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Digger reviews Eric Stewart's new album Do Not Bend

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Wow! I have been listening to this album on and off for the last week - in the car, while on the computer, with friends at a dinner party. And in that short time it has become like a new friend. It's an album I'll come back to - one that I hope to get to know and love even better. Here, Eric has managed to produce an album rich in musical styles and diversity, lyrical humour and wit and musical virtuosity. I suppose this should come as no surprise for a man who, some say, should be as well-known as his contemporaries - Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Jeff Beck, Mike Oldfield. Eric is, in a sense, the Quiet Man of rock, having been a significant 25% of 70's supergroup 10cc and a writer/performer/producer over four decades. He collaborated with McCartney 'quietly in the background' on Paul's albums - Pipes Of Peace and Press To Play amongst them and with many other leading names as something of an unsung hero. I doubt if Eric finds this a problem - he has made an enviable living from his chosen career, written some truly memorable classics (I'm Not In Love, for example) and worked closely with the likes of Neil Sedaka, Abba's Agnetha Faltskog  and, as previously mentioned with Paul McCartney. He has also run a thriving and artistically successful recording studio and production company away from the London 'Big Boys'.

This album demonstrates Eric's ability to do it all - to write some great songs in a variety of musical styles from his apparent love affair with the Caribbean and with steel bands to funk and blues via good ol' rock 'n roll - to play an abundance of instrumentation and to produce and oversee the entire project, including artwork for the album. With Eric's love of reggae I am reminded - although I am not sure whether Eric would be best pleased to learn that, whilst indulging in Karaoke at a party, I opted for 10cc's Dreadlock Holiday only to be reduced to hysterics when the lyrics displayed on the TV from the dubious Karaoke machine appeared as "Don't you wee on my beach" ("Don't you queer my pitch" is the correct lyric, I believe.) I sang "Don't you wee on my beach" - Hurrah for Karaoke!

There are reminders of some of his contemporaries on the album - I can hear overtones of Clapton in A Friend In Need and Pete Ham of Badfinger on the beautifully melodic and appropriately haunting Sleeping With The Ghosts. Shades of Les Paul echo from the speakers on No No Nettie and Do The Books. And Eric's links and comparisons with McCartney are seemingly inescapable - singer/songwriter/multi-faceted musicians and producers both, of course, but there seems to be a synergy between them which comes out in this work even without the direct involvement of McCartney.

This is a fantastic album. Here's hoping it's not too long before, like Mr. McCartney, we see Eric on a solo tour.

Track listing:


Website: ericstewart.uk.com/


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If we have inadvertently used any image on this web site which is in copyright and for which we, or our retailers on our behalf, do not have permission for use, please contact us so that we can rectify the situation immediately. Images in this article are, to the best of our knowledge, either in the public domain or copyrighted where indicated. Photos from the retrosellers archives from original press stills.