Chris Stewart was the original drummer and a founding member of Genesis. He is now a farmer and an author.

A classmate of Tony Banks and Peter Gabriel at Charterhouse School, Stewart joined them in a school band called The Garden Wall, and they later formed another band with schoolmates Mike Rutherford and Anthony Phillips, called The Anon. This band eventually became Genesis in January 1967. Stewart appears on the band's first 2 singles, The Silent Sun/That's Me and A Winter's Tale/One Eyed Hound. (These tracks appear as bonus tracks on many reissues of Genesis' first album From Genesis to Revelation. Also, a stereo mix of Silent Sun was included on the album.) Although several demos from Stewart's time with Genesis appear on the Genesis Archive 1967-75 box set, he is not credited with playing on any of them. (Peter Gabriel seems to have played drums on a couple, and the rest do not feature drums.)

Chris was not really serious about becoming a musician and left the band in the summer of 1968. He was replaced by John Silver. After travelling and working throughout Europe, Stewart settled in the Alpujarras region of Andalusia, Spain. He run in the last place for local councillor in the 27 May 2007 local elections in Órgiva representing the green party where his list obtained 201 votes (roughly 8%).

He is now better known for his autobiographical books, Driving Over Lemons (1999, ISBN 0-9535227-0-9) and the sequels, A Parrot In The Pepper Tree (ISBN 0-9535227-5-X) and The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society (2006, ISBN 0-9548995-0-4), about his work farming in Spain. The first two are also available as audio books (Lemons ISBN 0-14-180143-3; Parrot ISBN 0-14-180402-5), narrated by Stewart.

"An idyllic life in a remote, sunny part of Europe is a fantasy normally punctured by harsh realities, and abandoned. Chris is made of sterner stuff. Driving Over Lemons is a wonderful account of his Andalucian adventure"

- back-cover text for Driving Over Lemons, written by Peter Gabriel.

He has also contributed to two books in the Rough Guides series - the Rough Guide to Andalucia and the Rough Guide to China.

References

External link

• Biography and news