Cat Stevens - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: UNICEF Year of the Child Concert, Wembley Arena, London, Britain, 11-22-1979

I thought I was done with posting Cat Stevens BBC albums, but it turns out I'd missed two BBC concerts. So here's the first one, from 1979.

In the late 1970s, Cat Stevens' musical career was winding down. He later said that it a become "a chore, and not an inspiration anymore." Instead, he increasingly grew interested in religion. He converted to Islam in 1977 after years of spiritual searching. His last studio album (for the era) was "Back to Earth" in 1978. In 1978, he changed his name to "Yusuf Islam." In 1979, he auctioned off all his guitars, and soon stopped playing music altogether, even at home.

However, Stevens has also been heavily involved in charitable causes for most of his life. He was persuaded to perform one last concert in 1979, which is this one. It was a big benefit concert to benefit the UNICEF charity, with lots of stars on the bill, including David Essex, Gary Numan, and Wishbone Ash. It was broadcast on TV at the time. (You can find video footage on YouTube, but the image quality is extremely poor.) He appeared quite different than before, with a new beard and his hair closely cut, as well as wearing a religious shawl over his shoulders. This would be his last public musical performance until 2002. He eventually fully resumed his musical career around 2006.

This appears to be the full set. It was rather short, since he was on a bill with several other acts. A highlight was the last song, "Child for a Day," written especially for the occasion by David Gordon, Stevens' brother. David Essex and Richard Thompson came on stage to help with the song. I watched the video of this. Essex sang a little bit of the lead vocals, but Thompson just played guitar, which didn't include a solo.

This album is 36 minutes long.

01 talk by Paul Gambaccini (Cat Stevens)
02 The Wind (Cat Stevens)
03 On the Road to Find Out (Cat Stevens)
04 talk (Cat Stevens)
05 Just Another Night (Cat Stevens)
06 Daytime - Where Do the Children Play (Cat Stevens)
07 talk (Cat Stevens)
08 Father and Son (Cat Stevens)
09 Morning Has Broken (Cat Stevens)
10 Peace Train (Cat Stevens)
11 talk (Cat Stevens)
12 Child for a Day (Cat Stevens with David Essex & Richard Thompson)
13 talk (Cat Stevens)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/TKKm7A5u

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/1HxwsnleNnULpkq/file

The cover photo is of this concert. I had a hard time with this one. I looked high and low to find a good photo from the concert, since the YouTube footage was so poor. I eventually found one in black in white. Then I colorized it using the Kolorize program. I made sure to match the colors shown (barely) in the YouTube video. Finally, I used Krea AI to improve the image.