A
GOOD NIGHT
Cat
Stevens Tribute Night with Al & The Firecats
– 19.03.05 at The Ent Shed, Bedford.
Review by
George Brown
Photographs by Wolfgang
Gaube
The
Austrian Cat invasion took place at the function
hall attached to the Gordon Arms pub in Bedford’s
Castle Road. Ent, by the way, stands for Entertainment
Shed. It wasn’t the Royal Albert Hall
but an ideal venue and the poshest shed I’ve
ever seen. Great to find a club with a strict
no smoking policy. The hall comfortably sat
a hundred lucky people. The flickering candles
on the table created an intimate 70s vibe.
Cat fans had come from far and wide to see
the event. A mature crowd, some parents had
bought along their sons and daughters. A personal
note, my guitar-playing son took some convincing
to attend, but agreed when I told him that
the Red Hot Chili Peppers had covered a couple
of Cat Stevens songs!
The
host and organiser, Michael Pipe introduced
Al and the Firecats. The opening number was
‘The Wind’, which set the scene
nicely. Then followed ‘Moonshadow’,
it was hard for some of us not to join in
on the falsetto at the end of the song!
Albert
Eigner (vocals, guitar, acoustic bass) took
us through the musical and spiritual story
of Cat and Yusuf with Herbert Pilz (vocals,
guitar) and Martin Reiter vocals, keyboards).
Al was so humble with his introductions -
the Cat, his songs and his incredible journey
were the star. Al included all the details
of Steve Georgiou’s religious quest.
Yusuf, who had approved of the event, would
surely be proud of being presented in this
way.
High
points for me in the proceedings: The 60s
songs were just great. All of which were sung
so charmingly and simply. Al sang ‘I
Love My Dog’, then ‘First Cut’
and introduced ‘Matthew and Son’.
He said that the reason Cat gave up music
was because he didn’t want to work for
‘Matthew and Son’! The simple
arrangement worked very well, with just piano,
guitar and acoustic bass. It sounded really
vibrant. They even did a 60s medley which
took us through ‘Back To The Good Old
Times’ (Cat’s first demo), ‘The
Laughing Apple’, ‘The Tramp’,
‘Portobello Road’, ‘Blackness
Of The Night, ‘View From The Top’
and ‘I’m So Sleepy’! The
closing line of the last number brought a
smile to many faces.
The
band had clearly studied Cat’s back
catalogue and any deviations away from the
familiar arrangements only enhanced them.
Herbert’s guitar and vocals added great
depth. Inge Shmuck’s violin accompaniment
on ‘Sad Lisa’ and ‘Into
White’ was impressive - Al said “…all
the way from Austria just to play on two songs”!
Michael
Pipe was invited to the stage to sing with
the band on ‘Longer Boats’. He
was clearly in his element. His wife Kim had
revealed later in the evening that Michael
had ‘rehearsed’ this during his
daily fitness regime and had attracted attention
by taking vocally unrestrained walks around
Bedford singing along to his CD Walkman! It
paid off, they reminded me of Crosby, Stills,
Nash & Young on a good night! Their version
contained the extra verse that Cat only used
to sing in concert which was a nice touch.
The calypso beat of ‘Tuesday’s
Dead’ rounded off side one of the langspielplatten.
During
the break, Kim Pipe entertained us further
- speaking of Michael’s nervous energy
prior to the gig. She said that he had assembled
several items of furniture from flat packs
at 6 am that morning! She read out some notes
that Michael had taken from his various meetings
with Yusuf’s p.a., Zafar. He revealed
that Zafar had told him that when he first
met Yusuf he only knew one of his songs -
‘The First Cut Is The Deepest’.
Yusuf had joked with him that he probably
only knew that through Rod Stewart’s
version!
Midway
through, there was an auction to raise funds
for Yusuf’s Small Kindness charity.
Items included; Gerry Conway’s signed
drumstick; signed tickets by Messrs. Islam,
Conway, Davies & Allcock - two of the
old band plus Maartin Allcock, bassist on
the topical ‘Indian Ocean’, reunited
on paper! The star item of the auction was
Yusuf’s signed lyrics to the new Yusuf
song.
NOTE:
One of these unique signed tickets is being
auction for Small
Kindness on Majicat.
Auction
Details All proceeds of
the event are going to Yusuf's charity and
after completion of the Majicat auction, the
total sum raised for Small
Kindness will be at least £1000
UK pounds ($1900 US Dollars).
The
second half commenced with ‘Wild World’.
Very similar to the version we know and love.
The band played totally live. No backing tapes.
There is room for a drummer but this is hardly
an issue. Al’s accent is totally charming
and he joked at one point “By the way,
we are not English”!” Al introduced
‘Morning Has Broken’ and Martin,
the pianist, as Rick Wakeman! Martin Reiter’s
expertly played keyboards were so expensive
it was as though Del Newman was there with
them at times throughout the concert.
‘Sitting’
was feisty and the hot blooded ‘Can’t
Keep It In’ followed. Then Herbert gave
us an absolutely fascinating story from his
youth. He told a story dating back to the
mid 70s, when he was a session musician. He’d
travelled to London from Austria to a house
in Fulham with a recording studio. He didn’t
know the name of the artist or the song, but
he’d been asked to join some other musicians
and add some backing tracks to a song. He
didn’t realise at the time that it was
in fact Cat’s house. The thing that
impressed him most was that there was a fluorescent
green phone in the toilet! Cat wasn’t
at the house at the time, though someone who
looked very much like him was, Cat’s
brother David! The song that Herbert had added
backing vocals to was the David Gordon composition
‘Child For A Day’. True! So, by
a strange twist of fate, Herbert was to end
up in a Cat Stevens tribute band some 30 years
later! Herbert, Al and Martin then sang their
version of the song which
gave a few goose pimples.
The
band closed the second half with the enchanting
‘Lilywhite’. They were then urged
to return to the stage by the appreciative
audience. The encore yielded 60 seconds-worth
of ‘Tea for the Tillerman’. Then
‘Silent Sunlight’, with Herbert
playing flute - Al said that he had been asked
to join Jethro Tull but preferred the Firecats!
They closed with ‘Banapple Gas’
and ‘Tuesday’s Dead’, which
had gone down extremely well as the closing
number of the first half.
As
the audience stood and showed their appreciation,
Michael asked if they could manage another
song. ‘Don’t Be Shy’ was
the final classic number. This second encore
was the first for the club after 130 concerts
apparently. The band had played for two hours
and thirty minutes, we were not short changed.
“Happiness”, judging by the cheers
at the Ent Shed, is indeed “listening
to Cat Stevens” - the motto proudly
displayed on Martin Reiter’s t-shirt.
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