“I thought Rod Stewart was dead,” said a colleague. Others concurred. But Rod Stewart is not dead, he’s playing the Legends slot at 3pm on the Sunday of Glastonbury festival — and is the perfect person to do so, following on from the likes of Shania Twain, Diana Ross and Lionel Ritchie.
The last time many of us saw Rod was his performance at the Platinum Jubilee – sorry, Platty Jubes – when he squawked through a rendition of Sweet Caroline that he later claimed the BBC “made him” sing. At least he had an excuse. Who was to blame for making us watch? No one but ourselves.
The performance did not help with the certain naffness that has clung to Rod over the years, somewhat unfairly. When he first hit the music scene “Rod the Mod” was certainly cool, part of the Jeff Beck Group, before he became the frontman of the Faces in 1969. With his killer raspy vocal, he helped take the quirky pop art mod music of The Who and The Small Faces (whose ashes the Faces emerged from) and aimed it squarely at the football terraces. As with Slade, this was the moment in the 70s when long hair was no longer the preserve of the hippies, but suddenly all good with lager, a kickabout, and wearing matching flared jeans with your “bird”. They were a boozy laugh in contrast to the heroin evil of The Rolling Stones, and in “Stay With Me” had a song to match anything the older band could do. It was no accident that Ronnie Wood was recruited from the Faces to replace Mick Taylor in the Stones in 1975.
While Ronnie accordingly assumed some dangerous cool as Keith Richards’ brother-in-legless-arms, Rod’s solo career – which he’d run concurrently – suddenly took off as the Faces split, thanks to a run of ballad cover versions that were huge cheesy hits and propelled him to superstardom.
Although Rod was selling a lot of records, he was not cool. But you had the sense that he didn’t care
“Sailing”, a cover of a little known song by the Sutherland Brothers, hit number one and almost immediately became a stalwart of wedding discos and pub chucking-out time, where it has remained to this day.
A double-A side of “The First Cut Is The Deepest” (a Cat Stevens song) and “I Don’t Want To Talk About It” (a Crazy Horse song) hit the charts in May 1977, but became notorious as the song that kept Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen” off number one, thanks to some rumoured chart manipulations.
Although Rod was selling a lot of records, he was not cool. But back in those days, you had the sense that he didn’t care. He was having fun, touring the world, dating Britt Ekland, supporting Scotland, and treating everything with a wry wit. 1978’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” embodied this, a tongue-in-cheek piss-take of disco that collapsed under the weight of its own success and for many nailed Rod as a tacky cheese-lord in overly tight trousers.
Thereafter he remained as rock royalty, tabloid fodder for his love of blondes and reliable for a hit every few years. He popped up in the godawful “All For Love” single, in a trio featuring him, Bryan Adams and Sting, a song which aimed to do for The Three Musketeers film what Adams’ “Everything I Do” had done for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. It didn’t, but depressingly it was number one for what seemed like years. This was 1993. Musical lore will kid you that grunge was giving way to Britpop at the time: the reality was, this kind of dinosaur music was still dominant.
His MTV Unplugged in the same year was a big success for him, which showcased another hit: “Have I Told You”, a Van Morrison song. As he shed tears while singing it, it was a reminder of his voice and that, y’know, he meant it. But it hasn’t lasted quite as well as Nirvana Unplugged.
Now, there have been plenty of reassessments of Rod in the years since. Faces reunions, world tours, he has proved his status as a Legend plenty of times, one of the most recognisable faces and voices in music. And yet, the whiff of cheese has forever hung over him in the public imagination, cemented once again at the Platty Jubes.
When ‘Sailing’ hits the Pyramid Stage, it will be one of those ‘Glastonbury moments’ people talk about
The Glastonbury Legends slot is therefore made for him. A bit of cheese is what is required at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon at Worthy Farm, when people are on their fifth comedown of the festival, with one last box of rosé tucked under their arm, too tired to stand, but not too tired to sit down and row. When “Sailing” hits the Pyramid Stage, it will be one of those “Glastonbury moments” people talk about.
And this may even be one of those Legends slots that produces a wholesale reassessment of an artist’s legacy as with Tony Bennett in 1998 or Neil Diamond in 2008. You can easily imagine Rod laying out hit after hit in his easy breezy style, bringing on Ronnie for a bit of the Faces, and emerging triumphant. “Maggie May”? No one can argue with that. And it’s one of his.
Rod’s had a lot of health issues in the last few years. He’s battled prostate cancer for three years before getting the all-clear; this after having thyroid cancer in 2000. He turns 80 next year and has said he won’t be doing full scale touring again, remarking that his “days are numbered.” This Glastonbury set will carry significant personal weight, which the crowd will be aware of, and you can expect it to be emotional as well as fun.
Look, the guy deserves it.
He may have become the soundtrack to wedding discos and pub chucking-out times, but well, that means he’s been the soundtrack to big moments in our lives – snogs and tears and fights and hugs – and that makes him a true man of the people.
The truth is, the vast majority of us are not cool, we’re all cheesy as hell, so let’s celebrate one of our own.
Martin Robinson is a London Standard columnist
