Al Stewart

Alastair Ian "Al" Stewart (born 5 September 1945) is a Glasgow-born singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician who rose to prominence as part of the British folk revival in the 1960s and 1970s. He developed a unique style of combining folk-rock songs with delicately woven tales of characters and events from history.
Stewart is best known for his 1976 hit single "Year of the Cat", the title song from the platinum album of the same name. Though Year of the Cat and its 1978 platinum follow-up Time Passages brought Stewart his biggest worldwide commercial successes, earlier albums such as Past, Present and Future from 1973 are often seen as better examples of his intimate brand of historical folk-rock ... (Read more at Wikipedia.)
== Links to Peel ==
Al Stewart made his name on the mid-1960s Soho folk scene, for a time working as compere at the Les Cousins club which featured many performers who would later appear on Peel's shows, among them Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Davy Graham, John Martyn, Roy Harper, Sandy Denny,  the Incredible String Band and the Young Tradition. Like them, Stewart began to develop a wider following in 1967-8, the time when Peel was doing his early Top Gear and Night Ride programmes for the BBC. Yet before becoming an acoustic singer-songwriter, he had played electric guitar in various bands in the Bournemouth area, including one whose lead singer was Tony Blackburn.
Like most of the artists mentioned above, Al Stewart moved from folk clubs to larger venues - concert halls, college and university gigs, rock clubs and festivals - and exposure on Peel's shows, along with other BBC appearances, helped him develop a wider audience. Peel liked Stewart's work enough to book him for seven sessions between 1968 and 1974. On his final session he was backed by a band including former members of Curved Air, and this indicated the less "folky" direction he would take in his later work. In 1975 he teamed up with Alan Parsons, a producer who specialised in the kind of elaborate studio productions which were highly popular in the 1970s, yet weren't to Peel's taste. Stewart's "Year of the Cat" was a hit in both Britain and the USA, where the singer's following rapidly grew. It was the biggest commercial success by any artist who had graduated from the 1960s British folk scene, but Peel only seems to have played it once - in 1990, by which time it was an "oldie" (and even that is debatable; it would appear actually to have been the first record on Nicky Campbell's show). In the 1970s and '80s, Al Stewart's records continued to receive airplay on BBC shows and independent radio stations, "Year of the Cat" in particular being one of the major radio hits of its era - but they were absent from Peel's playlists.
== Festive Fifty Entries ==
*None
== Sessions ==
Seven sessions. No known commercial release.
1. Recorded 1968-05-08.Broadcast 29 May 1968.
* The Carmichaels / Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres / Room Of Roots / Song For Jim / Samuel Oh How You’ve Changed
2. Recorded 1968-08-12 . First broadcast 18 August 1968. Repeat 15 September 1968.
* Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres / You Should Have Listened To Al / Don’t Believe You / Old Compton St. Blues / Good As Gone (first broadcast 15 September 1968) / In Brooklyn (first broadcast 15 September 1968)
3. Recorded 1969-08-08. Broadcast 20 August 1969. Not noted on date pages in Ken's Book The Peel Sessions but noted in sessions list at end. It seems that this session was recorded for the conventional Night Ride presented by Jon Curle, not Peel's "nameless show" or "son of Night Ride"
* The Sparrow / My Enemies Have Sweet Voices / Memphis, Tennessee / Clifton In The Rain / Gethsemane Again / Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres / Burbling
4. Recorded 1969-08-15. Broadcast 27th August 1969. Not noted on date pages in Ken's Book The Peel Sessions but noted in sessions list at end.It seems that this session was recorded for the conventional Night Ride presented by Jon Curle, not Peel's "nameless show" or "son of Night Ride"
* Don’t Believe You / The Ballad Of Mary Foster Pt 1 / The Ballad Of Mary Foster Pt 2 / Blessed / Zero She Flies / Scandinavian Girl
5. Recorded 1969-12-01. First broadcast 13 December 1969. Repeat 02 May 1970.
*Zero She Flies / Burbling / Electric Los Angeles Sunset / Manuscript (first broadcast 02 May 1970)
6. Recorded 1972-03-08. First broadcast 24 March 1972. Repeat 28 April 1972.
*A Small Fruit Song / You Don't Even Know Me / Old Compton St. Blues / Zero She Flies / Absolutely Sweet Marie (not broadcast until 28 April 1972 repeat) / I'm Falling (not broadcast until 28 April 1972 repeat)
7. Recorded 1974-01-07. Broadcast 10 January 1974. No repeats. Billed as 'Al Stewart & Friends.'
*Post World War II Blues / Soho Needless To Say / Roads To Moscow
== Live ==
*17 May 1970: live concert show also featuring Bridget St John, Kevin Ayers
== Other Shows Played ==
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;1960s
*19 November 1967: Bedsitter Images (7") CBS
*24 April 1968: Samuel Oh How You've Changed (album - Bedsitter Images) CBS 63087
*26 January 1969: You Should Have Listened To Al (album - Love Chronicles)
*16 February 1969: 'Life And Life Only (LP-Love Chronicles)' (CBS) (JP mentions that one of the musicians on this album, "the legendary Simon Breckenridge", is in the studio and told him that Jimmy Page played guitar on this track)
*23 March 1969: Old Compton Street Blues (LP - Love Chronicles) CBS
;1970s
*28 February 1970: Electric Los Angeles Sunset (single) CBS
*07 March 1970: A Small Fruit Song (LP - Zero She Flies) CBS
== See Also ==
*Record Collection: V&A LPs
*ABC Of Beauty
*Singles Reviews
*Gigography 1967 
*Gigography 1969 
*International Times: Perfumed Garden Column
== External Links ==
*Wikipedia
* Official site
* Other
Category:Artists