A Day on the Green returned to our much loved Sirromet Winery in Brisbane on Saturday, with none other than the incredible Sir Rod Stewart headling with the iconic Cyndi Lauper and Aussie rocker Jon Stevens in support.
Before the legend himself took to the stage, we were charmed with homegrown Jon Stevens who delivered a performance of both Noiseworks and INXS back catalogues with hits such as ‘New Sensation’, ‘No Lies’, ‘Never Tear Us Apart’ and his anthem ‘Take Me Back’.
Up next was the Queen of Pop herself Cyndi Lauper who colourfully delivered a fun and vibrant performance taking us through hit after hit of hers. Adorning a remarkable purple mohawk and red, black, mint, yellow and navy striped two-piece suit, she sang ‘She Bop’, ‘True Colours’, ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’, ‘I Drove All Night’ & a sneaky little nod to the man of the evening himself with a snippet of his classic ‘Sailing’.
The anticipation for Sir Rod's performance was high as an enthusiastic crowd stayed pumped up by the resident DJ. The sounds of Scottish bagpipes sounded throughout the green and Sir Rod arrived on the stage wearing a glittery ensemble, skin-tight pants and the most impressive sparkling sneakers one could imagine and burst straight into Robert Palmers ‘Addicted to Love’, he was flanked by ladies on guitars which kept with the theme of the film clip of the song. He had his signature spiked hair and cheeky smile as he danced and shook his body like a gyrating Elvis of an era gone by. Onto ‘You Wear It Well’ followed by his address to the crowd to let us know we were in for a ride “We are going to be here for 2 hours, 24 songs” with a wink of his eye and a dip of his head.
Before playing the song he and Tina Turner once performed together ‘It Takes Two’ he announced “This is a song we did together for a Pepsi commercial. Tina is not here tonight because she is wallpapering the front room. But Becca is gonna take Tina’s place”. Together they and the full band delivered a high energy saxophone blaring rendition of this classic and swiftly moved onto ‘Rollin and Tumblin’ where we saw Stewart's legs spread wide in a power rock stance with air guitar movements swivelling his hips with such energy everyone was out of their seats and dancing.
‘Forever Young’ next with his Scottish heritage sounding so strongly through from his female musicians on the strings. If you had not already been singing along, then the next song had every single voice raised to the night sky and bodies swaying along to the Cat Stevens classic ‘The First Cut Is The Deepest’.
‘Maggie May’ had us all spellbound and in awe of Rods ability to captivate the audience, when with no opening melody or lyrics he ever so slowly and softly sang straight into the verse and begun with “I know I keep you amused, but I feel I’m being used, Oh Maggie I couldn’t have tried anymore, you led me away from home, cause you didn’t want to be alone. You stole my heart and that’s what really hurt”. The pace changed and the full band joined in to raise the roof with the classic song.
A few outfit and tempo changes saw us journey through ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’, ‘Young Turks’, ‘Rhythm Of My Heart,’ and ‘You’re In My Heart’ which were clear crowd favourites.
The backup vocalists performed outstandingly ‘I’m every Woman’ and ‘Lady Marmalade’ throughout the outfit changes which kept the energy on the green at an all-time high. One outfit Rod wore was a yellow jacket and blue shirt which had him exclaiming “These are the same colours as the Ukrainian Flag, this next song ‘The Rhythm Of My Heart’ is dedicated to the Ukrainian people".
‘People Get Ready’ was sung so beautifully and Rod's soulful and rich voice had no betraying signs that he had just recovered from a week with a throat infection. True to his word and with no encore he went on to deliver his 24 songs including ‘Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?’ and finished with the nostalgic ‘Sailing’.
We were truly delighted and entertained by one of the world's musical greats who showed us why he is still at the top of his game after all of these years in the business. Sir Rod Stewart was undeniably astounding.
