I am very vehemently not a morning person (see my previous discourse on this topic), so waking up to go to school was always a struggle for me as a kid. One ritual that calmed and cleared my head between the at-home slog and arrival at school, was listening to the oldies radio station on the drive over. This is where I was exposed to the best of Motown, classic rock, and my beloved Beatles. It’s also where, as a budding tween, I heard Cat Stevens for the first time. The song was “Wild World” (of course), and something about the timbre of his voice cut me to my core. There was so much emotion in it, it was stunning and shocking and I remember thinking, “where has this been all my life?!”
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that little tour down memory lane, because it’s the only Cat Stevens tour North Americans are getting this year! Stevens — who bills himself as Yusuf/Cat Stevens on his website — has a new memoir coming out, Cat On The Road To Findout, and designed a unique book tour around it that includes performances. An Evening of Tales, Tunes and Other Mysteries played successfully around the UK in September, and the North American leg was set to start in Philadelphia this week. Only the bigoted clowns in charge of (destroying) our government have made visa approvals a mess, so Stevens had to postpone:
Cat Stevens, who also goes by Yusuf, has postponed the North American leg of his book tour due to unspecified visa issues, the singer announced on social media Monday.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member was set to tour in support of his book, “Cat on the Road to Findout,” which will release in the U.S. on Oct. 7 and was made available in the U.K. earlier this month.
The book release won’t be impacted, Stevens wrote, noting that “books don’t need visas!”
Stevens is the latest in a string of international musicians and athletes impacted by visa issues, as fees have increased in the past year and processing times have slowed.
Stevens wrote that his team waited months for visa approvals, but “at this point, the production logistics necessary for my show cannot be arranged in time.”
“I am really upset!” Stevens wrote on social media. “Not least for my fans who have bought tickets and made travel plans to see me perform.”
Representatives of Stevens did not immediately respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment. The singer’s tour was set to start Oct. 2 in Philadelphia and had various stops scheduled across the country for the rest of the month. His Oct. 8 tour stop in Toronto, Canada was also postponed.
…Stevens indicated the tour could be rescheduled if visas are approved, but those dates “would be some time away because of other travel fans,” he wrote.
The tour, announced in May, was described as a “portal” into the singer’s universe, offering an in-depth conversation on the memoir and acoustic performances of select songs, according to the website. Stevens began the tour visiting several cities in the U.K. throughout September.
Stevens wrote “hopefully, fans will be able to hop on the Peace Train route at some time in the future.”
Yeah, not only are there approval delays, but back in April US Citizenship and Immigration Services jacked up the fees for international artists. Applications that previously cost $460 now run between $1,615 to $1,655 — a 250% increase!! I don’t think the money is an issue for Yusuf/Cat, but it’s still another level of f–ked up incompetency from this administration. So I completely support musicians opting out of performing in the US these days, and appreciate when they tell us exactly why this is happening. The more American voters know/feel the full consequences of elections, the better decisions they’ll make next time around, hopefully. (And if we get a next round.) In the meantime, we can enjoy Yusuf/Cat through prose when his memoir comes out next Tuesday.
I know we’ve come a long way, we’re changing day to day. But tell me, where do the singers play?
photos credit: Sumo/Backgrid, Getty and via Instagram
Am I the only one who remembers when he was on British TV shouting about death to infidels and one of the panelists genuinely asking why he wasn’t being arrested for incitement according to British law?
Not the only one…his outspokenly violent speech in public forums has made it tricky to separate his politics from his music. I was suprised he had backtracked at all, he was so vehement.
Muslim writer of Peace Train, eh?…he’s better off not entering the country right now.
Morning has broken would be my introduction to Cat stevens, but my stand out song is Father & Son he has a very unique voice and the way he renders that song breaks my heart, its on Par with Whitney’s Greatest love of all and songs of my life. now i’m going to makea play lift of all those songs
Moonshadow is my favorite, or at least one of many. I snapped up every album of his that came out. Well, almost all. Tea for the Tillerman, Teaser & the Firecat, Catch Bull at Four, Buddha and the Chocolate Box. Sigh.
I remember watching him on the Geoffrey Robertson Hypotheticals TV program in the UK in ‘89 supporting the fatwa against Salman Rushdie. Shocking. His position subsequently became inconvenient for him and so he tried to walk it back. But he was clearly sincere in the broadcast – it was no joke or misunderstanding as he has since tried to claim.
Yeah☹️
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QpjR6-Uuks&t=227s