Al Stewart - Elvaston Place (1975)

Although born in Glasgow, Al Stewart grew up in the town of Wimborne, Dorset, after moving from Scotland with his mother. Having bought his first guitar from future Police guitarist Andy Summers, he traded in his electric guitar for an acoustic when he was offered a weekly slot at Bunjies Coffee House in London in 1965, and from there he went on to compere at the Les Cousins folk club on Greek Street, where he played alongside Cat Stevens, Bert Jansch, Van Morrison, Roy Harper, Ralph McTell and Paul Simon, with whom he shared a flat in Stepney. His first record was the single 'The Elf' (backed with a version of The Yardbirds' 'Turn into Earth'), which was released in 1966 on Decca Records, and included guitar work from Jimmy Page. He then signed to Columbia Records (CBS in the UK), and released his debut album 'Bedsitter Images' in 1967, followed in 1969 by 'Love Chronicles', which was notable for the 18-minute title track, and which was voted 'Folk Album of the Year' by the UK music magazine Melody Maker. His third album 'Zero She Flies', followed in 1970 and included a number of shorter songs which ranged from acoustic ballads and instrumentals to songs that featured electric lead guitar. 
On the back of his growing success, Stewart released 'Orange' in 1972, written after a tumultuous breakup with his girlfriend and muse, Mandi, and was very much a transitional album, combining songs in Stewart's confessional style with more intimations of the historical themes that he would increasingly adopt. 1973's 'Past, Present and Future' was his first album to receive a proper release in the United States, via Janus Records, and it included the historical song 'Nostradamus', a nine-minute track which was too long for mainstream radio airplay, but which became a hit on many US college/university radio stations, which were more flexible about running times. Although this airplay helped the album to reach No. 133 on the Billboard album chart in the US, 1975's 'Modern Times' contained songs which were lighter on the historical references and more of a return to the theme of short stories set to music, but it did spawn his first hit single with 'Carol'. The success of both album and single helped increase his popularity on both sides of the Atlantic, and this paved the way for his breakthrough album in 1976, 'Year Of The Cat'. Over the course of his first six albums he often recorded more songs than could fit on the record, and some of these have since turned up on expanded re-issues, so here they all are collected onto one album, which also includes that rare 1966 single (and don't worry, it's nothing like Bowie's 'Laughing Gnome'!).

Track listing

01 The Elf (single 1966)
02 Turn Into Earth (b-side of 'The Elf')
03 Go Your Way (previously unreleased 1967)
04 My Contemporaries (previously unreleased 1967)
05 Jackdaw (previously unreleased 1969)
06 She Follows Her Own Rules (previously unreleased 1969)
07 Fantasy (previously unreleased 1969)
08 Stormy Night (previously unreleased 1970)
09 Lyke-Wake Dirge (previously unreleased 1970)
10 Elvaston Place (b-side of 'The News From Spain' 1970)
11 It Doesn't Matter Anymore (previously unreleased 1972)
12 Swallow Wind (previously unreleased 1975)
13 A Sense Of Deja Vu (previously unreleased 1975)
14 Willie The King (previously unreleased 1975)