LEADFINGER
Stewart ‘Leadfinger’ Cunningham has been playing rock'n'roll since 1985 when he was a young lad...after lots of gigs, songs and albums with rock bands like Brother Brick, The Proton Energy Pills, Asteroid B-612, Yes Men and then power-pop stuff with Challenger-7 he has decided to do something different and that is where you will find him with his new band called Leadfinger (pronounced Led-fin-ger) Following the great tradition of Scottish-born Aussie musicians like AC/DC, The Easybeats, Men at Work and James McCann, Leadfinger was born in Glasgow, Scotland and emigrated to Australia when he was 3 years old. He had heard that the music scene was happening over in Australia and that the weather was fine so he decided to leave bonnie Scotland and make his new home in Sydney, the capital city of high-energy rock’n’roll in Australia!
Inspired to play guitar in his youth by the great Detroit style bands – Radio Birdman, The Celibate Rifles, Stooges, The MC5 and later influenced by everything from Dylan to the Replacements and Sonic’s Rendezvous Band, all of Leadfinger’s bands have released great original recordings on a multitude of different record labels in Australia and overseas – Dog Meat, Au-Go-Go, White Jazz, Estrus and Bang! to name a few. He has always worked as an independent artist and is often a step ahead of the latest trends. This resulted in Leadfinger becoming a virtual underground legend around the world…his name whispered in revered tones in fanzines, blogs, e-zines and record reviews as his rebel reputation and the quality of the work he was involved in gradually became known. At least he is persistent!
A bit of a stranger to local success, Leadfinger has survived by playing music in fits and spurts, in between working the odd job…shearer, dishpig, gopher, dole bludger and coporate drone…. but all the time playing and continuing to explore his love of guitar based music. With each new effort he always comes back a more accomplished writer, singer and player, not prepared to stay in the same place and with a better appreciation of his craft continually developing. A love of good songs and artistic desire being the drive that keeps him playing.
You are probably wondering why the hell he is called Leadfinger....well it was originally just a fun nickname coined by some old bandmates back in the mid 1990's, mainly in reference to his supposedly heavy guitar style. It came about after his brother shot him with a high-powered air rifle - the lead pellet became imbedded in his left index finger. The 14 year old Leadfinger had to undergo a gruelling 10 minutes of surgery to remove the lead slug and it was touch and go for a while whether he would lose the finger. In some ways it is amazing that he was able to play guitar. As for the air rifle - it disappeared fairly quickly after his mum found out what happened…if music is the food of love, play on.
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Leadfinger Live at The Hoey - July 2007
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