Al Stewart At The London Palladium — October 15, 2025
Al Stewart started out playing with a beat group when he discovered his folk roots at a club in Bournemouth. He relocated to London where he managed to obtain a weekly slot at a now long gone coffee bar a stone’s throw from this theatre.
After a string of successful albums, he exploded onto the international scene big time with his monster hit Year Of The Cat. After that, he performed with a band, solo, and with other guitarists, in particular Peter White, and later his acolyte Dave Nachmanoff.
In later years, he hooked up with a much younger band from Chicago, and has worked with The Empty Pockets ever since. They perform their own short set then return with the man himself.
I saw Al for the first time around 1980 at the Hammersmith Odeon; I can’t remember the date but he was performing solo then and as I was living in Leeds at the time I came down specially to see him and went home on the milk train. At the end of the set he asked “What do you wanna hear?”
Somebody shouted Nostradamus – guess who that was? And he played it! I remember that especially because somehow he made his solo acoustic guitar sound like three instruments. So if a recording of that ever turns up, you’ll know that audience voice was me.
The last time I saw him was at Cadogan Hall in October 2022 near where he once used to live, and I thought that would be the last time, so when I saw The Farewell Tour advertised, I had to grab a seat. When I phoned the London Palladium box office last week, I was told there were only eight seats left. I was offered one in the Grand Circle. I always prefer looking down on the stage, so I snapped it up. Next time, if there is a next time, I will opt for the stalls.
The London Palladium opened in 1910. I realise we are better fed now if nothing else, but at six feet I am only a shade over average height, and fairly stockily built. Having said that, if I walk through central Croydon during the lunch hour I will pass dozens of men and a few women who are bigger than me, so I don’t understand why the seats have so little leg room. The man who sat next to me was not as tall as I am but a lot wider, and he had the same problem. Whatever, the concert was sold out; there may have been a handful of people who didn’t turn up but when I looked around, all I could see was a sea of humanity.
Unlike Cadogan Hall in 2022 and 2019, there appeared to be very few young people, so these were dedicated fans, many approaching my age and a few older. As we queued outside, I spoke to a woman who said she had seen Al eleven times, the first in 1980 if I recall. Hey, maybe she was in the audience at that Hammersmith concert too!
Now we’ve got all that out of the way, The Empty Pockets set was all new material, songs that I hadn’t heard before. They opened with Gotta Find The Moon followed it with Wolfpack then Typhoid Mary. In spite of their relative youth, The Empty Pockets have been around since 2006, but it is doubtful if they would have come up with a song like Typhoid Mary if they hadn’t met Al. This is apparently a group composition whose credits include their sound engineer Daniel McCormick.
Typhoid Mary was followed with an unnamed instrumental but apparently Mrs Sacramento, which saw Josh Solomon showboating on lead guitar. At Cadogan Hall three years ago they performed an excellent Solomon solo composition called Privatise The Profits, which sadly was not included here.
At some point they said Al would not be appearing after the show to sign autographs and the like, the same way he didn’t appear at Cadogan Hall three years ago and presumably all the other dates on the current tour. He turned eighty last month, and remarried in 2020, his wife travels with him, so clearly he values his private life. He was also ill awhile ago and was ordered to rest. Having said that, he looks in good shape for a man of his age.
Al Stewart opened his performance with You Should Have Listened To Al, which may well be the first time he has performed this song live since the turn of the Millennium and a while before that. It appears on his Love Chronicles album which was released in 1969, not 1922 as he joked here. Those familiar with the inspiration for much of his early work will recognise this as unambiguously autobiographical.
This was followed by Antarctica from the 1988 Last Days Of The Century album which featured Chase Huna on flute, an apt instrument for this beautiful melodic number; Al introduced it with a lengthy claim that it was actually a double entendre, a claim I’m sure I’ve heard before!
This was followed by Palace Of Versailles from a decade earlier, a song he based rather loosely on the William Byrd pavan The Earl Of Salisbury. Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night have also based songs on ancient melodies with similar effect.
Palace Of Versailles appears on the Time Passages album, and the title track followed, but with a surprise guest: Peter White. This appears to be his only appearance on this tour because as was pointed out by one of the band, later this month be will be performing three dates at PizzaExpress Live in nearby Holborn.
This was followed by On The Border and Midas Shadow from Year Of The Cat and Roads To Moscow. For some reason, this slightly off-beat epic song is a perennial favourite being long but not too long for a live audience. Josh traded in his electric guitar for an acoustic one and the entire ensemble, including Chris Huna contributed.
There followed The Dark And The Rolling Sea which saw Al and keyboard player Erika sharing the vocals, then the enigmatic One Stage Before – a song I want played at my funeral.
Next was Joe The Georgian from the 1995 Between The Wars album which was produced by Laurence Juber who also played on it. Most of Al’s generation will recognised this Joe as a certain Mr Stalin, even if they are not fans.
Soho (Needless To Say) followed, especially as it is a ten minute walk from the venue and Al once lived there briefly.
When Peter White discarded his guitar and sat down at the keyboard to play a long improvisation, it was obvious what was coming next, and it took only two chords to reveal Year Of The Cat which saw Josh on lead guitar duelling with Chris Huna on saxophone. Al wrote his most popular song with Peter Wood (who died in 1993).
That was the end of the show, but Uncle Al (as Josh calls him) came back for one encore, Love Minus Zero/No Limit – by a certain Mr Dylan.
If my first mistake was sitting in the Grand Circle, my second was waiting until the end of the concert to buy a programme. I could have done so during the interval but was afraid it would not fare well in my cramped seat, so waited until the end. I finished leaving the building by the rear exit and by the time I got round to the front, I was told the merchandise stall was closed.
That will certainly be the last time I see Al Stewart live. There are three more shows left on this tour – October 17 in Glasgow (where he was born), Ulster on October 19 and Dublin the following day.
After that, presumably, it will be back home to Arizona where he now lives after four decades plus living in Los Angeles (when he was not touring).
He needs to take a break but something he might find a little less taxing is returning to the songwriter’s craft like only he can. Over the past decade and a half he has released hardly any new songs, and in these troubled times there is plenty to write about for future generations of historical-folk rock fans to muse over.