This week’s news and gossip

In a week when Celtic won back to back league titles Melisa James Askew and Donna Hamaker presented Rod with a Celtic quilt

Glenna Heraly

We start this week with a special shout out to Glenna Heraly who sent in some great picture from the first Vegas show including the one below for last weeks news and review, Rod saw the photo and was that impressed he asked for a copy so he could post on his instagram

The Colosseum at Caesars Palace show 2

The week for Rod started with shows in Vegas on Friday, Melisa James Askew was at the show and presented Rod with a smaller version of the infamous Celtic blanket that she presented Rod with a few years ago

Melisa told SMILER this week “I gave Rod another quilt. Much smaller than the last. I told him it could be a baby blanket. he said Liam was a Celtic supporter, so he is going to give to him.”

Donna Hamaker presented Rod with her scrapbooks with memorabilia going back 53 years and told SMILER “What a blessing to be able to hand my scrapbooks to Rod. A bittersweet moment 53 years in the making. Rod and the band seemed to really enjoy looking at them. Words do no justice for the night. Always A Reason to Believe. My heart is full”.

Melisa also got some superb shots at the show

Rod came down to meet the crowd during ‘Stay With Me’ and Mike beerfueledrunner got this shot as he passed him

As did Jennifer Hinzmann

Who was wearing these fabulous boots!

And also got these great shots

The Colosseum at Caesars Palace show 3

On Saturday night Graham Purt was at the show and got us some great photos

Sharon Forrest McBride took this amazing sign to her 75th show !

And also got some great photos

Sharon’s daughter Ashley attended the show as her Bachelorette party… We wish her Good Luck with the wedding in September!

After the show Rod treated his social media followers to a tour around his dressing room showing his stage outfits

King Charles Coronation

Penny said this week she was “Tremendously proud and honoured” to have been part of the police force working on Saturday for the King’s coronation.

Penny told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “It was the most fabulous day and, of course, tremendously proud and honoured to have been given that opportunity, along with the City of London Police, that I’m a special constable for, There were the regular officers and then the specials [on duty] and, of course, we volunteer our time to help with the duties of policing, and we were stationed on Whitehall, right opposite 10 Downing Street, just behind New Scotland Yard.”

She also explained her shift ran from 6am to around 4pm.adding “We got to know the members of the public that were in front of us quite well. And there were people travelling from Miami and Scotland and Wales and all over. And it was just incredible to see the different generations there were, you know, grandparents with their little chairs out, and there were little toddlers on dads’ shoulders, and everyone with painted faces and waving flags, So we got to chat and engage with the public and, of course, our priority was to make sure that the ceremony and the passing of the carriages, the procession went smoothly without being interrupted”

Asked about the briefing she had been given for the day, she explained: “So all ran smoothly where we were based, we worked very closely with the Met, and they were in full PPE protection. So they had their armour and batons and handcuffs, whereas myself and the officers that were on the route itself, were in our very smart tunics. We didn’t have that type of protection, So there were two barriers, so the crowd were behind two barriers with the Met officers within the crowd, and they had armed forces, it was well covered. Our main message to us was to be smart and look smart, and to be alert and just to inform our inspectors and those officers in the crowd if we saw anything suspicious but luckily it was a fantastic atmosphere.”

Penny then said they had also been briefed about “Some of the dangers that could occur”, including horses getting spooked and said that “if someone attempted to come over the barrier, I would have most certainly intervened”.

This Weeks Rod Art

This week we feature a great pencil drawing of Rod in 1983 by press cartoonist Diego Aranega from France

Diego told SMILER this week “In my spare time, I draw for fun, I started a series of drawings inspired by what struck me the most in the 80s, so this drawing was made in from my 45t Baby Jane bought at that time!”

To see more work by Diego go to https://www.instagram.com/diego.aranega/

Out in LA

Rod met up with Richard Marx on Monday in LA, Richard said An epic evening of great conversation with more than a few shenanigans thrown in. Anyone who says “don’t meet your heroes” never met @sirrodstewart I’ve admired him as a singer, songwriter and performer my whole life but now I can say his humanity, charm and razor-sharp wit are just as admirable. Love you Sir Rod!!

Las Vegas Colosseum At Caesars Show 4

Wednesday was show 4 in Vegas and Rod posted a clip arriving in Vegas and plugged Dirty Weekend cothing company for his son Sean

Graham Purt was once again on hand to get us some brilliant shots

And told SMILER this week “Rod was still in brilliant form and played the same set as Saturday except he didn’t come back and do an encore with First Cut is The Deepest”.

Graham also met Roland Macher who you will recall is the guy who lost his football hat to Rod in Mexico, Roland confirmed he never got his hat back but bought a new one!

And aslo met American tribute act ‘Rod The Tribute’ who was seeing Rod for first time.

Rod The Tribute told SMILER after the show ” I am thrilled beyond belief seeing my hero and musical mentor Sir Rod Stewart. I honestly can’t find the right words to do that show justice. Thank you Rod Stewart!!!”

Joy Ward was also at the show and got these amazing shots

And Finally..

Tim Jeffs has worked out postage rates for our SMILER logo statues, Can anyone who has not paid the balance of £70 please pay now plus UK £7 post and packing outside UK International tracked Postage- USA =£25, Canada=£24, Norway =£15, EU =£12.
Tim is making in batches of 5 at a time and the first batch is being posted this week. Thanks again to everyone who took a chance on this project we have since been inundated with requests to buy these figures ..maybe we able to persuade Tim to work with us on another project in the future?

Also anyone attending the shows in Vegas tonight , tomorrow or Monday have an amazing party and please send in any pictures, thoughts or reviews for next week’s news

See you next week..