Gig review: Rod Stewart
By DAVID POLLOCK - The Scotsman
CASTLE ESPLANADE,
EDINBURGH
WE know he can hardly be blamed for the weather, but it was all right for Rod Stewart pleading over the splash of torrential rain for his crowd to "stay with us!" It looked like luxury up on stage by comparison, where he was swanning about in smart suit jackets.

Actually no, it looked almost as hellish for him and far worse for the poor backing singers and the female horn section, wearing red mini-dresses. It says much for Stewart's ability to work a room — or indeed, a water-logged Castle Esplanade — that he averted a full-blown revolt at the mere sight of his dry and stylishly feathered haircut appearing on stage.

There was no let-up from the downpour, sadly. "My dressing room's in about two foot of water out there," he joked, but his attempt to explain away a short break to mop the stage because "it's wet up here" was met with ribbing boos.

"All right, you win," he conceded, "I know you're wet too. Do you know my dad was from Edinburgh, by the way?"

Although otherwise beloved tracks such as You Wear It Well, The First Cut is the Deepest, Downtown Train and a version of the Four Tops' It's the Same Old Song were played to only muted, soggy support from the most devoted fans in the crowd, there seemed a tipping point at which everyone decided to do something about the conditions in which they found themselves. For a few this meant leaving; for many more it seemed to involve simply enjoying themselves as best they could.

That this wave of Dunkirk spirit seemed to appear during the Loch Lomond-sounding Rhythm of My Heart was surely no coincidence. From there, an easing of the mists surrounding the Castle battlements gave the audience an hour of something likereal enjoyment, with Do Ya Think I'm Sexy, Hot Legs and a spirited cover of the Bar-Kays' Soulfinger by Stewart's backing singers inspiring some warming movement in the crowd.

On the other hand, Handbags & Gladrags, I Don't Want to Talk About It, Maggie May and Sailing are all great anthems to misty-eyed melancholy, and there were plenty of people willing to indulge how sorry they felt for themselves with a communal singalong.

Shortly before ten, Stewart announced that the stage lights were starting to fail (the big screens hadn't even been switched on all evening), and it's true that the lightshow was starting to look a bit puny-cabaret. The next evening's show would be in real doubt unless the gig was halted here, he said, so Hot Legs and a perfunctory encore were rather hastily dispatched.

The crowd couldn't complain, with two hours' worth of show rather than two and a half, and — as Stewart pointed out — "we've got to think of the customers". So he mercifully sent this lot home and crossed his fingers that tonight's contingent have better luck.

LONDON 02 ARENA 29th MAY - CONCERT REVIEW
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BIRMINGHAM NIA 22nd MAY. BLOG FROM BIRMINGHAM LIVE...
www.brumlive.com
After various issues with the guest list we finally make it into the NIA, unfortunately, as Rod Stewart hasn’t got a support for this show, we missed the first couple of songs. Needless to say, he is in full swing by the time we reach our seats, working the near capacity audience with apparent ease, as the majority are already standing up with a number, dancing in the aisles.
Rod is cruising the stage in a vibrant orange jacket, belting out You Wear It Well, reaching every single person in the arena and drawing them. Instantly, you can tell this man is a master of his craft, comfortable enough to crack jokes with an obvious glint in his eye which sends a large proportion of the female audience giddy at the knees. In fact, when he undoes his tie and a few buttons of his shirt, we see one woman have to be carried out, which is not bad going for someone who is entitled to a free bus pass! The set is made up of Rod’s hits spread over the last four decades or more, including a number of cover versions, that he has also become famous for, including The Isley Brothers’ This Old Heart of Mine. Rhythm of My Heart is greeted with rapturous applause, as Rod proudly demonstrates his Scottish heritage and ends mocking his lack of vocal range compared with the three backing vocalists, who continue the set with Hangin’ On whilst Rod makes a swift clothes change.
Stewart returns to the stage for another cover version, this time Van Morrison’s Have I Told You Lately that he wraps his raspy tones around before leading beautifully into Handbags and Gladrags. Despite the slower pace of the songs, Rod still manages to work the audience; however the violinist ruined this track for me, as the microphone picked up her bow movements and didn’t transmit the warmth of sound needed, to be honest she would be better playing an electric violin in such a big venue. The Faces’ classic Stay With Me is the highlight of this first half, this song demonstrates that Rod’s vocals are made to rock and you can see the enjoyment on his face as gets the arena up and dancing, needless to say the glint returns. After I Was Only Joking, which Rod movingly dedicates to his father with a selection of images to match, there is a brief intermission.
The second half sees Rod in a shiny blue jacket and tie, start with The Four Tops’ It’s The Same Old Song, which is the opening track from his latest album Soulbook. The pace of the tracks increase through Twistin’ The Night Away to the infamous Da Ya Think I’m Sexy. Yet again Stewart rocks the place, everyone is up dancing and singing at the top of their voices, to the point where Rod has to let the audience take the song further with more “doo doos” then he anticipated. The low key yet sexual dance moves and lyrical content of the song, does leave me a little concerned about the physical well being of some of the more mature female members of the audience, fortunately, I didn’t see any more need medical treatment. This disco classic leads into an instrumental track, Soulfinger, whilst Stewart has another brief change of clothes. In fairness, the arena is sweltering and the energy that Stewart puts into his performance plus he bright lights must leave him incredibly sweaty, but instead of hiding this he acknowledges the fact with more wit noting that he is off “to change his drawers”.
The set slows down with the Cat Stevens’ track, “The First Cut is the Deepest” and Crazy Horse’s “I Don’t Want To Talk About It”, both of which “croontastic”. You can sense the end is near as the Stewart launches into You’re In My Heart followed by a clip of a dog performing various antics whilst asleep that obviously has amused Stewart, which is then proceeded by photos of Rod in drag demonstrating, of course, that he has Hot Legs! Another great track from the 70’s which shows Stewart at his best, in addition to the fact that he manages to kick a number of signed footballs into the crowd whilst keeping his vocals on course. The final song of the set is the classic Maggie May, which was purely beautiful and makes me wish that Stewart wrote more songs and performed less covers, as it his own music that has stood out for me throughout the show. The two song encore is Sailing, with its anthemic nature has the whole audience swaying, and Baby Jane, with its 80’s pop cheese has everyone in the arena leaving on a high.
I have to admit that I never thought I would enjoy seeing Rod Stewart as much as I did. He is true performer, who clearly loves to be onstage, with a wicked sense of humour and a truly unique vocal style that had the audience raising the roof of the NIA from start to finish.
Review - Toni Woodward

MANCHESTER MEN ARENA 26th MAY - CONCERT REVIEW
BIRMINGHAM NIA 22nd MAY - CONCERT REVIEW...
www.birminghammail.net/what-is-on-in-birmingham/2010/05/24/rod-stewart-review-nia-may-22-97319-26505562/
NOTTINGHAM ARENA 20th MAY - CONCERT REVIEW...
www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/news/Review-Rod-Stewart-Trent-FM-Arena/article-2185203-detail/article.html
NEWCASTLE ARENA 18th MAY - PICTURE GALLERY...
www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/galleries/rodstewart

NEWCASTLE ARENA 18th MAY - CONCERT REVIEW...
www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-evening-chronicle/2010/05/19/rod-stewart-rocks-the-metro-radio-arena-72703-26475934/

REVIEW - The Dubai National 8th May 2010

Every picture tells a story, or so the song goes. The picture I saw at the Sevens Stadium in Dubai on Friday night told me that in more than 40 years, Rod Stewart hasn’t really changed that much.

OK, he’s grown older – he is 65 – meaning his stamina isn’t what it was, but his songs linger. They certainly lingered on at the Sevens because the packed audience sang every word of every song with him. He did throw in one or two from his latest album, Soulbook. But mainly it was, like the man himself, golden oldies.

Stewart was on stage for only about an hour and a quarter – far shorter than his supporting act, Spandau Ballet – who, by the way, were superb and had brought everyone to a frenzy before Stewart took to the stage.

The non-forgiving camera, when it was on his face, took no prisoners. On a warm night Stewart looked unprepared for the UAE climate. He was sweating profusely and puffing his cheeks after just two songs and took three breaks to change clothes, leaving his band to keep everyone amused as he did so.

But when he did sing, he and his fans had a good time. They were all there in the set – Maggie May, First Cut Is the Deepest, I Don’t Want To Talk About It, I Was Only Joking, Sailing.

There were times – quite a few of them actually – when it was hard to hear what the man himself was singing, so loud was the crowd. One could sense, at times, that Stewart was starting to get slightly peeved at this. During many of his songs he appeared to give up and just let the crowd get on with it. “That’s new to me, I’ve never heard the audience sing that one before,” said Stewart after Do You Think I’m Sexy? – including the instrumental bits – was belted out by a throbbing mass of middle-aged men and women.

He performed one very oldie, Twisting the Night Away, and this is where the picture did tell a different story. Twisting away in the crowd were, to my astonishment, a couple of children. I had gone to the concert determined to find some young people in the audience: surely after more than 40 years as a solo singer he has picked up some new fans along the way. I was beginning to think it would be a fruitless search until I spotted Jane Harvey, seven, and her 10-year-old sister Linda.

They were weaned on Rod, according to their mother Sarah, from Dubai, so knew every song in his repertoire. But the twist? Yes, there they were, along with all the fans who could remember it the first time round, twisting away.

“He’s great,” said Linda. “All my friends think I am silly to like my mum’s type of music but it makes you want to dance, doesn’t it.”

Linda and Jane were even joining in with the singing, arms waving as they did so, while mum proudly took pictures of them, a whole new generation of Rod fans for when he reaches his 70s.

If he is still performing then – and don’t write the possibility off as it is not far away – he will have to think of a new way to end his show. Friday was, quite frankly, bizarre.

For their encore Spandau Ballet came back to play their two best-known and best-loved songs, True and Gold, and everybody was grateful – yes even Jane and Linda who, it appears, were also weaned on Spandau Ballet – so when it came to the point where Rod and his band all walked off stage at 10.30 his fans, quite reasonably, hung around expecting him to reappear if only for a number or two. But no. There on the big screen at the back of the stage for all to see was: “Mr Stewart has left the building.” No encore, no bow, not even a “Good night Dubai, you were great.”

Perhaps that was what the problem was. Perhaps Dubai was great. Perhaps Rod the Mod had actually been outsung by his fans.

Thinking about it though, he may have hit on something. When he does reach 70, or even 80, he could still earn money by just standing on the stage and conducting the audience, let them do all the singing. But first he will have to attract more Janes and Lindas and get them to bring their friends because his current fans will be too old to help him out – either that or they will have forgotten the words they were belting out on Friday night.

The Faces Dossier: An Everday Saga Of Mick & Rod & Keef & Ron & Mac..

Max Bell, NME, 27 December 1975

MARCH, 1973.

Ron Wood in NME interview:

"Rod was the last person I thought I'd end up sharing my career with. It's funny because we lead completely different lives. But there's this constant factor between us, which we also find in Kenny, Mac and Ronnie. There's a very close tie in there somewhere."

APRIL, 1973.

Rod Stewart in Melody Maker interview describes Ooh La La as "awful", a statement he later denies making. Ooh La La is the last ever studio recorded Faces album.

APRIL, 1974.

Ian MacLagan in NME interview on recurring Rod and/or Ron to split rumours:

"It's just a standing group joke. Maybe one day it'll backfire on somebody."

MAY, 1974.

Front page headline in NME: "Rod/Faces – Is This The End?" The Faces management is not amused. Denials are emphatic.

JUNE, 1974.

Ron Wood announces solo gigs at Kilburn Gaumont State with Keith Richard as special guest star.

AUGUST, 1974.

Faces management announce that the group will undertake a world tour embracing 46 concerts in nine countries. Later in same month, Warner Brothers (who have Faces under contract) and Mercury/Phonogram (who have Rod Stewart as soloist) begin legal tug of war over Stewart's forthcoming Smiler album.

Rod Stewart in NME interview on subject of Faces:

We've tried in the studio four times, and it's never really worked the way it should. My albums have always been better than Faces albums, always. We won't make another Faces album; I think we'll just put out singles from now on. But maybe I shouldn't be saying this...maybe the lads want to make another album..."

SEPTEMBER, 1974.

Rod Stewart in NME elaborating on same subject:

"This is something we've got to sit down and talk about. I'm not too keen on another album, which is what I told Mac and Kenny the other night. We've tried four or five times and only succeeded once. What's wrong is the Faces recording schedule is completely alien to what I'm used to. I go in the studio at 12 and finish at seven no matter what happens. On a Faces session everybody falls into the public house. I can't cope with that, and Kenny can't either.

"...I'm certainly game to give it another try, and I think we owe it to Tetsu to do it. I'd direct it myself if I was asked – I'd do it tomorrow. The other thing is, I think they feel I keep a lot of the songs back for my own album. I was trying to explain to Kenny the other night that I don't."

Ron Wood in NME:

"I guess there was a time when I felt that the Faces music was going stale – but without us really knowing it. Like I never woke up one morning and said, 'Oh, I'm bored with the band' – it was a stage we went through without realising it. I think Rod got depressed and that's why he let rip in the press" (referring to Ooh La La remarks)

The legal battle resolved. Mercury/Phonogram release Stewart's Smiler elpee. The same day. Warner Brothers issue Ron Wood's first solo set, I've Got My Own Album To Do.

OCTOBER, 1974.

Kenny Jones releases solo single 'Ready Or Not'. It isn't a hit.

NOVEMBER, 1974.

Faces release new single, generally regarded as their best in a long time; 'You Can Make Me Dance Sing Or Anything'.

JANUARY, 1975.

Ron Wood offered Mick Taylor's old job with Rolling Stones. He says no.

Rod Stewart in NME:

"Ronnie's my best mate. There's never been anyone closer to me than Woody. I'm taking bets that it won't happen. I know him too well."

Stewart in same article:

"There was a lot of arguing (in the Faces) certainly. It got really bad at times. One has to make allowances though, hasn't one? I mean, right now it's never been better."

FEBRUARY, 1975.

Ron Wood in NME:

"People obviously would think that I'm joining the Stones due to my supposed social connections with them. This, however, is just not true – for though I respect them immensely, my position in the Faces if of far greater personal importance."

APRIL, 1975.

Ron Wood announced as "temporary" replacement for Mick Taylor for duration of Stones Tour Of The Americas, starting June. Spokesmen for both Faces and Stones stress that Wood's new role is "in no way permanent". Also announced: Faces tours in UK and U.S. for autumn 1975.

MAY, 1975.

Rod Stewart in Muscle Shoals recording new solo alburn, Atlantic Crossing, with local musicians. It's the first time no other members of the Faces have worked with him on one of his solo projects.

JULY, 1975.

In a surprise attack in the Daily Express, Kenny Jones accuses Rod Stewart of seriously reducing his earning potential by his decision to quit Britain. Jones says he hasn't worked for four months due to the cancellation of a series of open-air Faces British concerts originally scheduled for the summer.

"Rod leaving Britain has cost me £80,000," says an aggrieved Jones, "And put the rest of us (the Faces) in a predicament."

Faces spokesman in NME:

"There hasn't been any official reply (to Jones' remarks) and there isn't going to be. The matter is being dealt with internally. The problem seems to have been a lack of communication and I understand that Rod is speaking to Kenny on the phone to sort things out. And that's the end of it."

AUGUST, 1975.

Rod Stewart, with Britt Ekland in tow, makes his now infamous sortie to Ireland to promote his Atlantic Crossing release. He tells NME:

"I've got no idea what's going to happen to the band after this tour. I don't even know if our guitar player is still alive. I've spoken to him three times while he's been touring with the Stones, twice he was sounding really on top of the world and then the last time be sounded really down.

"He'd probably tell you he was enjoying it. I really don't know. I haven't seen him. I haven't read much about their tour actually.

"I'd like to stumble across them in Chicago tomorrow or the day after. So I might see Woody, but I very much doubt it. I don't know what shape he's in. I hope he's in good health cause he's got to finish a tour with them and start a tour with us. That's not the two easiest bands to tour with on the road.

"We'll all be down in Miami in three weeks and we'll start rehearsing and obviously there's going to be a lot of ego floating about. It's not just me and the band, they're all personalities in their own right They've all got their own lifestyles.

"See, I want to desperately to recreate what I've done on this album onstage and I'll do anything to do that, literally anything. We've already got a 15-piece orchestra touring with us which I know Mac doesn't like. He's going to have to lump it.

"Anyway, we'll see what happens. We've got to feel each other out. If we don't break up within the next few months we'll never break up cause we're probably as near now as we've ever been.

"Kenny's had a go at me in the papers...That was so unfair cause we were all going to leave England and live in America, all of us. Now, as it happens, me and Woody are the only two. The rest stayed behind. Now I don't know if Woody is going to live there or live where. Plus the fact that those British gigs were never on cause Woody was touring the States with the Stones.

"He's entitled to his opinion though.

"You've got to look at it like this. Woody might want to join the Stones, I'd be very surprised if he did – he could have done it two years ago. A lot rests on his decision.

"Putting it into a basket, we're probably further away from each other than we've ever been. I've forgotten what Tets looks like. He's a Japanese chap, isn't he? I miss them. I really do.

"There's a lot of bullshit goes down. We have a go at each other behind each other's backs. We never say the best things about each other, but when we're together we're the best of mates always. If that was to change then I'd be very surprised. If we're going to have a go at each other we go round the back ways, through PR people or managers or send telegrams."

NOVEMBER, 1975.

Ian MacLagan to NME:

"It's not over mate. The band ain't split up. That's a fact."

Ian MacLagan in same interview, asked about Stewart's charge of Faces being "sloppy musicians":

"Yeah, that hurt. We asked him about that and he said he didn't say it. We read it in an interview. I think the whole thing was really because Rod wasn't in contact with us for such a long time – he was surrounded by Hollywood and all that. Rod shouldn't have said those things because if the band's gonna split up, surely the band should know about it."

NME announces news of upcoming Faces tour. Both Ian MacLagan and Kenny Jones say they are anxious to make this news known to counter persistent rumours that the Faces are on the verge of a split Nevertheless, grapevine speculation insists that MacLagan and Jones will be re-grouping with Ronnie Lane and Steve Marriott for a Small Faces re-union tour and album, and that Rod Stewart will go his own way aided and abetted by Ron Wood.

DECEMBER, 1975.

Ian MacLagan in NME on the subject of Atlantic Crossing.

"It's very sterile, unemotional...he wasn't stretching himself. I didn't like 'Sailing'. It's pandering to the football crowds. I like Woody's album. He's not a great singer but he's trying.'

"Deep down he (Rod) hasn't changed at all, but he's into all that Hollywood thing."

ROD STEWART ANNOUNCES THAT HE'S QUITTING FACES.

His publicity man Tony Toon speaks for him:

"Rod feels he can no longer work in a situation where the group's lead guitarist Ron Wood seems to be permanently on loan to the Rolling Stones."

Faces manager Billy Gaff:

"Rod thinks the world of Ron Wood. I have repeatedly tried to telephone Ron, who is touring Europe with the Stones. I have left messages for him to call me, but I've heard nothing."

Kenny Jones:

"If this means the end of the Faces, I'm not bothered. I expect I will survive."

Ian MacLagan:

"I won't believe he's leaving until I hear it from his own lips."

© Max Bell, 1975

Dear Superstar: Rod Stewart

2006 On-Line Interview

Rod Stewart gingerly guides his feisty Ferrari Superamerica down a narrow mountain road in the South of France. He is taking Blender to a charming auberge in a local eleventh-century medieval village, where we will join his family for a late, light supper.

He has idled away this hot, hazy day aboard a yacht, topping off his tan, discussing wedding plans with his fiancée, Penny Lancaster, and playing with his 9-month-old son, Alastair.

The early evening was spent chatting with friends in the hilltop villa he recently acquired when he couldn’t resist the panoramic view of the Côte d’Azur it offered any longer. As the sun set into the sea, premier cru chablis was uncorked by pretty women in summer dresses and laughter reverberated around the swimming pool. Glasses were filled and raised as it was discreetly mentioned that sales of the four volumes of Stewart’s Great American Songbook series are now approaching 8.5 million — and hopes are equally high for his forthcoming album of rock & roll standards, Still the Same … Great Rock Classics of Our Time. Cheers!

Lest our host became restless, a laptop appeared and Mr. S — as the staff refer to him — was introduced to the joys of YouTube, whereupon the 61-year-old sang along with his young self (as backing vocalist with Steampacket in 1964) and danced around the veranda to Otis Redding (“That voice! Those trousers!”).

Blender’s readers have many penetrating questions for Rod Stewart. But the one you want to ask most is this:

“Dude, how much does your life, like, totally suck?”

“How much?” Rod ruminates, ensuring the collar of his shirt is fully erect before striding into the restaurant. “Ooh, it’s fucking terrible.” A throaty chuckle fills the historic courtyard. “Excellent question. Ask me another.”

One minute Paris Hilton’s visiting your estate, the next she’s covering “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” — How’d that come about? And wouldn’t she have been prime Rod fodder back in the day?
Jeff Hedea, Aiea, HI
I’ve known Paris since she was 14, and she was very attractive then … I happened to notice. She would have definitely fallen into the right parameters. A long time ago, of course. I haven’t heard the song yet, but she just asked if she could record it. I’m always accusing my daughter of trying to be Paris Hilton. I say, “Kimberly, you haven’t quite got her income yet.” It’s like my son Sean wants to be Tommy Lee. I tell him, “You’re not earning his money, son.”

When did you last put on women’s underwear?
kittydub, Cliffside Park, NJ
Not since the ’70s, and the only women’s underwear I put on was my ex-wife Britt Ekland’s. That was only because I didn’t have any of my own, and I didn’t want to have a panty line under my tight trousers. Who does, dear? It was only a one-off. She let the cat out of the bag — otherwise no one would have known.

What’s your favorite part of building your own model-train set?
fosterc, Jackson, MS
First of all, Blender readers, we don’t call it a “train set.” It’s a “scale-model railroad.” I just love the detail of it: the buildings, the drain holes, the rubbish in the street. Wonderful.

When did you last speak to Britt Ekland?
woot154, South Bend, IN
Ages ago. She hates me. Hasn’t got a good word to say about me. Still. It was 25 years ago or whatever when we split up, and she still wants to put an ax through me.

What was the best thing about turning 60?
jonawu, Birmingham, AL
I’ve never really hidden my age. I’ve never been the type to knock off five years. The best thing was being able to take all my friends and family on a big yacht down to the Caribbean. There were about 20 of us. It was really gorgeous. Got some nice presents too. You can’t go wrong with me as long as you stay within the area of trains and football.

**Before you recorded the first Great American Songbook album, had you considered retiring?**
kgb_tr, Medford, OR
No. The only time I’ve thought about that was after the cancer operation on my throat. I was worried that the voice wouldn’t come back. I don’t think about it now, because I love what I do. I can’t wait until January and our first gig in America. I fucking love it. Although I’d be pretty busy if I did retire. My life is very full outside of music.

What advice did you give to Kimberly about boys?
baybeedo115, Houston
One bit of advice I gave her, from my own handbook on how to treat women, was when she was asked, a long time ago by a rock band called Whitestarr, to go on tour with them. I said, “That’s OK, darling. But make sure you get your own room and a return flight. You don’t want to end up sharing a bed with someone you don’t know.” I speak from experience.

Is there one car you’ve always wanted to own but could never get?
mustang jonny, Milwaukee
I’ve got an Enzo, mate — the fastest, most expensive car on the planet. There’s nothing more beautiful than the Ferrari Enzo. Although we were driving through London a while ago and the fucking thing was running out of petrol. I was thinking, “What if I break down here? I’ll have to push it. People are going to die laughing.”

Where did you first hear the infamous rumor? You know, the one about having your stomach pumped from swallowing too much semen?
bigmurph, Pocatello, ID
It was brought about by a publicist I employed — that I had to fire. I was on tour at the time, but it didn’t worry me. There were loads of rumors flying around at the time: ferrets up people’s bum holes…all kinds.

In 1974, Elton John gave you a Rembrandt and you gave him a fridge. What will you be giving him this year? And what do you think you’ll get back?
b4b8, Winston-Salem, NC
What a great question. It wasn’t even a fridge — it was a fucking ice bucket. You put it beside your chair and it chilled the bottle, and when you pressed the button it popped up nice and cold. I thought it was great. Bought it in Harrods for £27. Then Elton turned up with a Rembrandt worth £10,000, which I’ve still got. I think I’ve made it up to him, though. I’ve been more than generous at his White Tie and Tiara balls. Bought two motorcars for four times their going rate.

When will you make a real album — with your own songs — again?
maggiejay, Billings, MT
Well, Bono keeps telling me that I’ve got to start writing songs again, so I suppose that’s the next one up. I haven’t written for a long time, but I’ve started picking up the old acoustic guitar again.

Is that really all your own hair?
fr8train, Memphis
Of course it fucking is.

Of all the ridiculous outfits you’ve worn, which one do you most regret?
John318, Miami
The album cover of Tonight’s the Night. The stupid straw boater hat and silly make-up. That was Britt Ekland’s influence. The album sold well, though.

Do you have any idea what happened to the woman who inspired “Maggie May”?
ktbird, Wilkes-Barre, PA
Not at all. Can’t even remember her face. I can remember the tent we were in, I remember the heat. And I remember coming very, very quickly, and I remember being left stranded. But I can’t remember her.

You’re 61. Can you still get “upstairs before the night’s too old”?
pdb99, Overland Park, KS
Very, very funny question. Just about. Although, having said that, I’ve just had another operation on my knee: the good one. So they’re both fucked now.

Why won’t you reunite the Faces?
imac, Austin
Well, one of them, dear Ronnie Lane, is on the roof, as we say. So I would always feel like the life and soul of the party was gone. I would reform them for the right reasons — maybe a big, one-off charity event. Also, we haven’t got enough material. We only used to play live for 45 minutes; people want two hours now.

Did Ron Wood really need to go to rehab? Have you ever been?
Whitehorse7, Los Angeles
I’ve never been. The problem with me and Woody is when we meet up we still think we’re in the Faces and in our twenties. I have a drink and stop, but Woody can go for days and it gets him into all sorts of trouble. I’m not addicted to anything really apart from Celtic F.C.

Do you ever regret writing the lyrics “Spread your wings and let me come inside”?
cucio42, Reno, NV
Noooo! The artistry! I was hoping the BBC would ban that when I wrote it. And they did.

When you first heard Bonnie Tyler sing, “It’s a Heartache,” did you think for a moment, hang on, that’s me?
spiderguy, Sedona, AZ
I did. Same phrasing and everything. I think Frankie Miller wrote that. He’s a Celtic supporter too, the bastard — he should have given it to me.

Are you finally done having kids?
teena_lu, Teaneck, NJ
I’m not going to close off the office just yet. We’ve got one more in the pipeline. We’re going to attempt one more next year and then I shall put the old typewriter away.

What’s the most stereotypically Scottish thing about you?
mcteague, Lordsburg, NM
It’s certainly not cheapness. I wasn’t born there, but my father was a Scot, and from him I inherited passion, humor and a good pair of legs.

At the height of your disco phase, did you ever learn to do the Hustle?
bort8883, Arlington, VA
I’ve been known to get up on the dance floor once I’ve got myself tanked up. I used to go down to Studio 54 and everything. But I’m not sure I’ve done the Hustle.

Is rock & roll a dying art form? If so, who killed it?
right said ted, Denver
I think it’s still got legs as an art form. I hear some interesting stuff echoing through my house. I haven’t heard anyone who’s going to take over from the Stones yet, but someone will come along. It’s certainly not dead.

Have you ever regretted showing off the old tool bag quite so much onstage?
magnumruss, Staten Island, NY
How dare you! I’ve never gone out of my way to show it off, those were just the fashions of the time. It’s not that huge, but I’ve never stuck anything down there to make it look bigger. Honest. It’s a nice knob! No one’s complained so far, anyway.

The Forum, Los Angeles

Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 21 July 1979

YOU DON'T have to be hungry to make good rock and roll, but it helps. Sitting through a Rod Stewart show is like watching a starving mob devour a cream cake.

As he's got richer, Rod has got more indigestible. What's worse, the cream turns out to be artificial at best – spotlights on audience, strains of 'The Stripper' while all clap along like wind-up monkeys banging cymbals, waiting for the scarlet-and-gold-brocade curtains to part like a prostitute's legs, knowing what's coming but you've paid for it so why not act excited – a cheap facsimile of the rock and roll Rod once played, with feeling. Most of the time he's like a cream horn without the cream. No spunk. Just hollow.

If this isn't a record, it must be pretty near. Six sold-out nights at the 18,000-seater Forum. That's around 110,000 Los Angelenos longing to see Rod, not to mention the thousands more who couldn't get tickets.
The crowd looks like a sports event with everyone cheering the same side, a kids' pantomime where you all know when and how to join in. Las Vegas on a bigger scale. Thousands of people up and dancing and clapping and singing along from the moment the bleached expatriate in mauve satin jog suit drum-majorettes across the stage, waves his mike stand and wiggles his behind, singing (not that the title is particularly relevant – all follow exactly the same formula) 'Hot Legs'.
Give Rod his due. I can't think of any other concert here where the crowd has been so devoted, so rabid and so eager to join in (even the Beach Boys, with similar adoring crowd, had to wait till the halfway mark before anyone rose from their seats to bop along).
He couldn't go wrong – to his credit, the show is put together so professionally, so exactly what they want, that he has no intention of short-changing them, and by all reports the same could be said of the rest of this never-ending US tour. But there's no pretence even at rock and roll. Even the amps and speakers are raised off the art-deco stage so there's nothing to even hint that this is a rock concert. Not even a support act.
By the third number ('Tonight's The Night', that pub chant sung in such an endearing bad-boy way that it gets the 40-year-old on my left embarrassingly squealing every other minute) we've gone pretty much through the whole routine that lasts the rest of the show.
Rod kneels on the lid of a scarlet grand piano, gives a grin, girls toss flowers at the stage. Rod runs to the left of the stage, the people occupying the loges above the left of the stage stand up and wave, Rod runs to the right, and so on, brandishing the mike stand, kicking back beachballs, strutting, swaying, sparring, doing press-ups, the whole weight-watchers exercise programme, while holding his mobile mike out into the crowd to get us to sing half the songs by ourselves.
In the singalong 'You're In My Heart' he compares love to a football team; that says it all. The mirrorballs go off and someone lights a firecracker. The crowd roars. Never have I seen the rabble so roused. It's like they're rooting for him to do well, to entertain them, without being the least bit critical. If it all gets pretty boring for Rod, he doesn't show it tonight.
I still like his voice, that hard-edged, gravelly sound that gives a nice turn to ballads. He knows how to pick a good song – 'First Cut Is The Deepest' and 'If Loving You Is Wrong' being among the best of the show – but he also knows how to ruin them.
On the bluesy 'I Just Wanna Make Love to You' the audience does most of the singing while Rod demonstrates the song's inner meanings by sprawling on his stomach and twitching his ass up and down, get the idea kids? Same goes for the awful 'Do Ya Think I'm Sexy'. The beautiful 'Maggie May' is ruined by a jumble of clap-along, spotlight-on-crowd bits, and the musical equivalent of Benny Hill even spoils 'I'm Losing You', which incorporates bits of 'All Over Now', 'Standing In The Shadows Of Love' and 'Layla' and a drum solo by Carmine Appice that had me running for the exit.
As I left they were doing 'Sweet Little Rock And Roller' and the crowd was begging for more. I didn't stick around long enough to find out what they got. More of the same no doubt. That seems to be all Rod is capable of serving up these days.

© Sylvie Simmons, 1979

Rod Stewart: Scandinavia Tour 76'

Barbara Charone, Sounds, 27 November 1976

At Heathrow a Scandinavian Airlines stewardess buys a copy of Blue Moves because records are cheaper in Britain than Denmark. With foreign currency, everything is cheaper in Britain.

Scandanavia is expensive. But they enjoy a touch of class. While British Airways dish out unappetising stroganoff, SAS offer smoked salmon for starters, even in economy! The taxi driver at the Copenhagen airport does not speak English but an Abba cassette blasts loudly all the way to the hotel. Abba are BIG in Copenhagen.

So is Rod Stewart. A dozen danish tartan hordes stand guard outside the austere hotel entrance. One particular homely horde with overcrowded teeth waits patiently with one red rose, a crumpled piece of paper and an anxious pen. For the next 48 hours she will remain glued to that spot.

Copenhagen is the land of one thousand Fiorucci shops and Rod Stewart wears it well (naturally). Before the tour began, Stewart outfitted the entire band with Fiorucci onstage apparel simultaneously giving them an identity and carving himself a half-of-the-lads posture.

"I don't look so square onstage now," guitarist Billy 'I used to play with Chuck Berry' Peek said with a smile. This master riffsman was decked out in tight fitted Fiorucci drainpipes, Kickers, and a silver shirt.

"I think I'm a good band leader," Stewart later boasted. "In all channels. How many band leaders do you know that'll go back to fuckin' London just to pick up Kickers for his guitar player?"

Aside from in-store Kickers displays and brightly coloured neon lights that go FIORUCCI in the night, the streets of Copenhagen are lined with sex shops and record stores. ONLY 2 KRONER FOR SEX SHOW IN CINEMASCOPE one shop advertises. And competition is fierce. NON STOP LIVE SEX SHOW FOR TEN CONTINUOUS MINUTES another promises.

Late night discos favour appropriate soundtracks stuffed with disco ducks and heavy breathing from Donna Summer. For just 2 kroner more you get the heavy breathing in glorious sensursound. The road crew dance the night away, drunkenly singing along to 'Tonight's The Night' with mocking sensuality.

On this rock 'n roll tour there are two distinct sets of club goers. The straight and the not-so-straight. Tonight Stewart stays at the hotel keeping company with a flu-striken Britt Ekland and some Chuck Berry cassettes.

The first week of the tour, publicist Tony Toon was mysteriously presented with a vibrator. DEAR has become an integral part of conversation, decorating everyone's speech patterns. Sexuality is running haywire. Men are sometimes called Miss. No matter the gender of preference, Rod Stewart seems to attract both.

But the smooth straw hat and cane image that stares out of every record shop window, belongs to the past. The tour logo features a fist aggressively smashing it's way through the offending straw hat.

"I hate that album cover," Stewart declared. "I'm embarrassed about a lot of the things that have gone on the last two years; some of the silly pictures that have been taken, some of the silly stuff that's been written. That TV special (A Night On The Town) did come off a bit poofy but that whole image will change when people see us onstage.

"I was just tired of the person I had become with the Faces, tired of the boozer who wasn't making very good albums either. Perhaps," Rod muses, "the person I was striving to be was the wrong person.

"All I want is the kids to know that I really do give a fuck. I want musical respect, I would dread to think that I was selling records because Britt and I got on page three of the Evening Whatever."

Breathe a sigh of relief and read on.

"I'm a naughty boy again," the singer chuckled. "That's how I used to feel when I started singing with the Faces, like I was getting up to mischief. I feel like a kid again. And it feels so good to be onstage with the band. They make you want to shake your ass."

The first cut is the deepest

Gonna be a star someday no matter what they say
And when ya hear the crowds all callin' and shoutin' at my name
Till then my little friend I'll be unsatisfied*

THREE WEEKS AGO Rod Stewart was poised on the brink of genuine satisfaction, about to become a fullbodied star. But the night the Rod Stewart Group made their official onstage debut, the only thing shaking was a bad case of nerves. The tartan terror and his six man firing squad were temporarily wounded by a potent but not lethal dose of stage fright.

"The most worrying, thing was when I found out that we'd sold out the Olympia, sold out Glasgow before we'd done our first gig! I was shit scared because you just don't know till you get in front of a live audience. I was so frightened," Stewart reclines in animated horror. "Still am every gig. It's all me now."

Stewart however was not alone in his neurosis. Every group veteran suddenly found the stage virgin territory.

"That first night was the only time I've ever gone onstage nervous," guitarist Gary Grainger recalled. "I was on tenterhooks."

"If you'd seen the first night," Stewart laughs. "I think everyone in the band wore brown trousers. You've never seen so many forced smiles in your life. But somebody up there must like me 'cause I really didn't try that hard to put a band together did I?

"It was more a case of 'I'll have 'im, 'im and 'im' and see if they work. That's why I probably wanted Kenny Jones in the band for a safety thing. And shit," Stewart enthuses, "look what I've got now! I'm so proud of them. I'm just lucky. I wish Don Revie had that much luck."

The musical football team Rod Stewart has assembled for this year's cup final, now sit in the Tivoli Theatre changing room. With the sound check over, forty-five minutes separate this group from their seventh public performance. Will the Danes remain screwed to their seats?

Few of these seasoned pros have ever seen their coach in action on the field. Drummer Carmine Appice and Grainger supported the Faces with Cactus and Strider respectively. Jim Cregan remembers seeing Rod Stewart trade licks with Long John Baldry back at Eel Pie Island.

Pianist John Jarvis and Peek both played on A Night On The Town but never had the pleasure of seeing the Faces live. Bassist Phil Chen was also restricted to the odd television in-concert view.

"What's Britain gonna be like," they all kept asking, filled with technicolour visions Stewart has painted with Match of the Day excitement. "And what's Glasgow really like?"

They speak not of the city but the audience. Although Cregan has played Britain and visited the Blue Boar with Family, Linda Lewis and Steve Harley, he still has no idea of the frenzied excitement Stewart commands on home turf.

"Ya wanna know how Rod Stewart feels working with such amazing talent right?" Cregan asks with a grin. "Seriously this band is not a backing band. We're all free to contribute ideas to the new album that we're doing in the spring.

"The band just being themselves is Rod's idea. He is the leader but he doesn't run a dictatorship. He wants everyone to have their own spot. We are a group. This is permanent. If it was only for one tour I would have never joined."

Appice agreed: "Rod never wanted a backing band. Otherwise he would have hired session guys. It's not just a show for Rod. He knows it's better to have a band. Our image is rock 'n roll ass kicking and we're good lookin' too," Appice arrogantly concluded.

So strong is the royal Stewart confidence in his new group that he wants them to make their own album after the group project is completed. What will it sound like?

"Jamaican roots," said Phil Chen, the man who put reggae into what they now call 'Reggae May'.

"Pasta man vibrations," said the spagetti king of the drum kit.

"Some more Chuck Berry. When I used to play with Chuck...," Peek began before the volume of the band's laughter drowned out his words.

The giggles temporarily subside when the entourage enter the changing room as kick-off time approaches. Dressed in brown trousers, schoolboy cap and fur coat, Stewart is accompanied by Britt, manager Billy Gaff and publicist Toon. Rod pours himself a large port and brandy to nourish his flu. Gaff turns to Cregan and says, "Nice bit of rouge dear."

Cue camera three. And send in the clowns.

You can make me dance, sing, or anything

AND NOW for a word from our sponsor.

"This band is like a little family to me and I love it. I wanna look after them and make them into something. And I've done it. This was the biggest challenge ever. And ya know what sparked it off? When Ian McLagan said 'right he's done it on record bet he can't do it live'. That got the old celtic pride going."

As his fierce Celtic pride began to simmer, Stewart stressed his desire to make a clean break with the past and avoid messy comparisons to what once was.

"I never want this band to feel like they're a backing band. I had no freedom whatsoever with the last band. Really this is no comparison. But we shouldn't compare anymore. When you're winning it's so easy to be negative about the other side."

"If anyone was gonna think this band sounded like the Faces it would be me anyways! To hear Gary bring in 'Stay With Me' the way you want to hear it is great. You need a change to get that magical buzz again. Why be narrowminded? Why not breakdown a few barriers? We do the best of both worlds. Christ 'Sweet Little Rock 'n Roller' takes it out of me and then I have to get all composed for 'This Old Heart Of Mine'."

While the reviews continue to wax enthusiastic, they mysteriously fail to mention the Faces. Although the band was never huge in Scaninavia, this black and white behaviour seems rather strange.

"The reviews have been marvellous but they never mention the Faces," Stewart said with a touch of sadness. "It's good and bad, cause the Faces only did one gig in four but they never saw a good gig. When the Faces were on they were ON. It was magic. I guess it started to disappear when Laney left."

With magic on the rise, Stewart is quick to sing this new band's praises.

"Their enthusiasm is overwhelming. I would like to think they're looking at being with me as lasting two or three years and then making a name for themselves. I can't see it lasting any longer cause after two or three years I'll want a change.

"This is just like being the captain of a football team. I feel like I have to boost them before we go on. 'C'mon lads fuckin' show 'em' and that gets them going," Stewart said with his best Revie imitation. "This band is so professional. Gone are those days of 'fuck me I don't feel like goin' onstage tonight'. Do you know we're on time every night?" Stewart asks in stunned disbelief.

Send in the timekeepers. And cue camera four.

Tonight's the night

Please appreciate I must make a break just to see what I can do
The stage is set so understand I can't hide in the wings anymore
I gotta go now it's no use me staying home*

PRECISELY thirty seconds after 8 o'clock, the Rod Stewart Group walked onstage of the Tivoli Theatre. Time stood still. But Rod Stewart didn't. He wore red satin baggy peasant pajama pants, white satin shirt, and matching red satin jacket. From the start of 'Three Time Looser' he was running on spontaneous rock 'n' roll bravado and flash.

The music was instantaneous, loose but disciplined. Quite simply it sounded great. And it sounded great all the way through 14 songs and on the encore. A whole lotta fun indeed. The Sunday Times Magazine was right. Try and catch a live show. It'll keep you screwed to your seat.

A rock 'n roller at heart, onstage Stewart looks like he's been set free from the cage-like atmospheres of TV supersonics. His singing is better, his performance is inspired, the phrasing of old tunes now revamped, and the new resilient guitar parts will weather any storm. During 'You Wear It Well' Stewart jumps on the drum rise with his old spontaneity and energy.

"Let's get down," he tells the audience after the first two breath-taking numbers. "Let's get down. Let's take our trousers down." The four man guitar chorus line pumps out 'Big Bayou' ferociously, driven by frenetic tempos. During 'Tonight's The Night' back-up harmonies that sounded ropey in rehearsal now sound vibrant, adding to the song's inbuilt sexy sway.

"Some of those moves," Britt Ekland sighs during the tune.

During 'Wild Side Of Life' the piano rocks steady while the band play like a bitch in heat. Grainger spins tasty slide, Peek dashes off some slices of Chuck while Cregan smoothly fits in between. Revitalized, Stewart runs round the stage as if this were an Olympic try-out.

'This Old Heart Of Mine' is given a gentle, funky sensuality. Rod does a summersault before the entrance of the twin lead guitars. Very sexy. The guitars not the sommersault. When the dynamics are brought down and Stewart croons 'I love youuuuuu' one member of the audience euphorically screams "OOOHHHHH!!"

The seventh number, 'Sweet Little Rock 'n Roller' makes you dance. It is played with the kind of energy most bands usually end their set with. Stewart's singing is brilliant and the band match his performance especially Peek's guitar solo and Jarvis' piano solo. At the rollicking conclusion the applause is like an end of show ovation.

'I Don't Want To Talk About It' has a sincere, romantic sentimentality aided by acoustic guitas. During 'Maggie May' you can hear all the words and all the original parts. Stewart flaunts his flamboyant side when he spits out 'find myself a rock 'n roll band that needs a helping hand' before the reggae break.

"Yeah reggae," Britt rhythmically yells.

Stewart kicks the mike stand as if it was a football during the first verse of 'Angel' which doesn't sway as much as it now rocks. Now the songs are all musical tour de forces too. The dramatic rendering of 'You Keep Me Hanging On' follows where the band do incredible things with the mainline contagious riff.

"And now a little true story for ya," Stewart addresses the crowd.

"It's not often you get to tell a true story on a rock 'n roll stage. This song is very personal," he says quietly as 'The Killing Of Georgie' gently lifts off.

"ALL LIES," Pete Buckland laughs from the mixing board.

"QUEER," Eckland mocks.

Sitting on his knees intently staring at the audience, Stewart exquisitely excels on each verse. His vocals are superb. 'Losing You' is more subtle and less blantant than previous incarnations as the guitars collide sounding like New Orleans horns. The band rocks with discipline not indulgence.

The audience go nuts during the drum solo. Stewart returns to the stage in a new costume: gold Fiorucci jacket, striped t-shirt, tight green velvet trousers, a red scarf hanging from his waist and red boots to top the ensemble off. The trousers are the kind that made the Sunday People wonder which side he dresses.

"And now the National Anthem," Stewart says graciously, with upper-class British inflections. "But you needn't rise." With a backing tape of the acoustic intro, Stewart begins his patriotic assault on 'Sailin'. The guitars carry the melody well. The curtain closes with Stewart's back to the audience immobile as a movie still.

The encore is even better than 'Sweet Little Rock 'n Roller'. Be warned. 'Stay With Me' is lethal. Stewart kicks the number off standing atop the piano. It's slightly slower, funkier and you can hear every word. When Stewart now barks 'Guitar' there are three. The effect is exhilerating.

When discussing the merits of the show Britt sighs, "And to think I get it every night. And it's always good."

Send in the stretchers. And cue camera five.

Rod the mod comes of age parts I and II

BACKSTAGE Stewart and Co. are deservedly elated. They all agree it wasn't bad for the seventh show. "Wait till Britain," Stewart keeps saying. The concerts could damage your health. Warn Her Majesties Government immediately.

The limos are waiting to make a quick get-a-way back to the hotel. The band all wear matching long, red velvet capes complete with hoods and a gold glitter initial on the back. They look like seven heavyweight champions. The ploy works well. No one recognises Stewart.

But a good two dozen fans beat us back to the hotel. WEA is throwing a small dinner/reception in the main, grand room of the majestic hotel. The Stewart disappears upstairs, listening to Chuck Berry songs like 'Too Pooped To Pop' as Peek spins tales of the master craftsmen. Rod is a most attentive audience. Even Britt finds the stories fascinating.

Downstairs at the WEA do, the band and assorted media people sit round dining tables. The roast beef is carved and the drink flows. Dinner runs smoothly until several journalists attempt to reinact a scene from the BBC2 documentary Rod The Mod Comes Of Age. Stewart tries his best to keep patient but silly questions asked in clipped accents almost too foreign to decipher get that Celtic pride boiling again.

Rod sticks mainly to football. His eyes light up with thoughts of tomorrow's visit to Hampden Park for the Wales-Scotland match. Britt was gonna wear a mink but Stewart convinced her something Khaki might be more suitable.

"Once you're recognised you've had it," he explains.

The journalists prolong this tortuous inquiry that makes me feel embarassed of my profession.

"There may be better looking singers than me," Stewart concludes this performance, signaling that he wants to go, "but there's not a better singer with a better ass."

How do you say ass in Danish? Send in the dictionary. And cue camera six.

The fans outside the hotel are still screaming 'ROD ROD' in chilly unison as the singer rides the glass paneled, elegant old lift up to his room. Cases of stage clothes decorate the lounge. Dylan's Blonde On Blonde and Blood On The Tracks and Stevie Wonder's Greatest Hits grace the coffee table right near the waiting cassette machine.

Stewart reclined on the couch as Britt went off to bed. With wine glass in hand he clarified any lingering misconceptions, continuing to paint a very healthy self portrait. Supersonic had better find themselves a new boy. Tell camera seven.

"Now I move with the rhythm section instead of moving the way I think a rhythm section should be," Stewart said still buzzing with post-gig adrenalin.

"This band just makes you wanna tap your foot. And I move better now, more fluidly. I don't pack everything into the first number. We just sway through the first number and build it up, then do an Otis Redding with 'Big Bayou'.

"I feel very confident now. I don't feel like I have to be a substitute for something that's not happening musically. Did you see how many times I went offstage and my presence wasn't needed? That's great! I mean this band is built to play big arenas," Stewart sighed.

"We need the space to move. SHIT I can't move the mike stand the way I want on a stage like that. I already crippled Gary the other night during 'Three Time Loser'. You should see his fingers. They're, all bruised."

Send for a doctor. And cue future audiences.

Hello/Goodbye

"LIKE THE SONG says," Appice had said earlier that evening, "Ain't nobody gonna stop us now."

"I'm not at all biased," Britt Ekland had previously admitted. "But they are the best rock 'n roll band in the world."

"Ain't bad when you think two people got flu," Stewart summised after the gig.

In different ways they were all right. It was hard to argue with such concrete evidence. This show ranks right up there with Charlton and Knebworth. But don't listen to me. Why not try a live show.

It'll keep you screwed to your seat.

The Peninsula Hotel's presidential suite is not your standard overnight business accommodation, even for Fifth Avenue. There are three bedrooms, a library, two living rooms, a dining room, two half-bathrooms and three full baths, one with a Jacuzzi big enough for a swim party. Its 2,500 square feet span the entire block from 55th to 56th Streets. Butler, valet, and housekeepers (who discretely use the suite's service entrance) are always at the ready. All this is yours for $3,000 a night.

Rod Stewart looks very much at home here.
He has, for the past 20 years, been both a rock star and celebrity whose adventures have been chronicled as much by People as by Rolling Stone. Stewart has had his moments when he has been thought of as the finest interpretive singer of the rock generation, as well as one of its most important songwriters. At other times, he's been dismissed as a playboy more interested in chasing blondes than in his considerable musical gifts, and berated as an underachieving buffoon.
"There was a time in the late 1970s, early '80s" a question to Stewart begins on a recent afternoon, and before the sentence is completed, he is ready to cop a plea.
"It was a really bad period," he said. "Though I actually enjoyed it, I must admit I enjoyed it. It's a period of my life I regret a bit, because I was reading all my own press and believing it. I thought I really was sexy."
Of course, he is sexy, but he's a little more nonchalant about it. He speaks softly now. He wears a perfectly cut subdued suit, a white shirt with subtle pink embroidery: casual elegance personified. He wears eyeglasses that give an aura of maturity to a visage once renowned for its rakish leer. He is beyond all that, he says, but it has taken some work. He knows how easy it is for a reputation to sour.
He'd had it all – critical acclaim and popular adoration – when he moved to Calfornia in the mid-1970s and happily, haplessly, nearly threw it all away. His low point as an artist may have been the two albums whose sins were defined by their titles: Blondes Have More Fun (1978) and Foolish Behavior (1980).
"I got a lot of slagging off from rock critics, which I thought I fairly deserved," Stewart said. "I think Greil Marcus in Rolling Stone wrote: 'Rod Stewart has got one of the finest instruments, rock and roll voices, of the 20th Century, and he's completely wasted it.' I read that and said, 'God, he's so right'."
It took some time for Stewart, now 48, to turn the corner and give his gift the focus it deserves. But his 1991-92 tour showed him ably blending the crowd-pleasing showman side of his personality with the artistic. And perhaps in a way of getting back to his roots, he is releasing an Unplugged album (the concert has been on MTV this month).
It's not precisely one of those solo acoustic Unplugged anti-extravaganzas. There are 11 musicians crowded on a tiny MTV soundstage. So while the arrangements are full, there's no room for Stewart to traipse around kicking soccer balls and shaking what many of his female fans consider the most desirable derriere in show business.
Unplugging is not exactly a novel idea at this point, but it could be as rejuvenating for Stewart as it was for Eric Clapton. Though the mood is casual, the emphasis is on conveying the emotional nuances of Stewart's songs.
It also draws heavily on material from what might be called Stewart's first golden era, that early 1970s period when he established his solo career with the majestic 'Maggie May'. At the same time he was touring and recording with the Faces, the endearingly sloppy road band on which his grainy, rasping voice was matched to perfect effect with the rambunctiousness of guitarist Ron Wood, bassist Ronnie Lane, keyboard player Ian MacLagan and drummer Kenney Jones.
**On the Unplugged versions of 'Stay With Me', 'Every Picture Tells A Story', 'Reason To Believe', and others, Stewart and Wood reunite for the first time since the Faces' mid-'70s demise.
"I knew if I was going to do those songs I had to get Woody involved somehow," Stewart said. "Not only did he play bass and guitar on those records, but his sheer presence brings out something in me."
Five years ago Wood told this newspaper that he had the answer to Stewart's erratic recordings at that time. The problem, Wood said, was that Rod "stopped writing songs with his old pal here."**
Stewart laughs heartily. "I can't believe he said that!" Stewart said. "It might be true. Five years ago I was in a bit of a lull. He's one of those guys who you don't have to struggle to write songs with. He can strum anything, I can sing to it. It was the same way with Jeff [Beck]. He'd just plug in and play. They both inspire me."
Stewart and Wood's musical relationship preceded the Faces, when they were the singer and bass player, respectively, for the Jeff Beck Group, the groundbreaking English rock band led by the visionary yet volatile guitar player.
"It's only in hindsight that we realize how good we were, the Beck group, and what a landmark those first two albums were," Stewart said of Truth (1968) and Beck-Ola, a year later. "Led Zeppelin based their whole band on the Jeff Beck Group. Jeff still hasn't forgiven Jimmy Page for it."
It was as a member of the Beck group that Stewart laid one of the cornerstones of his legend. When the band made its first New York appearance, at the Fillmore East, a stagefright-stricken Stewart performed virtually the entire set with his back to the audience. In that way, for certain, you could say he's changed.
"I'm still pretty shy with people that I don't know," Stewart said. "If I walk into a roomful of people, I'm not the most confident. But I am very confident when I go out in front of an audience and I have to sing my songs. There's a lot of anticipation, because you don't know what the outcome is gonna be, but that's really where I'm at my happiest, I would say. When I'm up there singing for people. When my voice is working, and it's working really well, it's the finest drug in the world."
But Stewart doesn't sing every song with the same zest and enthusiasm. He still cherishes 'Maggie May', his 1971 single that was his commercial breakthrough. This bittersweet tale about a young man's romance with and parting from an older woman was never meant to be a hit: It was the B-side of the single 'Reason To Believe' until a Cleveland disc jockey flipped the record over and the phones went wild. "I'd still be digging graves if it wasn't for him," Stewart said, referring to a job he once held during his working class London youth. Stewart said he's got a mental block about 'Maggie May': when he sings it in concert, he always gets the words wrong.
"I haven't sung the correct set of lyrics since I recorded it," he said. "I do not know why. It's almost like you can sing any line, anywhere in the song and it works, because nothing really rhymes."
Stewart would like to be able to forget all the words to 'Do Ya Think I'm Sexy', his 1979 disco single, a No. 1 hit that sold millions but contributed mightily to his fall from critical esteem.
"It puts me to sleep singing it," Stewart said. "It's every rock critic's nightmare, but they [the audience] just love that song." Stewart won't be doing the song on the Unplugged tour, which comes to Jones Beach Sept. 22 and 23 (a city date is also likely). On his next tour, probably in 1994, Stewart said, he may have to return 'Sexy' to his repertoire. But, he said, "I wouldn't be worried if I never sang that song again. "
It's not just the musical era represented by 'Do Ya Think I'm Sexy' that seems old hat to Stewart. It's the whole persona the song represented, the narcissistic skirt-chaser. "I was a bit obnoxious about it in those days. I revelled in it, thought I was God's gift to women." With a wink, he adds, "until they saw me in the morning, until they saw me in the nude, then they'd know it wasn't true."
After a host of highly publicized relationships with world-renowned beauties like Britt Ekland, Alana Hamilton (his first wife), and Kelly Emberg, with dozens of lesser-known lookers before, during, and after, Stewart has settled down with New Zealand-born Rachel Hunter. Despite the fact that there are some superficial similarities to past liaisons – she's blonde, a model, and much younger than he (she is 23), Stewart's convinced that this marriage will have a long run.
"I am still madly in love with her, and I will be the rest of my life," Stewart said. "It's difficult to sit here talking about my wife without sounding corny, but I do love her. It's hard to put it in a nutshell. I think because she's a New Zealander, and they're very close to the British, it's like we're soul brothers, not just husband and wife – it goes a lot deeper than that. Apart from her obvious attributes, she's extremely mature for twenty-three, and has a wonderful head on her shoulders. She's a tremendous mother. She's a lot of fun, but she does get tired quick. You'd think I was the one that goes to bed at ten o'clock, but she's the one. I wear her out completely."
Stewart and Hunter live in Los Angeles and have a year-old daughter. Stewart also has three other children: a son, 12, and daughter 13, from his marriage to Hamilton, and a 6-year-old daughter from his relationship with Emberg. "I don't see too much of the six-year-old, because she lives all the way down in Manhattan Beach [Calif.] with her mother, but I'm in touch with her," Stewart said. His son lives with him, however, and he drives both his budding adolescents to school when he's home.
"You never stop learning how to be a father," he said. "I'm far from a perfect father, if there is such a thing. You don't go to classes to be a father, do you? You can learn how to drive, or use a computer, but to be a father, it's just trial and error."
There is, not surprisingly, a generation gap in the Stewart house over music. "My son loves rap music. I think he wishes he was black. He dresses like a gang member," Stewart said. "Well, I remember what my dad used to say when I listened to blokes like Jimmy Reed or Lightnin' Hopkins, he'd say, 'They all bloody sound the same!' I'd say, 'No they don't, Dad, the chords might, but listen to the lyrics.' I finally started listening to rap music, and to me, it really does sound the same. So it's funny, it's all come around in a complete circle."
Stewart himself says he listens to everything from Sinatra to Guns N' Roses, but his daily diet is still rich in the American soul and blues music that first inspired him. On the table in front of him is a stack of tapes, virtually all '60s soul: Johnnie Taylor, Wilson Pickett, Rufus Thomas, Eddie Floyd. "I feel comfortable with it. I understand it," he said.
Although Stewart learned to sing by first copying masters, like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, his impact is heard in current music by rock bands like the Black Crowes, who have been accused of cloning the Faces, and the immensely popular Michael Bolton, whose fans believe he has a way with '60s soul songs.
"Fine voice," Stewart said of Bolton. "I just wish he'd hold back a little: It's all voice and no soul."
As for the Black Crowes, his praise was modest but sincere. "I think they put their records together very, very nicely. They work out their guitar parts very well, which is something we didn't used to do in the Faces, because I think they're very close to the Faces, and I'm sure they admit it."
With Wood recently in town recalling the good old Faces days, the group's songs revived on Stewart's Unplugged and their sound highly regarded, it's not surprising the singer sounds nostalgic about that band.
"We were boozers, that's what we were," Stewart said with the fondness of a man who remembers an era, but not too many particular nights. "We used to drink a hell of an amount basically because we had no confidence in ourselves. We just didn't think we were very good. We came at a time when the music was being taken very seriously. You had Jethro Tull and Genesis, everybody with their heads down, and we came out with our satin suits and bottles of wine and played loud rock and roll music. As individuals, I don't think we were very good musicians. But together we were great."
Obviously, others thought they were good enough musicians. After the Faces, Wood, of course, joined the Rolling Stones, while drummer Kenney Jones replaced the late Keith Moon in The Who.
Though Stewart and Wood have talked about a Faces reunion (Ian MacLagan would certainly come back on keyboards), it's not really possible without Ronnie Lane, who has been seriously ill with multiple sclerosis for many years. Lane is currently in a treatment center in Austin, Texas; Stewart and Wood have been paying the hospital bills. "Ron Wood and I may have been the two glamor boys up front, but Ronnie Lane was the heart of the Faces," Stewart said.
It's a testament to the durability of the Faces' unadorned, good-time rock and roll that Stewart strikes a sentimental note about what might have been. "Woody was always going to be a Rolling Stone, and I wanted to be on my own, but if Ronnie Lane had stayed, I bet we'd have all stayed together to this day. Our livers would have given out by now, we would have all been dead from it, but we would have stayed." It's easy to see why Stewart feels that way. After all the leggy blondes, fancy cars, and lavish homes, it's the music that keeps Rod real.

The Faces Under The Big Top

Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, 6 May 1972

AFTER A while you get the feeling you're part of the scenario for one of those colossally far-fetched paperbacks with titles like Rock God (make sure your daughters are locked up when Tommy And The Terribles are in town). Two days on the road with the Faces is a very un-average sort of experience.

This time it was a Rock-n-Roll circus – clowns, jugglers acrobats and a Chinese lady doing a striptease 50 feet up, suspended by her long black hair. Kimono after kimono she shed right down to her sparkling pink undies. And then she went up again for a cup of tea and a fag.

First stop was the Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tenn. It's a huge biege and green dome affair with bank upon bank of seats laid out like the Nurburgring. It holds 12,000. Ten thousand turned up for the evening – young, healthy, beautiful kids eager for a piece of action to slice through the monotony of a Memphis evening. Security was tight. There was no way of breaking through the cordon blue. For a start 300 lb. of cop had spread himself over a chair at one entrance, bouncing his rubber-tipped nightstick against the tiled floor.

"If I hit somebody and don't really mean it, they don't feel a thing." M.C. for the evening was a silver-haired gent in a smart red blazer, probably a veteran of the era when circus entertainment wasn't relegated to the status of a freak support act.

"A new concept in American entertainment," he called it. "Introducing for the first time in the history of show biz. circus acts with rock and roll."

Opening duties went to a lavishly costumed clown and his ladyfriend – Blinko and his novelty balloonerama.

"Are you ready for some fun," asked Blinko. The idea being the more noise the folks made the more balloons Blinko and his partner launched at them.

"How about that," said our MC friend when the balloon trough was empty. "Didn't they do a great job? And now this group will ready for you in just a few minutes."

This group were none other than re-formed Free, who at the last moment, had taken over from Fleetwood Mac. The Faces are all Free freaks and felt that they could do with reaching 10 or 12 thousand people at a time.

'Fire And Water', 'Riding On A Pony', 'Soldier War' – savage pieces that give the band a chance to open up. Kossoff Kirke, Rodgers and Fraser, are superb musicians. Paul Rodger has one of the most compelling voices in rock music today and Andy Fraser, an insolent, cocky performer lays on some beautifully lyrical bass lines. The band, for all their past troubles are surviving. Memphis recognised several numbers – 'All Right Now', for instance, but came alive only spasmodically.

Carlo, "with the most incredible display of agilistic ability ever demonstrated on this continent" picked up where Free left off.

"Watch him do a free head-stand on the rubber ball as he twirls those hoops." The lines were straight from 'For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite' and so was Carlo, balancing and twirling under the Coliseum's spotlight. "Here is truly the outstanding and the unusual from this young man from south of the border."

Next treat was Miss Doris and a huge rubber ball "painted psychedelic colours just for the Rock-n-Roll circus." The idea was to walk the ball up a series of ramps and perform a handstand at the summit. She feigns a stumble or two and the crowd gasps. Ooh. Meanwhile, little Frankie her two-year-old who'd earlier stood on mum's shoulders, scampers around at the foot of the ramp, unconcerned that mum is apparently laying her very life on the line. But on the way down Miss Doris actually does stumble.

Then came a squat, muscular gent performing a series of Arabian flip-flops on solid ground. Side somersaults, cartwheels in top positions and others with his head skimming the ground by mere inches.

"And you'll notice folks this is all done without the aid of a springboard or trampoline."

Sadly, the most stunning events of the evening are non-starters because of problems in erecting props. There was to have been a motorcyclist bursting through a hoop of real fire, plus a high-wire act. Never mind. There was Miss Ming Wung, the oriental stripper. Truly the outstanding and the unusual.

"And that concludes the circus. Tell me, did you enjoy it," asks the MC beaming with genuine pride and brotherly love.

"No," the crowd returns.

"I tell you why I was asking..."

But where's Rod and The Faces. They'd set off on a private jet from New York hours ago, pointing themselves in the direction of Memphis. But a storm whipped their fragile craft miles off-course and what should have been a two-hour journey took 5 1/2.

Finally, a black Cadillac delivers them and within minutes they're onstage. The lights are down and when the spots come on they pick out a four-man brass section who introduce the Faces with an extravagant fanfare.

They don't 'alf look lovely. Rod in a yellow and black mock tiger suit, yellow silk scarf drooping down to his crotch and blue sneakers. Ronny Lane in a blue ted's drape suit with white cuffs, pockets and collar.

They lay on basically the same show we've been hearing in Britain for a few months – 'All Over Now', 'Too Bad', 'Gasoline Alley', 'Long Distance Information', 'That's All You Need'.

The band's a little rusty this night. With the exception of the Mar Y Sol gig in Peurto Rico three weeks before, they hadn't been on stage for six weeks. They stumbled around a bit early in the evening missing each other's cues but they settle down eventually. 'Maybe I'm Amazed', is especially beautiful. And the crowd love them. They've probably never seen anything so gigantically zany.

Rock groups of The Faces calibre, you see, are supposed to be moody and aloof. But they prefer to leap and dance around, switching mikes in devastating bursts of speed whispering among each other, hatching more and more nutty displays. Stewart throws himself prostrate, bowing to Ron Wood's bottleneck artistry and there are comical vocal pairings around one mike. Their off-stage performance is even more crazed but the Holiday Inn bar in Memphis gives them little scope. That would have to wait until tomorrow.

After the show in the dressing room Rod's got a beef with your own Disc. He'd been incensed by a line in the paper that suggested he didn't turn up for our recent poll awards for fear of being upstaged by Marc Bolan.

"I'd like to explain about that 'cos I'm pissed off. They said I was scared to turn up because Marc Bolan was there. It's silly really. I would have loved to have been there 'cos I love making speeches and all that. But the other lads wouldn't let me go. You can't blame them really. Thursday night we were opening at The Rainbow and we had to get a sound balance.

"They should know that I've been playing long enough that I ain't gonna turn round and snub people who are giving me awards. I might win nothing next year."

But he's done all right this year, I suggested.

"Yeah, I did quite well. I know I can keep turning out the music but whether it's always going to be appreciated by the music press I don't know. I suppose the more successful you get you're in line for a knocking.

"I'm mid-way through a new album right now. It's great. It's not going to be brilliant. I'm just moderately proud of it. It's a nice follow-up to the other one. Similar things are going on. I don't know why that is. There's a track that's identical to 'Maggie May'. We didn't intend it to be that way. It just sort of happened."

He's written five of the nine numbers. "The other four are going to be a bit of a secret. I don't know about a single. I'm the worst one in the world to pick a single. I leave it up to somebody to phone me up and tell me."

England, he says, has taken a completely different shape in the last six or seven months "not only because of 'Maggie May' but through the two albums.

"It's amazing really, the last time we played with Free was at Bristol University and they were topping over us. No bastard wanted to watch us. There must have been about four people. When they came on everybody went and saw them and cheered. Funny how things turn about isn't it.

"When we first started out we only knew two numbers. We were really bad. It was our first or second gig with Free and we called ourselves the Quiet Melon. Art Wood was on vocals and John Baldry was on vocals and also Kim Gardner of Ashton, Gardner and Dyke, Ronnie Wood, Mc., Ronnie Laine. We were all ashamed of what we were doing so we changed the name. No, we were just getting some practice really."

Out of these early trials came the Faces, a miraculous chemical combination.

"A lot of people think it's just a front," says Rod. "They think we have to be different cos other bands like arguing and splitting up. But it really is genuine. I swear it. In fact I think the musical press must be surprised we haven't split up by now. I swear to God we're together for life. And there I shall end the meeting. I've got diarrhoea. I've just been sitting in there for about an hour."

The fleet of private planes had grown to three by the morning as the Faces entourage swelled to include management, PR and press people. Next stop was deeper still into America's Southland – Clemson, South Carolina. The town exists by courtesy of the University, venue of the evening's show. The Little John Arena they call it.

By this, the second pit stop of their Southern tour, the Faces are looser, much looser. The changing room walls at Little John are covered with Jolly slogans to prime the college's basketball stars. "Life's Highest Goal...Winning"; "Fatigue Makes Cowards Of Us All" and "You Will Be No Better Than You Desire."

There's a bit of pre-show tension. Rod scolds his roadie who's failed to come up with a bottle of port. "I've been going on sober lately," he says sadly.

And Ian McLagen warns the promoter: "I'm not even gonna appear unless there's a Steinway at every other gig. If that piano's no good it's going straight off the front of the stage."

"What is it then?" asks Ronnie Lane.

"It's a Blinkingsong," says Mc.

"Oh I've heard of them. Nice they are."

"Bring 'im in here. I'll have 'im." says Rod. "I'm not wearing these shoulder pads for nothing you know."

And they start cackling, throwing ad libs around at lightning speed and touching each other up for the benefit of the assembly. "Think of our image," cries Ronnie Laine. "They all think we're queer," he says. "We're all married men, you know, except old Rod and he's got a bird."

The Little John Arena is even vaster than the Coliseum but it holds a few thousand less. There's more immediate contact with the audience since there are just a handful of cops around and the kids are allowed to crowd to the stagefront. The place is so huge the people at the back seem to be clapping in time to a different tune.

The Faces are sharper tonight and their tightness allows them to clown around even more. During 'Gasoline Alley' Rod passes 'round the sheet music and Mc and the two Ronnies crowd around one mike reading from it.

By the time they reach the second encore – Willie Dixon's 'Feel So Good' – the stage is littered with toilet rolls and everyone on and off stage has gone berserk.

But the after-show scenes are crazier still. One hundred kids are milling around Clemson's Holiday Inn hoping to catch a glimpse of Rod and the lads. Cans of beer and cakes are passed around by the swimming pool. The pilot who'd flown them in from Memphis gets tossed in. Everyone's drunk. One particularly ripe lady takes a shower and lays across a bed waiting for offers. Several hours later she's still waiting. Eventually someone tosses her an apple.

Three A.M. and most of the activity is confined to the bank of rooms occupied by the Faces entourage. The comings and goings from room to room resemble something from a Brian Rix bedroom farce. The pilot suddenly re-appears at the pool-side in his trunks and performs miraculous leaps and dives into the pool. He climbs out and propositions a couple of girls who leap over a balcony 10 feet above ground.

Everyone's hustling the beautiful University chicks, but slowly they slink away saving their bodies for another night.

Rod Stewart: I Dream Of A Solo Concert

Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 31 August 1974

"Anything i say is not meant to be a blot on anyone's character...or trousers."
Rod Stewart, Old Spikey himself, settled into position on the double bed in the St Regis Hotel President's Suite, running his thin fingers through his hair and occasionally admiring his Spanish tan in one of the two mirrors that the hotel provides for Presidents and others whose bank balance enables them to afford such luxury.
Rod, whose reputation for being a trifle outspoken is widely known, prefaced this interview with the above remark. He's got into bother before through opening up a little too loosely on subjects he feels strongly about. A rebel who can't be gagged, but who often regrets what he's said earlier.
The real reason for Rod's decision to speak out again is the release of his fifth solo album (or sixth if you count Sing It Again). It'll be out next month, probably September 20, and the title is Smiler. The lengthy delays that have preceded its release are due mainly to litigation regarding his contract with Mercury Records, a subject which he's loth to discuss at present. Either way, the delays have rattled him considerably. As usual it's an album of Rod's own compositions with Ronnie Wood, personal favourites from days gone by and a few contributions from friends. This time around, the friends include Elton John and Paul McCartney.
Rod is in America is complete the mastering of the record, and here's a run down on the, as yet unheard, tracks.
Side one opens with 'Sweet Little Rock And Roller', the Chuck Berry song, followed by 'Lochinvar', a short linker, 'Farewell', a Stewart/Quittenton song, 'Sailor', a Stewart/ Wood song, 'Bring It On Home', the old Sam Cooke tune and 'Let Me Be Your Car', written for Rod by Elton John and Bernie Taupin. This song was to have been on Yellow Brick Road. Side two opens with the Goffin/King song 'Natural Man', followed by 'Dixie Toot', a Stewart/Wood tune, 'Hard Road', an instrumental by Quittenton of 'I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face' from My Fair Lady, 'Girl From The North Country', the Dylan song, and closes with 'Mine For Me', written for Rod by Paul McCartney.
The sleeve is a red tartan pattern and the inside depicts all those involved in the production – about 50 people. There's a key to say who they all are.
"It's been finished for five months," growled Rod, rolling over on the enormous bed and ordering tea with sugar. "Plus the fact that I'm a little bit slow. "The album didn't take all that long to record, it was just the time taken in getting everyone together. "For six months there's been a problem with the record companies about who was releasing it, but it's all been sorted out now. It comes out in England on September 20th, thank goodness. "Yeah, I'm happy with it. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't, It'd have been scrapped by now. Made it all outside the country for a change...Frankfurt, Brussels, everywhere. It seems donkey's years ago since I started, but it must have been just before last Christmas. I made 17 tracks altogether and picked out the best ones. "There's a couple of numbers that I've done that I've always wanted to sing. 'Natural Man' is one and 'Bring It On Home' is another. Paul McCartney came along to sing his number with me – not a bad singer either, that Paul. "He says he wrote it specially for me but I don't know. It doesn't sound like a cast-off. He mentioned something about it being for Red Rose Speedway, but I don't care. It's a f – good track either way. "Elton's done one for me too. Bernie said it was for me 'cos it was a good rock 'n' roll number and the only person who could sing it properly was me. "I know for a fact that Elton wanted to record that one himself 'cos he kept saying if I didn't want to do it, he'd do it himself. He plays the Joanna and sings it with me."
Rod walked towards the window and gazed over Central Park. "Nice 'ere in New York innit," he said. "I'm 'ere until Friday. It's a sort of promotional visit, 'cos I ain't done any press for ages. When I'm touring I like to look after my voice and talk as little as possible. "I'm off to LA to finish mastering the album and I'm making a little documentary film there with Russell Harty."
Time, I thought, to dig a little deeper. Is work progressing on another Faces album? "No, no way. I don't know whether we're gonna do another Faces album or not. I don't know what the position is there. We haven't talked about it at all. "Kenny Jones has gone off and made a single of his own. He's a good little singer, y'know, but I don't know what's going to happen with the Faces recordings. I know we're staying together as a band and that's all that counts as far as I am concerned. "Ronnie's got his own solo album and it wouldn't be any big hardship if we just got together to play each others' stuff. As long as we stay together as a band, we're OK. There's no backbiting going on. We still get along with each other very well.
"I'd say I put more work into the Faces' albums than I do with my own. They've always been a bigger headache. Putting this latest album together was a piece of cake compared to a Faces' album. It's the first time I've ever recorded more tracks than I wanted. "Actually it's more of a singing album than anything else. I felt it was about time I called the tune and sang what I wanted to sing, even though maybe some people might not like them as much."
There are no immediate plans for the Faces to tour America, even though they'll be appearing in Europe soon. Rod likes playing England better than anywhere else, but right now he's uncertain about the Faces' popularity in America.
"Two years ago we were Jack the lads over here, but I don't know how strong we are now. We'll have to see how my album and Woody's album do first. "Everybody tells me fans are fickle, but I don't think so – not for the brand of music we make anyway."We start a British tour on November 5th, and that I really am looking forward to."
Was there any chance of Rod following in the footsteps of other rock stars and leaving Britain because of the tax situation? "Everybody's talking about it, but nobody's actually doing it yet," he said. "I think they ought to, though. The Government thinks they'll tax us bastards right up to the hilt because we won't leave, but that's wrong because I will if I want to. It's so bloody unfair. "They're thinking of a wealth tax now and that's bloody criminal. That's like, for a young man, paying your death duties before you die. What with a 90 per cent tax ceiling, it's just not worth living in England any more. "I'm all for paying taxes. There's nothing wrong in that. I'll pay my dues, but I've got one shot at the big ball for all my life. I can't do anything else but sing and maybe play a bit of football."
Conversation switched to the current huge package tours that have been travelling around America recently, the come-back of Dylan, CSN&Y and Clapton.
"I've never thought of Dylan making a comback. I think it's detrimental to say they're making a comeback. Out of the three I would say Clapton was the only one making a real comeback 'cos he did have a lay off and wasn't very well for a few years. "Dylan's music has matured and people have matured with him. He hasn't dropped out anywhere along the line and you can't expect the guy to be writing songs now like he was when he was in Greenwich Village, can you? I always think comebacks are for really old geezers."
Did Rod miss Ronnie Lane's presence in the Faces?
"I really missed him at the outset but I don't any more. He's found what he wanted and that's peace of mind and not going through the same old routine. "I don't think it is a routine, though, I enjoy it, coming here and travelling there but Ronnie got fed up with it. It changed his lifestyle so he decided he wanted to change his band." "I dream about a solo concert of my own some day. There's gotta be a chance of it happening with all the people that appear on my albums, I've asked them and they all say I ought to do it some day. Mmmmm, lovely acoustic guitars behind me."
Rod's eyes glistened at the thought. "I'll get round to it. It's just a question of time. The longer I wait the better it's going to be when I do it anyway."I think the lay-off has done me good, especially in this country because I've sat back and really observed what's going on."

© Chris Charlesworth, 1974

Rod Stewart: A Night On The Town

Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 12 June 1976

It's still good old Rod of course, but the backing is too bland and this methinks is the fault of the Garage Band and some exceptionally dull string arrangements which mar pieces like the old P. P. Arnold hit 'The First Cut Is The Deepest', while the long 'Killing Of Georgie' has a lot of lyrics delivered a la Dylan in talk-song style that tend to be swamped under the muzaky backing. Even the "doo doo doos" of the backing vocals are somewhat weak at the knees. The best moments come from Plas Johnson's breathy, Ben Webster influenced tenor sax. Plas of course worked with Henry Mancini on many of his big band recordings.

I thought at first I might still have chlorine in my ears from the Newcastle Holiday Inn swimming pool, but I believe the muzzy sound is due to the mixing and the string arrangements. What Rod needed for these ballads was a smaller, tighter band, which would have enabled him to project. But turn the treble on full and switch to side two which is much better, with the dread strings shown the door and the boys in the band awake at the wheel.

'The Ball Trap' stomps along while Rod showers rust into the vocal mike. Guitars boogie, but the tune is faintly familiar from past Rod and Faces riffs, and the drums plod in that sturdy, unswinging fashion so beloved of West Coast session men, as if they were banging nails into bags of flour. But it's all the rage, so who am I to rip the gaffer tape off the snare heads?

Sudden light dawns on 'Pretty Flamingo' as the Tower Of Power horn section honk out the intro, then the tempo seems to have the breaks put on as Rod gets into the song Paul Jones made famous all those years ago with Manfred Mann. Matters improve for 'Big Bayou' which should have been the first track if Tom Dowd had seen sense and telegrammed for advice. This is the kind of stomping back beat those friendly, familiar Stewart vocals need and by heck, Rod hurls his straw boater out of the window and gets his socks off. This is the first cut that could possibly be considered for a single. Trumpets shout and the guitars howl. What more could a young disc collector require?

Well, here we are on the 'Wild Side Of Life', and the band is still rocking, so not all is lost. And there's a nice bit of tenor on 'Trade Winds', for all you jazz fans. An album that improves with further listening, but not a world shaking sizzler of the type we demand daily.

Enquires contact... Ian Roberts | highgate45@yahoo.co.uk

Gig review: Rod Stewart

By DAVID POLLOCK - The Scotsman

CASTLE ESPLANADE,EDINBURGH

LONDON 02 ARENA 29th MAY - CONCERT REVIEW

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BIRMINGHAM NIA 22nd MAY. BLOG FROM BIRMINGHAM LIVE...

www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-evening-chronicle/2010/05/19/rod-stewart-rocks-the-metro-radio-arena-72703-26475934/

The Faces Dossier: An Everday Saga Of Mick & Rod & Keef & Ron & Mac..

Max Bell, NME, 27 December 1975