December 14, 2017

Yusuf/Cat Stevens – Spark Arena December 13, 2017

Auckland’s Spark Arena was packed to the rafters as Yusuf, aka Cat Stevens, played the first of two shows on his Peace Train/A Cat’s Attic tour in the City Of Sails.

Despite scheduled to go on stage at 8pm, Stevens was forced to hold off for about 20 minutes due to the length of time it took to get everyone through the front doors as full searches were being conducted upon entry.

But it was well worth the wait as the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens took the audience on a fifty-year musical journey that included his first single, 1966’s I Love My Dog and a song or two from his latest album, The Laughing Apple.

The show was divided into two sets with Cat giving a mostly chronological account of his life and career. To start with, the stage was dressed as a London train station, with band members playing among benches and signs. The band featured musical director Kwame Yeboah, Eric Appapoulay and Glen Scott. The three musicians switched instruments throughout the show, with Eric primarily playing guitar, Glen on bass and Kwame, everything else.

After opening with a brief If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out and then Oh Very Young, Yusuf got down to the storytelling, dwelling on the early part of his career.

In and among his early songs such as First Cut Is The Deepest, Matthew & Son and Here Comes My Baby, Yusuf threw in a few favourites that helped shape his career such as The Everly Brothers’ Bye Bye Love, Curtis Mayfield’s People Get Ready and, most notably, The Beatles’ From Me To You.

Before playing the Beatles tune, the stage transformed into a replica of Cat’s attic, where he played a copy of The Beatles’ version of Twist And Shout on a turntable while dancing around the stage.

After 45 minutes, the set ended and after a brief interval, Cat and bandmembers returned to concentrate on the 1970s.

The highlight of this section of the show was the tunes from 1970’s Tea For The Tillerman. To make those performance even more special, Stevens’ long-time guitarist Alun Davies joined the group to play Where Do The Children Play and Wild World. Although Davies left the stage, he did returned for a crowd-pleasing Father & Son and Peace Train.

Another highlight was when Cat sat at the piano to sing the beautiful Sad Lisa.

Throughout the show, Steven told short, insightful stories about his life, his songs and his career decisions. Stevie Nicks attempted a similar show a few weeks ago, but ended up boring a good portion of the audience with her long, rambling, self-absorbed rants. Cat Stevens understands how to talk to a crowd, how to keep their attention and how to make his between-song banter add even more feeling to the music.

And make no mistake, these are songs that, after all these years, still mean a lot to a lot of people. That feeling was more than evident as Stevens and Davies combined their voices on Father & Son, just as they had done 47 years ago.

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery, shot by Michael Flynn at Cat Stevens’ sound check:

Yusuf/Cat Stevens set list:

First set