Al Stewart

The folk singer-songwriter and musician Al Stewart was born in Glasgow in 1945. He is best known for the hits "Year of the Cat" and "Time Passages".

He released his debut album of folk songs, Bedsitter Images, in 1967. But he came to attention in the UK with his follow-up album, which gained him the Folk Album of the Year Award from Melody Maker magazine. The album included contributions from Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, as well as Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol from the folk group Fairport Convention.

He was joined by Yes keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman for the Orange album, which has progressive rock themes, but was not commercially successful. He finally came to greater attention in the States with Modern Times, which reached No.30 in 1975. This heralded a run of commercially and critically successful albums, of which the best known was Year of the Cat, which reached No.5 and produced the hits "Year of the Cat" and "On the Border". After Time Passages, which also sold well, came 24 Carrots, which would be the last of his commercially successful albums.

Stewart still releases albums and tours the US and Europe extensively, where he has a loyal following.