new material which came from his solo album Sooner or Later.

Over the years I’ve seen Hamish live many times, often at the 606 Club in London and memorably at the pub he used to own in Kent, where he’d invite musical chums like Gallagher & Lyle, Go West, Squeeze, Paul Young, Mick Taylor and Kokomo to play an annual summer festival in the pub garden for 500 people.

Hamish live is a sight to behold, he has a brilliant band who he’s toured and recorded with for over 20 years and it shows as they are so incredibly tight.
A typical Hamish gig will feature a great mix of AWB faves and solo material, with selected cover versions from the likes of Al Green, Donny Hathaway and Joni Mitchell thrown in for good measure.

Since 2006, Hamish has also played regularly with another Beatle – Ringo Starr, who he’s currently on tour with as part of Ringo’s All Starr Band.

It’s a pretty cool concept, Ringo invites guys like Edgar Winter, Steve Lukather (Toto), Joe Walsh, Todd Rundgren, Gary Wright and others to tour with him and in amongst the Beatles/Ringo songs he encourages each band member to front the band for a couple of their own songs. In Hamish’s case, it’s usually “Pick up the Pieces” and “Work to Do”.

As you’ll see from the clip the man can still hold a tune and still goes for those notes.

So, there you have it, a tale of a local boy made good.

A kid who when he was growing up in Glasgow loved the Beatles and Soul music, and who along the way managed to record with Aretha Franklin and Paul McCartney.
As part of AWB, he even got a mention on a recent Barrack Obama and Bruce Springsteen podcast when Barrack & The Boss talked about how outstanding they were.

I’ve been fortunate to meet Hamish on several occasions and he makes time for everyone, a good guy who’s never forgotten his roots and has retained his Glasgow humour.

The picture below is a favourite of Hamish’s, taken in the mid 70s at a party after Billy Connolly’s first headline gig in London.

Alongside Hamish are five famous sons of Glasgow – The Big Yin (Billy Connolly); Blues singer, Frankie Miller; Bass player & vocalist from the Robin Trower Band, Jimmy Dewar; force of nature and leader of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Alex Harvey and renowned Clydeside union leader Jimmy Reid.

I belong to Glasgow
Dear old Glasgow town
Well what’s the matter with Glasgow
For its goin’ ‘roon and ‘roon
I’m only a common old working chap
As anyone here can see
But when I get a couple of drinks on a Saturday
Glasgow belongs to me