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WOW Fireowl, beautiful pictures!!! Thanks so much for sharing with us. ;D

No problem taking pictures then

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I saw that Rowan was rumoured to be there, so I asked and the reply was...

DavidMJTDoyle
@sueljt Ronan came on during the encore and sang "Father & Son" with him. Ronan got a great reception from the crowd when he came on.

Why were they surprised by the break in Yusuf's singing? It has been publicised enough that it's what would be happening, it just goes to show, you can't please all of the people all of the time.

I don't understand why some would walk out half way through, why not at least wait until the end of the performance before judging!

IRISHTIMES.COM

The Irish Times - Saturday, November 14, 2009

NEW SONGS, NEW MOON




ARMINTA WALLACE
After more than two decades out of sight, Yusuf has recorded an album of pop songs and is in Dublin to bring his new show – and his Cat Stevens back catalogue – to his devoted fans


ONCE UPON a time there was a pop singer called Cat Stevens. He sounded great. He looked gorgeous. He sang gentle songs about love and angst and world peace. Then, to all intents and purposes, he disappeared. In his place was a robed figure called Yusuf Islam, a somewhat stern individual who explained that as a devout Muslim he could no longer appear on Top of the Pops .

And for more than two decades, that was pretty much that – until three years ago, when an album called An Other Cup reintroduced the artist now known simply as Yusuf. This weekend the same Yusuf arrives in Dublin with another new album, Roadsinger , and a live show which will give his fans the opportunity to hear him sing all the old favourites – Wild World, Peace Train, Father and Son – but which will also give the world a sneak preview of a new musical on which he has been working for almost a decade.

If it were fiction, the story of Yusuf would be more Harry Potter -esque fantasy than hard-rock history. It’s a story of contrasts, that’s for sure. Put Roadsinger into the CD player and you hear – in this collection of mildly bluesy pop songs “to warm you through the night” – the sweet-voiced Cat Stevens of old. Look at photos and you see a dignified, 60-something Muslim paterfamilias. Listen to him speak, however, and his voice still has the cheeky chappie cadences of his native city.

Does Yusuf get tired of people listening to his album and telling him he sounds just like he used to when he was Cat Stevens?

“No, it’s nice to hear that,” he says. “It’s welcome. Because a lot of people might have thought – because of the way that my image per se had changed through the media – that my actual persona would change as well. But, in fact, you never really stop being yourself, you know? Your voice is the main conveyer of who you are. So it’s really good to hear that.”

The album, then, is about the continuity of his life as much as the changes he has lived through.

“Yeah. It’s also about the world. I’ve been writing about the world, and things have changed, yet the same problems seem to affect most people. The same things touch us, with regard to relationships. Father and Son , for instance, has always been the song of mine that everybody relates to, because they’ve all felt those things. And Wild World . It’s still that way. The world is still incredibly wild, if not wilder than when I wrote it.”

But what about the new songs? Thinking ’Bout You , for example. With James Morrison on backing vocals, acoustic guitar intro and lines such as “when I hold your hand, I could fly a zillion miles with you”, it could be filed happily under “straightforward love song”. That’s if one hadn’t read up on Yusuf’s Islamic beliefs, which lead one to suspect that it might also have a theological meaning.

“Well, it’s open to interpretation,” says Yusuf. “For me, it’s a divine love song. But it’s also a recognition of love for a person who makes this world better. And that could be your wife, you know, your son, your daughter. It could be anyone.”

Only time will tell whether his new songs will generate as much affection as his old ones. But the impulse behind the songwriting still seems primarily a melodic one. Many years ago, in his Cat Stevens days, Yusuf told an interviewer that when writing a song he always began with the melody. Is this still the case?

“Yeah, I can’t get away from that,” he says. “I get excited and inspired by a mood, or by harmony, or by a chordal sequence. That will take me in a new direction, where I’ll explore something I’ve never done before. Usually it’s the music that takes me there. The words . . . sometimes I can jot down an idea and that might fall into place somewhere along the line. But when it comes down to it, when I write songs I sort of . . . I do these vowel sounds. The words don’t really mean anything, you know? It’s mumbo-jumbo. But in the end I’ll go, ‘Oh – that sounds like I’m saying this’. And then it gives me an idea and my mind just picks up on it.”

HIS MOST AMBITIOUS idea at the moment is Moonshadow . At the 02 tomorrow, his Dublin audience will get the first peek at part of what will one day be a fully-fledged musical.

“It tells the story of a world not unlike ours,” he says. “The difference is that this planet is locked in a permanent night. There’s only one singular moon providing permanent light – and therefore everybody has to work incredibly hard to pay for the light and heat to keep themselves alive.” And of course the power and energy are controlled by a shadowy organisation on a remote mountain. “But there’s one young boy – a dreamer, really – and he has this vision of another world where there’s a glorious ball of light suspended in the sky, providing free light and heat to everybody on the planet. At one point, when everything goes terribly wrong for him, he meets his moonshadow – it’s kind of like meeting your conscience – and he’s inspired to take the step to find the lost world.”

I’ve read somewhere that what inspired Yusuf to take an interest in Islam was the adhan , or call to prayer. Is that true?

“No,” he says. “I mean, there are so many myths that it would be difficult to go through and tick off all of them. No, my approach to Islam came through reading. In 1975 I was given a copy of the Koran by my brother. I had been studying Eastern philosophies and religions for many years, but I’d avoided Islam – subconsciously, I suppose. I mean, my father was Greek, and Muslims were Turks as far as we were concerned, and so I didn’t even bother. And then here was the Koran. When I began to read it, it began to dawn on me that this wasn’t actually a new religion. It was instead going back to the Abrahamic faith from which the Christian and Jewish faiths also sprang. It was the final piece of a puzzle which had eluded me for a long time.”

He has, however, recorded the call to prayer on the album Footsteps in the Light . It’s a collection of Islamic traditional songs and hymns, some written as teaching guides for his own children, including A is for Allah .

As it turns out, Yusuf was writing and singing gentle songs about love, angst and world peace all through his 20-year “silence” – they just weren’t on the radar of western secular society. There has been much debate about why he gave up the music business and why he took it up again but as he told the BBC interviewer Alan Yentob when he “reappeared”, it’s quite simple. “You can argue with a philosopher, but you can’t argue with a good song. And I think I have a few good songs. In the end, that’s what I do best,” he says. “I love melodies; I love stories; and I love storytelling. I go back to the old tradition of folk music, where people documented life in their songs. They sang about work, and at work. They sang about family and life and God.”

Speaking of family tradition, Yusuf’s son has also taken up a musical career. “He has formed this group called Noxshi, and they have quite an interesting avant-garde sound. A bit space-rock, you know? Not quite Daddy’s music.” He laughs. “But nevertheless exciting.”
As for Yusuf, he plans to keep writing and recording new songs. “I seem to be quite prolific these days,” he says. At the moment I’m concentrating on the gigs – but I’ve got a lot of songs and ideas which I want to record as I go.” This, despite the kind of reservations about the music industry which took him out of it in the first place? “Well, I’m one of what you might call the heritage artists, so I have a pretty comfortable time,” he says. “These days, with rapid star-making through X Factor and other things, you know, it has become quite crude. But because I happen to have this status I don’t need to go that way.

“There are still things about this business whereby it’s easy for things to get out of hand. One of the things I’m trying to do right now – through my concerts – is try to get closer to my audience. There’s nothing better than being live in front of your friends and fans and those who want to listen to you. And that’s great. And that bypasses all the other rubbish.” So the journey continues? “Yeah – and it is a journey. It is exactly that. You don’t stop till you reach there. And in the end, it’s gonna be God that you face.”

A CAT'S NINE LIVES

1948 Born Steven Demetre Georgiou into a Greek-Cypriot family in London and grows up above a restaurant not far from Piccadilly Circus

1966 Bursts on to the music scene as fresh-faced teenager Cat Stevens with the hit song I Love My Dog . His follow-up single, Matthew and Son , hits the charts running.

1967 At 19, he is very ill with tuberculosis and a collapsed lung. During many months recuperating in hospital, he begins to question his celebrity lifestyle, and develops an interest in matters spiritual.

1970 Armed with a beard and a batch of new songs, he signs to Island Records and records Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat .

1977 In December 1977 he converts to Islam and announces that he is quitting the music industry for good. The following year, he takes the name Yusuf Islam. He marries, has five children and donates great swathes of his royalties to charitable causes. He founds the Small Kindness charity, which supports orphans and families in the Balkans, Indonesia and Iraq.

2004 he records Father and Son with Ronan Keating – Boyzone had had a hit with the song a decade earlier – with proceeds going to Band Aid.

2006 Releases An Other Cup , his first pop album in more than two decades.

December 2006 he performs at the Nobel Peace Prize concert in honour of Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank.

July 2007 he plays a fundraiser for Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Peace Centre, and is on the German Live Earth.

Yusuf plays at the O2, Dublin, tomorrow

Very nice find, Christine Thanks

WOW!!! Nice find, Gabi. Thanks

Yusuf Islam attends photocall to launch his 'Guess I'll Take My time Tour' which starts in Dublin on November 15th at Elstree Studios on November 12, 2009 in Borehamwood, England.








Yusuf, must have likes the look of that picture of Regii and me, sitting in the camper van. Hehe... (picture taken by Jane)

























Noel Sullivan, ex member of band Hear'Say,performs at a photocall to launch Yusuf Islam's 'Guess I'll Take My Time' tour, which starts in Dublin on November 15, at Elstree Studios on November 12, 2009 in Borehamwood, England.

Helen +1
Doreen +1
Aurelia +1
Walter +1
Jo(Tediber)+1
Peritura +?
Sue +1

Anymore for Birmingham?

Helen, has made a suggestion, that we could meet at The Malt House, opposite the NIA
We will be there from 3pm

It's great to hear you have your tickets, Doreen, I hope ours will be here tomorrow!

Here's the link

Thanks for the heads up, Vicki

Yusuf, does it again Whoo Hoo!!!
CONGRATULATIONS!

Nov 2 2009 by Andrew Coleman, Birmingham Post



Birmingham audiences to get preview of Yusuf Islam's new musical

Yusuf Islam is about to see a long-held ambition come true, he tells Andy Coleman

Light to shine on

a musical dream

A long-held ambition by The Artist Formerly Known As Cat Stevens to write a stage musical has been realised – and Birmingham fans will be among the first to see a preview.

The singer, who changed his name to Yusuf Islam after his conversion to Islam in 1979, will showcase Moonshadow during his show at Birmingham NIA on November 23.

“In the first half of the show I’m going to do an acoustic set that will be very personal and intimate but after the interval we’re planning to surprise the audience with a whole new world which they’re going to get into called Moonshadow,” says Yusuf who last week picked up Q Magazine’s Classic Songwriter Award.

“It will be a short part of the first section of the musical with a cast of about 11. The part I play is a surprise – you’ll just have to be there!”

The cast includes former Hear’Say singer Noel Sullivan as the hero.

“He’s a great singer, he knocked us out at the audition,” Yusuf says.

“I’ve always wanted to write a musical. This one came when I read a mythical story about a place of permanent night time where there’s only a solitary moon and no days so people have to work endlessly to pay for light and heat which is controlled by powers in the distant mountains. The story is about a young boy who had a dream of the Land of the Lost Sun and he meets his Moonshadow which inspires him to leave home for a journey to find that mythical place.

“When I got that story I realised that a lot of my songs fitted in. For instance, when he leaves home you’ve got the Father and Son scenario. Another beautiful moment in the story is when the mother is pining over the boy when he leaves home and she sings Wild World.”

Moonshadow is set for a West End run in the new year and there has also been interest in taking it to Australia.

It’s a real return to the limelight for Yusuf who vanished from the mainstream music scene for the best part of 30 years.

Prompted by his son bringing a guitar home one day and rediscovering a yearning to play the instrument, he recorded the album An Other Cup in 2006.

“Throughout the 90s I was head of a record label that was producing songs for the children of the Muslim community,” he recalls. “There weren’t any songs in English for Muslim children to sing. The first song I wrote was A is for Allah which I thought was an obvious title that somebody should have thought of before me, but it seems nobody did.

“I was producing all these children’s albums and I was doing a lot of work in South Africa. It was there that I did my first re-recording of Peace Train with a great African chorus. It was very inspired and got me going a little bit.”

Yusuf explains that a charity song he wrote in aid of the Tsunami victims got his creative juices flowing further and it led to An Other Cup.

“People were so welcoming and positive about it, and just happy to hear my voice again, I think.

“I started writing a whole new bunch of songs which were much more simple, a little bit more leaning towards Tea For The Tillerman era when it was just guitar, very acoustic, very raw and minimalistic. I recorded them without a producer and things went so fast.”

The result was this year’s Roadsinger album which includes four songs that will be in Moonshadow – World Of Darkness, Be What You Must, This Glass World and Shamsia.

If he’d had his way he’d have been writing musicals since his teens.

Yusuf was born Steven Georgiou in 1948 and his family lived above the Moulin Rouge, the cafe they ran in the capital’s West End.

“I was surrounded by theatres, cinemas, clubs, places with jukeboxes,” he says. “I was really living in that world, almost on stage.”

When he first started writing songs and performing in the early 1960s, he was enthralled by rock ‘n’ roll and blues, but ultimately wanted to follow in the footsteps of his heroes George and Ira Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein.

But the quality of the songs he was writing and their subsequent success meant that decision was taken away from him. He remained a mainstream pop artist until 1968, when he suffered a vicious bout of tuberculosis.

“After contracting TB, I slightly retreated from the pop world and I came back with a whole new vision,” he explains.

“A musical was the first thing I wanted to do, so I got together with Nigel Hawthorn, who people know for Yes, Minister and things like that, and we were writing a story based on the story of Nicholas and Alexandra, with the Russian Revolution in the background.

“Father And Son is actually one of the songs that came from the musical. Even before that, if you go right back to I’m Gonna Get Me A Gun from 1967, that was really an outcome of my intention to write a musical about Billy The Kid.”

He took a selection of new songs to Chris Blackwell at Island Records and suggested a musical. Blackwell, however, was convinced they could be hit records – and he was right.

But Yusuf wasn’t entirely comfortable with his position, and when his brother David handed him a copy of the Qur’an, the central Islamic text, on his 28th birthday, he found what he’d been looking for all along.

“I knew a little of the religion in the early 70s but totally discounted it,” he says. “It wasn’t until I had a copy of the Book that I really understood.

“If you build your context of life based on second-hand understanding, you’ll never get to the root,” he adds.

His conversion and subsequent withdrawal from popular culture was met with suspicion, with many fans feeling alienated or even let down.

“It did upset some people, but I had to get away from that image.

“I thought ‘This is the point where it takes control of my life, or I can do something about it,’ so I decided to take really control of my life instead.

“In the music business, there are always demands being made by other people, but I knew I had a chance to live my life my way, and now I don’t need to answer to anyone except God.”


I have a feeling this will be at all of the concerts, not just at Birmingham!

Sue

Thanks for the link Aurelia

Here are some screen shots taken from the video

See Yusuf, from 4:03

Don't be worried, Meg, it says in the confirmation email "Tickets will be despatched as soon as possible, but may not be received until 7-10 days before the event. Please do not contact us unless you have not received your tickets within 7 days of the event."

HERE ARE SOME PICTURES

Yusuf starts just after 53 minutes in.

Here are some screenshots from the film

Yusuf's Offices where the Redroom is