The Singing Stewarts were the first major British Gospel group.[1] The five brothers and three sisters of the Stewart family were born in Trinidad and migrated to Handsworth in Birmingham in 1961.[2] They were all members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and under the training of their mother began to sing in an a cappella style songs that mixed traditional Southern gospel songs with Caribbean calypso.[2]
In 1964 they were the subject of a TV documentary called The Colony produced by the BBC's Philip Donnellan and Radio Producer Charles Parker, which brought them to national attention, and in 1969 they were the first British gospel group to be recorded by a major record company when PYE Records released their album Oh Happy Day.[1]
References edit
- ^ a b Smith, Steve Alexander (2009), British Black Gospel, Oxford: Monarch Books, p. 86, ISBN 1854248960, retrieved 16 January 2014
- ^ a b Cummings, Tony (15 April 2012), The Singing Stewarts: Recalling the pioneering work of the Midlands harmonizers, Cross Rhythms, retrieved 26 January 2014
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