Main photo Christian Secchi
Quiet week this week as the Stewarts continued to enjoy their vacation
soaking up the sunshine on the picturesque island of Sardinia.
And Kenney Jones enjoyed the football…well up to the final he did!
Trio delle Meraviglie: An evening for the grandchildren
By Martin Heidt
It sounds like a fairy tale – who among us hasn’t secretly wished to sing a song with Rod Stewart? For the Italian music trio Trio delle Meraviglie, this dream came true last week.
We spoke to band member Christian Secchi and he told us about what was probably the greatest experience of his musical career. In addition to guitarist and singer Secchi, the band also includes Sammy Marconcini (bass, vocals) and Federico Barsanti (guitar, choir). Drummer Guido Mainardi from Bergamo is also often on stage, so that the trio often becomes a quartet.
The cover band, also known as Trio of Wonders, was founded in 2010 on the spur of the moment. At the time, they were spontaneously looking for a band for a party and the three musician friends didn’t hesitate for long and practically shook Trio delle Meraviglie out of their sleeves.
The trio’s repertoire includes hundreds of cover songs by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Doors and Elvis, among others. But the trio also constantly perform songs from the current charts.
“Of course we also have songs by Rod Stewart on our list. At the moment it’s Sailing, Have I Told You Lately, The First Cut Is The Deepest, You’re In My Heart, I Don’t Want To Talk About It and Maggie May,” reveals Secchi. “After this experience, however, we will significantly increase the number of Rod Stewart songs in our repertoire.”
This “experience” took place on Tuesday 9 July. Still unaware of what would happen to them that evening, the Trio delle Meraviglie were preparing for a private event that evening on a sunny day on the island of Elba. “We were hired for a private birthday party at La Caletta restaurant in Porto Azzurro and prepared for it as normal,” explains Secchi.
When the band arrived at the restaurant as agreed, the restaurant manager immediately rushed up to the musicians and informed them that an international music superstar would be there that evening. “He couldn’t tell us the name because the agency insisted on the utmost discretion. But of course we were curious as to who it might be,” reveals Christian Secchi. “We were sitting at dinner at around nine o’clock and saw a boat mooring at the pier from our seat.” It’s worth mentioning that La Caletta restaurant is also known for the fact that it can be reached by boat from the sea. “From a distance, we could already recognise Rod’s unmistakable hairstyle,” says Secchi. “Then he came over to the restaurant with his wife and a few other people.” As the musicians told us, a table had been reserved for Sir Rod in a separate room on the upper floor. But Rod missed the right way and suddenly found himself in the middle of the birthday party crowd. However, being the old charmer that he is, he was able to laugh about his little slip-up and greeted all the party guests in good humour before finding his table on the first floor after all.
About an hour later, at around 10 pm, the Trio delle Meraviglie began to play for the party guests – James Taylor, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan. “It was different than usual,” admits Christian, “because we knew that Rod could hear us at his table. We therefore made a special effort to put on a good performance. When do you ever have an audience like that as a small band?”
Around eleven o’clock that evening, the boat returned to the small jetty at La Caletta. “We could see the boat docking again and knew that Rod would soon be coming down with his companions. The adrenaline was pumping for all of us.” And then they arrived. Rod, his wife Penny, the children. The band was playing a Johnny Cash song, Ring of Fire. Penny immediately started dancing and as Rod – dressed all in white with a shoulder bag – watched the band, he was gripped. He spontaneously grabbed a microphone and sang the song to the end with the visibly impressed musicians. “We played Johnny Cash’s Ring Of Fire together with one of the world’s greatest music legends,” enthuses Christian. “That’s something we’ll still be telling our grandchildren about.”
Christian then quickly switched gears and immediately played the first chords of Sailing. Rod, who had actually already turned to leave, grinned, turned round again and came back to the microphone. And sang his probably greatest song to the end together with the band.
He then said goodbye with a loud “Goodbye everyone” and a quick wave to the audience, who had naturally gathered in large numbers around the small stage. “These are moments in life that will never be repeated. All of us will never forget those minutes together with Sir Rod Stewart,” enthuses Christian Secchi to this day. “Everyone who witnessed it couldn’t even comprehend what had happened. What an evening!”
The next day, the story went viral online. “The people who follow us on our channels went completely crazy. The press became aware of it and wanted interviews. We were approached on the street by complete strangers who we absolutely had to tell about our evening with Rod Stewart”. In the meantime, the hype had died down a little and the band was able to take a breather. With a little distance, Christian Secchi reviewed the evening with us. He summarised: “With his generosity and modesty, Rod Stewart taught us that it doesn’t matter who you are or what you do. If you want to sing, just do it! He has truly given us a great gift that we will never forget. What pleases us most is that he came to us of his own free will to sing with us. He liked what we did and he enjoyed it, and that is the greatest satisfaction for us. Thank you again, Rod, and who knows, maybe we’ll see you again on this beautiful island, which you obviously like too!”
Big week for Faces fans
Well it was a quiet week until Wednesday’s big announcement…Don’t miss this one..8CD/Blu-Ray Boxed Set Featuring All Of The Bandâs Surviving BBC Recordings Will Be Available On September 6
Remastered With Participation Of Band Members Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood And Kenney Jones
And SMILER has been helping out on the project from the start, see full details here
Speaking this week SMILER’s Neil Webb said
A very proud moment for SMILER, John Gray, Mike Walton and myself. After years of work and dedication the new Faces Boxset of every BBC live recording and surviving sessions by the band is finally finished and will be released in September.
These are the Holy Grail for Faces fans. Recordings buried and undiscovered for decades have been lovingly collated and restored, in most cases, to an audiophile standard. Also involved in this project were Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood and Kenney Jones, so It has the official blessing of the three remaining band members.
Working on this ongoing project (so far three albums) has been an absolute honour and a labour of love for us. To get credits on each album and the Box set is a dream come true.Thank you to everyone involved especially Rob Caiger for his dogged determination to get this finished and released.
At times we all thought it wasnât going to happen but it has.
As lifelong Faces fans it just doesnât get much better.
Proud also that Smiler – The Rod Stewart Fanclub has participated in these historic releases.
Long Live The Faces !
“The picture of the band depicts and portrays what we all stood for . . . Five drunks who got away with murder under the guise of music!ââ âRod Stewart, 2024
We know there are many poor quality bootlegs out there [I think I own copies of most of them] but the sound on these discs is unlike anything youâve experienced before.
Live, these were recorded as mixed on the night so thereâs no multitracks or pre-1973, any stereo mixes, as the desk in the Paris Cinema was a mono-only desk.
Except for one night when they bought a separate stereo desk in and two sets of recordings were going on simultaneously, one mono, one stereo.
And as I post this weeks news Faces At The BBC â Complete BBC Concert & Session Recordings 1970-1973 is number 3 on the Amazon Movers & Shakers chart in the UK, for pre-orders. A nice start!
Also don’t forget to grab your copy of this gem over the weekend
Forever Young
Along with Sir Rod and Kevin Savigar we here at SMILER have been following the success of the cover of Forever Young by Daniel Grindstaffft. Paul Brewster & Dolly Parton, after weeks at number one in the Bluegrass charts the song has now been nominated for Song of the Year and Collaboration of the Year awards, Daniel said this week
I am thankful and honored âForever Youngâ ft. Paul Brewster & Dolly Parton is nominated for âSong of the Yearâ AND âCollaboration of the Yearâ for the 2024 International Bluegrass Music Association awards. To everyone involved that captured my vision for this song- Stephen Burwell, Trey Hensley, Josh Swift, Andy Leftwich, Kent Blanton and Derek Deakins– you guys are the best! A special thank you goes out to Paul & Dolly, the amazing fans, folks in radio and IBMA voting members who supported the song all the way to the final nomination, this wouldnât be possible without you, Thank YOU!
âBe courageous and be brave and in my heart youâll always remain Forever Youngâ
This Week’s Rod Art
This week we feature some great Rod Chalk and Charcoal drawings from Rosi Oldenburg who studied art in Stuttgart, Germany and is now a visual artist in New York
And finally..
We are floating ..Wolfieâs whisky debued some ace new Pool Floats in Nevada and California this week!
How cool are they?
See you next week