Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin

Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin News October 2024
S o n g s O f T h e S e a #2

Continuing the maritime theme started in our Midsummer video of 'Cast Your Fate to the Wind', we're pleased to bring you a second song of the sea: 'Golden Rain', another track from our album Spin (Special Edition). The origins of the song lie in Barbara's overseas travels exploring India, Afghanistan, Indonesia and the Far East in the seventies. Dave takes up the story: "'Golden Rain' was inspired by Balinese gamelan music - Barb had attended village gamelan rehearsals while living in Bali in 1977, and brought back a cassette which intrigued me. It sounded like a fast, liquid swirl of small bells, with cool syncopations and occasional unpredictable interjections where the whole band would suddenly erupt in a staccato, accented rhythmic figure which seemed to mark the end of a passage."

"We later discovered this music was an example of Gong Kebyar, a highly sophisticated, intricate and beautiful Balinese gamelan style. Despite knowing nothing about its musical construction, I was sufficiently taken by the sound and atmosphere to want to emulate it, which I eventually achieved by writing an instrumental piece featuring gamelan and gong samples. In honour of the music which inspired it, I borrowed the name of Barb's cassette and titled the piece 'Golden Rain'. This experimental recording was used in our soundtrack for The Rock and Paint Show (1986), an event devised by Barbara's sister Jenny featuring hand-painted costumes, dancers and quadraphonic sound. When we came to record our album Spin in late 1990, I thought it would be fun to develop the music into a full-blown song. The lyrics came to me fairly naturally - some of the imagery was suggested by Barb's descriptions of Indonesian island life, and I was also influenced by accounts of mysterious Indonesian occurrences in Lyall Watson's Supernature." Barb describes this piece of musical escapism as "a romantic voyage across warm and new oceans, into the unknown future which was our (as yet) unlived lives."

Both of us later studied the amazingly intricate structures of Javanese and Balinese gamelan, far more sophisticated than much of our supposedly complex Western music. The inner workings of Dave's 'Golden Rain' arrangement are explained in his ebook Inside The Music Vol. 2, available from our online store.

G i g R e g i s t e r 2 0 2 5

As 2024 begins to winds down, we're planning our 2025 concert schedule - if you'd like to receive early alerts about the dates, please feel free to add your name to our Stewart-Gaskin Gig Register and we'll message you directly. Simply email us at [email protected] with the subject line 'Gig Register', tell us your name, country of residence (important) and how many tickets you're likely to need. You'll then be on our priority list for advance info, preferred seating and other perks associated with our performances. Rest assured we won't share your contact details or overburden you with emails! In the meantime keep well, we hope to see you in the New Year.

S t a r C l o c k s
Some listener comments on our latest album. Thanks to the kind folks who sent them!

"Utterly, utterly beautiful. A great and sublime creation. There's so much depth to this album... both of you show development and even greater maturity since the last album. I love 'Everything Sings' in particular. It's anthemic. But all the tracks are faultless in both production and performance."

"Awesome, just awesome. Dave's lyrics and music are fantastic and so is Barbara's immaculate voice - still to my mind one of the best female voices of her generation... 'Everything Sings' is about as perfect as perfection can get. Amazing poetry, composition and performance."

"My copy of Star Clocks arrived today and I am very happy. It's beautiful and on repeat. The subtlety and poignancy of the music still grows and progresses."

"Thank you for your music!! It's golden, classic pop that keeps on giving. Barbara's singing is just lovely, it's sweet and true."

"Their mellow songs continue to be among the most gorgeous anywhere."

"The pure definition of intelligent pop music. I treasure every release!"

"STAR CLOCKS IS BEAUTIFUL."

"Totally in love with the wonderful new album. Brings me to tears."

"A great album by two artists still at the top of their game. Overall the whole album just sounds great!"

"I received yesterday your Star Clocks CD and I'm already at the third listen. What I can say? As always it's a GEM!!!"

"Barbara is sounding better than ever. Like good wine, your voice gets better with time. Thank you for your wonderful music!"

"I put on Star Clocks as soon as I received it and love the new songs & lyrics! VERY inspiring! Excellent mix & recording (as always)... love the great keyboard patches (and performances) and Barbara sounds better than ever! Gavin Harrison is fantastic (as always) and the guitar parts fit right in and are very complimentary as well. Congratulations on another musical success! 'The magic remains'."

"The house is shaking with the thunderous sounds of Star Clocks. How does Dave manage to create such sounds from just a handful of keyboards? Why is Barbara not lauded far and wide as one of the UK's great vocalists? A resounding musical success... again. Play on repeat."

"'Everything Sings' and 'Time's Arrow' feel like the emotional essence of Star Clocks. More sedate and introspective, they are suffused with a languid melancholy. Gaskin's gloriously multitracked voice articulates the wonder of being alive in the former and one's inevitable mortality in the latter. Incredibly poignant, Stewart's meticulous orchestration on these deeply affecting melodies is equal to his best work. Magical and moving, they are quietly devastating."
About Us
Dave Stewart (keyboards) and Barbara Gaskin (vocals) are English musicians who began their respective careers as band members in the early '70s. During this time Dave won a reputation as a leading keyboard player and composer, while Barbara's pure, unaffected vocals wowed the listeners of the day. In 1981 the two joined forces and enjoyed immediate success with 'It's My Party', a worldwide hit which reached no. 1 in the UK and Germany. Since then the Stewart-Gaskin partnership has evolved into one of the UK's most respected, innovative and intelligent Pop acts, characterised by Barbara's heavenly vocals and Dave's complex, musically adventurous arrangements. The duo have released seven albums to date and continue to create new music.

Dave & Barbara release their music on their own Broken Records label (distributed by Burning Shed) and perform live as a trio or quartet. Having enlisted guitarist Beren Matthews, the Stewart / Gaskin band performed successful Autumn 2018 headlining concerts in Tokyo and London, the latter also featuring master drummer Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree, King Crimson, The Pineapple Thief). Dave, Barbara and Beren returned to Tokyo in November 2019 and emerged from lockdown with a memorable 40-year anniversary concert at London's Kings Place on Saturday July 9th 2022. Having performed three further Tokyo concerts in April 2023, the trio made a triumphant return to Kings Place Hall One on August 5th 2023.

This site focuses on the work of Stewart / Gaskin, which can best be described as intelligent pop music. Our CDs, signed vinyl singles and Dave's Inside The Music ebooks are available from our Stewart / Gaskin online store, operated by our musician colleagues Burning Shed. All sales revenue goes directly to the musicians with no record company involvement.

Our email newsletters (operated by our trustworthy colleagues Burning Shed) are a reliable way of staying informed of our album release and concert news, so please feel free to subscribe and share our newsletter subscription link with any friends who might be interested. You're also welcome to join us on Facebook and Instagram.

Links

Online Store CD Releases Live Concerts Inside The Music eBooks
A brief history of Broken Records The Vinyl Archive Discography Barbara Gaskin bio Dave Stewart bio
Music books The Eric McWhirter Home Page Visitors Book FAQ & links

Recordings

Star Clocks Green and Blue Hour Moon EP The TLG Collection Spin The Big Idea
As Far As Dreams Can Go Broken Records - The Singles 7" Vinyl Singles

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Live photos of Stewart / Gaskin band, Tokyo 2009-2023 copyright Harumi Maezawa.
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