Eric Blackwood

NYC's Eric Blackwood was born in Brooklyn & raised in Staten Island NY, the son of an ER Nurse and a notorious gangster. He is the brother of actor Garry Pastore (Sopranos/The Deuce) & cousin to Vinny Pastore (Big Pussy of the Sopranos). Eric Blackwood is the lead singer/lead guitarist/bassist for the Marillion "side project" Edison's Children starring Pete Trewavas (Marillion/Transatlantic) & Rick Armstrong (Son of Astronaut Neil Armstrong). Eric is also an On-Set Property/Special FX Technician for IATSE Local 52 and has helped create more than 165 Major Motion Pictures and Television dramas including Spiderman 3 / I Am Legend / Bourne Ultimatum / Men In Black 3 / Law & Order. Eric has worked under such esteemed Directors as Marty Scorsese / The Coen Brothers / Woody Allen / Guy Ritchie / Kevin Smith / Nora Ephron / Sam Raimi / Ridley Scott and Darren Aronofsky. As a Property Technician and On Set Special FX Tech, Eric supported such actors as: Robert DeNiro, James Gandolfini, Michael Imperioli, Jennifer J-Lo Lopez, Justin Timberlake, Meryl Streep, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston, Halle Berry, Bruce Willis, Jude Law, Russell Crowe, Liam Neeson, Ashton Kutcher, Drew Barrymore, Denzel Washington, John Travolta, Morgan Freeman, Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Will Ferrell, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (of Game of Thrones "Jamie Lannister" fame); "Lost" actors Michael Emerson (famed for Ben Linus) & Terry O'Quinn (famed for John Locke). Some of Eric's famed FX stunts have included car crashes for Angelina Jolie in both "Wanted" and "Salt" and Matt Damon in both "Bourne" and "The Adjustment Bureau" as well as a full scale tank war for Ian McShane in "Kings" Eric has been an honorary member of Marillion's touring crew since 2004 and helped the Transatlantic Touring Crew for the Whirlwind North American Tour. He is also a noted author, photographing over 800 baseball parks around the world with his wife (Edison's Children & Rick Armstrong Album Cover artist/Photographer/Backing Vocalist/Property Technician) Wendy Darling Blackwood and co-authoring with her the famed coffee table book "500 Ballparks" Editions 1 & 2. Eric began his career at the WWOR-TV new "Superstation" supporting The Howard Stern Show and The New York Mets where he was introduced by the Howard Stern Show and Stuttering John to Deep Purple / Rainbow lead singer Joe Lynn Turner. This led to his newly formed band "Blackwood & Foti" recording their album "Haunted Memories" at Al Greenwood 's (Foreigner/Joe Lynn Turner) Rockin Reel Recording Studios with Dave Greenberg of Sly Boots Engineering. The "Haunted Memories" album featured Al Pitrelli (Asia/Alice Cooper/Founder of Trans Siberian Orchestra) on Lead Guitar & Vinny Conigliaro (Joe Satriani) on drums. Blackwood & Foti headlined the Wagner College Outdoor festival in Staten Island in front of 5000 and was broadcast through CCTV around NYC. Blackwood & Foti played on The Richard Bey Show (People Are Talking) at the WWOR-TV superstation. The songs that Anthony J. Foti & Eric Blackwood composed together have since appeared on the Grammy Ballot on 5 different occasions. Blackwood & Foti appeared for 7 weeks in the Gavin Report for Top 40 FM Radio play in America. After the Blackwood & Foti & the Eric Blackwood bands broke up, Eric stayed with his Lead Guitarist Mike Marchetta and formed the Hard Alternative Industrial Rock outfit Sunblister in the vein of Alice & Chains meets Tool, where he played bass for 7 years performing regularly at NYC's Webster Hall, CBGB's Le Bar Bat, The China Club, The Elbow Room, Kenny's Castaways, Red Door, The Red Lion, The Bitter End and The Wetlands. When Eric Blackwood supported Marillion on tour in 2004, Pete Trewavas "discovered" Eric's hidden talents as he was testing Steve Rothery's guitar & Steve Hogarth's Mic during a Marillion pre-sound check and playing his old Eric Blackwood Band set. After hearing "Stranger In A Foreign Land and Dusk, Pete asked Eric to form Edison's Children. Edison's Children's first album :In The Last Waking Moments" featuring every member of Marillion (and ex-Marillion Fish's Lead Guitarist Robin Boult) was released on 11.11.11. It remains the only non-Marillion album to feature every member of Marillion. Edison's Children would support Marillion during their "Brave Re-Tour" as their opening band in the UK, Amsterdam and Montreal and their Extra-Terrestrial themed album received high praise by Ancient Aliens producer Giorgio A. Tsoukalos and Neil Armstrong's family, with Eric asked to perform a personal concert for Giorgio and his wife Krix outside the Wicker Park Venue "Park West" in Chicago after a Marillion gig. Eric also met at that show with Astronaut Neil Armstrong's son Rick Armstrong who told him that he was so impressed by the 1st album that he had already learned to play every song on the album and would like to become a member of the project going forward. Rick Armstrong made his debut with Edison's Children joining Eric, Pete Trewavas and Lisa Wetton (wife of Asia Lead Singer John Wetton) in Montreal at Edison's Children's first live concert with the full band. (The progressive Rock Band Iluvatar had been utilized as Edison's Children's backing band.when Pete Trewavas was on tour with Marillion). The Edison's Children song "A Million Miles Away (I Wish I Had A Time Machine)" was listed in the Top 40 of FM Radio Play in the United States on the "FMQB Report" for a total of 10 weeks peaking at #32. 4 full length albums have since been released by Edison's Children with Pete Trewavas, Rick Armstrong, Henry Rogers and Lisa Wetton joining Eric Blackwood. Mixdown & Mastering has been performed by Marillion's MIke Hunter / Arena & Lonely Robot's John Mitchell / King Crimson's Jakko Jakszyk & Fish's Robin Boult dealing with Eric, Pete & Rick's cinematic concepts of the supernatural, extra-terrestrial & apocalyptical: - In The Last Waking Moments... - The Final Breath Before November - Somewhere Between Here and There - The Disturbance Fields (also available on Vinyl) Eric Blackwood took a break from the entertainment business after being severely injured in an on-set Special FX stunt for James Gandolfini's "The Drop". It was the 3rd time that Eric worked with the famed "Tony Soprano". A bite he had received from a Brown Recluse spider also left him with a rather vicious case of Lyme Disease which saw Eric in a wheelchair for nearly a year before a year of continuous Intravenous Therapy. These 2 separate incidents left Eric severely and permanently impaired. To celebrate Rick's father's 50th Anniversary landing on the moon, Edison's Children would co-headline with The Alan Parsons Project to perform a live concert at NASA ASF's Apollo 11 50th Anniversary special with "Porcupine Tree's" John Wesley and "IO Earth/Steve Wilson" drummer Mark Prator taking over on drums with Lisa Wetton moving to Keyboards. The grand finale was an encore of Alan Parson's "Games People Play" featuring Eric Blackwood, Pete Trewavas, Rick Armstong, Lisa Wetton and John Wesley joining Alan Parsons & his amazing live band in front of a crowd of several thousand people. Edison's Children had written nearly 200 songs by 2013 and many have yet to be released (including an entire album about a pandemic which was shelved after a pandemic actually happened). Rick Armstrong and Pete Trewavas are working to make all of Eric Blackwood's co-compositions come to fruition with new full length Edison's Children albums planned for the near future.