Steven Georgiou, born in 21 July 1948, Marylebone, London, England), was the third child of a Greek-Cypriot father, Stavros Georgiou (b. 1900), and a Swedish mother, Ingrid Wickman (b. 1915). He actually lived in Gävle, Sweden until he was eight years old, and attended a local school for six months. He has an older sister, Anita, and brother, David. The family lived above Moulin Rouge, the restaurant that his parents operated, on the north end of Shaftesbury Avenue, a short walk from Piccadilly Circus in the Soho theatre district of London. All family members worked in the restaurant. His parents divorced when he was about 8 years old, but they continued to maintain the family restaurant and live above it.
Songs such as ‘Matthew and Son’ and ‘I Love My Dog’ gained attention internationally, and within a year he was on tour with Jimi Hendrix, arguing over which of them would close the sets each night. Over the next three years he took the world by storm with the multi-platinum albums ‘Tea for the Tillerman', 'Teaser and the Firecat', and 'Catch a Bull at Four’. These included such classic songs as ‘Peace Train’, ‘Morning Has Broken’, and ‘Father and Son', helping make Stevens into the voice of a generation.
Stevens converted to Islam in December 1977 and adopted his Muslim name, Yusuf Islam, the following year. In 1979, he auctioned all his guitars for charity and left his music career to devote himself to educational and philanthropic causes in the Muslim community. Yusuf married Fauzia Mubarak Ali on 7 September 1979. He has been given several awards for his work in promoting peace in the world, including 2003's World Award, the 2004 Man for Peace Award, and the 2007 Mediterranean Prize for Peace. In 2006, he returned to pop music with his first album of new pop songs in 28 years, entitled An Other Cup. He now goes professionally by the single name Yusuf. His newest album, Roadsinger, was released on 5 May 2009.
At first glance, one may wonder why Yusuf, would choose the Swedish capital to launch a comeback after more than three decades. As it turns out, however, Yusuf has had a long relationship with Sweden on account of his mother, who is born in the town of Gävle, located about 150 kilometres north of Stockholm in eastern Sweden.
Well the first idea was to kick off in Denmark with a few days of rehearsals but it got changed and Sweden was the next option. Yusuf and his band arrived few days before the show day to get a chance to go thru everything, you know, to get a feeling of all the songs and tune all the gears for the tour. The set up was done on thursday 5th of May. First soundcheck was done the same afternoon took around 6 hrs and continued the following day on friday for almost the hole day/evening. I was very busy during these days so I have no pictures from the rehearsals, but it sounded very good the little I heard.
The fact that the show was sold out was expected, Yusuf made a visit to Skvalan (Swedish talk show) which made the tickets ran out the day after. I can not remember when I saw that the stage was so far back in the end as this.
Yusuf did a really good show, the voice sounded very good, although he is a bit older, maybe sometimes a bit soft-hearted and not like old times but he delivers what he should, mixing new with old, see set list below, then you will understand what I mean.
Here is some pictures that i took during the show.
Todays tune "Father and Son" is a very popular tune written and performed by Yusuf Islam (then known as Cat Stevens) on his 1970 album "Tea for the Tillerman”.
The song frames an exchange between a father that not understands a son's desire to break away and shape a new life, and the son who cannot really explain himself but knows that it is time for him to seek his own destiny. To echo this, Stevens sings in a deeper register for the father's lines, while using a higher, more emotive one for those of the son. Additionally, there are backing vocals provided by Stevens' guitarist and friend, Alun Davies, singing an unusual chorus of simple words, and sentences such as, "No", "Why must you go and make this decision?", beginning mid-song, so softly, they are only perceptible with a slight increase in volume towards the end of the song.
Yusuf Islam Sings Father & Son On BBC.
Cat Stevens during - Earth Tour 1976
More info @
Yusuf Islam’s Official Website
Yusuf Islam In Concert
Listen to ”Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens - Father & Son" on Spotify here!Follow tuneoftheday.blogspot.com on Spotify here!
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