Photo Eric Hartvigsen
Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre
On Friday Rod was back on stage the altitude in Utah almost wiped him out, but he gave his all Nate Thomas was at the show and got some shots and here are the thoughts of Martin Heidt
Scotland Stumble – Rod Dances Away His World Cup Frustration on Stage
First, the good news: Sir Rod Stewart has overcome the vocal problems that recently forced him to cancel three shows on his US tour or postpone them until next year. In Salt Lake City, the Brit was back on stage, delivering his customary high-energy performance. Shortly beforehand, however, the defeat of the Scottish national football team against Morocco (0–1) had put him in a less-than-cheerful mood.
There was no sign of that by the time the concert began. Stewart took to the stage at the Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre in excellent spirits, where around 25,000 fans were ready for a huge party.
Those who had bought tickets specifically to see special guest Richard Marx, however, were left disappointed. He did not perform. Marx wrote: “I’m very disappointed that my band and I are missing today’s show with Rod Stewart in Salt Lake City. We hope to be able to play for you again soon.” No further details regarding the reasons were initially disclosed.
Rod Stewart, however, quickly managed to compensate the disappointed Marx fans with a superb show and a seemingly endless stream of hits.
At times, it felt as though the man on stage was simply trying to dance and sing away his World Cup frustration following Scotland’s defeat. Much to the delight of the audience, who were fully engaged from the opening number, “Infatuation”, and by the time “Having A Party” arrived, had completely forgotten everything else and were simply enjoying the evening.
Sir Rod steered the party ship through the 1980s with “Tonight I’m Yours” and “Some Guys Have All The Luck”, before sailing back into the 1970s with “Tonight’s The Night”, “Maggie May” and “I’m Losing You”. Along the way, he slipped in some magnificent cover versions, including Bonnie Tyler’s “It’s A Heartache” and Simply Red’s “If You Don’t Know Me By Now”. Naturally, no summer evening with Rod Stewart would be complete without a trip into the disco era with “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy”.
The crowd enthusiastically joined in, dancing for all their weary feet were worth and singing along loudly and confidently – even if very few actually hit the right notes. Fortunately, that was the responsibility of the man on stage, whose voice sounded as powerful and distinctive as ever. The refreshment breaks, known at the World Cup as “hydration breaks”, were once again filled by the sensational band (with “Jolene” and “Proud Mary”), ensuring that the atmosphere never dipped for a single second.
After around two hours, it was all over, and many in the audience were left wishing that the man with the prominent nose and unmistakable shock of hair might come back to them just one more time.
As usual this concert attracted a lot of attention from the British press who had Rod on his last legs but band member J’Anna Jacoby Harrold said it was a non story, Becca Kotte added “Rod is fine, We performed in the mountains, We don’t live in the mountains, No one could breathe, Hope this helps “ and Joanne Harper said “This is just getting out of hand, Rod is fine, We are fine, He’s better than ever. We were in the highest altitude and NONE of us could breathe as the show is amazingly full on” and here is a first hand report from Eric Hartvigsen who also got us some super shots, you all saw the oxygen shots all over the internet so no need to post anymore on here.
The Real Story
Despite being 61, I’m a newcomer to seeing Rod and collecting his music. Knew it, of course, but a close friend of mine had a negative take on Rod that for years I was colored by (along with various other criticisms I’m sure you’ve heard). Last fall, I was in Vegas to see Ringo Starr and The Who and had a free night so caught Rod at the start of that memorable 4-night run . LOVED IT!
Bought a bunch of his music in the coming months and planned to see him in Salt Lake City (SLC) for this show – it’s about an 1100+km round trip drive from my home in Boise, ID. Rewind a couple weeks ago and I was in SLC again to see Ringo (I’m a Beatles nut). Other SLC plans fell through, but I’d already taken the week off, and I thought about continuing on to Vegas to see Rod, but it was right after his two cancellations there. Lucked out and saw him June 2 & 4. Loved it again! Really didn’t want to do another drive, but figured what the hell, so made it to SLC yesterday and bought a ticket at about 4pm for the 730 show. Row 3, almost dead center (last minute tix sometimes work well!). Was concerned about whether he’d cancel again, but … lucked out again!
Rod, though, had a time of it. There was a “heat advisory” yesterday; temp at showtime was about 34c. After about 3-4 songs he asked “how high we were” then joked that sounded wrong. 🙂 Clarified he meant elevation and asked if it was 4000 ft. Higher, the crowd indicated higher. 5000? Lower. 4500? That got general agreement. “Fuck!,” he said, “I’m gonna faint!” A few songs later he was clearly having issues (a handkerchief was in hand most of the evening due to the ongoing sinus infection), and it became apparent he was wanting some oxygen, likely during a break. His assistants started to bring it on, and he playfully (?) chided them not to do it while he’s on stage.
Overall, he seemed quite cheery, dancing at side stage during Tonight I’m Yours, and missing his cue to make it back to the mic in time, then chuckling as he realized his mistake and jogging back to center stage. After the usual bravura Rather Go Blind, he said, “Oh here’s a fast one” prior to Young Turks, and then really started to have issues. His keyboard player looked worried and must’ve asked him if he was ok, but he shook it off, but at that point was clearly grabbing things to stabilize himself.
I think he left the stage then, returning shortly after for Rhythm of My Heart, but somewhere around here, he was at the right side of the stage (audience view) and was grabbing on to the stage frame for support, then motioned for oxygen, and they came out with tank and mask and hooked him up for a minute. He apologized and said he really thought he was going to pass out at the back of the stage just then, and that had never happened before.
NOTE: my memory is a little hazy on the exact order of events, but that’s close, if not 100% accurate!
During “Sexy” it was clear as day he was running on fumes. At one point towards the end of the song, I’m 98% sure I saw him utter “fuck” to himself, under his breath. When the curtain came back up, he was seated in a chair for Love Train for which he again apologized, complaining “he loves to dance” on that tune but just couldn’t.
I hope he gets better soon. All three shows I saw this month had him struggling to some extent, but everyone around me was stunned at the effort he put out, despite clearly not being 100%.
Setlist:
Infatuation
Having A Party
It’s A Heartache
Tonight I’m Yours
If You Don’t Know Me By Now
Some Guys Have All The Luck
Forever Young
The First Cut Is The Deepest
Tonight’s The Night
Ooh La La
Stay With Me
I’m Losing You
Mandolin Wind
Maggie May
I’d Rather Go Blind
Young Turks
Rhythm Of My Heart
Jolene (Band only)
People Get Ready
Have I Told You Lately
Proud Marx (Band only)
Da Ya Think I’m Sexy
Love Train
AI
Following on from the last review..
The world of AI fake crap took another twist this week with TikTok showing a fake Rod interview where Rod was announcing to his fans that his body has given up and he doesn’t have long to live we won’t show it on SMILER but TikTok should be ashamed and hopefully our new Prime Minister who ever it may be will crack down on this garbage The Dusty Record site on Facebook posted a fake AI of Rod receiving oxygen that was taken from the real footage and added to it was totally disgraceful and the really worrying part is reading the loads comments praying for Rod to get better, fans are falling for this, this site and others like Echoes of Country are full of similar posts and should be banned
Also on another subject the duet between Rod and Freddie Mercury “Let Me Live” has been around for many years as a few second clip, the full version finally surfaced over the last few weeks as I am sure you have seen on You Tube..No it hasn’t it is AI!! but at least if you read through the many comments saying how good it is to finally find the full version the guy who did it David R Fuller does say he used AI.
World Cup
Matchday Two
Luckily for Rod he had enough time to watch the match before his Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre show but unluckily for Rod Ismael Saibari scored for Morocco in 70 seconds!
Fans watching on TV back in the UK will have seen former referee Christina Unkel say Scotland should have been awarded one of two penelty shouts. But pundits Roy Keane and Ange Postecoglou disagreed with their ITV Sport colleague.
Scotland head coach Steve Clarke was diplomatic, saying he “wasn’t too sure” about several decisions made by Uzbek referee Ilgiz Tantashev.
Meanwhile, two former Scotland internationals were left bemused that Morocco defender Issa Diop was not sent off in the first half. And another, Pat Nevin, defended a “bizarre” refereeing performance.
“For me, it is [a red],” Kilmarnock manager Neil McCann said. “Che Adams is goal-side and he’s clearly pulled back. I think with the flight of the ball, he’s going to get onto it and there’s no-one on the cover.”
James McFadden agreed. “He’s running onto it, straight towards goal. It’s 100% an obvious goalscoring opportunity. If the referee deems it a foul, he has to send him off.”
But Scotland remains in the fight with one group match still to play against Brazil on Wednesday qualification is still within reach and everything is still to play for.
Matchday Three
Rod flew back into the UK for matchday three and was a guest on talkSPORT with Jim White and Simon Jordan in the build up
Speaking to Jim White he explained why he almost collapsed at a the recent show in the USA. “I really shouldn’t have gone to the Haiti game,” Said Rod, who was in attendance in Boston to see Scotland record their first World Cup win since 1990.
“I had to cancel a show the night before because I just had no voice left. But the truth is, Jim, I wasn’t going to let my two sons down.
“I promised them since they were born that we’re going to go to a World Cup, and this is the first one that’s come about.
“And it wasn’t a good look, I admit, but I’m going to just have to take the stick. So, I did it [went to the Haiti game] for the boys.”
And talking about tonight’s match Rod said “It’s going to be so difficult tonight, Jim,” he said. “Do we go with two up front – go for it – or defend or what? I don’t know.”
“Well, Sir Rod, I think you do know,” Simon Jordan responded, to which Rod continued: “Yeah, you’re right. The odds are against us – we all know that.
“But I’ll tell you one thing, my friend: we have the greatest supporters in the world. There’s no doubt about it; they’ve made Scotland proud.
“I love the fact they drunk Boston dry and the England supporters got there and there was no beer.”
The night brought disappointment for Scotland after losing a second World Cup group game with a bruising 0-3 defeat to Brazil in Miami to leave their last-32 hopes up in the air. Scotland kicked off their final group stage match playing Brazil at the Miami Stadium.
They went behind early, with Brazil scoring a goal within the first seven minutes. By half time, Brazil had scored again, to give them a 2-0 lead, And striker Matheus Cunha grabbed a third just after the hour mark.
The game’s defeat means a wait for Scotland to see if they qualify as one of the eight best teams in the third ranking.
While we wait to see what happens next here are some great throwback photos taken by Iris Alexander of Rod himself playing football in the US in 1985 for his LA Exiles team with a young Kimberly and Sean watching on
Wolfie’s Rod Cut Out
After last weeks post about Wolfie’s Rod cut out and the new Ronnie Wood cut out Daniel Beirne sent in a great show of himself and Adrian Sherlock with Wolfie’s Rod cut out in Vegas
If you get a shot with either of them please send them in
Rancho Mirage, CA
On Sunday Rod helped a crowd of just over 2,000 celebrate Fathers Day at Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa tickets for this intimate show were pretty expensive $799.50 – ORCHESTRA – FRONT ROWS$579.50 – ORCHESTRA – AISLE$574.50 – ORCHESTRA$474.50 – LOGE – AISLE$469.50 – LOGE$369.50 – MEZZANINE – AISLE$364.50 – MEZZANINE$224.50 – BALCONY – AISLE$219.50 – BALCONY
But it seemed like money well spent as Rod and the band gave a party to remember. The girls from European Optical Laguna Beach were at the show and got a great shot with the Rod display on the way in and told SMILER they had seen Rod 9 times over 40 yrs.
Clive Davis April 4th 1932 – June 22nd 2026
On Monday Rod led the tributes to Clive Davis one of the most influential music executives in the history of rock and pop, who died at the age of 94.
Rod posted
Lost for words! A day I’ve been dreading!
A giant of a man in the music business.
I owe Clive so much. The force behind J Records, he was the only one who believed a rock singer could sing the standards with conviction. Other labels rejected the idea, and so The Great American Songbook was born, selling close to 40 million copies.
We had some wonderful, unforgettable times together, but for now, Mr. Davis, it’s goodbye, my dear friend.
Rod Stewart 💔
This Week’s Rod Art
This week we feature some imaginative fantasy art by Kezozine who describes herself as a UK based idiot
Kezozine told SMILER this week “For the Rod art I used a program called clip art for android tablets and used texture and pattern brushes”
Adding “My mum is a big fan of Rod so I did it for her mainly
She grew up listening to him and I love anything from that 70s/80s era too”
To see more atmospheric work from Kezozine go to https://www.instagram.com/kezozine/
And Finally…
Hope all the Fathers out there had a great day on Sunday Rod celebrated by posting these lovely shots with his children
And if anyone is going to Lisbon Rock in Rio Portugal on Saturday have a great time and please send in any photos you get
Due to the office being closed for a couple of days we have gone early with the news this week but we will be back to normal next week
See you next week…