Last night saw Yusuf Islam (the former Cat Stevens) perform at Dublin’s 02, in what was his first ever Irish appearance. James Masterson covered the show for State and you can read his article here: www.state.ie/2009/11/live/yusuf-islam-o2-dublin/. An interesting interlude saw a staging of Islam’s self-penned musical, ‘Moonshadow’, which is basically an adaptation of the singer’s life story.

The publicity leading up to the concert clearly stated that it would be a performance by Yusuf Islam which would feature songs he recorded whilst known as Cat Stevens, as opposed to a full-scale Cat Stevens concert. It was  also highlighted that the afformentioned musical would feature as part of the show. Fair enough, you’d think, that makes everything crystal clear. Only it didn’t, apparently.

The concert was marred by disgrunted audience members slow-clapping, heckling, flipping rude gestures and staging walkouts. Why? Was the performance shoddy? No. Did Islam insult them? Not in the slightest. It was because they themselves assumed they would be attending a performance dominated by Cat Stevens’ classics. They didn’t want Yusuf Islam songs; they didn’t want a musical. And this was despite all the advertising leading up to the event clearly implying that this would be the case. Sadly, the disruption resulted in some members of the theatre staff reportedly being assaulted by a small number of ‘unsatisfied’ customers.

Now, I’m no fan of Yusuf Islam’s music – or Cat Stevens’ for that matter – but, having seen the advertisments for the show, even I was under no illusion of what I should expect from the night’s proceedings if I had chosen to attend. It should be pretty obvious anyway, the same way that you don’t go to a Paul McCartney concert expecting a show comprising solely of Beatles songs and you certainly don’t go to see Mark Knopfler and expect to hear Dire Straits material. It just goes to show that some people can’t read what’s directly in front of them (i.e. a bloody large newspaper ad) and, when they realise their mistake, can’t accept it’s their own fault.

There’s a word for them…

Idiot (noun) :  an utterly foolish or senseless person.