CaTNiP
Johannisburg
Kapstadt
⭐ Australien:
22. November
Perth - Perth Arena
25. November
Adelaide - Botanic Park
27. + 28. November
Melbourne - Rod Laver Arena
2. Dezember
New South Wales - Roche Estate
4. Dezember
Sydney - Qudos Bank Arena
7. Dezember
Sydney - ICC Sydney Theatre
9. + 10. Dezember
Brisbane - Brisbane Entertainment Centre
✨
⭐ Neuseeland:
13. Dezember
Auckland - Vector Arena
14. Dezember
Auckland - Spark Arena
16. Dezember
New Plymouth - TSB Bowl of Brooklands
19. Dezember
Christchurch - Horncastle Arena
From Cat Stevens’s attic to peace train: Yusuf returns
Singer Cat Stevens, or Yusuf as he is known, has been trawling through the attic of his life — and there’s a lot of life to get through.
The 68-year-old English singer is close to completing his autobiography, to be published next year. “The process has been quite therapeutic for me,” Yusuf said in Sydney. “Up until now, it has all been a bit of a puzzle.”
Yusuf is in Australia to promote only his third Australian tour in 43 years, to take place in November and December. The shows, called A Cat’s Attic Peace Train Tour, will also have an autobiographical component and mark the 50th anniversary of the singer’s first album and the hit title song, Matthew and Son.
“I’ll have bits from my attic with me,” he said, “which is full of memorabilia, bits and pieces of my past that people find fascinating. To reveal some of that becomes quite theatrical.”
As Cat Stevens, the London-born artist became one of the most successful singer/songwriters of his generation in the 1970s, with hit albums such as Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat. Then in 1977 he converted to Islam, changed his name and quit music for 30 years.
During that time, he devoted himself to philanthropy, founding Muslim schools in London and elsewhere and working with various humanitarian aid charities, something he still does. He also attracted media attention in 1989 when he was alleged to have supported the fatwa calling for the killing of author Salman Rushdie, something he has always denied.
Now enjoying a music renaissance since releasing the album An Other Cup in 2006, Yusuf said he had no regrets about the decades he had spent away.
“The timing was right,” he said. “I’d been in show business from an early age as a teenager. I had never known anything else. Now, to bridge those two things and to be able to tour and go home and enjoy my wife’s cooking and my grandkids … it’s a wonderful gift.”
Yusuf performed in the US in September. The singer, who has condemned Islamic extremism, was denied entry to the US in 2004 after Homeland Security placed him on a watch list, but he was allowed entry two years later.
He said he wasn’t planning any visits there under the current presidency: “I think we could ride through the next four years without having to revisit Trump’s America and it would probably be much less of a headache.”
He is looking forward to his first Australian shows since 2010.
“Performing is more fun than it has ever been,” he said. “I used to think it was a bit of a toil in the old days. Now I find it quite fulfilling.”
The tour begins in Perth on November 22 and travels to Adelaide, Melbourne, the NSW Hunter Valley, Sydney and Brisbane.
[theaustralian.com.au, 27. März 2017]
Cat Stevens on re-entering a Beyonce music world as he plans 2017 Australia tour
It was back in 1971 that Cat Stevens first summoned us aboard his peace train in his anthemic hit song. But the sad fact is that train seems further from its destination now than it ever did.
However, Stevens remains philosophical, insisting his idealistic invitation has not been permanently derailed.
"I'm a realist, at the same time it doesn't stop me from dreaming. There's a child in every one of us and God forbid that we ever grow up."
"There's a lot of room on here but unfortunately there are people who seem to want to spend their lives blowing up the tracks of this peace train."
We're chatting in a busy lounge in Sydney's Intercontinental hotel but no one takes any notice of the quietly spoken, grey-bearded 69-year-old in T-shirt and jeans.
It's a far cry from the early 1970s when the young, outrageously photogenic Stevens had hit after hit with songs like Father and Son, Moonshadow and Morning Has Broken, making him a superstar on par with the likes of Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel.
Then in 1977, he famously renounced music, embraced Islam and adopted the name Yusuf Islam, dropping largely from public view.
It was, he says, all part of his lifelong search for peace.
"Peace is the defining object which we find very elusive in life," he says. "I was looking for that and that became more tangible when I was able to leave the music business."
"I have always felt a duty to my audience and my fans. Even walking away was a duty because I didn't want to be a hypocrite. I didn't want to stick around and try to say I was still on that path when I'd found what I was looking for."
When Stevens embraced Islam it was more of an "archaic, oriental culture" with little of the shrill politics that now swirl around the faith.
"Occasionally, you'd get a little bit of a jab against the Arabs you know, but it was all tongue in cheek," he says.
Then came the Iranian revolution and his adopted religion was on its way to becoming one of the defining political narratives of our era.
For nearly 20 years Stevens concentrated on relief work and education, in the process becoming a huge figure in the Muslim world.
He candidly refers to it as his "zealous period" – a period that came to an end about 10 years ago when he returned to the stage. He remains devout but has allowed other things back into his life – including music.
"One doesn't stay at the top of a mountain all the time," he says. "Eventually Moses comes down."
"The human connection that we need to make our life complete can't be experienced on a mountain. We only survive really as social creatures."
Having been away so long, re-engaging with the music business brought its challenges.
"It was kind of a different world, you know. There were like the Amy Winehouses and Beyonces around and I thought, wow, this is different."
There was also the thought of whether there would still be an audience for his music. Did people still want to listen to thoughtful lyrics clearly enunciated in, relatively speaking, simple settings?
"There was always a problem anyway, you know," he says. "When my music used to play, people used to stop dancing and sit down. They'd say, 'This is an interesting lyric'."
But he's been pleasantly surprised at the response from his old audience, who have returned, and the number of people who have come to his music afresh.
It turns out there has even been a prophetic aspect to some of the tunes written decades ago.
"I wrote songs at a young age that were quite mature in their way," he says. "I wrote one called I've Got A Thing About Seeing My Grandson Grow Old. That wasn't relevant then but it is today."
"It's really cool – now my grandson listens to it and says, 'My song! That's my song!'"
And his deeper message is perhaps even more relevant than ever in these fractured and fractious times.
"If you look at you know the rise of movements like ISIS, there's no wonder why I've come back singing again. Getting us back to that place in humanity when we can start to meet again and feel connections ... It's part of my role now to do that."
"Hope lies in being open-eyed and looking at this world as a possibility and as an opportunity, not as a lost case. Never."
[smh.com.au, 27. März 2017]
Yusuf, formerly Cat Stevens,
embraces return as a 'job to do'
Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, is finally back in the touring game after a 17-year break.
The 'Morning Has Broken' singer told The Project he decided to get back on stage after seeing how many terrible things were going on in the world.
"I said, 'I think it's time for me to sing 'Peace Train' again,' and that was the beginning," he said.
"The first time I was in front of 50,000 people again, I was going, the sound of the enthusiasm and the love which met me up there, was just incredible. And I thought maybe I've got a job to do."
And it's a job he's dived into headfirst.
"It's reconnecting with those souls and spirits that kind of missed me for a little bit, but it's great to be using music as healing some of the gaps which have appeared over the years," Yusuf said.
But there were some hiccups in this attempt to "rebuild humanity". He struggled to get a visa to re-enter the US - as a converted Muslim, he had to go through an extra step to get it reconfirmed.
For a man who's focused on peace, he says US President Donald Trump needs to "sort this out".
"He hasn't got much influence these days. That's the problem - it's all sort of dribbling down into the gutter. But he's a phenomenon, what can you say."
For Yusuf's tour, a return to New Zealand means a return to serenity. He was last in the country in 2010.
"It was such a beautiful place on this earth," he said.
"You're living in a place that's close to nature - you're actually on the edge of nature."
Yusuf will be playing shows in Auckland, Christchurch and New Plymouth while he's here - tickets are on sale from April 5.
[newshub.co.nz, 30. März 2017]
