Party Time
After a quick trip to Budapest on Friday for a private concert
It was back to London for the party of the year
The girls sang a blistering version of Proud Mary
And Ronnie Wood joined Rod on stage for a great version of Faces Losing You
Rod and Penny sent a Christmas message this year from The Ritz
Brian Auger
Fantastic news for fans of Rod’s 1960’s band Steampacket came last week when Brian Auger made a big announcement
‘Well, I can scarcely believe my own ‘mince pies’, my clearly insane friends Greg Boraman and Alfred George Bailey have decided to make a documentary ‘I Speak Music’… about me! And as that doesn’t come cheap, they have launched a scheme to fill up a film production piggy bank with coins to do so – so please do share this, and if you can assist them, they and I will be most grateful!‘
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/…/brian-auger-i-speak…
Brian added ‘Balders, Rodders, myself & Joolz, aka ‘The Steampacket’, the only way the full and real story of this ‘supergroup’ will be told is if ‘Brian Auger – I Speak Music’ documentary gets the £ & $ to be made’.
I am sure a few SMILER members would love to see this made if so please give it some support.
Discovering Rod Stewart
Discovering: Rod Stewart airs on Sky Arts at 4:40 AM, Tuesday 31 December.
Music critics reflect on the life and career of the former Faces front man, one of the best-selling artists of all time
Continental Modeller
The story of how Rod transported his Three Rivers City Railway layout continues in an in depth article in the January edition of Continental Modeller on sale now!
A Tribute to Diane Wilson
On July 15th this year Sir Rod lost one of his biggest fans and SMILER lost a true Rod fan when longtime fan Diane Wilson passed away
Diane was so dedicated she had the SMILER logo tattooed on her arm and her family also made it the main feature on her coffin that I am sure you will agree looks absolutely stunning.
Diane’s family decided to pay tribute to her this month by going to see Rod in concert together one last time..
Diane’s granddaughter Gabriel tells the story..
“Christmas in Coruna”
We recently travelled from Yorkshire, down to London for 24 hours in Coruna to see Sir Rod. Our reason for this, is this summer, Diane Wilson, our lovely Mum and Nana passed away. She adored Rod like one of us and it was only right we saw “the final show”. We brought a piece of her with us so she could watch Rod one last time. Diane was a fan for over 50 years; from vinyls, birthday cakes, tattoos and even trying to name her son after Rod (she only got away with the middle name as Stewart ;)). We were blown away with the show; the band, dancers were amazing and Rod is a true legend.
We are so pleased we got to do this for our amazing Nana and Mum. Sir Rod, thank you for giving us so many memories as a family. We laughed, cried and jived watching you in España and that night will always hold memories for us.
Richard Perry
Rod paid tribute to his friend Richard Perry after the music producer died aged 82 on Tuesday.
Richard died in a Los Angeles hospital following a cardiac arrest. The producer, who worked with Rod and The Beatles, “maximised his time here”, his friend Daphna Kastner confirmed. After hearing the news, Sir Rod took to his social media to pay tribute to the star.
“Dearest Richard, farewell, my dear buddy. They say in life a man is lucky if he can count his true friends on one hand, and you were certainly one of them,” he wrote on his Instagram page. Now I’ve lost you, and I’m devastated. We played and worked so closely together for so many years, creating some of the most memorable music together.”
Sir Rod added: “You were there when Penny and I first started dating, encouraging our relationship. We are both in tears as I post this farewell.”
And finally..
We would like to wish all our members a very Happy New Year and a prosperous 2025
See you next week..