Quick Facts
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James Hamish Stuart (born 8 October 1949, Glasgow, Scotland) is a guitarist, bassist, singer, composer and record producer.
Biography
Stuart attended Wellington College, where he joined Tony Wade and Mark Waters in 1963 to form a "college" band. At the time he played drums.
He recorded a couple of singles with his first band, the Dream Police, before he was invited to join the recently formed Average White Band (AWB) in June 1972.
A member of AWB from 1972 to 1982, he went on to work with Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan and David Sanborn.
He wrote Atlantic Starr's 1986 hit "If Your Heart Isn't in It" and songs for Smokey Robinson, Jeffrey Osborne, George Benson and Diana Ross.
Stuart joined Paul McCartney’s band (where he switched between guitar and bass as necessary with McCartney) for McCartney's 1989 comeback album, Flowers in the Dirt, and appearing on several other albums and McCartney's world tours of 1989 and 1993.
After collaborating on numerous albums for other artists, he recorded his first solo album, Sooner or Later, in 1999, 17 years after leaving the Average White Band, which he released on his own record label, Sulphuric Records.
Apart from playing with his own group, the Hamish Stuart Band, and with his fellow Glaswegian guitarist and friend Jim Mullen, Stuart has also produced Gordon Haskell and the Swedish singer-songwriter Meja.
In 2006, Stuart toured as the bass player with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. He joined Starr again for a 2008 tour, where he performed "Pick Up The Pieces" and "Work to Do".
In 2007, he produced and appeared as a guest vocalist on the album All About the Music, by The AllStars collective.
He is the curator, along with partner Claire Houlihan and friend Tom Sutton-Roberts, of the annual mOare Music festival, held in the village of Oare, Faversham, Kent.
Discography
With the Average White Band
- 1973 Show Your Hand (re-issued in 1975 as Put It Where You Want It)
- 1974 AWB
- 1975 Cut the Cake
- 1976 Soul Searching
- 1976 Person to Person (live)
- 1977 AWB/Live at Montreux
- 1977 Benny & Us
- 1978 Warmer Communications
- 1979 Feel no Fret
- 1979 Shine
- 1982 Cupids in Fashion
With Chaka Khan
- Chaka (1978)
- Naughty (1980)
- What Cha' Gonna Do for Me (1981)
- Chaka Khan (1982)
- I Feel for You (1984)
With Paul McCartney
- Flowers in the Dirt (1989)
- Tripping the Live Fantastic (1990)
- Unplugged (1991)
- Off the Ground (1993)
- Paul is Live (1993)
Other recordings
- 1976 Up - Dick Morrissey & Jim Mullen
- 1977 The Atlantic Family Live at Montreux
- 1990 River of Love - David Foster
- 1999 Sooner or Later
- 2000 Jimjam - Jim Mullen
- 2001 Real Live