He was in their hearts, he was in their soul and on Friday night he gave the North East everything.
The rock legend Rod Stewart lifted the 17,000 plus crowd at the Riverside in Chester-le-Street with an amazing selection of his greatest hits.
I first saw Rod as a cub reporter at Gateshead Stadium . Fast forward nearly 20 years and I’m now experiencing countless wrinkles but Rod is still utterly amazing in voice, looks, energy and stage presence.
He is the headline act at the Isle of Wight Festival on Sunday and if this concert in Chester-le-Street is anything to go by the festival-goers are in for a treat.
He is one of the few performers still capable of good old fashioned showmanship and the man with the spiky bleached blond mane strutted through a fantastic set at the Durham County Cricket Club concert .
Fresh from his sold out residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas he strutted on to the stage with his silver sparkly jacket, black sparkly shirt, black pants and Gucci sparkly shoes. Tartan hats and scarves were thrown into the air.
Fans were treated to decades worth of top tunes, including Tonight’s The Night, Downtown Train, Rhythm of My Heart, The First Cut Is The Deepest, Baby Jane, Maggie May and Da Ya Think I’m Sexy.
No stranger to performing in the North East over the years, it was obvious Rod was enjoying playing here again as his thousands of fans lapped up the atmosphere.
He told everyone to forget the election and just get down. And at one point he dedicated a song to the Durham coppers who were there in vast numbers looking after us and enjoying many a selfie with enthusiastic Rod fans.
He also dedicated a song to his best mate Phil Collins who earlier week cancelled shows after suffering a fall..
As the performance came to an end, the anthem Sailing saw the whole of the stadium lit up by phones.
Rod disappeared but came back for one last song and everyone was hand waving and screaming.
Rod’s power, charisma and vocals have not been diminished by time.
It was a fabulous night delivered by an utter legend.
For full story and more pictures go to https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/rod-stewart-durham-concert-review-13166425