Dylan Cassidy - Rod Stewart Tribute
The Next Best Thing
Rod rocks Almeria
By Sally Bengtsson
Rod Stewart wowed the crowd at Almeria last Friday and the Leader’s Sally Bengtsson was lucky enough to have tickets for the hottest show in town.
For those who had traveled down from the Costa Blanca the two hour trip was definitely worthwhile. What a show!
It’s hard to believe that the energetic performance was given by a 63 year-old. Rod strutted his stuff, giving high kicks a youngster would be proud of, and moving and grooving throughout the two hours of pure entertainment. The crowd sang along constantly and many a time the musicians went quiet and Rod flipped the microphone over to the audience, who sang the songs word perfect. The atmosphere was magical and all were in high spirits.
A good 50% of the crowd were Brits, many sporting their green and white striped Celtic shirts or a splash of tartan. The average age was probably higher than at your average concert, but everyone felt young at heart and songs such as ‘This Old Heart of Mine’ or ‘Hot Legs’ brought back reminiscent memories of times gone by. ‘Do you think I’m Sexy’ got the crowd grooving, as did ‘Some Guys have all the Luck.’
The band with Rod were excellent, two great drummers, a very attractive blonde, long legged saxophonist, a pretty violinist who also strummed the guitar, two talented bass guitarists, a pianist and a backing group which were a trio of great voices, who did a Tina Turner tribute act in the middle of the concert while Rod went offstage to change, appearing spruced up and sexier than ever. Altogether he changed three times, from black trousers and a silver jacket, to a white shirt and a black tie, then jeans and a white shirt with a big gold necklace.
The Spaniards in the crowd sang along to all the songs in perfect English, and arms were swaying in the air throughout the show. “Those who paid for VIP tickets were not disappointed. Rod walked amongst them before the show, posing for photos and cracking jokes. He seemed as down to earth as ever,” and halfway through the concert told the VIPs at the front to sit down, “You’ve paid a lot of money for those seats, don’t waste them,” he joked.
British punctuality surprised the Spaniards in the crowd, when Rod came on and started singing at 10.15 PM. Half way through the show footballs were kicked into the crowd, bouncing off walls and scaffolding, causing merriment all round.
One of the most moving songs was ‘Father and Son’ (originally by Cat Stevens), throughout which a video played on the huge screen behind the stage, showing heart warming photos of Rod’s father and then of his sons, playing football with him. Football was a strong topic throughout the show.
Considering this was the only concert that Rod is giving in Spain it was surprising to see a few empty seats. According to the organisers almost 6,000 tickets were sold for the event. The Palacio de Los Juegos Mediterraneos perhaps did not have the best acoustics, but the organisation could not be faulted. Parking was not a problem and there were no traffic jams after the concert whatsoever. The only negative point could be the lack of signs, finding the place wasn’t exactly straightforward.
The encore had to be ‘I am Sailing’ which didn’t disappoint and although the crowd would have liked to have seen even more, everyone left very satisfied just after midnight. And so the Rod Stewart ‘Rocks His Greatest Hits 2008 Tour’ ended in Spain, having given a lot of pleasure to Rod Stewart fans.
