Elliott, Stuart

Stuart Elliott was born as Stuart Alexander Elliott in London (UK) on 22 May 1953. He started to be interested in playing drums at the age of three by watching his father who was a jazz drummer. He started doing session work, including a tour with Adam Faith. In 1972, he joined Cockney Rebel, playing on three top 10 albums including the number 1 single ‘Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)’ and other 4 top 10 singles. After Steve Harley disbanded Cockney Rebel in 1977, Elliott was called by Andrew Powell to play drums on Kate Bush’s first album, The Kick Inside. This would be first of the five albums with Elliott on drums as he became one of Bush’s preferred drummers. Between 1978 and 2005, he has played drums on the following songs by Kate: All The Love, And So Is Love, Army Dreamers, Babooshka, Between A Man And A Woman, Breathing, Cloudbusting, Coffee Homeground, Constellation Of The Heart, Don’t Push Your Foot On The Heartbrake, The Dreaming, Eat The Music, Experiment IV, The Fog, Fullhouse, Hammer Horror, Heads We’re Dancing, Hello Earth, Houdini, Hounds Of Love, How To Be Invisible, In Search Of Peter Pan, James And The Cold Gun, Jig Of Life, Kashka From Baghdad, Kite, L’amour Looks Something Like You, Lily, Love And Anger, Mother Stands For Comfort, Moving, Never Be Mine, Night Of The Swallow, Pi, The Red Shoes, Rocket’s Tail, Room For The Life, Rubberband Girl, Running Up That Hill, Somewhere In Between, The Song Of Solomon, Strange Phenomena, Suspended In Gaffa, Symphony In Blue, Them Heavy People, There Goes A Tenner, Top Of The City, Watching You Without Me, Wuthering Heights and You’re The One.

Between September 1977 and January 1978, Elliott went on to play drums on The Alan Parsons Project third album, Pyramid, which would be the first of 10 albums where he became part of the rhythm section, and he continued playing and contributed in the songwriting for the next three solo albums of Parsons.

Stuart has worked with many other high profile artists including Al Stewart (‘Year of the Cat’), Kenny Rogers (‘Heart of the Matter’), Chris Rea, Toyah Wilcox, and Jack Bruce (Cream) album and live concerts. He toured the US with Roger Daltry (The Who) where he also played with John Entwistle and John Parr. He played with Jon Anderson (Yes) and Alice Cooper on the “Ultimate British Rock Symphony tour” He also played live at the Belgian Night of the Proms for Sting, Simple Minds, Paul Young, Coolio, John Miles, and Debbie Harry. Stuart has worked with many other diverse artists including: Rick Astley, Russ Ballard, Bay City Rollers, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Christopher Cross, Culture Club, Art Garfunkel, Roy Harper, Justin Hayward, Steve Howe (Yes), Elton John, Tom Jones, George Martin, Tina Turner, Bonnie Tyler, Wilson Phillips, Mari Wilson, Womack and Womack and many others.

In November 2015, Elliott toured with Steve Harley and original members to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Best Years of Our Lives.

Kate about Stuart Elliott

He’s so easy to work with because he knows what I’m like. Occasionally I’ll even ask him to use cymbals on a track now! He’s been through that whole stage where I just couldn’t handle cymbals or hi-hats. (Rob Jovanovic, Kate Bush: The Biography, cop. 2005. ISBN 9780349411255)