Peter White may refer to:

Entertainment[link]

• Peter White (actor) (born 1937), American actor
• Peter White (broadcaster) (born 1947), British broadcast journalist and radio presenter
• Peter White (musician) (born 1954), British smooth jazz guitarist
• Peter White (St. Elsewhere), a character on the 1980s hospital drama St. Elsewhere
• Pete White (The Venture Bros.), a character on the animated television series The Venture Bros.

Politics[link]

• Peter White (Australian politician) (1936–2005), former member of the Australian House of Representatives
• Peter White (Canadian politician) (1838–1906), Canadian parliamentarian

Sport[link]

• Peter White (footballer) (1970–1996), Australian rules footballer
• Peter White (ice hockey) (born 1969), retired Canadian professional ice hockey player

Other[link]

• Peter White (Michigan) (1830–1908), American businessman and philanthropist from Marquette, Michigan
• Peter White (professor), professor of Classic Languages and Literature at the University of Chicago
• Peter Gilbert White (1937–2007), English cathedral organist, who served in Leicester Cathedral
• Peter White (Royal Navy officer) (1919–2010)

See also[link]

• Peter Wight (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2010)

Alan Parsons
Alan Parsons in 2006
Background information
Born	(1948-12-20) 20 December 1948 (age 63) London, England
Genres	Rock, progressive rock
Occupations	Audio engineer, composer, musician, record producer, director
Years active	1967–present
Labels	Legacy, Arista, Fox, Mercury, Frontiers[citation needed]
Associated acts	The Alan Parsons Project
Website	Alan Parsons Music

Alan Parsons (born 20 December 1948^[1]) is a British audio engineer, musician, and record producer. He was involved with the production of several significant albums, including The Beatles' Abbey Road and Let It Be, as well as Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon for which Pink Floyd credit him as an important contributor. Parsons' own group, The Alan Parsons Project, as well as his subsequent solo recordings, have also been successful commercially.

Career[link]

In October 1967, at age 18, Parsons went to work as an assistant engineer at Abbey Road Studios, where he earned his first credit on the LP Abbey Road. He became a regular there, engineering such projects as Paul McCartney's Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway, five albums by The Hollies, and Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, for which he received his first Grammy Award nomination. He was known for doing more than what would normally be considered the scope of a recording engineer’s duties.^{[citation needed]}He considered himself to be a recording director, likening his contribution to recordings to what Stanley Kubrick contributed to film.^{[citation needed]} This is apparent in his work with Al Stewart's "Year of the Cat", where Parsons added the saxophone part and transformed the original folk concept into the jazz-influenced ballad that put Al Stewart onto the charts.^{[citation needed]} It is also heard in Parsons' influence on the Hollies' "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" and "The Air That I Breathe", sharp departures from their popular 1960s hits "Stay", "Just One Look", "Stop! Stop! Stop!" or "Bus Stop".^{[citation needed]} Parsons was also known to have swapped shifts during the engineering of The Dark Side of the Moon so he could work entirely on the project.^{[citation needed]}

Parsons also produced three albums by Pilot, a Scottish pop rock band consisting of Ian Bairnson on guitar, Stuart Tosh on drums, and David Paton on lead vocals, guitars,bass and William (Billy) Lyall, on piano and keys. Their hits included "January" and "Magic".

He also mixed the debut album by the American band Ambrosia and produced their second album Somewhere I've Never Travelled. Alan was nominated for grammys for both of these albums. ^[2]

In 1975, he declined Pink Floyd's invitation to come back and work on the follow-up for "Dark Side," Wish You Were Here, and instead initiated The Alan Parsons Project with producer and songwriter (and occasional singer) Eric Woolfson, whom he had met at Abbey Road. The Project consisted of a revolving group of studio musicians and vocalists, most notably the members of Pilot and (on the first album) the members of Ambrosia. Unlike most rock groups, The Alan Parsons Project never performed live during its heyday, although it did release several music videos. Its only live performance during its original incarnation was in 1990, with Woolfson present but behind the scenes. After releasing ten albums, the last in 1987, the Project terminated in 1990 after Parsons and Woolfson split, with the Project's intended 11th album released that year as a Woolfson solo album. Parsons continued to release work in his own name and in collaboration with other musicians. Parsons and his band now regularly tour many parts of the world.

Although an accomplished vocalist, keyboardist, bassist, guitarist and flautist, Parsons only sang infrequent and incidental parts on his albums. While his keyboard playing was very audible on the Alan Parsons Project albums, very few recordings feature his flute. During the late 1990s, Parsons' career travelled an interesting full circle. Having started out in the music industry at the Abbey Road Studios in London as an assistant engineer in the late 1960s, he briefly returned to run the studio in its entirety. He reportedly managed to combine this role with the demands of a hectic performing and recording schedule. Parsons also continued with his selective production work for other bands.

Of all his collaborations, guitarist Ian Bairnson worked with Parsons the longest, including Parsons' post-Woolfson albums, Try Anything Once, On Air, and The Time Machine.

As well as receiving gold and platinum awards from many nations, Parsons has received ten Grammy Award nominations for engineering and production. In 2007 he received a nomination for Best Surround Sound Album for A Valid Path.

In May 2005, Parsons appeared at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, California, to mix front-of-house sound for Southern California-based Pink Floyd tribute band Which One’s Pink? and their performance of The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety.^[3]

Since 2003 he has toured under a revised name, The Alan Parsons Live Project (with Woolfson’s permission). The globe-trotting band features guitarist Godfrey Townsend, drummer Steve Murphy, keyboardist Manny Focarazzo, and bass guitarist John Montagna. The 2004–2005 shows offered vocalist P. J. Olsson's track "More Lost Without You", while the later 2006 shows presented The Crystal Method-featured "We Play the Game" and opened with "Return to Tunguska" along with successes spanning the Project years.

Beginning in 2001 and extending for four years, Parsons conceived and led a Beatles tribute show called A Walk Down Abbey Road featuring a group of headlining performers such as Todd Rundgren, Ann Wilson of Heart, John Entwistle of The Who, and Jack Bruce of Cream. The show structure included a first set where all musicians assembled to perform each others' hits, and a second set featuring all Beatles songs.

In 2010, Alan Parsons released his single "All Our Yesterdays" through Authentik Artists.^[4] Parsons also launched a DVD educational series in 2010 titled The Art and Science of Sound Recording ("ASSR") on music production and the complete audio recording process. The single "All Our Yesterdays" was written and recorded during the making of ASSR. The series, narrated by Billy Bob Thornton,^[5] gives detailed tutorials on virtually every aspect of the sound recording process. Individual sections of the series are also being released in batches and are available to stream or download at www.artandscienceofsound.com.^[5]

During 2010, several media reports,^[6][7] one of which included a quote from a representative of Parsons,^[8] alleged that the song "Need You Now" by country music group Lady Antebellum possessed the melody and arrangement of "Eye in the Sky."

In 2011 it was announced that Parsons was creating and producing a new group called the Subclones. Parsons said: "I feel that the public deserves some genuinely innovative music and It's been a long time since I've heard some that truly excites me – it made me want to get back into the studio and do another 'Dark Side'." Parsons jokingly refers to one of the biggest-selling and most popular albums in history.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Parsons was born in London. He resides in Santa Barbara, California with his wife and her two daughters, as well as numerous pets.^[1]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• with The Alan Parsons Project:
  • Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1976)
  • I Robot (1977)
  • Pyramid (1978)
  • Eve (1979)
  • The Turn of a Friendly Card (1980)
  • Eye in the Sky (1982)
  • Ammonia Avenue (1984)
  • Vulture Culture (1985)
  • Stereotomy (1985)
  • Gaudi (1987)
• as a solo artist:
  • Try Anything Once (1993)
  • On Air (1996)
  • The Time Machine (1999)
  • A Valid Path (2004)

Full discography[link]

[edit] Billboard Top 40 hit singles (U.S.)

No. 37 – "(The System Of) Doctor Tarr And Professor Fether" (1976)

No. 36 – "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" (1977)

No. 27 – "Damned if I Do" (1979)

No. 16 – "Games People Play" (1980)

No. 15 – "Time" (1981)

No. 3 – "Eye in the Sky" (1982)

No. 15 – "Don't Answer Me" (1984)

Canadian singles[link]

No. 62 – "(The System Of) Doctor Tarr And Professor Fether" (1976)

No. 22 – "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" (1977)

No. 16 – "Damned if I Do" (1980)

No. 9 – "Games People Play" (1981)

No. 30 – "Time" (1981)

No. 1 – "Eye in the Sky" (1982)

No. 43 – "You Don't Believe" (1983)

No. 20 – "Don't Answer Me" (1984)

No. 89 – "Let's Talk About Me" (1985)

Awards and nominations[link]

Nominations[link]

• 1973 – Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon – Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
• 1976 – Ambrosia – Somewhere I've Never Travelled – Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
• 1976 – The Alan Parsons Project – Tales of Mystery and Imagination – Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
• 1978 – The Alan Parsons Project – Pyramid – Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
• 1979 – Ice Castles – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
• 1979 – The Alan Parsons Project – Eve – Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
• 1981 – The Alan Parsons Project – The Turn of a Friendly Card – Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
• 1982 – The Alan Parsons Project – Eye in the Sky – Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
• 1986 – The Alan Parsons Project – "Where's The Walrus?" – Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance
• 2007 – Alan Parsons – A Valid Path – Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album

References[link]

• Official website of the Alan Parsons Project
• The Avenue, The Official Alan Parsons Fan Club

External links[link]

• Alan Parsons at Allmusic
• Alan Parsons Music Official Site
• Alan Parsons Project Official Site
• Alan Parsons in the Internet Movie Data Base
• Crawdaddy! "Parsons Knows: The Tale of Alan Parsons and Edgar Allan Poe"
• The Subclones, Parsons new group

Grover Washington, Jr. (December 12, 1943 - December 17, 1999)^[1] was an American jazz-funk / soul-jazz saxophonist. Along with George Benson, John Klemmer, David Sanborn, Bob James, Chuck Mangione, Herb Alpert, and Spyro Gyra, he is considered by many to be one of the founders of the smooth jazz genre.^{[citation needed]} He wrote some of his material and later became an arranger and producer.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Washington made some of the genre's most memorable hits, including "Mister Magic," "Reed Seed," "Black Frost," "Winelight," "Inner City Blues" and "The Best is Yet to Come". In addition, he performed very frequently with other artists, including Bill Withers on "Just the Two of Us" (still in regular rotation on radio today), Patti LaBelle on "The Best Is Yet to Come" and Phyllis Hyman on "A Sacred Kind of Love". He is also remembered for his take on the Dave Brubeck classic "Take Five", and for his 1996 version of "Soulful Strut".

Washington had a preference for black nickel-plated saxophones made by Julius Keilwerth. These included a SX90R alto and SX90R tenor. He also played Selmer Mark VI alto in the early years. His main soprano was a black nickel plated H.Couf Superba II (also built by Keilwerth for Herbert Couf) and a Keilwerth SX90 in the last years of his life.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Washington was born in Buffalo, New York on December 12, 1943. His mother was a church chorister, and his father was a collector of old Jazz gramophone records and a saxophonist as well, so music was everywhere in the home. He grew up with the great jazzmen and big band leaders like Benny Goodman, Fletcher Henderson, and others like them. At the age of 8, Grover Sr. gave Jr. a saxophone. He practiced and would sneak into clubs to see famous Buffalo blues musicians.

Early career[link]

Washington left Buffalo and played with a Midwest group called the Four Clefs and then the Mark III Trio from Mansfield, Ohio. He was drafted into the U.S. Army shortly thereafter, which was to be to his advantage, as he met drummer Billy Cobham. A music mainstay in New York City, Cobham introduced Washington to many New York musicians. After leaving the Army, Washington freelanced his talents around New York City, eventually landing in Philadelphia in 1967.^[1] In 1970 and 1971, he appeared on Leon Spencer's first two albums on Prestige Records, together with Idris Muhammad and Melvin Sparks.

Washington's big break came at the expense of another artist. Alto sax man Hank Crawford was unable to make a recording date with Creed Taylor's Kudu Records,^[2] and Washington took his place, even though he was a backup. This led to his first solo album, Inner City Blues. He was talented and displayed heart and soul with soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones. Refreshing for his time, he made headway into the jazz mainstream.

Fame[link]

Whilst his first three albums established him as a force in jazz and soul music, it was his fourth album in 1974, Mister Magic, that proved a major commercial success. The album climbed to number 10 in Billboard's Top 40 album chart and the title track reached #16 on the R&B singles chart (#54, pop). All these albums included guitarist Eric Gale as a near-permanent member in Washington's arsenal.^[1] His follow-up on Kudu in 1975, Feels So Good also made #10 on the album chart.

A string of acclaimed records brought Washington through the 1970s, culminating in the signature piece for everything he would do from then on. Winelight (1980) was the album that defined everything Washington was then about, having signed for Elektra Records, part of the major Warner Music group. The album was smooth, fused with R&B and easy listening feel. Washington's love of basketball, especially the Philadelphia 76ers, led him to dedicate the second track, "Let It Flow", to Julius Erving (Dr. J). The highlight of the album was his collaboration with soul artist Bill Withers, "Just the Two of Us," a huge hit on radio during the spring and summer of 1981, peaking at #2 on the Hot 100. The album went platinum in 1981, and also won Grammy Awards in 1982 for Best R&B Song ("Just The Two of Us"), and Best Jazz Fusion Performance ("Winelight"). "Winelight" was also nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.^[1]

In the post-Winelight era, Washington is credited for giving rise to a new batch of talent that would make its mark in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He is known for bringing Kenny G to the forefront as well as such smooth jazz artists as Walter Beasley, Steve Cole, Pamela Williams, Najee, and George Howard. His song Mr. Magic is noted as being influential on Go-go music starting in the mid-1970s.^[3]

Death[link]

On December 17, 1999, while waiting in the green room after taping four songs for The Saturday Early Show, at CBS Studios in New York City, Washington collapsed. He was taken to St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at about 7:30 p.m. He was 56 years old. His doctors determined that he had suffered a massive heart attack.^[1]

Tributes[link]

A large mural of Washington, part of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, is just south of the intersection of Broad and Diamond Streets.^[4]

Discography[link]

As leader[link]

• 1971: Inner City Blues (Kudu Records)
• 1972: All the King's Horses (Kudu)
• 1973: Soul Box (Kudu)
• 1974: Mister Magic (Kudu)
• 1975: Feels So Good (Kudu)
• 1976: A Secret Place (Kudu)
• 1977: Live At The Bijou (Kudu)
• 1978: Reed Seed (Motown)
• 1979: Paradise (Elektra Records)
• 1980: Skylarkin' (Motown)
• 1980: Winelight (Elektra)
• 1981: Come Morning (Elektra)
• 1981: Baddest (Motown)
• 1982: The Best Is Yet To Come (Elektra)
• 1984: Inside Moves (Elektra)
• 1986: House Full Of Love (Music from The Cosby Show) (Columbia Records)
• 1987: Strawberry Moon (Columbia)
• 1988: Then and Now (Columbia)
• 1989: Time Out of Mind (Columbia)
• 1992: Next Exit (Columbia)
• 1994: All My Tomorrows (Columbia)
• 1996: Soulful Strut (Columbia)
• 1997: Breath of Heaven: A Holiday Collection (Columbia)
• 2000: Aria (Columbia)
• 2001: Discovery - The First Recordings (Prestige)
• 2010: Grover Live (G-Man Productions, Inc.)

As sideman[link]

With Kathleen Battle

• So Many Stars (Sony, 1995)

With Kenny Burrell

• Togethering (Blue Note, 1985)

With Dexter Gordon

• American Classic (Elektra, 1982)

With Urbie Green

• Señor Blues (CTI, 1977)

With The Mark III Trio

• Let's Ska at the Ski Lodge (Downhill, 1964)

With Gerry Mulligan

• Dragonfly (Telarc, 1995)

With Don Sebesky

• Giant Box (CTI, 1973)

With Leon Spencer

• Sneak Preview (Prestige Records, 1970)
• Louisiana Slim (Prestige, 1971)

With Mal Waldron

• My Dear Family (Evidence, 1990)

With Randy Weston

• Blue Moses (CTI, 1972)

With Bill Withers

• "Just the Two of Us" (Columbia Records, 1981)
• "In the Name of Love" (Columbia, 1981)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Grover Washington, Jr. at Legacy Recordings
• Grover Washington TV Interview from C Music TV
• Jazz Conversations with Eric Jackson: Grover Washington Jr. from WGBH Radio Boston
• Grover Washington Jr. At Find A Grave

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2010)

Miles Axe Copeland III (born May 2, 1944) is an American entertainment executive, best known for founding I.R.S. Records. His brother, Stewart Copeland, was part of the pop-rock trio The Police, which Miles managed. Another brother, Ian Copeland, was a successful booking agent who described much of the New Wave adventures of Miles, Stewart and himself in his book, Wild Thing.

Career[link]

Miles was born in London, England, to Miles Axe Copeland, Jr., a CIA officer from Birmingham, Alabama, United States, and Scottish Lorraine Adie, who was in British intelligence. Due to Miles Jr.'s profession, the family moved throughout the Middle East, in particular Syria, Egypt and Lebanon. As a result, Miles and his brothers became fluent in Arabic.

Miles began attending college at Birmingham-Southern College in 1962. He graduated with a B.A. degree in 1966 and attended the American University of Beirut, where he earned his M.A. in Economics by 1969. By then, he had already promoted his first concert. Moving back to England, Miles became involved in the music industry, focusing on promotion and management of several bands, his first major success was with Wishbone Ash.

In 1974, he founded the management agency and record label BTM (for British Talent Management), and signed a number of progressive rock acts such as Renaissance and his brother Stewart's band Curved Air. In the summer of 1975, he organised a multi-band tour of European music festivals, Star-Trucking, which featured several BTM bands as well as Soft Machine, the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Lou Reed. But Reed's failure to appear at any of the shows and a litany of logistical issues resulted in significant losses.^[1] In 1976, BTM closed down.

The failure of BTM coincided with the beginnings of the Punk/New Wave movement in the UK, and led him to help start Illegal Records, Deptford Fun City Records, New Bristol Records^[2] and sign The Cortinas to Step Forward Records^[3] in 1977.

In 1978 he would be instrumental in getting his brother Stewart's new band, The Police, signed to a major record deal,^[4] and in fact managed Sting, another member of The Police, for many years. Miles also managed Squeeze, Climax Blues Band and Wishbone Ash.

In 1979 Miles created I.R.S. Records through a deal with A&M Records. He signed Gary Numan and the groups The Alarm, The Go-Go's & R.E.M. He also managed Adam Ant during his "Vive Le Rock" era. In January 1988 he created an all-instrumental imprint under I.R.S. called No Speak Records. Reaching beyond the music branch of entertainment, Miles became involved in music videos, feature films, and other multimedia projects. He later became interested in world music genres and focused some of his products and attention on exposure of it.

Miles married Adriana Corajoria, an artist and model from Argentina, in 1989. Together, they had three children: Miles Axe IV, Aeson Armstrong and Axton Emerson.

Personal life[link]

Copeland is a libertarian,^[5] and has strong anti-corporate beliefs.^[5]

See also[link]

• Bellydance Superstars
• Ark 21

References[link]

External links[link]

• www.milescopeland.com
• [1] Transcript of Miles Copeland III on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher

Al Stewart
Stewart performing in Santa Monica, California on 13 February 2010
Background information
Birth name	Alastair Ian Stewart
Born	(1945-09-05) 5 September 1945 (age 66) Glasgow, Scotland
Origin	Wimborne, England
Genres	Rock Folk rock Pop rock Psychedelic rock Soft rock
Occupations	Musician Songwriter
Instruments	Vocals guitar keyboards
Years active	1966–present
Website	www.alstewart.com

Al Stewart (born Alastair Ian Stewart, 5 September 1945) is a Scottish^[1] singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician.

Stewart came to stardom as part of the British folk revival in the 1960s and 1970s, and developed his own unique style of combining folk-rock songs with delicately woven tales of the great characters and events from history.^[2]

He is best known for his 1976 hit single "Year of the Cat", the title song from the platinum album of the same name.

Though Year of the Cat and its 1978 platinum follow-up Time Passages brought Stewart his biggest worldwide commercial successes, earlier albums such as Past, Present and Future from 1973 are often seen as better examples of his intimate brand of historical folk-rock - a style to which he has returned in recent albums.^[3]

Stewart was a key figure in a fertile era in British music and he appears throughout the musical folklore of the age. He played at the first ever Glastonbury Festival in 1970, knew Yoko Ono before she met John Lennon, shared a London apartment with a young Paul Simon, and hosted at the legendary Les Cousins folk club in London in the 1960s.^[4]

Stewart has released sixteen studio and three live albums since his debut album Bedsitter Images in 1967, and continues to tour extensively around the US and Canada, Europe and the UK. His latest release, is Uncorked, which was released on his independent label, Wallaby Trails Recordings.^[5]

He has worked with Peter White, Alan Parsons, Jimmy Page, Richard Thompson, Rick Wakeman, Tori Amos and Tim Renwick and recently has played with Dave Nachmanoff and former Wings lead-guitarist Laurence Juber.

Early life[link]

Though born in Glasgow, Al Stewart grew up in the town of Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England after moving from Scotland with his mother. He attended Wycliffe College school in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, as a boarder. After that, as he sings in the song "Post World War II Blues" (from Past, Present and Future): "I came up to London when I was 19 with a corduroy jacket and a head full of dreams."

Having bought his first guitar from future Police guitarist Andy Summers, Stewart traded in his electric guitar for an acoustic guitar when he was offered a weekly slot at Bunjies Coffee House in London's Soho in 1965. From there, he went on to compete at the Les Cousins folk club on Greek Street, where he played alongside Cat Stevens, Bert Jansch, Van Morrison, Roy Harper and Ralph McTell.^[4]

It was at this time that Stewart also met Yoko Ono, who persuaded him to part with the only £100 he had in the world to put towards her film entitled No 4, a compilation of naked bottoms^{[citation needed]}.

Career[link]

Stewart's first record was the single "The Elf" (backed with a version of the Yardbirds' "Turn into Earth"), which was released in 1966 on Decca Records, and included guitar work from Jimmy Page (later of the Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin), the first of many leading guitarists Stewart worked with, including Richard Thompson, Tim Renwick and Peter White. Stewart then signed to Columbia Records (CBS in the UK), for whom he released six albums. Though the first four of these attracted relatively little commercial interest, Stewart's popularity and cult-following grew steadily through albums that contain some of Stewart's most incisive and introspective songwriting.

Early albums[link]

Stewart's debut album Bed-Sitter Images was released on LP in 1967 (though technically his first recording was 'The Elf', an extract from Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' set to music and released by Decca in 1966, which sold an estimated 496 copies). A revised version appeared in 1970 as The First Album (Bed-Sitter Images) with a few tracks changed, and the album was reissued on CD in 2007 with all tracks from both versions. His first recording of any kind appears on Jackson C. Frank's first album, 1965's Jackson C. Frank, playing guitar on "Yellow Walls".

Love Chronicles (1969) was notable for the 18-minute title track, an anguished autobiographical tale of sexual encounters that was the first mainstream record release ever to include the word "fucking".^[6] It was voted "Folk Album of the Year" by the UK music magazine Melody Maker, and also features Jimmy Page and Richard Thompson on guitar.

His third album, Zero She Flies followed in 1970 and included a number of shorter songs which ranged from acoustic ballads and instrumentals to songs that featured electric lead guitar. These first three albums (including The Elf) were later released as the two CD set To Whom it May Concern: 1966–70.

In 1970, Stewart jumped into a car with fellow musician Ian Anderson and headed to the small town of Pilton, Somerset. There, at Michael Eavis's Worthy Farm, Stewart performed at the first ever Glastonbury festival to a field of 1,000 hippies who had paid just £1 each to be there.

On the back of his growing success, Stewart released Orange in 1972. It was written after a tumultuous break-up with his girlfriend and muse, Mandi, and was very much a transitional album, combining songs in Stewart's confessional style with more intimations of the historical themes that he would increasingly adopt (e.g. "The News from Spain", with its prog-rock overtones, including dramatic piano by Rick Wakeman).

The fifth release, Past, Present and Future (1973), was Stewart's first album to receive a proper release in the United States, via Janus Records. It echoed a traditional historical storytelling style and contained the song "Nostradamus," a long (9:43) track in which Stewart tied into the re-discovery of the claimed seer's writings by referring to selected possible predictions about twentieth century people and events. While too long for mainstream radio airplay at that time, the song became a hit on many U.S. college/university radio stations, which were flexible about running times.

Such airplay helped the album to reach #133 on the Billboard album chart in the US. Other songs on Past, Present and Future characterized by Stewart's 'history genre' mentioned American President Warren Harding, World War II, Ernst Röhm, Christine Keeler, Louis Mountbatten, and Joseph Stalin's purges.

Alan Parsons years[link]

Stewart followed Past, Present and Future with Modern Times (1975), in which the songs were lighter on historical references and more of a return to the theme of short stories set to music. Significantly, though, it was the first of his albums to be produced by Alan Parsons, and Allmusic regards it as his best. It produced his first hit single, "Carol", and received substantial airplay on album oriented stations and reached #30 in the US, some 30 years before Bob Dylan would release an album of the same name.

Stewart's contract with CBS Records expired at this point and he signed to RCA Records for the world outside North America. His first two albums for RCA, Year of the Cat (released on Janus in the U.S., then reissued by Arista Records after Janus folded) and Time Passages (released in the U.S. on Arista), set the style for his later work, and have certainly been his biggest-selling recordings.^[7]

As Stewart told Kaya Burgess of The Times: "When I finished Year of the Cat, I thought: ‘If this isn’t a hit, then I can’t make a hit.’ We finally got the formula exactly right."^[4]

The most amazing fact about this album is that Stewart had all of the music and orchestration written and completely recorded before he even had a title for any of the songs. He mentioned, in a Canadian radio interview, that he has done this for 6 of his albums, and he often writes 4 different sets of lyrics for each song.^[8]

Both albums reached the top ten in the US, with "Year of the Cat" peaking at #5 and "Time Passages" at #10, and both albums produced hit singles in the US ("Year of the Cat" #8, and "On the Border", #42; "Time Passages" #7 and "Song On the Radio", #29). Meanwhile "Year of the Cat" became Stewart's first chart single in Britain, where it peaked at #31. The overwhelming success of these songs, both of which still receive substantial radio airplay on classic-rock/pop format radio stations, has perhaps later overshadowed the depth and range of Stewart's body of songwriting.^[9] On tour in 2008, Stewart commented that he wished his fans would "never again listen to anything I recorded prior to 1988."

1980s[link]

Stewart then released 24 Carrots (#37 US 1980) and his first live album Live/Indian Summer (#110 US 1981), which both featuring backing by Peter White's band Shot in the Dark (who released their own unsuccessful album in 1981). While "24 Carrots" did produce a #24 single with "Midnight Rocks," the album sold less well than its two immediate predecessors.

After those releases, Stewart was dropped by Arista and his popularity declined. Despite his lower profile and waning commercial success, he continued to tour the world, record albums, and maintain a loyal fanbase. There was a four-year gap between his next two albums, the highly political Russians and Americans (1984) and the upbeat pop-oriented Last Days of the Century (1988), which appeared on smaller labels and had lower sales than his previous works.

1990s[link]

Stewart followed up with his second live album, the acoustic Rhymes in Rooms (1992), which featured only himself and Peter White, and Famous Last Words (1993), which was dedicated to the memory of the late Peter Wood (who co-wrote "Year of the Cat"), who died the year of its release.

Stewart followed these up with a concept album, Between the Wars (1995), covering major historical and cultural events from 1918 to 1939, such as the Versailles Treaty, Prohibition, the Spanish Civil War, and the Great Depression.

In 1995, Stewart was invited to play at the 25th anniversary Glastonbury festival, taking to the same stage he had graced in 1970 at the first ever festival.

21st century[link]

In 2000, Stewart released Down in the Cellar, a concept album themed on wine. Stewart had begun a love-affair with wine in the 1970s when, he admitted, he had more money than he knew how to spend,^[10] and so turned to fine wines.

In 2005 he released A Beach Full of Shells, which was set in exotic places from First World War England to the 1950s rock'n'roll scene that influenced him.

In 2008, he released Sparks of Ancient Light produced, like his most recent albums, by Laurence Juber. Here he weaves tales of William McKinley, Lord Salisbury and Hanno the Navigator.

Stewart and guitarist Dave Nachmanoff released a live album, Uncorked (Live with Dave Nachmanoff) on Stewart's label, Wallaby Trails Recordings, in 2009.^[11]

Stewart and Nachmanoff played the Glastonbury Festival 40th anniversary in June 2010 on the Acoustic stage.

Stewart sang a duet with Albert Hammond of Hammond's "It Never Rains in Southern California" on Hammond's 2010 album "Legend."

In 2011, Stewart sang a duet with his guitarist and opening act Dave Nachmanoff on Nachmanoff's album "Step Up". The song, "Sheila Won't Be Coming Home", was co-written by Stewart and Nachmanoff.

Residence[link]

Born in Scotland, raised in Dorset and gaining fame in London, Stewart moved to Los Angeles in the late 1970s. He married in the mid-1990s, and he, his wife and their two daughters moved to Marin County, California.

Use of historical and literary sources[link]

Historical references[link]

Stewart's historical work includes such subjects as:

• World War I pilots - "Fields of France", from the album Last Days of the Century
• The career of Admiral Sir John Fisher of the World War I Royal Navy inspired "Old Admirals", from Past, Present, and Future
• The Wehrmacht's invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II is the focus of "Roads to Moscow", from Past, Present, and Future.^[12] There are references to both Wehrmacht General Heinz Guderian and also to the German Tiger tank^[12] and to the brutal treatment of returning Russian soldiers, which is drawn from the Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn book The Gulag Archipelago.
• Both the Basque separatists in Spain and the crisis in the former republic of Rhodesia are referenced in "On the Border", from Year of the Cat
• The Soviet Union is the focus of "In Red Square", from Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time.
• The English sailor Sir Richard Grenville is profiled in "Lord Grenville", from Year of the Cat.
• The French Revolution is addressed in the song "The Palace of Versailles", from Time Passages.
• Henry VIII of England (misidentified by Stewart as Henry Plantagenet (Henry II))^[13] and Thomas More (Henry VIII's chancellor) are referenced in "A Man for All Seasons" from Time Passages.
• The assassin of Jean-Paul Marat is the subject of "Charlotte Corday", from Famous Last Words.
• The subject of Nazi war criminals hiding in South America is featured in "Running Man" from 24 Carrots.
• The scandals of the foreshortened Warren Harding administration are the subject of "Warren Harding" from Past, Present and Future.
• Ernst Röhm, leader of the Nazi SA, is the subject of "The Last Day of June, 1934" from "Past, Present and Future."

Literary sources[link]

"Sirens of Titan", from Modern Times is a musical precis of Kurt Vonnegut's novel of the same title.

On occasion, Stewart has set poems to music, such as "My Enemies Have Sweet Voices" (lyrics by the poet Pete Morgan) on the 1970 album Zero She Flies. During his 1999 UK tour, Stewart invited Morgan to read the lyrics as he performed this song in the Leeds City Varieties Theatre show of 7 November 1999.

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• Bed-Sitter Images (1967)
• Love Chronicles (1969)
• Zero She Flies (1970) #40 UK
• Orange (1972)
• Past, Present and Future (1973) #133 US
• Modern Times (1975) #30 US
• Year of the Cat (1976) #5 US (RIAA: Platinum) (BPI: Gold) #38 UK
• Time Passages (1978) #10 US (RIAA: Platinum) (BPI: Silver) #39 UK
• 24 Carrots (1980) (with Shot In The Dark) #37 US #55 UK
• Russians and Americans (1984) #83 UK
• Last Days of the Century (1988)
• Famous Last Words (1993)
• Between the Wars (1995) (with Laurence Juber)
• Down in the Cellar (2000)
• A Beach Full of Shells (2005)
• Sparks of Ancient Light (2008)

Live albums[link]

• Live/Indian Summer (1981) #110 US
• Rhymes in Rooms (1992) (with Peter White)
• Uncorked (2009) (with Dave Nachmanoff)

Compilations[link]

• The Early Years (1977)
• The Best of Al Stewart - Songs From the Radio (1985)
• Chronicles... The Best of Al Stewart (1991)
• To Whom it May Concern 1966-1970 (1993)
• Premium Gold Collection (1996)
• Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (1996) (limited distribution of B-sides and rarities)^[14]
• On the Border (1998)
• Singer Songwriter (2001)
• The Very Best Al Stewart Album Ever (2002)
• The Essential Al Stewart (2003)
• Introducing... Al Stewart - Running Man (2003)
• Greatest Hits (2004)
• Just Yesterday (2005)
• A Piece of Yesterday - The Anthology (2006)
• The Definitive Pop Collection (2006)

Charted Singles[link]

• Year of the Cat (1976 #8 US, #31 UK)
• On the Border (1977 #42 US)
• Time Passages (1978 #7 US, #1 US Adult Contemporary)
• Song on the Radio (1979 #29 US)
• Midnight Rocks (1980 #24 US)

References[link]