Stuart biography could be published...21 years on
Gary Fitzpatrick • Published 25 May 2012 09:30
A BIOGRAPHY of Dunfermline's Stuart Adamson, authorised by the late singer, could soon be published - more than 20 years after the author started writing it.
'Restless Native' has been written by Gwenda Matthews, already well-known as perhaps the Big Country singer/songwriter's no. 1 fan.
She has already made sure Stuart's memory lives on by starting up a web-site in his honour and installing a park bench in Pittencrieff Park ahead of the tenth anniversary of his death.
Gwenda started working on the book in 1991 and was helped on the project by Stuart before his tragic death in 2001.
The Stuart Adamson website has been a huge success and has become a victim of its own popularity, requires a bigger server and an appeal has been made for donations.
Gwenda, from Wigan, started writing the book when she moved to live in Dunfermline in 1991 taking a job at the St Margaret's Hotel.
"I lived in Dunfermline for six years and had the time then to start writing the book," said Gwenda.
"Stuart was pleased about me writing the book. He thought it was a good idea as nobody else had done it. He used to joke that I knew more about his life than he did.
"He gave me photographs and an Adamson family album. When Stuart died I was too upset to come to the memorial events but having organised the bench and the website last year I feel I've come to terms with things and believe this is the right time for the book to be published."
The first chapter is carried on the web-site and goes into detail about Stuart's birth in Manchester, his parents' background and the family's move back to Scotland when he was six months old.
Gwenda was in West Fife this week taking photographs at the home where Stuart grew up in Crossgates and the home he had in the centre of Dunfermline.
It was in Crossgates Institute that Stuart rehearsed with his first band Tattoo before he formed the Skids.
Omnibus Press, the world's biggest publisher of books on the music industry, have been in touch with Gwenda to say they are interested and she is planning to have a meeting with them.
The opening extract of the book gives an indication of the detail Gwenda has gathered. The first chapter 'The Birth of a Star' begins:
"It was 2.55pm, Thursday the 11th April 1958, when William Stuart Adamson was born into the world.
The proud parents Anne Latta (mother maiden name Muir) and William Stuart Adamson (father) gave birth to their first born child a bouncing baby boy. It was a natural birth and infant weighed 8lb 4oz.
"The birth took place in the maternity unit at Park Hospital; Davyhulme in Manchester, Park Hospital is three quarters of an hour drive from the Adamson residence. The hospital was renamed on the 5th July 1988 as Trafford General Hospital marking the 40th Anniversary of the National Health Service.
"The Adamson family now complete classed 1958 as a year to remember, the birth of their first child. The proud parents named their first child William Stuart Adamson after his father and great grand-father."
It goes on, "Stuart was around six months old when they appeared in the electoral role register in Dunfermline in Fife."
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