![]() ![]() ![]() Things changed for him in 1985 after meeting Eugenia Crafton. It was four years before his next album was released. With the breakdown of his first marriage, Steve took another break from music. ‘Call On Me’ reached number one in the UK in 2004 and was a big hit in many countries. Steve’s vocal in ‘Valerie’ was also sampled and used two decades later for a hit ‘house music’ track by Swedish musician Eric Pridz. The single ‘Valerie’ hit the charts twice in 19 reaching number two in the US. ‘Arc of a Diver’ was followed in 1982 by ‘Talking Back to the Night’ which was also a commercial success. It also brought a return for Steve to the singles market with the worldwide hit single ‘While You See a Chance’ which reached number two in the US and number three in Canada. ‘Arc of a Diver’ which was released in 1980 reaching number one in Canada, number three in the US and New Zealand, and number thirteen in his native UK. Steve spent 1979 recording and producing his second solo album. He then took a break from the music business and concentrated on his farm in Oxfordshire, indulging in clay pigeon-shooting, dog training and horse riding. In the same year he married singer Nicole Tacot-Weir. In 1977, Steve released his first solo album ‘Steve Winwood’ which reached number 12 in the UK and number 22 in the US. “ Around the age of fourteen I drifted away from the church, although I have always been interested in anything religious and spiritual.”Įnter a musical career spanning more than six decades with The Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith, Ginger Baker’s Airforce, a mostly solo career from 1977, and a vast amount of studio and live work backing the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and many others. This Christian influence has remained in the background throughout his life. As a young boy I was a choir boy and a server at St John’s Church, Perry Bar… and in fact many of my musical influences come from Hymnals, Psalters and organ music from the English church.” “I was brought up a Christian in the Church of England. ‘Mr Fantasy’, ‘Traffic’, ‘Last Exit’, ‘John Barleycorn Must Die’, ‘The Low Spark of the High Heeled Boys’, ‘Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory’, ‘When the Eagle Flies’, and the 1994 reunion album ‘Far From Home.’Īlongside jazz, Steve’s earliest musical influences came from the Anglican Church in Birmingham. This era was fast becoming the age of the album for serious musicians and Traffic released eight hugely popular albums. They produced more hit singles with ‘Paper Sun’, ‘Hole in My Shoe’ and ‘Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush’, which was the title track from the 1967 coming of age movie of the same name. Steve’s soulful voice was likened to one of his own favourite vocalists – the legendary jazz/blues singer Ray Charles.įrom The Spencer Davis Group, Steve formed Traffic. It also reached the top ten in 1970 when covered by ‘Chicago.’ Although the earlier singles did not break through across the Atlantic, ‘Gimme Some Lovin’ and ‘I’m a Man’ both made number one in Canada and reached the top ten in the US in 1967. In 1967 their iconic psychedelic jazz-rock single ‘I’m a Man’ became a big hit around the world. ![]() The even better known ‘Gimme Some Lovin’ (also covered by The Blues Brothers in the 1980’s) reached number two later that year. In 1966, the Spencer Davis Group reached number one in the UK singles chart with ‘Keep on Running’ and ’Somebody Help Me’. The band were very popular in the mid 1960’s across Europe and Australasia in particular. He also scored two number two hits with ‘While You See a Chance’ and ‘Valerie’, along with other top twenty hits in the US, which is the world’s biggest music market.Īn exceptionally talented all-round musician, older music fans will remember that he started his popular music career back in 1962 as the fourteen-year-old singer, guitarist and keyboard player for the Spencer Davis Group. This included seven chart-topping singles in the US with ‘Higher Love’, Back in the High Life’, ‘The Finer Things’, ‘Roll With it’, ‘Don’t You Know What the Night Can Do’, ‘Holding On’ and ‘One and Only Man’. Steve Winwood is a much loved British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who is probably best remembered nowadays for his string of hit singles and albums in the 1980’s. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |