All Roads Lead Here

He was the Glasgow-born skiffle-mad kid who conquered the world, and now Al Stewart’s impressive career is celebrated through a new 50-CD box set, The Admiralty Lights. Now in his seventh decade, the singer-songwriter recalls the making of the set’s centrepiece, Past, Present & Future; an album that saw him ditch love songs in favour of history books and very nearly lose out to The Wombles along the way.

Paul Sexton

In 1973, Al Stewart was a man at a creative crossroads. His fourth album, Orange, had described the end of a relationship whose happier days he had earlier documented, and he couldn’t face the idea of writing love songs anymore. A bold and fresh direction was required. That commitment led him to one of his most enduring albums, Past, Present & Future, and a place as perhaps the foremost writer of historically based material in acoustic music. Now the record sits at the centre of Stewart’s gargantuan, 50-disc box set, The Admiralty Lights, as one of 21 remastered studio albums in a collection also featuring 18 discs of live recordings, three of BBC sessions, a collector’s book, posters… the proverbial nine yards. It’s surely the definitive word on a distinctive,…

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Prog (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 132

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