Friday 13th. – For some a day when their political landscape changed forever, oh yeah Rod, you might again be number one – but rule number 1 has always been when it comes to Religion, Politics and maybe Football – perhaps stick to “I Don’t Wanna Talk About It!” …. Worst case scenario you know you’d always be welcome up “The Palace” the politically correct team that plays in red and blue…. Just saying, if the boys in green no longer want you around…. mind you come your next tour, would that mean for Glasgow we do witness a large show of SNP? – That’s – Stewart’s Not Performing – very sad if that was the case.
That aside, I guess my Friday 13th. was best described as “Some Guys Have All The Luck” – or maybe more appropriately “Somebody Up There Likes Me” as my trip to Ronnie Wood’s pop-up art store could not have been timed any better, as the legend himself walked in via a back door at about 4:15 – As he was ushered to the downstairs private section, I cheekily asked him about my t-shirt and he said “Nice .. Lad” (First time I’ve been called a lad for about 50 years!) – To add to my joy at seeing Ronnie, I hovered at the top of the stairs for what was appearing an eternity to see if he would sign one of the books I had brought along in hope. As he climbed back to the top of the stairs I asked “Would you mind signing a Faces book for me please?” – his reply was “Has Rod signed it?” – “Yes, indeed he has” was my reply. It transpired not only did he sign the book but I even got a supporting cast and featured in his twitter video about the store being open.
With a quick demonstration with the paint brushes, he disappeared downstairs again, however a kind assistant came to me and said “Did you get your book signed?” – When I replied yes, but I had two more I had hoped he might sign, he said “If you want, I can take them downstairs and see if he will do it for you, but I cannot guarantee anything”. To which I willingly handed them over. Thankfully I didn’t have any other plans, as those two books were gone for at least three-quarters of an hour, but having entered the store with a sign of “No photography” on the door – everyone around had their mobile phones out snapping away – so I simply joined in. Ronnie’s wife Sally and their two 3 year old twins Alice and Gracie arrived and I got to see a bit of Alice painting on a canvas. The assistant came back up the stairs and said “Sorry, I tried but couldn’t grab an appropriate moment” – I sighed and thanked him anyway, then he said “You might want to look inside them though” and to my joy both were signed – one with the words “To Colin”, which meant he must have looked through it, or how else did he know my name! I waited around to see if Ronnie would reappear to thank him and also to try and get a picture, the store was due to close at 6 – but by 6:30 he had not reappeared and so I decided to leave and was probably seen skipping my way down Baker Street towards Bond Street station and my journey home with a grin as long as the train I was travelling in.
Saturday 14th. The Beeb treated us all as only they now how – a half hour show entitled Reel Stories with Dermot O’Leary including clips all seen before, followed by repeats of the brilliant Imagine documentary and Rod’s Hyde Park concert for Radio 2 from September 2015. If you missed it, there’s always iplayer – but I do question – didn’t you watch them first time around? And if so, why didn’t you record them rather than stay up again past midnight?
Tuesday 17th. – Having slowly come to terms with my good fortune over a somewhat “buzzing” weekend, it was time to focus on another matter that had been planned over a year ago now and Rod’s first (of three) concerts at The O2.
The birds singing around 6 in the morning would awaken me, the early part of the day was like any other Tuesday, Alison to her slimming world meeting then off to meet a few friends for coffee, me off to the gym for an hour with a couple of my football playing friends. Return just after 11:30 – shower, have a snack to eat and prepare the tartan dressing room for the rest of the day’s proceedings.
Our sister-in-law Jacquie would drive us to the arena as it makes getting home so much easier, yes you pay a price, but hey, it’s Rod isn’t it? The regular avoid every High Street at all costs Sat Nav journey got us to see places we have never seen before. What I can tell you is that there is no forest in Mottingham!
The gathering of all good folk from Smiler was arranged for the Slug & Lettuce – although two of our crew opted to nip in All Bar One and had to be hauled out with glasses in hand to join the many already gathered in “The Slug”. The mood was already surfacing on fever pitch, clicking camera’s and those regular stares from the probable “first timers” at a bunch of tartan clad individuals dressed as only we know how.
After a bit of debate, shall we or shan’t we go and see Johnny and The Faithful, due on stage at 7:30, we opted to take our seats, spread mainly in Block 113 at the side of the stage. With a little more snapping of the Tartan pride and foot tapping to Johnny with a half full auditorium his show included Oh La La to get us going during his 50 minute performance.
The curtain descended, a rapid stage rearrangement and the sound of the bagpipes began and the curtain raiser burst into Some Guys Have All The Luck, Rod would say “It’s wonderful to be back in my home town, where I was born, it’s been 3 years since I was last here, so tonight you have a 2 hour show with 24 songs (although I only counted 22!), so enjoy”, as the band launched into Havin’ A Party.
Rod would next comment upon “This is a song as some of you well know, I always dedicate to men and women that have lost their lives fighting for this country, which is even more appropriate in the year where we celebrated the 75 anniversary of the D-Day landing that freed us all from you know who” – And the unmistakable sound of Rhythm Of My Heart – which was ended with some of those infamous words of another knight of the realm “Sir Winston Churchill”.
Forever Young, would then be followed by more quotes of Rod which I won’t remember them all but had some of the following “This is a true story that many people have thanked me for even though back in 1976 it got band by the BBC” – As we were treated to the magical sound of “The Killing Of Georgie – Parts 1 & 2”.
“Another True Story, but F**k knows where this comes from” as the upbeat tone of Young Turks filled the air. Biased perhaps, but the next song would always be on my playlist – The one and only Faces song of the night – Stay With Me, some of us that saw The Faces back in the early ‘70’s could bore you to death on how brilliant they were, vibrant, falling about the stage but entertaining you throughout – there was no such thing as a curfew back in those days, they sometimes hadn’t even come on stage by the time Rod leaves it today (Especially if you were at Brighton in the summer!!).
The classical Tonight’s the Night, would be followed by another favourite of mine, and one that he admits in interviews perhaps rekindled his career as the 1980’s were coming to a close, it also was introduced by reference to his passion of building and completing his model railway – the beautiful Tom Waits – Downtown Train.
Time for costume change, bring on the stools and take a seat. “Here’s a song from my first solo album back in 1969” as he gave us Dirty Old Town, followed by another Mercury back catalogue classic of Gasoline Alley.
A curtain was then raised from the back of the stage and the sight of The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra could be seen as they played the introduction to First Cut Is The Deepest – it may just have been me, but this seemed to up the tempo of the audiences sing voices, Rod would encourage us all to join in the chorus lines, which of course needed no encouragement for the next classic of I Don’t Want To Talk About It, with You’re In My Heart to follow.
That curtain dropped again on the Orchestra as Rod told us about the moving tale of the Irish Easter Rising, he said he always got it wrong, so he decided to record it and played us the story about the 1916 Rebellion which resulted in the unconditional surrender of the rebel forces and execution of most of their leader – and the beautiful, moving song Grace.
A bit more curtain twitching and the Orchestra were back to give us Have I Told You Lately. Time for the final costume change as the girls sang Fleetwood Mac’s – If You Go Your Own Way.
At this point I’m not 100% sure if I missed a song, as the next number I recorded was that no.1 from 1983 – Baby Jane, which by then the girls were also dressed in red to match up with Rod – perhaps there was an extended drum solo in there…
The curtain raised again and the intro to Maggie May was completely miss timed and Rod halted that, and said “I’ve completely Fucked that up haven’t I, Sorry guys (at the orchestra) can we start that again” and that number one that changed his career path was blasted out at us.
Balloons began falling as the next number one smash of Da Ya Think I’m Sexy spun us into more dancing – alas with the big Blood Red Rose curtain falling after it.
Time though for the other classic number 1 smash of Sailing to get us all swaying in the aisles, the girls with their sailor hats on encouraging us all to have arms aloft and move from side to side in tandem.
The final curtain had fallen and the end of Rod’s first night at The O2 was upon us – would we be back for more? Perhaps a clue lies somewhere here…
Hugs and goodbyes till we meet up again to our fellow Smiler club members as we went about our different journey’s, in fact our own took an unexpected twist as we offered a lift back to Putney to one of our own. A journey I found had spectacular views as we travelled from east to west and saw many bridges and skylines lit up, which for us “southerners” is not an everyday feature. The added time to the journey made no odds to us at all and to steal a certain line at least we were “Home before the milks upon the door”….
Words By Colin Baker
02 Photos By Colin Baker
Montage By Tommy Kevitt