'Chris Stewart' was the original drummer and a founding member of
Genesis. He is now a
farmer and an
author.
A classmate of
Tony Banks and
Peter Gabriel at
Charterhouse School, Stewart joined them in a school band called The Garden Wall, and they later formed another band with schoolmates
Mike Rutherford and
Anthony Phillips, called The Anon. This band eventually became
Genesis in January 1967. Stewart appears on the band's first 2 singles, The Silent Sun/That's Me and A Winter's Tale/One Eyed Hound. (These tracks appear as bonus tracks on many reissues of Genesis' first album ''
From Genesis to Revelation''. Also, a stereo mix of Silent Sun was included on the album.) Although several demos from Stewart's time with
Genesis appear on the ''
Genesis Archive 1967-75'' box set, he is not credited with playing on any of them. (
Peter Gabriel seems to have played drums on a couple, and the rest do not feature drums.)
Chris was not really serious about becoming a musician and left the band in the summer of 1968. He was replaced by
John Silver. After travelling and working throughout Europe, Stewart settled in the
Alpujarras region of
Andalusia,
Spain. He came in last place for the position of local councillor in the
27 May 2007 local elections in
Órgiva representing the green party
[1], where he received 201 votes (roughly 8%).
He is now better known for his
autobiographical books, ''Driving Over Lemons'' (
1999, ISBN 0-9535227-0-9) and the sequels, ''A Parrot In The Pepper Tree'' (ISBN 0-9535227-5-X) and ''The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society'' (
2006, ISBN 0-9548995-0-4), about his work farming in Spain. The first two are also available as
audio books (''Lemons'' ISBN 0-14-180143-3; ''Parrot'' ISBN 0-14-180402-5), narrated by Stewart.
"An idyllic life in a remote, sunny part of Europe is a fantasy normally punctured by harsh realities, and abandoned. Chris is made of sterner stuff. Driving Over Lemons is a wonderful account of his Andalucian adventure"
:- back-cover text for ''Driving Over Lemons'', written by
Peter Gabriel.
He has also contributed to two books in the
Rough Guides series - the ''Rough Guide to Andalucia'' and the ''Rough Guide to China''.
References
1. http://www.elmundo.es/especiales/2007/05/elecciones_mayo_2007/html/ultimo_fila/stewart_chris.html
External link
★
Biography and news