Alastair Ian Stewart was born in Glasgow, the only child of Joan Stewart, a Northamptonshire-born widow, and daughter of a professional trumpet player. Al's father was tragically killed when his plane exploded in March 1945; he was not quite 25 years old. Al's pregnant mother went first to live with her father-in-law at Greenock, and later moved to the South-West of England and sent her son to boarding school. Many of Al's earlier songs were inspired by his boyhood and youth.
After leaving school, Stewart moved to London, where he became a well known figure on the folk circuit before eventually relocating to California.
During his teens, Al played in a group called The Sabres along with Tony Blackburn, who would go on to become a BBC DJ; later he traded his electric guitar for an acoustic one, and single-handedly invented historical folk-rock.
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