Dave Stewart was keyboard player with Egg, Hatfield & The North, National Health & Bruford, Barbara Gaskin was lead vocalist with the English folk-rock group Spirogyra. The two first met in 1969, and Barbara subsequently appeared as guest vocalist on some of Dave's bands' LPs in the 70s. In 1981, Dave struck out on a solo career, recording a version of the old Tamla tune "What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted" with Colin Blunstone on guest vocals. The single, issued under the catalogue number `Broken 1' (lifted from the song's title), was a hit in the UK. Dave and Barbara then recorded a tongue-in-cheek version of the old Lesley Gore classic "It's My Party", which roared to the top of the U.K. charts and refused to be dislodged for 4 weeks. The single (cat. no. Broken 2) went on to become a hit worldwide, selling over a million copies.
Somewhat surprised by these events, Dave and Barbara decided to stick together and record an album. In late '81, they vanished into the studios, emerging bedraggled but triumphant 6 months later with their first LP, Disappear. Unfortunately, the album (aptly titled) never saw the light of day, as all the UK record companies pronounced it "uncommercial" - rather a curious attitude, given the duo's conspicuous success a few months previously. Faced with a choice of signing with a company who would force musical changes or staying true to their artistic instincts, Dave and Barbara opted for the latter, and continued to release records independently on their own Broken Records label. Disappear was put on hold . . .
From 1982 to 1985, Stewart and Gaskin released an excellent series of singles on Broken Records, some of which reached the charts. Dave and Barbara's fame spread to the USA and Japan, and in 1986, US company Rykodisc released the 14-track compilation Up From The Dark in the USA., making available for the first time the recordings from the Disappear sessions. Midi Records in Japan produced their own compilations Broken Records - The Singles (a collection of the first 6 Stewart/Gaskin singles plus their B sides) and As Far As Dreams Can Go - the remainder of the Disappear tracks plus 2 extra songs, "The Locomotion" and "Make Me Promises". In 1987, Dave and Barbara started work on a new album, their first to be conceived as such since Disappear - this epic work was finally finished in May 1989, and christened The Big Idea.
Realising that they had just spent the best part of a decade in the studio, the duo decided to venture out and perform live, and achieved this objective (with the aid of guitarist Andy Reynolds and a mountain of equipment) with a 12-date tour of the USA East Coast and Midwest in October 1991. The cheers of the Americans still ringing in their ears, they returned to the UK and polished off a new album Spin, which was finally completed in July 1991. After the release of Spin, Dave, Barbara and Andy Reynolds played a massively successful concert tour of Japan, then in November 1991, topped the bill at Keyboard magazine's 'Cyberarts' festival in Los Angeles. The duo then retreated back to the safety of the studio to begin work on a new album, emerging in 1996 to perform at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall and in September 2001 to play at TLG in Tokyo with Andy Reynolds on guitar and Gavin Harrison on drums.
Dave and Barbara have maintained their artistic independence by creating their own record label - see CD Releases.
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