Rod Stewart - vocals; Carmine Appice - drums, vocals; Phil Chen - bass, vocals; Jim Cregan - guitar, vocals; Kevin Savigar - keyboards; Gary Grainger - guitar; Phil Kenzie - horns; Billy Peek - guitars
Rod Stewart's 1978 Blondes Have More Fun U.K. tour included multiple nights at the Olympia Theater in London. This show, the third of three at this venue recorded for the King Biscuit Flower Hour, is another great example of why the flamboyant rocker we all know as "Rod The Mod" is truly one of the most gifted performers still doing it today.
Stewart opens with the raucous "Hot Legs" and offers an amazing evening that includes hit ballads ("Tonight's The Night," "You're In My Heart," and Danny Whitten's classic, "I Don't Want To Talk About It") against pop dance tracks such as "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy" and "The Wild Side Of Life." The big solo hits "Maggie Mae" and "You Wear It Well" are other highpoints, and prove that these compositions have perfectly weathered the test of time.
There are plenty of covers including the Beatles' "Get Back," Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Rock 'N' Roller," and a vicious medley of the Temptations' "(I Know) I'm Losing You" coupled with the Four Tops' "Standing In The Shadows of Love." Stewart also does a passionate take on the 1972 soul classic, "If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want To be Right)."
These shows all climax with Stewart's version of Gavin Sutherland's "Sailing," which was a minor hit in the U.S. but remains one of Britain's largest selling singles, and the encore classic, "Twisting The Night Away," which was originally a Sam Cooke hit.
Stewart had a red hot band that included former Vanilla Fudge/Cactus drummer Carmine Appice who co-authored "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy" and had originally planned to work with Stewart when the ill-fated merger of the Fudge rhythm section with guitarist Jeff Beck Group in 1969 fell apart after Beck's near-fatal car crash.
Stewart had departed from the Faces three years prior, but this show was very much still in the Faces-sounding tradition. Since most of the Faces played on the '70s-era Stewart solo albums, it is all a musical blur between his own hits and those of the band.