Main photo Penny Lancaster Instagram
Royal Albert Hall
Last week ended with rehearsals for the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance 2025 on Friday
Then the girls went to the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire to see last years Eurovision entry Remember Monday.
Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance 2025
On Saturday Rod sang a great version of Sentimental Journey with The RAF Squadronaires Band which became a homecoming anthem after World War II came to an end in 1945 to start the evening at this years Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance he was accompanied by a huge brass band as a spotlight paid tribute to icons from this period.
This year’s Festival of Remembrance commemorated the 80th anniversary of World War II’s conclusion and recognised the bravery of those who served – alongside the resilience of military families and the advancements made since the prohibition on LGBT service personnel was removed 25 years ago.
And also a very emotional version of Sailing
King Charles III, Queen Consort Camila and Princess Kate were in attendance at the Royal Albert Hall. Prince George attended the event for the first time to pay tribute to the courage and sacrifice of those who have lost their lives in conflict.
First Round Knockout
Looking in great shape Sean Stewart entered the ring in Nashville for his first official light heavyweight boxing match at Misfits Boxing’s ‘Duel’ on Sunday but it all ended abruptly in a 15-second knockout loss.
The event, held in front of a lively crowd, was designed to showcase newly-signed professionals and include some celebrity matches — one of which featured Sean against influencer boxer BDave.
The night took a bazar twist as BDave entered the ring to the sound of Rod’s hits including Da Ya Think I’m Sexy, Misfits organizers had weirdly referred to and billed Sean throughout the week as ‘Rod Stewart’s Son’ which even caused confusion among the commentators, and the fight was scheduled to be three rounds of three minutes.
As the fight started Sean seemed younger than his 45 years and came out aggressively, looking very confident. Commentator Ben “The Bane” Davis even called him a “gym warrior,” noting Sean’s claims that he had trained since the age of six.
But Just seconds into the fight, Sean dropped his guard mid-exchange, as if he was goading his opponent and BDave caught Sean with a clean counter that sent him crashing to the canvas.
The referee called off the bout at just 15 seconds of the opening round , luckily Sean was not hurt and soon after walked out of the ring
Don’t worry Sean he was 18 years your junior..and it’s not worth losing your good looks for.
The Old Town Hall Trowbridge
As part of a fabulous tapestry that is a new feature at The Old Town Hall Trowbridge, Christmas Eve 1964 is represented
Yes, Thursday, December 24, 1964 was the night Southampton band The Soul Agents played the Town Hall with the fairly new lead singer Rod ‘The Mod’ Stewart
Rod had joined the Soul Agents at the beginning of December through the ‘Malcolm Nixon Agency’, He had just left Long John Baldry and The Hoochie Coochie Men a month before to pursue a solo career and his managers John Rowlands and Geoff Wright went looking to find a band to back him up and finally decided on The Soul Agents. Rod and The Soul Agents never recorded together as they were contracted to different labels back then.
The line up for the band on the night was..
Johnny Keeping
Tony Good
Jim Sach
Don Shinn
Roger Pope
Rod Stewart
Speaking to SMILER this week Antonia Cook from the Old Town Hall told us “Yes! We recently commissioned a tapestry to be made showing the history of our building. Rod Stewart performed in our building roughly 60 years ago, so it seemed right to include him in the tapestry, I’m afraid we don’t have much information about Rod’s gig here at The Old Town Hall”.
We were more than happy to fill in the blanks and think the tapestry is wonderful and well worth a visit if you are in the area
Faces fans will have spotted Kenney, and Ronnie are also represented as The Small Faces also played the venue playing two shows on 24th September 1965 with original keyboard player Jimmy Winstone.
Children in Need
Tonight is Children in Need night on BBC and Sara Cox’s Great Northern Marathon Challenge has seen the Radio 2 DJ cover 135 miles getting Pudsey to Pudsey. The 50-year-old is delivering the Children in Need mascot to the Leeds market town raising funds for the charity along the way.
And as the money raised passed £6 million Sara was given a boost when Rod phoned in with a message and also made an “incredibly generous donation”
Jeremy Vine broke the news and played Rod’s message “Hi Sara Cox it’s Rod Stewart here just doing his workout. Good luck darling, keep going, you’re an absolute heroine you really are.”
Rod then sang the line “Keep right on ’til the end of the road” before laughing and adding: “Well done sweetheart.”
Jeremy then thanked Rod for making an incredibly generous donation for Sara’s Great Northern Marathon Challenge for Children in Need.
And Finally..
Our new look SMILER calendar is going down well with everyone..Have you got yours?
https://www.rodstewartfanclub.com/product-category/merch/
Hurry they are selling fast
See you next week…