Soul man Stuart has Stax of talent

MUSIC EXTRA: AN exceptional talent with an incredible voice, Oldham’s self-proclaimed soul man Stuart Widdall is still going strong after more than five decades in the music business.

It’s been an amazing career for Delph-based Stuart (66), the popular singer in legendary tribute outfit Stax of Soul and now main man in the Soul Amigos.

He has shared a stage with the one and only Edwin Starr, recorded singles and albums and packed out venues across the land.

He might have a bus pass these days, but Stuart is set to continue to drive his own soul train for a few more years yet.

“As I always say to my wife and my daughters, if I’m a laughing stock I’ll jack it in straight away, but I think people are still getting enjoyment out of seeing an old man like me doing these things,” said Stuart. “If you’re not old, you can’t be a soul man! You’ll still be seeing the Soul Amigos on stage for quite some time yet.”

It has been a great, 52-year journey of soulful discovery for frontman Stuart, who kicked-off his amazing singing career at the age of 14 with TNT and the Dynamites, five of whom lived within doors of one another in Stag Pasture Road, Limeside.

Four years later in 1967 some of the members morphed into Harlem John’s Reshuffle — a soul-influenced band also heavily into the Oldham mod scene.

The band won a recording deal and their first single, “You Are The One I Love”, proved a moderate success - after being slated on the radio by Tony Blackburn!

Stuart later joined Listen for 12 months, then went solo as Paul Stewart before then featuring in two more bands, Fuel Injection and Cannon.

An almost decade-long break followed before Stuart joined Stax of Soul at the end of the 1980s - the start of a 20-year relationship.

Since 2011 Stuart has been with Soul Amigos — alongside keys man Don Parfitt, guitarist Darren Roberts and bassist Pete Clark.

“We have to modify our set from time to time to suit our audiences,” added Stuart.

“But whether it’s soul or mod stuff, we’ll keep doing it.”


LISTEN to Simon Smedley’s exclusive audio interview with Stuart Widdall :