Portugal Break
Rod and Penny are on holiday in Portugal this week so a quiet news week before he went Rod had dinner at The Mansion House in Kensington and Alex Mungo got a great photo
One more Date
This week Rod announced another new date, March 6th 2027 will see Rod at Hard Rock live At Etess Arena in Atlantic City.
And One more…
August 14th 2027 at Thunder Valley Lincoln, CA
Greatest Hits weekend
This week see’s the release of greatest Hits volume 2 &3 from Rhino
On coloured vinyl and CD, while we are all playing the Hits this weekend you can also read a review of the concept by Pat Brett up on the SMILER blog section now https://www.rodstewartfanclub.com/blog/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-fancy-something-new/?swcfpc=1
Track listing Volume Two
- Passion (2008 Remaster)
- Young Turks (2008 Remaster)
- Tonight I’m Yours (Don’t Hurt Me) (2008 Remaster)
- Baby Jane (2008 Remaster)
- Infatuation (2008 Remaster)
- Some Guys Have All the Luck (2008 Remaster)
- Every Beat of My Heart
- Forever Young (2008 Remaster)
- My Heart Can’t Tell Me No (2008 Remaster)
- Downtown Train (2008 Remaster)
Track listing Volume Three
- This Old Heart of Mine (with Ronald Isley)
- Rhythm of My Heart
- The Motown Song (with The Temptations)
- Tom Traubert’s Blues (Waltzing Matilda)
- Have I Told You Lately
- Reason to Believe (Unplugged Version)
- If We Fall in Love Tonight
- Sometimes When We Touch
- For the First Time
- Ooh La La
This week’s Rod Art
This week we feature the amazing art of Mark Tippett from TIPPETTURES in Australia who’s art career spans nearly 30 years. During that time, he has been a commercial artist, art director, master soapmaker and published author. For the past 14 years he has been a caricature artist operating as TIPPETTURES, establishing a following among his clients and often experimenting with new techniques and ways to express his art. He delights in capturing someone’s personality and expression in a few deft marks of his Sharpie or through oil paint. He has always drawn and painted faces (more aligned to caricature) in which he calls a form of ‘social commentary’. He has entered the Bald Archy Prize 13 times, each time a finalist and has held a one-man show in the past three years exhibiting his work in Sydney galleries.
Mark recently did this mixed media caricature of Rod telling SMILER this week “With that one I focused on Rod’s hair (obv) with some stuff I found in my studio.. hey .. it worked! The material fit and added that extra coolness to his blond locks”.
To see more of Mark’s work go to https://www.instagram.com/tippettures/
Jonny “Famous” Williams
Jonny “Famous” Williams has been tour engineer for Rod for two and a half years and has just been nominated for FOH Mixer of the Year at the Parnelli Awards (presented at NAMM in January).
The nominees are as follows:
Bryan Worthen – Rush
Cam Trewin – Rufus Du Sol
Chris Rabold – Olivia Rodrigo
Jonny Williams – Rod Stewart
Sean ’Sully’ Sullivan – Bruno Mars
Demetrius Moore – Cardi B
Jonny told SMILER this week “It is the top award for FOH mixing so it’s a real honour to be nominated”
To celebrate here is an article about Jonny that came out this week by Mix online
Touring with Rod Stewart and a Rack Full of Toys
By Mix Staff
Jonny “Famous” Williams recently switched to an SSL Live L650 mixing console for the latest tour dates with Rod Stewart.
London, U.K. (October 23, 2026)—Jonny “Famous” Williams recently switched to an SSL Live L650 mixing console for the latest tour dates with Rod Stewart, for whom he has been FOH engineer for two and a half years.
Williams, who has also worked with RAYE, Central Cee and Thundercat, has additionally outfitted his racks with SSL’s Super 9000 and Revival 4000 channel strips, the UMD192 digital audio interface and The Bus+ compressor.
Williams first began using SSL mixing consoles about eight years ago, he says, and previously owned two that were installed at his home in the U.K. “When I had the opportunity to switch to SSL, I only really had two choices—either the L550 Plus or the L650, due to the capacity I needed. I went for the L650 because I like its layout.”
The L650, supplied to the tour by Sound Image, a Clair Global Group company, offers three fader bays across the full width of the console. “I like the three fader banks because I’m very hands-on with the faders, even with a lot of automation involved; the transition from my previous console was also very straightforward,” Williams explains.
“One of the great things about SSL Live, a platform I know inside out, is its flexibility. You can put almost anything, almost anywhere. Every Fader Tile can be configured in the same way, allowing me to scroll through banks and layers to access whatever I need. In the very unlikely event that I lose a fader or even an entire tile, I can still access that path elsewhere on the console. That’s a really cool feature.”
In his FOH rack, Williams has four SSL Super 9000 SuperAnalogue and three Revival 4000 all-analog channel strips. “I like having physical controls for important things, so all of the Super 9000s are for vocals. I’ve got the Revival 4000s on kick and snare, and on bass. And there’s an SSL The Bus+ compressor on the drum group.” A UMD192 supports multitrack recording and playback and an SSL 18 interfaces with Williams’ SMAART rig.”
“So I’ve got lots of fancy SSL toys in this rack,” he says.
Article reproduced with thanks to Adam Goldstein /MIX
https://www.mixonline.com/live-sound/tours/touring-with-rod-and-a-rack-full-of-toys
Reproduced with thanks to Jonny “Famous” Williams
What’s On
1971 The Show
The Greatest Year in Rock and Roll Recreated
1971 The Show is an original celebration of greatest year in rock and roll – 1971. playing the iconic sounds of Rod and The Faces, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Led Zeppelin, The Who, John Lennon, The Carpenters, James Taylor, David Bowie, Don McLean and so much more…
A brand new concept, produced by lead vocalist Jesse Smith, performed by an all star band who endeavour to recreate the music of 1971 with detail, passion and energy.
Talking to SMILER this week Producer Jesse Smith told us “Thanks to ‘Smiler’ for their kind words about 1971 The Show. Our show is a celebration of the greatest year in rock and roll. In 1971 the Beatles had just broken up and there were many artists posturing for top spot. Rod Stewart may very well lay claim to being their successor as the King of 1971.When putting together our set list, we couldn’t believe the amount of fantastic music that The Faces and Rod Stewart (solo) released in that same year. Despite other amazing records from that year we’ve yet to find a better opener than ‘Stay With Me’, and of course ‘Maggie May’ is always one of the highlights of our set. It’s such a pleasure to play and celebrate these timeless classics live and witness the sheer joy from our audience. Thank you Rod and the Faces for the music”
Catch the show at …
⚡ Full Production
✨ Intimate Show
2026
✨ 19 December – The Pheasantry – Chelsea –
✨ 20 December – The Pheasantry – Chelsea –
2027
⚡ 1 April – Walker Theatre – Shrewsbury –
⚡2 & 3 April – Kenton Theatre – Henley On Thames –
⚡ 4 April – The Old Rep – Birmingham –
⚡ 1 May – Music Room Philharmonic Hall – Liverpool –
For more information go to https://www.1971theshow.com/
Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping
Back from Portugal Rod and Penny attended The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping premiere on Wednesday
The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping, which releases November 20 in cinemas, is a prequel to the smash hit book and movie franchise.
Rod later watched Celtic draw 2-2 with Dundee United in the Scottish Premiership on his large screen, Liam Scales’ equaliser after the hour forced the hoops to fight back yet again in order to salvage a point but Celtic remain four points clear at top of table after Rangers drew with Hearts.
While Stocks Last
Don’t forget to order your 2027 SMILER Calendar
Stocks are already running low, Yves’s got her copy and you can get yours at https://www.rodstewartfanclub.com/product/smiler-2027-calendar/?swcfpc=1 And don’t forget SMILER members get a discount
LA Exiles 1985
You all enjoyed Iris Alexander’s shot of Rod playing football for his LA Exiles team in LA from 1985 last week so here are a couple more
And Finally..
Rod’s son Liam is ready for Halloween are you?
If you are going to any spooky events over the weekend stay safe and we will see you next week…