Eurythmics star Dave Stewart was back on home turf in Sunderland for a launch of a new album that draws from his childhood memories - and he will be returning again later in the year to start work on a film that his new songs have inspired.
The award-winning musician, songwriter and record producer, who with Eurythmics co-star Annie Lennox was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has written a remarkable 24 songs for Ebony McQueen which is the result of digging deep into those memories - painful ones - to take listeners on a journey back to the point he first discovered a love for music. "It's been an epic amount of work," he admits and it just part of a project that includes not only the upcoming film but a box set of LPs and cassettes, a photo book and a stage musical too.
Stewart, who played for invited guests at a launch event at the Pop Recs cafe and music hub on Friday night, explained how he named the album after a fictional voodoo blues queen who embodies the blues music that shaped him from that starting point when he found himself first moved by music. That came when he played a record sent by a cousin from Memphis.
