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The Beginning
Marty
Stewart was born in Papakura near Auckland, New
Zealand.He has been
playing guitar since he was 13. As soon as Marty picked up a
guitar he knew thats what he wanted to do in life. Be a
musician. One day, Marty's mom brought home a Folk/Classical
guitar to learn. That's when Marty started the adventure of learning the
guitar. When mom wasn't around, Marty could be found jumping up and
down in front of a mirror imitating the glam rock guitarists of the day, T
Rex, David Bowie and Slade, his favourite. It didn’t matter to
him that his mom's guitar didn't look like those flashy guitars
that his heroes had, it was still a guitar!
He asked and
pleaded his mom to take him to guitar lessons. He managed to get a
couple but money was tight in this one parent family. So he
was left pretty much alone to learn the mysteries of the guitar.
At least until he got older and could work to afford his own
lessons.
School
Band
He hooked up with a couple of other muso’s at his
school and asked if he could play rhythm guitar. Luckily he knew the
chords D, A, E and Bm. Their first performance at school was a
song called Rebel Rebel by David Bowie. To Marty it was just the most
magical thing, to play in front of a crowd! Unfortunately, the
other band members didn't think so and Marty was asked to leave.
Apparently he jumped around too much and forgot to keep in time. That
absolutely destroyed Marty's young, fragile ego. He swore from that
day on that he would never get thrown out of another band because he
wasn't good enough.
Martin Olderied (Symrise) -
"Over the past 7 years we have been consistently using
Marty"
Classical Gas/Led Zepplyn
Marty decided to learn classical guitar at that point, as he
had heard some-one play Classical Gas at school. He thought if
some-one could play so well like that, they would never get asked to
leave a band.
So that's where his interest in classical
guitar music started and as you can tell ( by the Web page ), it
has continued throughout his life. When Marty left school, his
life was about learning Led Zeppelin songs, taking
guitar lessons from Bruce MacLaren ( a Scottish classical guitar teacher
based in Auckland CBD ) and playing 4-5 hours a day. He worked
many low paid jobs as you do when you're young.
When he was 18, he
placed an add in the local music paper looking to form a band. His
girlfriend of the time knew a bass player from a Christchurch band
called The Spaces. All they needed now was a
drummer and a singer. Martin was starting to write his own
songs. Only one drummer replied to the add and it was Mike
Cotton from Cambridge. Mike and Marty hit it off straight
away and Marty's first band was formed,
" The
Actors!"
"The
Actors!"
The trouble was, finding a singer. Marty
definitely had an idea how the songs should sound. In the end after
looking for a few months and having no luck, guess who the singer
became! Yes, Marty ( he had to have many singing lessons! ). Being
young of course and not being able to listen to people he should have
known Mike had the better voice. So " The Actors " ended up being a 3
piece band with Marty singing as well as playing guitar. Then came months
of rehearsals in a small room playing songs Marty had written, leading
onto support work for the bigger mainline acts. Unlike today, pubs
did want to put original acts on and "The Actors" worked most
weekends. They even performed at Sweetwater’s, one of New
Zealand's biggest outdoor events. Marty was asked to audition for the
Citizen Band , which was a Split Enz throw off, as a singer for all
things!
Unfortunately "The Actors!" came to an end when
Marty's car got stolen at a Pub on the outskirts of
Auckland. Musically, that time could never be replaced. Mike
Cottons friendship remains till this day.We have vowed to record
some of those songs together so people can hear what the vibe
was!
Radio-Active
Marty then joined Radio-Active
who released a single called “Angela”, which was big hit single in
Auckland for a few months and got the boys a national Television
video release. Wow, that was fun. Marty decided to leave
Radio-Active for Sydney, to make the big
time!
Australia
When he arrived, he put together a original 3
piece called "Not Now Tracy" ,which he performed
with on Star Search. Original gigs were really hard to get in Sydney
so in the end, he sold out and formed a cover band called “ Full
Quid ”. Full Quid was a hard working band that performed
1000’s of gigs around N.S.W. They where also asked to form a Doors Concept
band which they did as well. Marty worked with some great friends and
players like Dr Brain Damage ( Brian Cooke , bass guitar/vocals ), Paul
Pound ( Paul Metcalf ,Drums ), Stephen McLoughlin ( trumpet,
keyboards and Murray Biondi ( Drums, the Oil Show )
10 years later
Full Quid, came to an end. In that time, Marty had jammed with many,
many muso’s. One of the most important was Dianne Scibberras. To Marty,
Dianne was an amazing singer which great passionand a unique voice.
She was also some-one he could also write songs with. One of their
projects was a EP called “Shiver”. If you have a chance, please
listen to some of their songs in the Jukebox above. Hear how they
sounded produced by Peter Blyton. Full
Quid came to an end as the Sydney live scene started to become very
stilted compared to how it once had been.
Today
Marty took stock of the
situation and decided to look for a new challenge. He put in an add
in Drum Media looking for Classical/Spanish work & within 2 days,
the Ritz Carlton, Sydney contacted
him. This became a 5 year residency playing solo Classical/Flamenco music
every Thursday night. How good is that for you're hands! Also Marty
started to look for Flamenco teachers who could show him the secrets to
this elusive style. His favorite teacher was Bob
Oort and he taught authentic Flamenco from Stones Arcade
in Dee Why. Marty also decided to teach guitar, not being worried about
saving trade secrets. Di worked for Bondi’s Ways ( for youth ) and
was funnily enough looking for guitar teachers, so he began his teaching
career there. Marty also teamed up with Dianne to form “Now Tracy”, which became a very successful
Duo managed by Southbeat doing many 100’s of
gigs.
Novatone
That dissolved to becoming
Novatone with
Candle Faithful being the lead singer for 2 years,
followed by Amie Brownrigg which is how it stands today. When Novatone
performs, there is a lot of history!
You have just got to look for it! Marty would like to say, playing music
has always been about finding your own magic. There are times
when playing makes you feel so alive and you can make such a
difference to people. You just have to play your own way!
A beer or two
of course, alway's
helps! |
