Review by: Paul Towers, 13 September 2017
Peace Train – The Cat Stevens Story by John Misto,
directed by John Saunders and Naomi Coggan
A Spiritworks production starring Darren Coggan
DeMontfort Hall, Leicester 13 September 2017
“critically acclaimed”
Cat Stevens was born Steven Demetre Georgiou in 1948 in the
heart of Soho above a café owned by his father, called The Moulin Rouge. Born
to a Swedish mother and a Greek father he discovered an interest in music at an
early age and took to composing songs in his bedroom and then performing them in
the cafes and pubs of London.
For three years his success was building until he was struck
down with tuberculosis. During his long recovery he had a spiritual epiphany and
his musical tastes took a different turn. This did not go down well with his
record label and he fought to be released from his contract. With his musical
career soaring in 1976 he nearly drowned off the coast of Malibu and from then
on his spirituality kicked in and he turned his back on music right up until the
90’s when he gradually started recording again. Although he has never regained
the huge popularity of his early career he felt that he was finally able to
combine his music with his faith.
Peace Train, the name of his 1971 hit which he reworked for
Band Aid, is the story of his life with 23 songs, most of his hits and a few
lesser known songs. These are interspersed with a narrative.
The performance I saw was grossly over-amplified and I came
away with a thumping headache. While Darren Coggan’s singing voice is a very
reasonable facsimile of the original his narration, in the style of an
over-excited Australian kids TV presenter on too many E Numbers, was histrionic
and over-acted. It was like Steve Irwin without the crocodiles and looking like
John Bishop.
This show is ‘critically acclaimed’ and had 7 nights sold
out at Sydney Opera House and is touring the UK for the rest of September,
Details available at http://www.peacetraintheshow.com/
First published on Western Gazette
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