Majicat.com
Est. 1999

logomaji1.gif (23692 bytes)

I raise my hand and touch the wheel of change
taking time to check the dial

                                                                      Home      Articles     Messageboard  

I recieved this newspaper article from the June 25, 1977 Daily Mirror newspaper many years ago as a teenager. I had a very sweet and dear teenage penpal from the East Side of London, who I corresponded with and would exchange newspaper clippings and articles about Cat Stevens, as she knew I was a huge fan of his. In return I would send her articles and clippings of the people she was a fan of at the time. So this article is very special to my heart, as they came from a very special friend from my youth. Thank you Olive George, for these wonderful articles. Can you believe I held onto it all these years?

Special note to Olive:   If you are reading this, please send me an e-mail I would love to hear from you again, and catch up on old times and reconnect with you after all these years.....Christine.

 


A CAT WHO WALKS ON HIS OWN

By Bill Haggerty
Daily Mirror
Saturday June 25, 1977
 

(Being on stage makes me nervous. I’m scared people expect to much’)

Mirpixa.jpg (16729 bytes)

Cat Stevens: " There is always something more to say"

 

 
 
Ask Cat Stevens if he is happy and he tells you: "It’s a good time for me._____ I’m content___I’ve got most of what I want."
 
What, then, is it he wants but doesn’t have?
 
"I want to be happy," says Cat Stevens,

 

 

 

This brief snatch of conversation may give you some indication of the complexities of the Cat, a star for ten years now and still staggering as he comes off the bend on the final lap of a marathon identity crisis.

A teenage success with a bunch of pop singles like "I Love My Dog" and "Matthew and Son." Stevens—he will be 30 next month — caught tuberculosis and was out action for a year.

It was during this period of recover and convalescence that he plunged into the serious self - examination that was radically to change his direction of his life and his work.

‘That’s when I grew my beard, which is now my identity," he says, peering from behind dark glasses In his New York hotel room while on a visit from his home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Paper

"In the hospital I covered all the mirrors with paper for a time because I really was going through this problem of finding my real self."

"When I finally took down the paper there was this beard: And it looked so right."

I believe that any trauma can be used positively or negatively.

"After my illness, for example, I could say, gone through life worrying about not having enough jumpers on. But instead I said to myself. ‘Wow! I’m happy to be alive, and took a direction I’d missed before."

Physically that direction took him to Rio. Looking for sunshine, he jumped on a plane, having no Idea how far away Rio was, and liked it so much that he decided to stay.

"I arrived the week before Carnival I and all these incredible people were dancing through the streets, I thought the whole place had gone mad. "Then I got the bug and now I get a terrific creative charge just from being there.

Son of a Cypriot father—dad still runs a restaurant in the West end of London—and a Swedish mother, Cat is sensitive, perceptive and as the ten original albums he has made prove, vastly talented.

When it comes to interviews, however, he is far from articulate, a fact he recognizes and acknowledges at one point by grinning and saying " Sorry I can’t remember what we were talking about.’

We were ta1king about his shyness.

I’m basically shy. That’s why started writing songs as a way of expressing myself."

"I like being on stage, but that makes me nervous, too. I’m scared that people will expect too much. All I’m realty selling is my own taste, you see, and I want people to share in it, and if they don’t I feel rejected.

Stevens says he has shed most of the feelings of guilt that once inhibited him. One of them was over the amount of money he earned, but now be is involved with a number of charities, a subject he is loath to discuss.

"The funny thing is." he says, "as I live in Rio everybody thinks tax exile, yet the amount I’ve spent on traveling and doing this and that, well, I don’t think that I’m any better off than I would have been had I stayed and paid the tax.

With his latest album, "Izitso," in both the British and the American charts and the single from it, " Remember The Days of the Old Schoolyard" and set for chart entry, professionally standing has never been higher.

Privately, however, he is something of a loner. A single man, he has nobody with whom to share his Success.

‘True." he says, "and that does occupy my thoughts. But I believe that God give me that, vhen the time is right.

"I believe in Allah, in God and in living by his laws. I’m not afraid of death—If one Is going to be afraid of something, it’s eternity that scares me!"

Having demonstrated that his is an enduring talent, Stevens is wealthy enough not to have to worry where his next guitar string is coming from. What then keeps him working?

Yes, I could stop today doing what I’ve always thought I was meant to do. But there are so many things left unsaid. There’s always something more to say… It’s when you have nothing left to say that you’d better shut up

Deal

He does not see a great deal of his family, but I Cat—he’s really Stephen Georgiou and they still call hint Steve — maintains a close relationship with them.

"Dad’s restaurant is doing really well because it’s Jubilee year," he says.

The first question I always ask him when I phone is, ‘How’s business?"‘ And he always says: ‘How’s business with you?’"

He smiles broadly.

Business is obviously cool for Cat.

 

 

This site is best viewed on "800 x 600" screen resolution.
Site Creator - Christine Chenevey   
Special Thanks To:   Jill Mallow, *Keith Balaam, George Brown, Linda Crafar, Bruce Lawrie, DJ Illingworth, Gerardo Roman, Chris & Annie Abrams, Patricia Squillari, Harry Schmieder, Sue Vukson and all who have contributed either with material or support to help make Majicat magical.
* This site is dedicated in the memory of Keith Balaam. ---<----<----@