Al Stewart last appeared at the Cheese and Grain in 2001 and in the intervening years, his profile and popularity have risen dramatically. Recent UK visits have seen him sell out London’s Albert Hall on two occasions.
Now, he is returning to the Frome venue on Saturday 13th May.
He received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in April, taking place at The Royal Albert Hall where he also performed. He is currently taking on a “Back to the Bedsit” tour of the UK taking in many major concert halls, including Bridgwater Hall Manchester, The Sage Newcastle, Royal Concert Hall Glasgow and The London Palladium.
He is joined on this tour by his long time associate guitarists, Dave Nachmanoff and Tim Fenwick, performing songs from Al’s classic albums. Al Stewart, singer/songwriter, and folk musician has been writing songs for 50 years. He rose to prominence in the late 60s as part of the British Folk Revival, developing his unique style of combining folk/rock songs with delicately woven tales of the great characters and events from history.
His first three albums “Bedsitter Images”, “Zero She Flies” and Folk Album of the Year “Love Chronicles” were hugely popular. A little known fact – his lead guitarist was Jimmy Page on those albums (about to form the fledgling Led Zeppelin). invited him to join the band as they were looking for a bass player! He played the first Glastonbury festival in 1970, and shared a flat in East London with Paul Simon.
He was a regular at all the many famous London folk clubs, The Troubadour, Bunjies and was the MC at Les Cousins. He moved quickly to the concert halls, and being signed by CBS and then RCA, led to his work reaching American audiences.”Year of The Cat” and “Time Passages” were both top 10 albums in the States reaching Platinum status sales. Several years ago, Al received an award for chart hit “Year of the Cat” getting 5million plays on US radio alone! He moved to California in the 70s where he still resides.
Al Stewart has released 19 studio albums. He returned to play at Glastonbury’s 25th Anniversary. He has performed at every major concert hall in the UK, Europe and USA.
Tickets are £32 in advance and £38 on the door.
For more information visit http://www.cheeseandgrain.com/
