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Marty Stewart has been playing guitar since he was 13.As soon as
he picked up the guitar; he knew that this was what he wanted to play.
When Marty’s mom brought a Folk/Classical guitar to learn, he really
enjoyed the idea of learning this instrument. When mom wasn’t around,
Marty could be found jumping up & down in front of a mirror imitating
glam rock guitarists of the day…T Rex, D Bowie, & his most favorite
, Slade. It didn’t matter to him that it didn’t look like those
flashy guitars they had, it was still a guitar!
He asked & pleaded his mom to take him to guitar lessons & managed
to get a couple of lessons, but money was tight in this one parent family.
He was left alone to learn the mysteries of the guitar pretty much by himself.
He hooked up with a couple of other muso’s at his school & asked
if he could play rhythm guitar, luckily he knew the chords D,A, E &
Bm & their first school performance was Rebel Rebel (D Bowie). To Marty
it was the most magical thing, to play in front of a crowd! Unfortunately,
the band didn’t think so & Marty was asked to leave. That absolutely
destroyed Marty’s young ego & he swore from that age 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"
He decided to learn classical guitar at that point, as he had heard some-one
at school play Classical gas, & he thought to himself, if some-one could
play so well like that, they could never get asked to leave the band!
So that’s where his interest in Classical music started, & as
you can tell (by the Web page), it has continued all his life. Added to
this, getting gear in New Zealand was not easy, so when Marty left school,
Marty’s life was about learning Led Zeppelin songs, learning Guitar
from Robert Bruce (Scottish Classical Guitar Teacher based in Auckland CBD)
& just playing Guitar 4-5 hours a day, as well as working low paid jobs
as you do when you’re young.
When he was 18, he placed an Ad in the local music paper looking to form
a band. His girlfriend of the time knew a bass player from a band called
the Spaces & all they needed was a drummer & singer. Martin was
also at that time heavily into writing original songs. As fate would have
it only one drummer replied, and that was Mike Cotton from Cambridge. Mike
& Marty hit it off straight away, & The Actors were formed.
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
& having no luck, guess who the singer became! Yep , many singing
lessons later, Marty. Being young of course & not being able to listen
to people, (Mike had definitely the better voice!), the Actors ended up
being a 3 piece band with Marty singing as well as playing guitar.
Then became months of rehearsals in a small room playing songs Marty had
written, leading into support work for the bigger mainline acts. Unlike
today, many pubs did want to put acts on, so the Actors worked most weekends.
Out of that, the Actors managed to perform at Sweetwater’s, one
of the biggest N.Z , 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….but to Marty, musically,
that time could never be replaced. Also Mike’s friendship remains
till this day….I will record some of those songs, so, hopefully
people can hear what the vibe was!
Marty then joined Radio-Active who released a single called “Angela”,
which was big hit single in Auckland for a few months & got the boy’s
a national Television video release….wow, that was fun. Radio- active
was a family of brothers + Marty & decided to leave for Sydney, to
make the big time! As you do. Marty left the band, but still came to Australia.
In that time, he performed on Star Search with an original song, &
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/Vocals), Paul Pound (Paul Metcalf ,Drums ), Steve Mc Laughland
(trumpet, Keyboards),Murray Biondi (Drums, the Oil Show)
10 years later Full Quid, came to an end. In that time, Marty & jammed
with many, many muso’s , one of the most important was Dianne Scibberras.
To Marty, Dianne was an amazing singer which great passion & a amazing
voice, & she was also some-one he could also write songs with. One
of their project’s was a EP called “Shiver”. If you
have a chance, please listen to a copy of “Strong Enough”
or “Everglade” to 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.
Marty took stock & put in an add in Drum Media looking for Classical/Spanish
work, within 2 days, the Ritz Carlton had contacted him agreeing to what
became a 5 yr 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 Robert Johnson
believe it or not, taught authentic Flamenco from Stones Arcade in Dee
Why.
That’s when Marty also decided to teach guitar, not being worried
about saving trade secrets. Di worked for Bondi’s Ways (for Youth),
& 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, with many 100’s
of gigs….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, to him, playing music has always been about finding
that magic, there are times when playing makes you feel so alive, you
can make such a difference, playing as only the way you can!
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