This week’s Christmas news and gossip

Main photo of Rod in Madrid by Marc Baulisch-Stienes

Rod in Spain

As we reported last week, Rod ended the week in Spain, you might remember last time he was in Spain a young guy called Joseea met up with Rod and got a great photo taken

Well this time Joseea met Rod again and got his photo signed

This Week’s Rod Art

This week we feature a brilliant 70’s Rod by Steven Foye from Bothwell Art Club in Scotland

Steven told SMILER this week “I really enjoy portraiture and often browse photos of famous people. What attracted me to this particular portrait was Rod’s expression and obviously his expressive hair. I also loved the huge 70s shirt collar. It was a commission……a customer asked for a Rod portrait, but left the specific era to me”.
To see more work from Steven and Bothwell Art Club go to

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064991161622&sk=about

You Can Make Me Dance

Last week we told you about Faces 2 the new Ronnie Wood Mr Wood limited edition shirt, well Faces fan Rachel Allaway has gone one better, she has had the image taken from the monochrome paintings that Ronnie produced during lockdown depicting himself and Faces bandmates Rod Stewart and Kenney Jones tattooed on her arm.

This work of art was created by Libby from Autonomy tattoo in Rochester talking about her new tattoo Rachel said “When you know you know. I’ve waited years to find the right image to have a tattoo to include Rod Stewart, I love this tattoo so much with Ronnie Wood, Rod and Kenney Jones it blew me away when I first saw the detail in the guitar, wine bottle, mic and drum sticks, Ronnie is an amazing artist and captured the three perfectly and Libby my tattoo artist at Autonomy tattoo is just the best ever”

You may remember we featured Rachel’s artwork on SMILER a few years back as she is an amazing artist in her own right.

Dreaming of a White Christmas..or are we dreaming?

Seven Days Vermont’s Independent voice reported on the locals seeing Rod and Penny in Vermont at the end of last week..

On Thursday, the couple caused a stir in sleepy downtown Vergennes when Lauren LaBerge Taddeo greeted the couple when they popped into Sweet Charity, the resale shop she manages in the Ryan Block on Main Street. “This couple comes in, and they’re tall,” LaBerge Taddeo said, adding that she informed them of the store’s ongoing sale: If you buy three holiday items, they’re half-price. “They’re very sweet, beautiful people,” she said.

“She asked if they’d been here before,” LaBerge Taddeo said. “And they said, ‘No,’ in this thick British accent. ‘We’re visiting from Liverpool.'”

“I looked down at his boots and was like, Oh, man, those are $1,000 boots,” LaBerge Taddeo said. “They’re, like, alligator, glittery platform … They’re not a shoe you’d wear casually.”

“He’s tall, he’s got the spiky blond hair and a little music earring, like a G clef,” she said. “So now I’m, like, really interested — like, Who is it? Is it Sting?”

As they chatted, Rod opened a bag and pulled out a leather jacket he’d just bought at Your Turn Resale Shoppe, another Main Street thrift store two doors down.

“‘Look what I got,”‘ he said, LaBerge Taddeo recounted. “He got this Harley-Davidson leather jacket for $100. He said, ‘This would be $300 in the UK.'”

They didn’t leave Sweet Charity empty-handed. They purchased a pair of country CDs, which meant they got a third for free. Score.

It was only later that day that LaBerge Taddeo realized who her glamorous shoppers were when she saw a social media post from her friend Shawna Sherwin, co-owner of Vermont HoneyLights in Bristol, asking if anyone else had seen Rod Stewart around town.

“I was like, Shit, it was him,” she said, laughing.

the couple also told LaBerge Taddeo they were in Vermont because they wanted to experience a white Christmas and will be here through the holiday. “He was so charming and sweet,” she said.

Next door at 3 Squares Café, the staff was a bit more keen that something was different about the captivating couple who ordered two bowls of mushroom bisque and two hot teas for lunch. As manager Andrea Lalumiere told Seven Days, their attire tipped them off, because “leather pants on a Thursday is a lot for Vergennes.”

To read the full story go to https://www.sevendaysvt.com/music/dreaming-of-a-white-christmas-rod-stewart-visits-vermont-scores-sweet-leather-jacket-39747333

The story even made the Daily Mail …It did really!!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12875203/rod-stewart-vermont-vergennes-thrift-store.html

Meanwhile back in reality..The Christmas party of the year

Rod held his annual Christmas party on Saturday at his essex home

Kimberly took a wonderful shot of her dad with Mary and Delilah,

Joanne Harper posted some absolutely fabulous pictures

Kenney Jones was there with his family

And Ronnie completed the Faces line up

And back in Vermont with fake Rod..

SMILER contacted Dan Bolles at Seven Days and between us we found a couple of photos of the Vermont Rod and Dan and Seven Days ran this follow up story

Someone Like You: Vermont Sightings of Rod Stewart Were False (But Also Awesome)

On Friday, Seven Days reported that gazillion records-selling pop star Sir Rod Stewart and his wife, model Penny Lancaster, had been spotted in and around Addison County. That included several hours on Thursday afternoon in Vergennes, where he was said to have stopped for lunch at 3 Squares Café, bought a leather jacket at Your Turn Resale Shoppe and charmed the staff at another downtown thrift store, Sweet Charity.

The sightings of the glamorous-looking couple with British accents caused quite a stir in the Little City because, as 3 Squares manager Andrea Lalumiere put it, “Leather pants on a Thursday is a lot for Vergennes.”

Seven Days‘ report also caused a stir online, drawing more than 3,200 likes and nearly 1,000 shares on Facebook as of this posting.

But all was not as it appeared.

On Sunday, Mike Walton, who runs the UK-based Sir Rod fan club SMILER, contacted Seven Days with a few corrections to our report that the “I Was Only Joking” singer was visiting Vermont for the holidays.

One, he noted, Stewart is not from Liverpool, as the allegedly British visitor told a local store manager he was. Two, Sir Rod doesn’t wear an earring or snazzy platform boots. Perhaps most damning of all, Walton wrote, “It would also be unusual to see him in a pair of leather pants on a Thursday!”

Then there was this: Stewart performed a sold-out Christmas concert in Madrid, Spain, on Thursday, the day he and his wife were supposedly spotted in Vergennes and elsewhere. And on Friday, according to Walton, Stewart held his annual Christmas party at his house in London — which is not Liverpool, let alone Vergennes.

Oops.

Fueled by our story, the Stewart news took off like a runaway downtown train. Vermonters began posting pictures on social media of a man they thought was the 78-year-old rocker in Stowe and around Middlebury, including several group selfies with the possibly British couple.

On Friday night, not long after our story published, Not Rod — or Not Sir Rod, if you prefer — attended the opening party for the Middlebury Snowbowl in Hancock. On Instagram, the ski area reposted a photo of him from the event, which included music by local band Neon Ramblers — a bluegrass pop covers offshoot of the Grift.

According to the Ramblers’ Peter Day, the mystery man looked “strikingly” like Stewart. He added that a Snowbowl higher-up confirmed to the band after talking to the man that he was indeed Stewart and passed along that he had offered a kind assessment of their music: “These guys are actually really effing great.”

Whether or not Rod actually told the Snowbowl rep he was Stewart or the rep assumed so from reading the Seven Days story is unclear. An inquiry on Sunday to the Snowbowl was not immediately answered.

On Saturday, however, patrons at the Whip Bar & Grill in Stowe were delighted to bask in the presence of rock royalty. While he may not have explicitly said he was Sir Rod, Not Rod reportedly seemed happy to let people think he was.

“He didn’t say no and he didn’t say yes,” said Briana Hayden, who was visiting Stowe from Connecticut with her boyfriend and some friends. She added that the bar was buzzing over the celebrity in its midst.

“Everyone was [quietly] talking about it being him,” Hayden said. That is, until her neighbor at the bar approached the couple. “Then everybody started taking selfies with him.”

Hayden noted that she had no idea who Rod Stewart was. So she texted her parents, who insisted she get a selfie. She added that after googling the singer, she wasn’t convinced the spiky-haired man at the corner of the Stowe bar was him.

“It was the mole,” she said. “His was on his cheek.”

Stewart, famously, has a mole near his mouth.

So if he’s not Stewart, who the hell is this guy?

Burlington’s Terri Severance met the couple on December 10 at Foam Brewers in Burlington and struck up a conversation. She said they told her they are from England but now live in southern France, where he plays in a country-rock band — which might explain the country CDs he bought at Sweet Charity. Seven Days could not verify the names the couple gave Severance.

Severance said Not Rod played the open mic at the Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge in Burlington on Tuesday, where more than a few patrons noted his uncanny similarity to Sir Rod. He played originals, not Stewart songs, according to Severance.

So how did a veteran reporter get duped into thinking one of the most famous rockers in history stopped for mushroom bisque in the smallest city in Vermont?

After we got the tip on Friday and before I went out to report it, I did check the tour dates on Stewart’s website. He didn’t have anything listed until his North American tour kicks off in February, so it seemed plausible that he could be taking a Vermont holiday for the holidays. As Not Rod told several folks, he and Not Penny are here for a white Christmas — which is probably about as likely to happen this year as, say, Rod Stewart visiting Vermont.

I spoke to about 15 people in Vergennes that day who were all convinced it was him. Should I have dug deeper to figure out where in the world Sir Rod might really be? Clearly.

I guess I was just looking for a reason to believe.

So, folks, here is my Maggie mea culpa: The charming chap from England making the rounds in Vermont ain’t Rod Stewart. But he wears it well. 

https://www.sevendaysvt.com/music/someone-like-you-vermont-sightings-of-rod-stewart-were-false-but-also-awesome-39759452

Thanks very much for the plug Dan and we totally get how you got duped..As for The Daily Mail now thats another story!!

Everyone Desreves A Christmas

Rod has kindly donated his own match worn signed Celtic shirt, signed vinyl collection and a signed first release Wolfie’s Whisky to the  #EveryoneDeservesAChristmas auction…

You can bid using the link below 👇

https://bidaid.com/auction/EDAC

#EveryoneDeservesAChristmas provides Christmas hampers to those who would go without and this year hopes to give 1,200 to families across South Wales

Carolyn Harris MP for Swansea East and Deputylabour Leader said

“Rod and Penny are passionate about ending food poverty and I am so grateful to them for their generosity as every little bit helps us reach as many families as possible. We will have more items added from Welsh icons in the next couple of days so keep your eyes peeled 👀”

Rod’s festive photo

Rod posted his Christmas Instagram photo and captioned it ‘no Scotland, no party’

New Tears Eve

If you’re in the UK, you can still make your New Years Eve an unforgettable one by ordering your bottle of Wolfie’s by 5pm December 27th.

And receive your order in time to enjoy Rod singing on Jools’ Annual Hootenanny

Jools’ Annual Hootenanny 2023 will be broadcast from 11:30pm – 1:30am on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer on Sunday, December 31.

Congratulations to Dave and Julia

Everyone at SMILER would like to sent our congratulations to our favourite drummer Dave Palmer and his partner Julia who were married this week

And Finally..

The SMILER team would like to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas, pour yourself a festive Wolfie’s whisky crank up your Merry Christmas Baby cd and we we will see you next week ..