Main photo By Sue Davie
Unchained Melody
On Friday Rod and Penny visited The Kitty Ward Pottery Studio in Devon and Rod even had a go..But we can’t confirm if unchained Melody was playing in the background.
This weeks Rod Art
This week we feature an amazing oil painting by Halifax based artist Fawzi who told SMILER this week “I am a fan of Rod Stewart, I loved his songs in the 70’s, now I am 70 YO! And my memory is always great about that era”.
Fawzi says his Rod painting is now for sale, If you are interested or want to see more art work by him go to https://www.instagram.com/fawzi_ebra_art/
Plymouth Home Park Stadium
On Saturday night Rod played Plymouth’s Home Park Stadium,
Boy George and Culture Club opened the show
Sarah Burgwin was at the show and got some great shots
Rod and Boy George as promised did a fantastic duet on The Killing Of Georgie
And SMILER photographer Marc Baulisch – Steines was also on hand to get more brilliant photos
Despite putting on a great show, the audience was left disappointed when Rod finished what was thought to be his second to last song of the encore at just after 10.30pm and the stage was turned to darkness. To add to fans disappointment for his last song they were expecting Sailing which has an even more special meaning in the naval city.
It is unclear why the concert ended as abruptly as it did, Home Park has permission for concerts to run until 11pm. It is understood that the concert was due to finish at 10.30pm, and a spokesperson for Plymouth City Council said: “Despite rumours and reports, Plymouth City Council and the venue did not ask Rod Stewart to finish early last night.” Plymouth Live reported in tweets from fans that the Lord Mayor had put a stop to it’ as he had ‘gone over his curfew’.
Later Cllr Mark Shayer, Lord Mayor of Plymouth told Plymouth Live “I started getting telephone calls, numerous people were ringing up. I have even been sworn at at my local shop.” He added: “I’m horrified to be implicated. To say I stopped Rod Stewart singing what is one of my favourite songs, on Armed Forces Day, it’s ridiculous. I’m livid.”
Speaking to SMILER later Councillor Mark Shayer, Lord Mayor of Plymouth put the record straight saying “In the Grand Scheme of these things, I know events like this happen and on an all too frequent number of occurrences. We are all rushed these days with too little time and too much to do. I wish the reporter had at least rung me to verify her story but I’ve checked and there are no missed calls from her and the Council monitor all my calls!, After nearly 25 years in the Royal Navy I’m pretty resilient, however I’m disappointed that the reporter could get so far from the truth”.
Councillor Shayer also told us about his naval background “I was born in 1960 and the son of a Royal Navy Stoker. Dad went away to sea soon after I was born and I didn’t see him until I was nearly 5, when he returned on HMS Centaur. He had several ships, HMS Andromeda and HMS Gurkha in the late 60’s, so once again I didn’t see much of him. I idolised my Dad, he was my hero. In 1971 I went to the Royal Hospital School as a boarder to try and give me a more stable schooling after traveling around so much in the 60’s following Dad. However, I was only home during main holidays and Dad was drafted to HMS Ark Royal.
In the mid 70’s the BBC did a series called Sailor and the opening theme was “Sailing” by Rod Stewart. Dad was in at least one of the episodes and I have a copy of the VHS Cassettes as the only “live” memento of my Dad, the other is a picture taken of him in his mid 20’s. Every time I hear the song “Sailing” by Rod Stewart, I’m happily reminded of my Dad and am a fan of Rods music. Unfortunately, he died in 1981 when I was 20. He too loved that song, so much so, some of the lyrics of “We Are Sailing” are engraved into my Dad’s headstone which is in Calstock Churchyard to this day!”
Adding “For the reporter to have written such words is quite distressing, as they are hurtful and about as far from the truth as one could possibly get. Saturday was Armed Forces Day in Plymouth and to have Rod Stewart performing in a Naval Garrison City on such a day is a real honour and an event that I was particularly proud of, being both a Navy man and this year’s Lord Mayor. If I’d have been able to get a ticket, I’d have been there “Front & Centre”, but alas I was at home after an exhausting day doing Lord Mayor stuff, including hosting the Admiral of the Fleet Andrew Burns, on the Hoe”.
The news reports have not gone without consequence for Councillor Shayer he told us “I do note from the phone calls that I have received, that the story was picked up by the Daily Mail and distributed nationwide. It was also picked up by an Edinburgh newspaper and I have had contact from friends in Scotland, incredulous at the story, they know me well!. All the above I can get over and life goes on, but, I was told by a contributor to my Charity for the Mayoral Year, SSAFA, (Soldiers, Sailors and Air Force Association) that they were going to withdraw their funding due to my alleged behaviour at the Rod Stewart concert and that I was a disgrace! I’m too thick skinned to be worried about being called names, but for the reporters poorly constructed and verified article to have an impact on the funding of the Charity for Sailors, Soldiers and Airman Veterans is intolerable…I’ve yet to hear from the Publishing Group, sad isn’t it. The story was even run on Sky News yesterday morning”.
He ended by saying “As far as I’m concerned Rods more than welcome to come back to Plymouth at any time during my tenure as Lord Mayor and yes there are lots of Navy and Veterans who are his fans down here. I think most of them were absolutely exhausted after Armed Forces Day down here on the same day so maybe a few, like me, didn’t make it to the Concert that evening. Even if he had a small concert in the Naval Base I’m sure they would make him very welcome and be lavish with the rum!”
To read our SMILER review of the night go to
https://www.rodstewartfanclub.com/category/news/
Marc Baulisch – Steines told Boy George how much he enjoyed the show next morning!
Meanwhile Rod and Penny visited the popular Devon restaurant the Winking Prawn in Salcombe who’s owners were happy to share more shots of the day with us
Back to Cork
Last week we told you about Rob Oliver and his mate Billy who got backstage in Cork after Rod spotted their banner saying they had followed rod for 40 years, Rob saw our post and sent some more shots of the dream meeting
Charity Match
On Sunday Rod hosted a football match by The Vagabond Old Boys Football Team – which is Rod’s home team in Essex, the charity football match was in honour of his two brothers Don and Bobby Stewart to raise money for the British Heart Foundation.
They would love to raise lots more money for this amazing charity so if you wish to donate and leave a message – it will be greatly appreciated by all of the team and of course the Stewart family .
Here is Rod with Phil Morton who organised the football match .
Photos thanks to Jessica Heffernan
R.I.P Craig Brown
The sad news came through on Monday that Craig Brown, the last man to take the Scotland football team to a World Cup finals, had died at the age of 82.
The national team’s longest-serving manager, he was in charge for 71 games from 1993 to 2001, qualifying for Euro 96 and the 1998 World Cup. He was also on the staff for the 1986 and 1990 finals and SMILER members will remember he was Scotland manager when Rod recorded the official single for the Euro 96 campaign Purple Heather with the Scotland squad
Northampton Cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens
On Wednesday it was back to the tour as it arrived in Northampton and Rod cleared up curfew gate telling the crowd the mix up was down to him and Boy George, Boy George was due to go on at 7pm but the sun was shining straight onto the stage and he asked Rod if he could go on 10 or 15 minutes later, that made Rod late so he could not finish with Sailing. SMILER photographer Yve Paige and Dave Edwards were in the huge crowd and got some amazing shots
Holly fron Rod’s band had fun in the crowd..And Culture Club did a superb set to open the show
And this time Rod kept his eye on the time!
Thanks From Wolfie’s
Our friends at Wolfie’s would like to send a huge thank you to all Rod’s fans who reported the scammers trying to rip off other fans this week, as usual a sterling effort from you all has done the job and we are at the moment free of scammers, but it probably wont be long before another one pops up so please keep watching for them and we can get rid of them as well…Well done!
Sing It Again Rod
This is going to be huge…
Earlier this year we did a project with artist Tim Jeffs to make a limited edition sculpture of our SMILER logo come to life, it was a massive hit with our members and all 25 sold within 2 days of announcing the project, many of you asked if we could do more as you missed out , but as we were unsure what responce we would get and no one knew how it would turn out we promised to limit it to 25 plus Rod also getting one so we couldn’t do any more, the project saw this first sketch
turn into this brilliant SMILER logo Rod sculpture
Well the really exciting good news to celebrate Rod’s first compilation album ‘Sing It Again Rod’ that was released in 1973. celebrating it’s 50th anniversary this year Tim has agreed to do another sculpture, The album is notable for its Peter Corriston-designed die-cut album sleeve shaped like an old fashioned drinking glass [Very apt at the moment!] and this will be aknowledged in the figure of Rod in all his Faces splendour from 1973
Here is Tim’s first sketch and like last time he will photograph each stage of the project to keep everyone involved in the process
The figure is based on this photo of Rod
Tim can only do batches of 25, At the moment we are only taking pledges, the cost will be £95 plus postage, startng with £20 deposit and balance paid before delivery and the first 25 pledges will be batch one, then we will see where we go from there to regester your pledge or if you have any questions please contact me, each figure is hand painted to a very high standards by Tim.
This project will not be started for six weeks as Tim has other commitments but we are expecting it will be very popular so please get in early.
NHS Hero Rod
Rod has donated £10,000 to an Aberdeen hospital to help fund extra cancer screenings. He made the donation to NHS Grampian, a section of the NHS that covers the Scottish region, with the money being used to fund extra diagnostic scans over the weekend of 1st-2nd July.
As reported by the Press & Journal, Rod’s donation will mean that up to 24 people will now receive an earlier cancer screening. Sir Rod said: “It’s vital that people receive early investigations and quick diagnosis. It is an honour to be in the position to be able to help support the NHS by funding some additional scans to boost NHS Grampian’s current capacity.”
Speaking on behalf of NHS Grampian, clinical director Dr Hugh Bishop said: “We are extremely grateful for this generous gesture, which will enable us to schedule additional MRI sessions and help speed-up diagnoses for patients.
“In addition to the patients directly benefited, this will also allow further patients to be seen sooner due to the appointments being freed up that would have been used for the patients scanned on Sir Rod’s extra lists.
“Sir Rod has a long and well known relationship with Scotland, and he is held in affection by many in NHS Grampian, so being able to share this great news with them is a personal privilege.”
In addition to Sir Rod’s donation in Aberdeen, he also made a donation to Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow earlier this year.
And Finally..
Wow that was a busy week!..Anyone going to Durham Seat Unique Riverside tonight, Badminton Estate on Sunday, Hull Craven Park Stadium on Tuesday or Edinburgh Castle on Thursday please in any reviews, thoughts or pictures for next weeks news …Also all Issues of SMILER 102 were posted out this week so they should all be landing on your doormats very soon
See you next week