Rod Stewart... or the closest I will ever get!
Paul Metcalfe steps into the Rod Stewart shoes to celebrate the genius of Sir Roderick in Some Guys Have All The Luck.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers, and goodness,
00:06it's not often that you get the chance to speak to Rod Stewart, or actually, probably
00:11the closest I will ever get to speaking to Rod Stewart, speaking today to Paul Metcalf.
00:17And goodness, you have a fantastic reputation. Are you okay with the word tribute? You are
00:22a tribute to Rod Stewart, aren't you? You capture something very special about this
00:26very special performer, and you've got a number of dates coming up in Sussex.
00:30Well, that's very kind of you, Phil. Yes, we've got quite a lot of dates coming up in
00:34Sussex, actually. I don't mind the word tribute. I think tribute has become slightly dirty
00:43worded that some people think of a tribute as some old bloke in the corner of a pub knocking
00:50out Rod's hits, or Stone's hits. I don't know. But no, tribute's okay.
00:57But you and Rod go back a long time, don't you? And it happened quite naturally that
01:03you started to perform his music. It came to you relatively straightforwardly, didn't
01:08it?
01:09It did. I've always been lucky enough to make a living out of music, really, since my sort
01:16of early 20s. And through covering some Rod Stewart songs in my set, I discovered that
01:23I sounded pretty close to him when I was singing. And I can also make myself look like him as
01:28well. So about 25 years ago, it was kind of a no-brainer to see if I could try and make
01:35a living out of being a tribute to Rod. And it kind of worked almost straight away. I
01:40thought, oh, hello, this is going to work. And it's immensely enjoyable. It's quite
01:45remunerative. So, hey, presto, that was it.
01:49So what is it, would you say, that you are having to capture about Rod Stewart to get
01:53the essence of this truly remarkable performer, isn't it?
01:58He is. Well, two things, I guess, really. The singing, which I hope I'm a reasonable
02:04singer and I can sound pretty much like Rod when I'm singing live on stage. But also conveying
02:15that persona that Rod's got, the sort of cheeky, chappy, you know, joke, a little anecdote
02:19here, a little joke there. Plenty of running around the stage. I've got a white mic stand,
02:24which I like to throw up in the air. So get that across as well.
02:28Characteristic movement that's on there that you've got to get.
02:31Yeah, the swaggering and the swinging and a little bit of bottom shaking as well sometimes.
02:40All in the best possible taste, of course.
02:42Of course, yeah.
02:44But as we were saying, one of the things I often think when I see Rolling Stones tribute
02:48bands is that they slip a little bit into pastiche, don't they? A little bit into Mickey
02:52taking caricature. But you don't do that with Rod, do you? Your act is clearly born out of
02:58respect, isn't it?
03:00I hope it comes across like that, because it is. Yes, I hope I don't descend into caricature,
03:06which you said. I mean, Mick Jagger, I guess, is a bit of a target, really, because he does
03:11all the sort of, you know, all that sort of stuff, you know.
03:14There you go, you too.
03:16I could do it as well. But no, hopefully the show shows Rod a lot of respect. So, you know,
03:24I think that's the right way to do it.
03:26And the aim is to do justice to this incredibly long career, isn't it?
03:31Of course. Of course, yeah. So, in the first half of the show, because it's two halves,
03:37I do some narration and I talk about some of the little anecdotes and the things that
03:43happened to Rod, how he got famous, you know, and things like Handbags and Cloudbrows. And
03:49we do a song called Eat a Broken Dream, which I've always loved, and some of the earlier
03:54hits. And then the second half, it's more of just the concert and we do all the big
04:00hits. You know, you're doing things from Sextons and Baby Jane and saying all that.
04:04So the second half, usually the audience get up and have a good old boogie.
04:09And, you know, and so it's a game of two halves to use a football analogy.
04:14Of which he would approve. And go on, tell me, my favourite Rod Stewart track has got
04:19to be, I was only joking. What about you? What are the ones, if you're allowed two or
04:22three, just which are the absolute crackers that you adore?
04:27I was only joking, it's a good one. My absolute favourite was when I was, I don't know,
04:32pretty young, I must be 14 or something. I went out and bought Every Picture Tells Story.
04:36Basically, Maggie May came out, heard it on the radio, it was all over the radio. So I went out
04:42and bought Every Picture Tells Story on vinyl, of course. And I think it's track three, side two,
04:49is a song called Mandolin Wind. Which comes up after that. And that is my absolute favourite
04:55song, Mandolin Wind. I just, it's, again, it's a story song. And Rod has created a character.
05:04I just think it's the most wonderful song. It's got everything. But Maggie May is a close second,
05:08actually. Fair enough. I shall listen to that one afterwards. Oh, Mandolin Wind, yeah.
05:14Oh, really, really lovely to chat, Rod. And really lovely to chat to you.
05:18Thank you. Thank you very much, Phil. Absolute pleasure. Cheers, mate.