Yes, THE Rod Stewart

I had the good fortune of performing with the Alabama Pipes and Drums as the opening act for Rod Stewart at his Jan 19th concert in Birmingham, Alabama!


Once we found the concert venue, we entered through the loading area. Through the curtains I saw the stage and seats and quickly took this picture.

After taking the first picture, I was approached by a member of the crew. I thought he was going to ask me to not take pictures, but he ended up taking the camera and letting us all get in a group shot! Nice guy. That is Jean, Zoe, Mavis, and me. The stage is completely covered in Stewart tartan.

While we were waiting for the rest of the band members to show up, a couple of limos pulled up. Could it be him? In fact it was! Rod Stewart popped out of the limo and walked right toward us. I thought about snapping a pic right then, but didn't. I didn't want to abuse my backstage access (plus I had hoped for another 'official' chance).

His people parted us like the Red Sea, and he walked right on through and to the stage to start checking the setup. We were escorted to our warm-up room. I took this little movie showing Rod practicing on stage while we were also warming up. (Note: all these were taken with my photo camera, so the movie quality isn't amazing)


While we were warming up, one of the crew came and gave us all 'Piper' crew passes! Awesome! He also gave us comp tickets to the show (part of our deal for performing).
We were to play for two 20 minute performances before the main act. On the way to our first gig by the main entrance, the stage was set for the public to arrive. That is the most Stewart tartan you will ever see in your life! It's like a giant kilt!
After our first performance, I snapped this pic with my phone. It's a great stage: circular (so everyone can see him clearly) with two ramps that ellipse out toward the crowd (encircling the VIPs with their own plasma screens of the show).

We performed the second time on the floor right by the stage. We marched out and played a few tunes on one side of the stage, then marched around and played a few more on the other side. The crowd seemed very appreciative, I hope the actually got the Scottish tie-in to Rod (we're tight now) with the pipe band and tartan and everything. It was very tight because the crowd had already mostly filled the floor, so we had to march in and out staggerd in single-file.

After we finished, we stowed our pipes back in the warm-up room and went to find our seats. We had great seats fairly close to the floor. I got there just in time, found a seat on the aisle, popped out my photo-camera, put it in movie mode, and recorded the first 16 minutes (using almost all of my memory card). The audio isn't that great, but hopefully you'll get the feel of the concert. It was great! A video played first showing his back-story, then a little vaudville 'get ready' video, then Rod pops out and gets right to it. Enjoy!



Awesome! What a great concert, very enjoyable to say the least. I started snapping some pictures with the little bit of memory I had left on my camera. This pic actually is a good representation of how far we were from the stage. We could clearly see Rod on stage and make out detail, plus look up and see him clearly on the screen.
More of the same. It is so hard to take a good picture in a concert setting. I turned off the flash, but there was too much movement, so it is blurry.
Zoomed in, I got a great shot of just Rod and the screen. Too bad he was moving so the screen image is blurry.
A little better..
Perfect! Except that he's facing the wrong way.. Dang it!





After awhile, a disco ball dropped down and the place really got jumping! A great effect, with nice volumetric lighting (I don't get out much).






Eventually my memory ran out on my camera, so I had to finish taking pictures with my phone. This is of the awesome drum solo that seemed to last forever.







Eventually I had to leave. I rode with some fellow Mississippi pipers, so when they said it was time to go, I had to go. Before we left, I got Jean to snap a picture of myself, Zoe, and Mavis with Rod performing behind us. I was there!
The drive back was long, two hours to Meridian and another hour and a half to Hattiesburg. Between Tuscaloosa and Meridian, Mavis had a flat. I have flats all the time in Strappy (my truck), so I jumped right to work earning a man badge by fixing this flat. Unfortunately, I was still in my uniform (read: KILT). I'm sure many drivers got a show as they drove by while I was under the back of the van trying to get the spare off with my feet facing oncoming traffic (although heavy, kilts fly up when a car/truck goes by at 70). Although I was doing well, eventually a very nice fellow stopped to ask if we needed help. I can only assume he thought there were FOUR women there as he saw me in my kilt removing the flat! Once our spare was on (and inflated thanks to a handy cigarette-lighter air compresser), we all got back in the van ready to get home. Unfortunately Mavis' van's battery was drained thanks to the 'handy' battery-power-sucking air compressor. I jumped out and flagged the nice fellow down and he turned around and let us jump-start the van from his truck.
Eventually we made it home (I didn't get home until after 2am), and I had quite a story to tell!

A rough year

The end of 2006 was rough for us. If you have not heard, Janet's mom (Ms Pat) had been diagnosed with a form of lung cancer last year. Since her treatments would be in Hattiesburg, she started staying with us during the weekdays around Halloween. After a few weeks of treatments, Ms Pat became too weak to travel home on the weekends, so she stayed with us full time (in fact her family would come and stay with us on weekends since she couldn't go home).

My work really thinned out the last part of the year. That and some other family matters made Christmas very difficult (to say the least, hence my post below).

Ms Pat has since had her operation and the cancer was successfully removed. She is in recovery and is getting stronger every day.

My work has picked up and we are steadily catching up.