Band on song for Dave’s gig
Easington Colliery Band will help Dave Stewart to bring to life a song about his Sunderland childhood.
The Barnes-born music legend, who shot to fame with the Eurythmics, is playing a special homecoming gig at Sunderland Empire on September 10 to mark his 65th birthday.
He’d already announced that he will have three local bands as support acts – Picnic, Lilliput and Social Room – and now he’s asked the colliery band to join him on stage.
He hand-picked the band in honour of his mining roots and they will accompany him on two of his songs which he’s penned about his childhood in Sunderland.
On a visit home last week, the musician, writer and producer visited the band during a rehearsal for the forthcoming Dr Martin contest where they will be
playing a piece written by another famous Sunderland-born composer, Edward Gregson’s Of Distant Memories.
Band chairman Peter Lawson said that despite competing at the Dr Martin Wainstone’s Cup contest on the same day, the Empire gig was an opportunity too good to miss. He said: “I have to admit that when I first got a call from a bloke saying he was Dave Stewart and that he wanted to play with the band, I was a little bit sceptical – but I was amazed that he knew so much about us.
“He was brilliant about everything, especially when he came to visit our rehearsal to explain what he wanted to do with the two pieces and to go through things. He’s a superb musician and so full of respect towards the band and the brass band movement.”
Easington Colliery Band was formed in 1915 by the miners and was supported by them until the colliery closure in 1993.
The band is still based in Easington in the old colliery pay office opposite the Memorial Gardens, which is on the site of the old colliery.
Tickets for Dave Stewart are available by calling 0844 871 3022.