- Sounds Magazine
- June 5, 1971
- Courtesy of Linda Crafar
-
Cat Stevens Faultless
Performance
Reviewed By Jerry Gilbert
For the second time in
a week the Guildford Civic Hall audience remained deceptively cool until just before the
end of the concert. On Sunday they had suddenly warmed to Stefan Grossman shortly before
the end, much to his surprise, and on Thursday (May 27th) the same fate befell
Cat Stevens. Not that his performance really calls for a wildly exuberant response anyway,
but I think he was justified in announcing: "I didn’t think you wanted me"
when the audience finally let him know what they thought.
In fact Cat gave a
faultless performance, which was almost too perfect at times, and it is sad that the
concert was far from being a sell out. The rhythm section of Harvey Burns (drums) and
Larry Steele (bass) were superb in their support, and, acoustic guitarist AIun Davies
filled out brilliantly and played some tasty lead parts without ever becoming obtrusive,
although I felt that more vocal support on his part was definitely called for. Cat centred
his performance around songs from his "Tea For The Tillerman" album, and early
on his set he moved from guitar to piano for a few numbers, of which "Sad Lisa"
was the most memorable.
"Miles From
Nowhere", "Wild World", "Hard Headed Woman", "Longer
Boats" and "Where Do The Children Play" were all played beautifully and it
is refreshing that a basically solo artist playing acoustic guitar can drum up so much
enthusiasm on both sides of the Atlantic, singing what are basically simple, honest songs.
— JERRY GILBERT.
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