Al Stewart live and acoustic. Fairfield Halls, Croydon. (Simon Jay Price)

It is always nice to photograph your heroes and Al Stewart is one of mine. The people at Fairfield Halls in Croydon made it all possible with their bend over backwards care, thought and great customer service.

Al Stewart live and acoustic. Fairfield Halls, Croydon. (Simon Jay Price)

Al has been around since the mid 1960’s when he got his first break appearing on a BBC TV folk music show, back in the day when the UK had only one TV channel. His early records made him more than a folk icon and he found himself cast as a historical balladeer.

Al Stewart live and acoustic. Fairfield Halls, Croydon. (Simon Jay Price)

This style set him apart from his contemporaries, Cat Stevens, Roy Harper and even Paul Simon with whom he once shared a flat. His set at the Fairfield Halls was a low key affair, the night before at the Royal Albert Hall he had a big band and played a strict set list, here he played what he wanted in an all acoustic fashion mixing Time Passages and On The Border with not oft performed early songs like You Should Have Listened To Al.

Al went on to enlarge his sound and add more and more players to his band which helped give him the big FM radio hits in the USA with songs like Time Passages, Year of the Cat and Song On The Radio.

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Rocky Rockshot. 24th October 2013. Croydon.