Sweet Dreams were made of this...

Dave Stewart on coming full circle.. and his venture giving artists support

- TOM BRYANT

SWEET dreams came true for Dave Stewart when he returned to his native northeast of England to play two sold-out gigs and discovered where he was staying that night.

His brush with the past was far closer than he had expected because his accommodation was opposite his tiny childhood home in Sunderland.

Dave says: "The only Airbnb in the area was in Barnard Street where I lived until I was 10 in this tiny Coronation Street-type house. I couldn't believe it but I was literally opposite the bedroom window in which I grew up.

"It was almost as if I was looking in." For Eurythmics legend Dave, 73, now one of Britain's most successful songwriters and producers, it was an emotional full circle moment.

He says: "I remember vividly the little cobbled street road that we would play football on. And my dad's tiny little workshop in between the back wall and the house, where he used to make furniture. It was very moving to be back there."

It was in this house that Dave harboured his dream of playing football for Sunderland.

He says: "As a kid, it was all I wanted to do. Till I was 14 I never listened to music at all."

But a serious injury changed everything. He says: "This kid broke my knee in three places. My mum left my dad. It's another whole story. But music came into my life."

Not long after that tough time, he had a guitar in his hands and a head full of songs.

He goes on: "When I was learning the guitar at 15 or 16, the first songs were a couple of blues songs and then a whole Bob Dylan album."

But finding somewhere to play was hard.

He says: "I tried to get into a folk club but I looked about 12."