Alessandro and the rocky road to that much-coveted autograph

Many of us are the proud owners of one or more autographs from Sir Rod Stewart. Signed posters, autographed photos, and CD or vinyl covers hang neatly framed on the living room wall or sit on a sideboard or desk in the study, often bearing a personal dedication from our hero. As a die-hard fan, you guard these treasures like the apple of your eye; for everyone else, the rule is: look only, under no circumstances touch.

Alessandro from Mestre, a district of Venice on the mainland, had also always wanted to get his hands on an autograph from Sir Rod Stewart, especially as his collection already contains hundreds of signatures, including those of Madonna, Sylvester Stallone, Al Pacino, Spielberg and many, many others. Rod was still missing from his collection – “but hopefully not for much longer,” thought the film and video producer as he set off for Bassano del Grappa with his girlfriend last week. The pair had bought tickets for Stewart’s only concert in Italy and travelled full of anticipation to Bassano Music Park, some 90 kilometres away. In their luggage: a CD complete with its cover (The Story So Far) and markers in various colours. Perhaps they’d manage to get that much-coveted autograph that evening.

“We had front-row seats,” Alessandro recounted of the start of the show. “When it began, lots of people pushed their way to the front of the stage to be right up close to Rod. The security staff were completely overwhelmed by this rush of fans and tried everything to get people back to their seats.”

But the security staff hadn’t reckoned with the man on stage. Rod promptly grabbed the microphone and told the bewildered security guards that “this is, after all, a rock concert and people are allowed to have fun and dance in front of the stage.” The energy that evening was indescribable, as Alessandro described the atmosphere, “and that led more and more fans to push their way to the front.”

Song followed song, and Alessandro was also celebrating the show and the singer right at the front of the stage. Always with him: the CD he’d brought along and a pen, kept close at hand in case the chance for an autograph ever arose.

During Da Ya Think I’m Sexy, Rod started signing CDs on stage. Alessandro saw his chance. Time and again, he held his CD cover aloft, hoping Rod would spot it from above. And then the moment came: singer Becca Kötte noticed the Italian’s desperate attempts to get her attention and asked Alessandro to pass the CD up to her. No sooner said than done – the cover and a felt-tip pen were handed to her, and just as Rod began to sign, the pen ran out of ink!!! What a nightmare! Becca was about to pass the CD cover back down when Alessandro’s girlfriend remembered that they still had a second pen. So they started again from the beginning, and yes, this time it worked – Rod wrote his name on the booklet.

But then: the signed CD cover was handed to a security guard, who smudged the signature – which hadn’t quite dried yet – with his fingers. Well done, thought Alessandro. Had it all been for nothing? At that moment, he would have loved to… but let’s leave it at that. Because Alessandro still had one last chance.

“At the end of the show, I saw that a few people were waiting for autographs near the stage exit, so I tried my luck there too. The show organiser eventually collected all our CDs and albums and took them to Rod so he could sign them. It took a whole hour, though, before he came back and returned our signed albums and CD covers to us all.” So it was a blessing in disguise for Alessandro on that exciting evening; in the end, though, he was simply happy. “Rod wrote a wonderful autograph on the CD cover; now I own the best and most important signature in my entire collection: Rod Stewart!”