Peace Train youtu.be/gLG91tOLPdQ Toronto Star review of Yusuf/Cat Stevens Massey Hall Monday, Dec. 1, 2014 Ben Rayner Pop Music Critic, Published on Tue Dec 02 2014 In any case, for someone who’s spent much time in recent years arguing that he’s long been misrepresented as a solemn, stone-faced spokesman for Islam, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens has betrayed a self-aware sense of humour on a couple of levels by titling his current tour – his first of North America since 1976 – “Peace Train . . . Late Again!” He added an extra level at Massey Hall on Monday evening, too, by walking onstage 45 minutes beyond what was sternly billed as a hard 8 p.m. start time and coyly checking his watch as a recording of his younger self singing “How long, how long, has this peace train been gone?” played over the P.A. after the stringent security arrangements imposed upon the venue for the performance left most of the 2,700 fans in attendance straggling up to the doors in a chilly lineup that still stretched around the corner from Massey’s Shuter St. entrance south on Yonge Street nearly to Queen as the clock approached 8:30 p.m. Not a big deal in rock-show terms, all things considered. Some of us with experience in these matters merely went to a nearby pub with a view of the lineup on Yonge and sipped a pint while watching U2 and Bruce Springsteen on TV with a nice fella named Don until the crowd was no longer visible through the windows. Easy-peasy. But for folks who maybe hadn’t been to a show since Cat Stevens last played Massey Hall in 1976 – with guitarist Alun Davies then also at his side, if I’m not mistaken – and who had, in some cases, paid upwards of $275 for their tickets, the gate snafu was a major affront. People were pissed. All was, for the most part, instantly forgiven once Islam – who’s going by Cat Stevens again on this tour “because of the stigma attached to the name” that briefly had him on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s “no fly” list a few years ago – picked up an acoustic guitar and doled out “The Wind,” “Here Comes My Baby” and the ageless “The First Cut Is the Deepest” in flawless, if slightly hurried, succession. Time to kill meant time to drink, however, which liberated many in the room to let loose cries of “We love you, Cat!” and “Where ya been?” and, a couple of times, “We love you, Yusuf!” during the pauses between songs, but also emboldened the fairweathers in attendance to complain whenever the set list detoured into less familiar material from recent Yusuf recordings such as 2009’s Roadsinger and this year’s bluesy-dirty Tell ’Em I’m Gone. I had two of the drunkest and most yelling-est culprits within two rows and an aisle’s reach of me, respectively. One actually yelled “Play something we know for a change, you idiot!” after Stevens and the band took a decently gnarly run at the new “Editing Floor Blues,” while the other finally sent his own wife storming to the exit in disgust by exclaiming “Finally, something for the fans!” as “Oh Very Young” wound down. He followed her out and was, mercifully, never heard from again. You made the papers, though, bud. Congratulations. Hope you enjoy another day in the doghouse when one of the missus’s friends points this piece out to her at work this morning. But I digress. That sort of rude behaviour wouldn’t bear calling attention to were it not levelled at a performer who’s clearly done much heartfelt wrestling with the simple idea of performing to get in front of a crowd at Massey Hall again, and done a good job of it, to boot. See full article: thestar/entertainment/music/2014/12/02/yusufcat_stevens_overcomes_anger_over_long_lineup_in_triumphant_return.html
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 09:00:00 +0000
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