HE was in our heart, he was in our soul and last night Rod Stewart gave us everything. Few men of advancing years can pull off a look that involves trainers, black slacks and a shirt that looks like it has been culled from a Dalmatian.
But Rod’s the man with the spiky bleached blonde mane and prominent nose strutted through a two hour-plus set at the M.E.N. Arena last night that proved you are only as old ‘as the woman you feel.’
Rod may have his detractors and he may not be the song writing force he was back in his heyday of the 1970s. But he is one of the few performers who is still capable of exhibiting the skills of good, old fashioned showmanship.
And when you add that to his classic, coarse sandpaper voice, which gives texture to even the blandest cover version, you have a winning combination.
So within 40 minutes of bounding on stage, the wild man of rock world’s favourite professional Scotsman was throwing out classics with wild abandon.
So after From ‘First Cut is the Deepest’ he swung into the gorgeously raw ‘Handbags and Gladrags’ and then onto Robert Palmer’s ‘Some Guys have All the Luck’ as he gyrated around the stage.
It may seem nothing more than a harmless piece of early 80s electro pop, in Stewart’s hands it is so much more.
In fact, as he gyrated around the stage and worked 1,000s of women over the age of 40 into a far too excitable state, he seemed like the luckiest man in the world.
But Part of Stewart’s charm has always been his ability to be both a lady-killer and one of the lads.
So while he spends the few years left until he receives his bus pass charming ladies he is equally at home being one of the boys.
So plenty of songs last night saw footballs juggled, kicked and hurled into the ever-appreciative audience.
On the hour mark Rod and his ultra-tight band kicked into ‘Tonight I’m Yours’ and by then we were most definitely his.
It was followed by a stomping version of the Stones-like ‘Hot Legs’ which saw Rod the Mod preening, prancing and generally making a tart of himself like it was 1979 all over again.
And many of those in the crowd would have been quite happy to return to that decade, which saw leopard skin trousers and a fluffy blonde, feather-cut ruling the world.
And I for one would have been happy to join them.
That is because for all the blondes, all the criticism of embarrassing disco and all the melodramatic marital break-ups, Rod Stewart remains a national treasure worth preserving.
At times his career has gone off the boil and fallen into a no mans land of cover versions. But last night he showed us that he is like a perky, if rather fruity, fine wine who only gets better with age.
True, he doesn’t quite wriggle like he used to a quarter of a century ago. But last night we did a lot of that for him.
And as he launched into ‘Sailing’ to close an emotional set, there wasn’t a person in the sold-out Arena who did not have possess either a tear in their eye or a lump in their throat.
courtesy Neal Snowdon, Manchester Evening News
