Al Stewart — Cadogan Hall, October 9

The songwriting career of Al Stewart goes back over half a century, so even though he has produced little or no new material over the past decade, there was still a lot of ground to cover. I’ve been a fan for most of that time, first hearing Al probably on Capital Radio around or just before the release of Year Of The Cat, ie 1976. The first time I saw him was at the Hammersmith Odeon when he performed solo. The only date that fits is December 10, 1980, which sounds about right. I was living in Leeds at the time, so it was a long journey the day of the concert, and an even longer one back on the milk train. On the off-chance there is a recording, when he asks the audience “What do you wanna hear?”, the bloke who shouted “Nostradamus” was me.

Nostradamus is one of his epic songs, so I wasn’t really expecting him to perform it Wednesday night, but Tanglewoods is based on it. The show began with his backing band The Empty Pockets performing their own set with multi-instrumentalist Marc Macisso coming in on harmonica for the third track. Although they look extremely youthful, they have actually been around more than a decade. As guitarists go, Josh Solomon is a fair substitute for Tim Renwick or Adam Yurman, or even Peter White on acoustic guitar. They ended with Tanglewoods.

Al Stewart in concert.

At the interval I managed to buttonhole keyboard player/vocalist Erika Brett, who is also Josh Solomon’s wife. I asked her if she realised Al had once lived just down the road from Cadogan Hall at Elvaston Place. She knew the song; she also knew about Al’s illustrious visitor there, so clearly these are dedicated acolytes.

After the interval, Al opened with Sirens Of Titan, a slightly off-beat choice; On The Border is a popular opening number, but when I saw him at Croydon in 2013 he was not performing with an electric band. The last time he did so was with Shot In The Dark save for the special Year Of The Cat events at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

After Sirens Of Titan we were treated to an electric version of Post World War Two Blues followed by Time Passages with Marc on sax, then Flying Sorcery followed by a new song, loosely based on Primo Carnera, then On The Border. After his anecdote about Robert Fripp, Midas Shadow seemed oddly out of place; this was followed by Broadway Hotel, which in the original album recording has a violin solo, but here Marc substituted on flute. With the enigmatic One Stage Before and the inevitable show closer, Al performed no fewer than six tracks from his biggest album. As we were literally a stone’s throw from King’s Road, Chelsea, it occurred to me he might have included Gina In The King’s Road, but it doesn’t appear to have occurred to him. Carol, the opening track from Modern Times would also have been thematic, but like I said, there is so much material to choose from.

As well as another new song, about the mythical Prester John, Al performed the autobiographical Almost Lucy sharing the lead vocal with Erika.

According to the programme, Al’s first four albums are his least favourite. While some criticism may be made of the production of Bedsitter Images, all four include some masterful pieces. Whatever his lyrical prowess, Al has consistently produced some exceptionally beautiful melodies like Song Out Of Clay from Orange and House Of Clocks from the much later Down In The Cellar.

The inevitable encore was anything but inevitable, a souped up version of another of Al’s epic songs, Roads To Moscow, another track from Past, Present & Future. The tour finishes at Basingstoke at the end of the month. And his next album? Al turned 74 last month, but we shall see.

[The above concert review was originally published on Medium, October 10, 2019].