Oscar Stewart Blandamer
Oscar Stewart Blandamer was born in Weymouth, England. His musical career has been moulded from his time as a sax player with such bands as Jimmy James & The Vagabonds, Johnny Wakelin & the Kinshasa Band, and as one of the founder members of the Q Tips featuring a certain Paul Young.
With his mates in the band “Curly”, (writing original material) they won outright the Melody Maker national rock contest of 1973. John Peel gave them a five out of five star review for the Blandamer penned “High Flying Bird” (produced by Tony Rivers) which sadly failed to chart.
Curly were then recruited by Russ Ballard to back him in his solo career and whenever Russ meets Stewart he inevitably asks when are they going to re-record High Flying Bird.
At this time Stewart and Steve Farr were asked to play saxes on Status Quo’s “Hello” album and were excited to see their names on the album sleeve.
Stewart wrote his most successful song “Darlin” in 1970, but it wasn’t until 1977 that the song was heard by the management of the British country band “Poacher” (who had won a British tv talent show “New Faces”). It was expected that “Darlin” would be a big hit for them, but despite a great deal of airplay it didn’t happen. However, the single did make the US country charts, which was a rarity for a British act.
It was hoped that “Bonnie Tyler” would then cover the song but her producer “Dave Mackay” decided to give the song to “Frankie Miller” instead. His version of the song made no 6 on the UK charts and there are now over 50 versions of the song including Tom Jones, Sarah Jory, Ronnie Spector, Barbara Mandrell, and Bonnie Raitt who sang it in the film “Urban Cowboy” starring John Travolta. (Bonnie Tyler didn’t forget the song either and recorded it on one of her recent albums).
Stewart’s other songwriting credits include “A Man Can’t Lose” (for Qtips, #25 UK) “Always” (for Di Lee of Peters & Lee), “I’ll Mend Your Broken Heart” (for Phil Everly and Cliff Richard), “Tomb of Memories” (for Paul Young, #12 UK), “Mama’s on Surfari” (for Johnny Wakelin’ Kinshasa Band), and “Hit Him in the Heart” (for Kim Wilde), “Tell Him You’re Mine Tonight” (for Christie Allen in Oz) and many more.
Stewart’s two loves are country music and soul, and he went to Nashville to write for nine months, but found it difficult as his kids were still in school in the UK. Back home he formed the Oscar Blandamer Band playing regularly at the Horn of Plenty in St Albans and featuring such luminaries as Andy Powell (Wishbone Ash), Ian Kewley and Mark Pinder (from Paul Youngs Royal Family), Dan Brown (from the Fixx), Alan “sticky” Wicket (from Steve Marriots Packet of Three) and Cedric Sharpley (from Tubeway Army). In 1978 Qtips was formed and were the hardest working group in the UK for several years until Paul Young went solo.
Around this time the Qtips horn section recorded and played live for Stiff Little Fingers, Any Trouble and several other acts.
Stewart carried on writing and recording in between stints as sax player for Adam Ant and His Men (1983 to 1985), appearing with the Qtips brass section in Paul McCartney’s video for “Take It Away”, sound engineer for the musical “Buddy” in the West End of London for 6 years, and as a technician for “Cliff Richard” and “David Essex” on worldwide tours.
After moving to Spain in the year 2000, Stewart rebuilt his studio in the hills of Murcia, and has steadily built up a catalogue of songs culminating in the recent cds “Blandamer/Lawford Songbook” and “Night Moves on Kings Road”. (both available at cdbaby.com)
Along with Martin Lawford, (ex Gidea Park vocalist) Stewart plays live shows across Spain, ranging from top class restaurants at La Manga club, to Spanish festivals, and a recent gig in 2008 at the Emirates Stadium for his one true love “Arsenal” football club.
As Stewart says; an interesting career if not well known! (and not over yet)