by Alex Lloyd Gross
Al Stewart, the man that brought you Year Of the Cat and Time Passages is returning to the Keswick Theater this Friday night. When asked about it, Stewart said “We’ll be up to the same nonsense as before. I’ve got the Empty Pockets with me as a backing band” so he is able to play songs off his records the way they should be played.
Al Stewart is no stranger to this area, he remembers the show at the Spectrum with EKO that he calls “The absolute worst show I’ve ever done in North America. ELO’s van broke down and they did not even get in until about 11:00 PM. The promoter did something he really should not have done, it was silly and I don’t know why he did it. He told the audience to go away and come back about 10:00 PM. What they did was they all went out and got drunk. The crowd was yelling and throwing things and the promoter was supposed to go out and introduce me. He would not do that. What he did do was to push me from behind into this booing raucous. It was just me and my guitar. For half an hour we exchanged insults, they were yelling a booing and a complete catastrophe. I thought it was because the people never heard of me but when ELO came on they booed them too. Many years later I had dinner with Jeff Lynne and he did not remember anything about it”, Stewart said.
Then there was a free gig at a club in July 1996 where bikers confronted him after the show about not playing Nostradamus. In 1985 Stewart played the Chestnut Cabaret. “I have fond memories of that, we played there three or four times and it was the complete opposite”. There once was a tradition with Stewart shows where the crowd would sit and pass Stewart notes. “I have not done that recently, I think it was just something we did at that period in time,” Stewart said.
Al Stewart is known for chatting about the next song he is going to sing. “I don’t think the audience is all clued into Bristish naval history of the 16th century. It’s what folk singers do and you better know who to talk to an audience because if you don’t they are going to get bored very quickly,” Stewart said.
Lots of people tell Stewart after seeing him they go to the library or go online to look up the characters he is singing about.
Alex Lloyd Gross File Photo Al Stewart during a recent show at the Keswick Theater.
Stewart made it perfectly clear “I am not retiring. I am doing a Farewell tour of the UK. The promoters of his North American tour have simply used that . I do want to take a break . I want to write a book. It’s not going to have anything to do with music. I want to write a modern version of Alice In Wonderland.
Stewart is playing the Keswick Friday, September 5 2025.