Rod Stewart - Rod the Mod

Rod Stewart in 1975 - Conventionally pretty in the same way that Camel farts smell pleasant

Born in 1945 somewhere doon there, to parents who were Scottish.

FirstFoot has seen him boozing in Spain with Kenny Dalglish after we were knocked out of the World Cup in Spain. He was also seen kissing the blonde wife of a FirstFoot friend in a Glasgow boozer during the last campaign.

It has to be said in defence of Rod, that the wife in question sought him out rather than the other way round.

Critically lauded as one of the major talents of the 1970's, Rod as a group member and as a solo talent lit up the landscape of laddish rock and roll.

His associations read like a litany of early British rock 'n roll. Long John Baldrey, Jeff Beck, Brian Auger, Ronnie Wood, Julie Driscoll, Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood … it just makes yer jaw drop when you realise where this guy comes from and who his contemporaries were….

But it wasn't always music. Stewart's first love was football. He was signed as an apprentice to Brentford but never made the grade professionally. But football's loss was to be music's gain.

He paid his dues in the 1960's with long forgotten bands such as Steampacket, Shotgun Express and Long John Baldry's Hoochie Coochie Club.

His big break came when he signed on with Jeff Beck in one of the first supergroups, the eponymous Jeff Beck Group. A couple of exhausting American tours took their toll and Stewart and Ronnie Wood left the group and joined The Faces. At the same time as pursuing group activities, Stewart signed a solo recording deal.

With the release of two excellent, critically acclaimed and commercially hugely successful solo albums, Every Picture Tells A Story in 1971 (one American reviewer called it "the greatest rock & roll recording of the last ten years"), and Never A Dull Moment in 1972, many of his contemporaries thought he could have gone on to be as great an icon as Jim Morisson of The Doors.

A unique voice, an ear for a wee tune, and an aptitude for publicity which has never deserted him, Rod Stewart had, at the age of 28, the world of Rock and Roll at his feet.

Instead, Rod's thoughts were on a slightly more elevated plane (actually around the groin area), and as a result, although he is a commercial success, he has never been the rock and roll hero his early career suggests he might have been.

But he has left a lasting legacy of wonderful songs which stand the test of time. Maggie May, Mandolin Wind and Reason to Believe are standouts for FirstFoot.

"Rarely has anyone betrayed his talent so completely" was an apt career assessment by Rolling Stone magazine's Arion Berger, the same guy who rated Every Picture as the greatest Rock and Roll record of the previous ten years.