Rod Stewart - Almost Famous (2025)

Opening with "Three Time Loser," from Rod Stewart's post-Faces LP, Atlantic Crossing, this historic live show comes from the first solo tour Stewart had embarked upon after leaving the group he had attained his music industry fame with. His all-star band now featured former Vanilla Fudge/ Cactus drummer Carmine Appice, session keyboard John Jarvis (who had worked with Art Garfunkel and Ringo Starr), former Family guitarist Jim Cregan (who stayed on as Stewart's musical director and guitarist for almost 20 years), and Billy Peek, who had been the lead guitarist in Chuck Berry's UK touring band, among other engagements. • Stewart offers a healthy mix of solo hits with "You Wear It Well," "Tonight's The Night (Gonna Be Alright)," "Maggie May," and "The Killing Of Georgie (Pts 1 and 2), and Faces classics ("Stay With Me "). He also performs a selection of covers, among them The Isley Brothers' "This Old Heart Of Mine," Check Berry's "Sweet Little Rock 'N' Roller," Jimi Hendrix's beautiful ballad "Angel," and The Beatles' swansong rocker, "Get Back". Rod had departed from the Faces two years prior, but this show was very much still in the Faces-sounding tradition. The highlight of the show may very well be a song written by Gavin Southerland called "Sailing," which was a minor hit in the U.S., but set the charts alight across Europe, and which remains among the largest selling singles in British rock history. • Although he began his professional career in the early 1960s performing with folk singer Wizz Jones, Stewart began recording in 1963 as a member of John Baldry's Hoochie Coochie Men (which also included an unknown pianist named Reg Dwight - later to become Elton John). In 1964, Stewart and some of the members of Baldry’s group formed a UK band called Steam Packet, which had moderate success and toured with The Rolling Stones. In 1966, he was asked by former Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck to join his new band, which also included Ron Wood on bass. • When Beck's near-fatal 1969 car accident prevented a merger, Stewart and Wood (now on guitar) joined the remaining members of The Small Faces, who had re-grouped as the Faces upon the departure of Steve Marriott. Stewart took the Faces back to the top of the UK charts and made them a viable touring act in the States, with a number of critically acclaimed and commercially successful albums. However, all the while he was lead vocalist for the Faces, he was also holding down a successful solo career, and became a bona-fide celebrity. Stewart never left the charts or the spotlight again.