PLATINUM-selling singer-songwriter Al Stewart says he would love to be reunited with veterans of Bournemouth’s 1960s music scene as he returns to the venue he last played 54 years ago.

The artist behind the Year of the Cat and Time Passages albums will be at the town’s Pavilion Theatre on Tuesday, May 9.

The last time he was at the Pavilion, he played the ballroom in the backing band for Tony Blackburn, who later gave up singing to become a DJ.

“The last time I played Bournemouth Pavilion was about 54 years ago. I might have done it with Steeleye Span but that wasn’t my show. I was there when I was 17 playing in Tony Blackburn’s backing band, the Saviours,” said Al, now 71.

Raised at Canford Bottom, the singer can still reel off the names of the acts he knew from the Bournemouth music scene.

“They were called beat groups. We had about 80. I remember lots of them – Teddy Valour and the Valiants, Johnny Quantrose, and I absolutely loved the Dowland Brothers.

“They were fantastic these guys and I still remember seeing them. The Dowlands astonished everyone by actually making a record,” he says.

“Eventually some of these guys actually made it. Bob Fripp, with King Crimson, and Andy Summers, who joined the Police. John Wetton of Asia. Tony Blackburn became a disc jockey and I became a folk singer.”

Other names he recalls fondly include Mike and Peter Giles of the Soundtracks; Colin Allen, drummer with the Sands; and Chris Ferguson, known as Fergie, from Night People.

“What would be charming would be if any of them who read this and knew who I was would turn up and say hello,” he said.

“I don’t know where Jonny Quantrose or Teddy Valiant is now. If they’re still alive, it would be nice to see them again – let alone the Dowland Brothers.”

Los Angeles-based Al recently met Tony Blackburn at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, where the DJ presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. “I hadn’t seen him for 40 years,” he said.

“He said the same thing as when I was in his band – he always said I played too loudly.”

He remembers the presenter as a good singer. “He had a gold lame jacket and was somewhere between Elvis and Cliff,” he said.

* Al Stewart brings his Back to the Bedsit tour to the Pavilion on Tuesday, May 9. A full interview will be in the Daily Echo’s Seven Days magazine on Saturday, May 6.