Cat Stevens appeared on BBC radio 4s long running programme
Desert Island Discs on Friday 2nd October 2020 between 9:00-9:45am.
Cat picked eight of his favourite songs and spoke about his early life growing up in London's west end and his rise to stardom as a performer and of his conversion to the Muslim religion with Lauren Laverne the programmes radio presenter in between playing his eight favourite songs. From memory the first song he picked was
Little Richards Tutti Frutti followed by
Shake Rattle And Roll by The Beatles. Cats favourite song out of the eight songs was a
Stevie Wonder song called
As.
Cat was asked about the 1967 'package tour' that he had participated in that featured
Jimi Hendrix along with
The Walker Brothers and
Englebert Humperdinck and the picture of them all seen sitting together backstage. Cat said it's a bit vague these days (54 years ago) but it was at the
Finsbury Park Astoria (the Rainbow venue in the 1970s) that the photograph was taken and Englebert had introduced him to a 'rotten cocktail' of Port & Sherry to calm his stage nerves on that tour and as for Jimi Hendrix Cat said that he got to know Jimi quite well and found Jimi to be polite and soft spoken and was quite a humble person in his own way also Cat went on to say that it was at the Finsbury Park Astoria that Jimi first set light to his guitar on stage!. Cat also mentioned his conversion from the Greek Orthodox religion to becoming a Muslim in the late 1970s.
Jimi Hendrix along with Cat Stevens one of the Walker brothers & Englebert Humperdinck backstage at the Finsbury Park Astoria in 1967-
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