Rod Stewart Tribute by Bob Wyper

MEMORABLE SHOWS

The one show that stuck out at the time...  it's got to be Blairgowrie...  a room full of fans ready to party... AND WE DID.   It was one of those nights when the sound was great, the stage was lit up and the crowd wanted it to work...   they gave me a lift and I gave it back... and so on until we all passed out from exhaustion.   I was still having photographs taken at breakfast next morning before everyone left for home.... some had travelled almost as far as I had and stayed overnight as well.   Hope to be back sometime for more of the same.  Since then, I have played in Mauchline and it was EVEN BETTER...  what a reception...  see the full report below...

The Rod Stewart Tribute Show was sold out up north in Banchory and a near sell out the following night in Inverurie... both brilliant venues and full of really nice folk who enjoyed the parties...   special thanks to Jaff at Hardstone Music Agency for his help in co-promoting these venues with me...   a lot of hard work but it was worth the effort for two brilliant nights out.   Thanks to all the management and staff in the hotels who really went out of their way to help make the evenings a success.   Hope to be back soon.

...AND THEN SOME...

The return to Lossiemouth was long overdue, with local fans asking when the show was coming back, but I was still knocked out by the huge response.   Over 400 turned out for a great party and Maggie and I are already looking forward to HOGMANAY up here.   A few hours sleep and back on the road south for our first visit to Armadale....   WOW...   what a friendly bunch...   I thought up north was hard to beat, but what a reception from an absolutely packed house.    A great night out for me... just hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did...  in fact, nearly everyone came up and said they did.   Must send a note to the agent and get back soon.  

HOW DOES THAT WORK, THEN...

Played to another sell-out crowd of enthusiastic Rod Stewart fans in Coatbridge... a really special night for me with the welcome, the hospitality, the respect, the courtesy from the committee...  I really can't compliment the people highly enough.... and what a party with gorgeous girls all singing and dancing and just looking fabulous.   Back again next Spring for another night the same, I hope.  Great.

So.... why is there always another venue just waiting round the corner to bring you back to earth...   badly sold by an agent,  wrong posters sent, indifferent crowd... what there was of them, anyway.   Still, I'm not surprised the people didn't get up for the show with the total lack of support from the so-called professionals who organised and ran it...   can't really blame the audience ... and they did sing along to most of the songs and make a go of it, so praise where it's due.   Just don't want too many of those shows, especially after such a brilliant series of parties with happy, smiling faces everywhere.

SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL AT MAUCHLINE...

The famous Mauchline Supporters Club put on a great display of tartan and Scottish flags throughout this huge function room and made the atmosphere superb for a full house of over 250.   The highest compliments go to the 2 Alex's and especially Alex Cairney for the extra effort involved in the PA system for this most difficult of venues to get the sound right.   One of the best nights I have had in 36 years of playing this club and I really do hope it is the first of many.   The audience was brilliant with girls singing every song from start to finish and dancing all night to make the room even prettier.  Cheers to you all.

HUMAN AFTER ALL...

The audience saved the day at Kilsyth with a great surge of singing and dancing from the girls after I had made a few unforced errors, as they say in football...   the truth is I WAS DREADFUL in about 3 or 4 songs out of the 30 performed on the night... too busy concentrating on everybody getting a table and making sure they were all comfortable, a job normally performed by others but left to me on that evening.   Thanks to Martin and Michelle behind the bar for sorting it all out quickly and letting me get back to the singing.   Much better after that.  The only distractions were the lovely ladies who insisted on dancing with me during a couple of later songs.  I kept telling them to stop hugging while I was singing, but obviously I was facing the wrong way at the time as they didn't stop... that's my excuse anyway.   Thanks to everyone for supporting the evening in Kilsyth and we can arrange for more people and an even bigger party next time.

NORMAL SERVICE RESUMED...

A fantastic turnout on a Sunday afternoon saw a full house (yet again) this time in Kirkcaldy.   From the committee members who sold tickets, to the smiling barmaid who worked tirelessly all afternoon, it was a great day out in a really positive atmosphere... thankfully, I performed much better this time as I was not the doorman, usher, admin.clerk, etc. like last week.  Concentrating on the performance meant I hit the notes and strutted the stuff as they say.  A brilliant room for working in with a large stage, good dancefloor and plenty of room for everyone to see the show, whether they wanted to sing, clap or dance.... which they all did.  One of the longest shows yet, with nearly every song in the repertoire performed which takes about 2 hours 45 minutes.   Looking forward to next year's party already.

THE LONG ROAD SOUTH...

A couple of brilliant parties in Hatfield Heath and Potters Bar with a great turnout at both.  Hospitality was much appreciated and everyone enjoyed the two intimate restaurant shows, much smaller than some shows recently but every bit as enthusiastic.  With great food and drink on offer followed by an evening of Rod Stewart classic songs, how could anyone not enjoy that....  everyone contributed to the singing and dancing.   Hatfield Heath is much more difficult to find, so extra credit to those who made it and joined in wholeheartedly, and also to our host Brendan and all his staff who looked after everything that you could need... no wonder the Hunters Meet is known as the 'Restaurant to the Rich and Famous'... they all want this kind of service.    Probably less rich but certainly more famous were the Rod Stewart Chronicle members who organised their outing to Meze Taverna in Potters Bar through Yve...   and what a fantastic bunch.   Great to meet all Yve's friends as well as the Chronicle boss Ian, and the real boss, Ali.  A surprise for me right at the end  of the night as someone hugged me and said  "I'm just Sue".  Then the penny dropped.... Oh THAT Just Sue... JUST SUE from the Rod Stewart Chronicle who says all the nice things to people on the members chatroom... really great to meet everyone involved....  just sorry to hear about Ian's puncture on the way home, made worse by the fact that he was enjoying his birthday outing up to that point... I hope Ian and Ali enjoy the trip to South Africa for the FOUR Rod Stewart concerts (lucky devils) down there starting on Monday... we'll read all about it when you get back.  Special thanks to Bob the Greek and son, Jimmy, who run an excellent, homely place on the high street for everyone to enjoy.   If anyone fancies a visit to Potters Bar, the show returns to both Hatfield Heath and Potters Bar on 4th and 5th March 09 respectively... look forward to meeting up with you all again.

DECEMBER... party time

Great to see Yve and all her other friends in Potters Bar (mon 22nd)...   love the pictures Yve (see photos section)...  some are X-rated though with the appearance of Yve's large friend in the background of one of them... also thought I look really tired in some of them, which is an accurate reflection with all the travelling that week..   I hope it did not detract too much from the shows...   here's a brief look at the last few weeks....

Let's face it... some Christmas parties are just not the same as Rod Stewart fans' nights...  thankfully some are just as good... 

the show in Ardrossan, where I met Helen from Rod Stewart Chronicle last time out, was a huge let down this time...   no atmosphere at all...  it just took forever to get the crowd partying.  Thankfully, some of the Rod Stewart fans from last time were there again and between us, we got everyone into the party mood and enjoyed the last hour or so in fine fettle...

Off to Carnoustie for two shows in the same evening at the same venue...   had to build the main stage upstairs, then break down some of the equipment to take it downstairs to the restaurant for a shorter show there...   strange atmosphere but loads of nice comments about the songs and the white tuxedo...

Upstairs for the main show was a brilliant night with a great crowd who danced right on top of me on the small dance-floor which was also the stage area...

A day off for me, but not for Maggie, though, as she had to get all the shirts and other things cleaned and ironed for the next few shows..  she'll get Christmas Day off... anyway, off to Potters Bar for the show... great to see Yve again... a wonderful feeling being amongst genuine friends and I think we got some new RSC members from the table of guys and girls behind Yve... they really enjoyed it as well...

A few hours sleep and off to Scotland again... 

Christmas Eve in Ayr was a strange mixture of people, not the usual Rod fans...  still made the room rock as usual, but I never got as much back from the audience as I usually get...  maybe it was me who was tired...

Christmas Day...   a day off at last ...

...then off to Glenrothes for a 12 hour shift...  built the stage and discovered one of three artistes had called off with a sore throat...  the replacement was Robyn Taylor, a lovely singer with a touch of Glasgow comedy thrown in...   personally I would love to hear her sing all day... great voice...  then veteran entertainer Christian (Chris McClure) performed a great couple of sets of nostalgic songs... and generally plugged his new CD album... I did the usual 2 hour Rod Stewart show without the extras of the big numbers that the fans like (Broken Dream, Angel, Reason to Believe, etc) and managed to find an element of enjoyment at last, although not reaching the heights of some of the recent shows... some of these Christmas shows have felt more like a normal job than something I really love doing...  maybe that's the bit that's wrong... they are Christmas parties and not Rod Stewart Fans nights... a totally different type of show but still something I have to do to pay the mortgage... not a bad job really is it....

The final show of the year was at Lossiemouth on Hogmanay... arrived to this frozen outpost being 17 below zero...  all the water frozen and the luxury caravan not feeling so luxurious without any heating... it was the same for all the caravan owners who had come to see in the new year... soon heated up with a great party for 350 enthusiastic revellers...  so glad we bought the extra heavy sleeping bag which was quite comfy on top of the piled up duvets from all the rooms in the caravan...  a big shock from last week's 30 degrees of middle-eastern desert heat, but all part of the fun of being a Rod Stewart Tribute show.