Text: STORYTELLER/MH

Text: STORYTELLER/MH

Text: STORYTELLER/MH

Text: STORYTELLER/MH

‘Every Picture Tells a Story’ is the third studio album by British singer-songwriter Rod Stewart, which was released by Mercury Records on 28 May 1971. It combines hard rock, folk and blues and reached number one in both the UK and US charts as well as third place in the Jazz & Pop Critics Poll for the best album of 1971. It was a continued success with critics and was ranked 172nd on Rolling Stone's list of the ‘500 Greatest Albums of All Time’ in 2003, which was moved to 177th in the 2020 reissue.HistoryThe album is a mix of rock, country, blues, soul and folk and features Stewart's breakthrough hit ‘Maggie May’ as well as ‘Reason to Believe’, a song from Tim Hardin's 1966 debut album. ‘Reason to Believe’, featuring Pete Sears on piano, was released as the album's first single, with ‘Maggie May’ as the B-side; however, ‘Maggie May’ became more popular and was a No. 1 hit in both the UK and the US.The album includes a version of Arthur Crudup's ‘That's All Right (Mama)’ (the first single for Elvis Presley) and a cover version of the Bob Dylan song ‘Tomorrow Is a Long Time’, which was first released on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II in 1971.All five members of the Faces (of which Stewart was the lead singer at the time) are featured on the album, with guitarist/bassist Ronnie Wood and keyboardist Ian McLagan on Hammond B3 organ making the most appearances. Due to contractual restrictions, the line-up lists were somewhat vague, and it was unclear whether the version of the Motown hit ‘(I Know) I'm Losing You’ was recorded by the full Faces line-up. Other contributors included Ray Jackson on mandolin (although Stewart has reportedly forgotten his name and only mentions ‘the mandolin player in Lindisfarne’ on the cover) and Micky Waller on drums. Maggie Bell did backing vocals (labelled on the cover as ‘vocal abrasives’) on the title track, and Madeline Bell sang backing vocals on the next track, ‘Seems Like A Long Time’. Pete Sears played all the piano on the album, with the exception of the track ‘I'm Losing You’, which featured Ian McLagan on piano, along with the Faces as a band.

Text: STORYTELLER/MH

Text: STORYTELLER/MH

Text: STORYTELLER/MH

It is 25 March 2014 - a cold and foggy day in Berlin. It's early on this Tuesday morning and thousands of cars are making their way through the city's congested streets. Around the underground stations and bus stops, people are hurrying back and forth, all on their way to their offices, shops and businesses to go about their daily business. The usual chaos in the German capital, like almost every morning. Things are much more relaxed in a cosy flat in the east of the city. Holger sips his morning coffee in peace, music blaring from the radio. Since reunification in the 1990s, he has rightly been one of the most enthusiastic Stewart fans in the whole of Germany. ‘I grew up in the GDR, so it wasn't so easy to follow everything Rod Stewart did. But I did notice a few things. And when the wall came down, I simply lived out my fandom,’ he says. Holger took off and there was hardly a concert in Germany where he wasn't standing or sitting in the front row. ‘Sitting is for arse,’ Holger emphasises. ‘You have to stand at a Rod Stewart concert. Even if all arenas are now seated’. But standing or sitting - the main thing is to be there and always in the front row, even with today's enormous ticket prices, this is a must for Holger. ‘The concerts have cost me a small fortune, but you only live once, right?’ says the blond-haired man. ‘Of course I'll be there again this year’. Rod Stewart is playing seven concerts in Germany in 2025, coming to Dortmund, Bremen, Hamburg, Leipzig, Cologne, Munich and Mannheim in May and November/December. But we digress. So Holger is drinking his coffee, as he always does before travelling to work, and has no idea what the next few hours have in store for him. Everything looks like a normal day at the office for the Berliner. But then he suddenly pricks up his ears: Rod Stewart is being talked about on the radio. Holger assumes that the station is once again doing one of those adverts for the German tour announced in the summer, which should also bring the Brit to Berlin for a concert. But when the announcer talked about the stadium at the Alte Försterei (the home ground of Bundesliga football club 1. FC Union Berlin) in connection with Sir Rod, the Berliner listened more closely. And was told that the singer was coming to Berlin that day for a promotional event that would take him to the Alte Försterei, among other places.All of a sudden, Holger's peace and quiet was over. He saw the opportunity to finally fulfil his big dream of meeting Rod Stewart in person and maybe even getting an autograph.Holger was immediately on fire. Rod Stewart is coming to Berlin and will be at the Alte Försterei. Today. The day's planning was thus turned on its head. The Rod fan immediately rang his boss and spontaneously took a day off. Then he threw on his clothes, grabbed his camera and put Rod Stewart's autobiography ROD in his rucksack. Thus ‘armed’, the now 56-year-old made his way to the Alte Försterei.

A new month, new luck: Rod Stewart is spending the tour break until the next show on 23 April in Kaunas with a short family holiday in the south of France. The Stewart clan posted a few snapshots on their social media channels. We are once again using the concert break to take a look at the musical work of the music legend. Did you know that some of Rod Stewart's most successful songs were released in April? These include the hits THE FIRST CUT IS THE DEEPEST and LOST IN YOU. But an album was also released in April. But first things first.Let's start in 1976: Rod Stewart had already made a name for himself as a solo artist, he had made his big breakthrough five years earlier with MAGGIE MAY and SAILING, his anthem from 1975, also made it to number one in the charts. Reason enough to release the first BEST OF album in April 1976.

Rod Stewart and son Liam in front of Jonathan Heaps' ice cream parlour in 1996

The young Reinhard discovered his love of music when he was just three years old. It all began with a drum kit made by his father and the music of the Bee Gees. Today, as Robin Stone, his stage name, he can look back on a long career as a musician. The little Reinhard of yesteryear has turned his dream into a profession.He is a boy from the Ruhr region, having grown up between coal tips and collieries. Even as a young boy, young Reinhard discovered his love of music. ‘I've always found music fascinating,’ he says looking back. ‘At the very beginning, it was the early Bee Gees that completely fascinated me. When their songs came on the radio, I would have loved to crawl into that machine. And it was clear to me: I wanted to do that too’. His father built the little boy a drum kit, then little Reinhard sat on a pedestal, banged the drums like crazy and sang along to the Bee Gees' songs. Later, at the age of seven, his parents allowed him to take guitar lessons. However, this was not at all to the boy's taste. ‘I almost lost interest in music because I was always asked to play songs that I didn't really want to play. Folk songs and the like, that wasn't my thing at all,’ he says. Frustrated by his guitar teacher's instructions, Reinhard put his instrument back in the corner for a while. Until his brother, who is also very musical, picked it up and started strumming a few songs. Reinhard quickly got back into the swing of things and gradually taught himself to play the guitar. His career continued in a few school bands and at the end of the 70s Reinhard decided to perform as a solo artist. One, if not THE trigger for this decision was Neil Young's concerts in the late 60s. ‘He stood on stage all alone with his guitar and entertained the audience. I thought that was great, I wanted that too’.Over 50 years have passed since then and the young Reinhard, who now calls himself Robin Stone, still stands alone on stage with his guitar and entertains the audience, just like Neil Young did back then. Stone's repertoire includes his solo programme with numerous cover songs, plus he has a Neil Young tribute band called Rust, a Smokie tribute band CCSmokie, a country band and a Rod Stewart tribute show. Reinhard discovered his love for good old Rod quite late in life. ‘It wasn't really my music at first,’ he looks back. ‘But then someone in our band suggested that we should play a Rod Stewart song. That was the starting signal for me to take a closer look at Rod Stewart and his music. And then I realised that what the man has done over the years is quite good,’ grins Reinhard. More and more of the Brit's hits were added to his solo programme and he now even plays an exclusive Rod Stewart show several times a year at the Hansa Theatre in Dortmund entitled The Rhythm Of My Heart - A Tribute to Rod Stewart. It is not only noticeable that Reinhard, alias Robin, comes close to the superstar vocally, but also bears a visual resemblance to the Maggie May singer. ‘I've often been asked about this, but I can't help it if there are similarities in appearance,’ says the singer from Schwerte. ‘I'm also not someone who imitates others. I am who I am and that's important to me,’ emphasises Reinhard.