The wait is over - Rod Stewart is back on stage tonight. After a four-week break from touring, the 80-year-old singer continues the concert programme today at the Zalgirio Arena in Kaunas.Starting at 8 pm, Stewart, who landed in the Lithuanian metropolis shortly after 6 pm yesterday evening, will perform his hits from six decades and thrill the audience for two hours.There are still a few tickets left at the box office for last-minute bookers, but the organiser assumes that the show will be almost sold out. The arena, which is mainly used as an arena for basketball matches, can accommodate around 20,000 people for concerts.From Kaunas, the Stewart entourage will travel on to Finland, with Tampere being the next stop on the singer's tour calendar on 25 April. Further shows will then take Sir Rod to Norway, Sweden, Germany, Italy and Portugal.

Sir Rod Stewart took to social media today (Tuesday) to pay tribute to Pope Francis, who passed away on Easter Monday, in a post on Instagram, Facebook & Co.'A man of the people and the greatest Pope of all time,’ wrote the singer, posting a picture of an Irish flag with the Pope's face on it. His wife Penny posted a picture of the couple with the head of the Roman Catholic Church on her Instagram account, which was taken in Rome in 2017. She wrote: ‘A really special moment when I met Pope Francis in Rome 7 years ago’. Rod Stewart and his wife Penny had met the pontiff seven years ago at an audience in St Peter's Square and were able to exchange a few words with him. Pope Francis had only been discharged from hospital a few days ago after suffering from severe pneumonia. On Sunday, he gave the Easter blessing ‘Urbi et orbi’ in St Peter's Square. On Monday morning, he died of a stroke.

Penny's stadium ban: Sir Rod had to stay at home

Watch out! Rod Stewart is releasing a second biography in November. The new work SECOND MEMOIR is primarily about Rod's great hobby, model railroading. Grand Central Publishing, which has now officially announced the book, writes: Sir Rod Stewart's love of trains began when he was growing up next to the railroad tracks in north London and has remained a constant since his early years. For 30 years, the multi-platinum selling artist has spent hours every day - whether at home or on tour - building and painting tiny trains, buildings and more from scratch and incorporating them into an incredibly impressive, ever-growing model railroad.Rod began using the tiny mid-20th century American city as an artistic outlet in the early 1990s, and the now 1,674-square-foot model has taken on a hugely important role in his life. Inside each building he built is the year it was built, where he was when it was built and how the Celtics were doing. Basically, it has become a diary and a map of his life. There are buildings named after his children, family members, friends and band members, and all the interests and loves of his life. In his new memoir, Rod takes readers on an exciting journey through his life, his career and, of course, the convoluted Grand Street & Three Rivers Railroad.

As officially confirmed today, Rod Stewart will perform at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on 17 December 2025 and present all his hits from six decades to the audience in the United Arab Emirates.

Rod fans in Germany, watch out! Sir Rod's former saxophonist Katja Rieckermann is coming to Germany for a concert on 12 September.

At the moment, Sir Rod Stewart is still enjoying his well-deserved break from touring. After his acclaimed performances recently in Las Vegas, the singer took some time out to spend with his family.But in just ten days, the 80-year-old will be back on stage - the next stop on this year's concert tour will take the Maggie May singer's entourage to Lithuania on 23 April. Sir Rod will be performing in Kaunas at the Zalgirio Arena. We take a closer look at the city and the arena.With a population of more than 311,000, Kaunas is the second largest city in Lithuania after the capital Vilnius. In addition to a diversified economy favoured by the city's traffic situation, Kaunas is home to several universities and many galleries. Textile art in particular, which has its roots in the traditionally important textile industry, is strongly represented in the city, which is also reflected in the large, now internationally recognised Kaunas Textile Art Biennale. The city was the European Capital of Culture in 2022, together with Esch an der Alzette in Luxembourg and Novi Sad in Serbia.Kaunas is the country's central transport hub. Running from south to north, the so-called ‘Via Baltica’ (European route 67), which runs from Warsaw via Riga and Tallinn to Helsinki, meets the main west-east route, the motorway from Klaipėda to Vilnius, which continues via Minsk to Moscow.The cultural highlight of every year is the Kaunas Jazz Festival, which has regularly attracted national and international jazz greats in April since 1991 and brings a touch of New Orleans to the city. Among others, the internationally renowned jazz musicians Marc Copland and Charlie Hunter have performed at the ‘Kaunas Jazz’. The Zalgirio Arena is also considered the cultural centre of the city. The multi-purpose hall, where Sir Rod will wow the audience in just over a week's time, was completed in 2011 after three years of construction and opened shortly before the start of the European Basketball Championships. The Zalgirio Arena hosted all the games of the European Championship finals. In 2018, several games of the Ice Hockey World Championships took place here and in 2023, the European Figure Skating Championships were held there.In addition to sporting events, the Zalgirio Arena also hosts numerous concerts. Chris Norman and Elton John have already performed there. And now Sir Rod is also performing. Tickets are still available in all categories for the Brit's one last-time show on 23 April. Ticket prices range from 85 to 198 euros. Around 15,000 visitors are expected; the arena has a maximum capacity of 20,000 for concerts.

Do you know Martin Quittenton? Or rather, did you know him? Martin Quittenton died on 16 April 2015, almost exactly ten years ago. The Brit was a musician, more precisely a guitarist and composer, and also a founding member of the blues-rock band Steamhammer. He left the band in 1969 and joined Rod Stewart's studio band. In the following years, he was instrumental in the creation of the Stewart albums An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down (1969), Gasoline Alley (1970), Every Picture Tells A Story (1971), Never A Dull Moment (1972) and Smiler (1974). Quittenton achieved particular fame as co-author of the songs Maggie May and You Wear It Well. Maggie May was Rod Stewart's big breakthrough, and You Wear It Well is still one of Rod Stewart's great classics and can still be found on the singer's concert set lists today. Stewart also saw the guitarist as a suitable member for the Faces and invited him to join the band. But the musician was not so fond of the Faces' often dubious reputation away from the stage and thankfully declined. Quittenton retired from the music business in the mid-1970s and lived in Wales until his death in 2015.

Yesterday afternoon, the news popped up on the World Wide Web: Rod Stewart is releasing his album Ultimate Hits in June. An announcement of a new album is generally news that fills me, as an old Stewart fan, with great joy. But yesterday was a little different: ‘Oh no, another best-of album’ was the very first thought that popped into my head, knowing well that I already have several greatest hits albums on my CD shelf. I'm sure many fans who have followed Sir Rod for years and of course own all his previous albums and compilations in CD or vinyl form, not to mention the many singles and - yes, they actually used to exist - music cassettes, felt the same way yesterday. When I took a closer look at the details of the new album, I realised that it only contained familiar song material. Initially, there was a faint hope that there might be a brand new song hidden among the 30 songs on the disc (including the bonus songs on the deluxe edition), but it turned out that the Ultimate Hits are once again just a string of Sir Rod's great classics, spiced up with two songs from the 2024 album Swing Fever, two from the track list of The Tears Of Hercules and the probably less well-known For The First Time and Sometimes When We Touch. One fan commented: ‘That's the biggest rubbish, a cover image that you've known for ages and then the special edition for 50 euros. Sorry Rod & Management ’Even on the first day after the release announcement, my anticipation is still very limited. What about the country album that I've been hearing and reading about from time to time? Or what about new Faces material? These are the things you've been eagerly awaiting since the first rumours emerged - at least as a long-time Stewart fan. There has often been talk in fan circles about possible new projects. In addition to a new Faces disc, many fans would also like to see a continuation of the Rod Stewart Sessions 1971-1998, with the raw material from the last 27 years, from 1999 to the present day. Or a new live album. Sir Rod has played so many legendary concerts in recent years, why has there never been a recording on CD or vinyl?Luckily there is YouTube, you might think, where you can watch recordings of past concerts and, if you are reasonably clever, download them as audio or video files for your own private Rod Stewart collection. If you think about it, there's a lot more to come and hopefully there will be. And the anticipation of this will outshine the rather disappointed attitude towards the next best-of album in the summer. So Rod, don't lie on your arse, but rummage around in your archive and get out what many fans around the world are eagerly waiting for. Perhaps some unreleased songs from the last few years are still lying in a drawer, just waiting to finally see the light of day in the big wide world of music. Nevertheless, the Ultimate Hits will be moving into my record cabinet this summer, as I want to keep my extensive collection up to date. But at least I don't expect this CD to be played too often in my player. In conclusion, however, it should be mentioned that we Stewart fans can count ourselves lucky that our hero is not yet thinking about retirement, even in his old age, but is still very active and that we can continue to enjoy live concerts and music releases. That's why the author of this text will be delighted when his double CD of Ultimate Hits arrives in his letterbox.

A new best-of album by Sir Rod Stewart will be released in June 2025. The collection of his hits from his solo career. The announcement of the album comes as part of Stewart's 80th birthday celebrations and will include some of the greatest songs from his extensive discography. These include songs such as ‘Handbags and Gladrags’ and ‘Maggie May’, with which he celebrated his breakthrough, through to the big follow-up hits such as ‘Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?’, ‘Hot Legs’ and ‘Baby Jane’.Other classics on the tracklist include the ballads ‘Sailing’, ‘Rhythm of My Heart’ and also the lesser known ‘For the First Time’.The Ultimate Hits Mix also includes the newer tracks such as ‘Ain't Misbehavin’' and “Almost Like Being in Love”, both highlights from the 2024 album “Swing Fever” with Jools Holland.The Ultimate Hits will be released as a CD, double CD deluxe edition, different coloured vinyl pressings as well as limited cassette and Blu-ray versions. The compilation will be released on 27 June and will be available in a variety of formats including collector's green 2LP vinyls and green and white ½ & ½ vinyls, a 1CD and 2CD deluxe edition, exclusive variants with alternative covers, limited cassette and Blu-ray audio editions and digital versions.

Rod fans all over the world, now it's your turn! A major competition is currently underway in the USA for musicians who can win a performance at the legendary Wango Tango Festival on 10 May at Huntington City Beach. Among the musicians who have applied to perform this year is Katja Rieckermann, who played saxophone in Rod Stewart's band from 2001 to 2015. The Wango Tango Festival, which offers audiences a mix of many different musical genres, is always held on a single day in May or June each year and is organised by Los Angeles radio station KIIS FM. The venues vary, and the festival has already been held at the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles or the Staples Centre. The birth of Wango Tango was on 13 June 1998 at the Edison International Field of Anaheim, where Mariah Carey, Gloria Estefan, Will Smith, Tom Jones and Olivia Newton-John, among others, performed on stage.

The first part of this year's tour is over - on Saturday evening, Sir Rod Stewart ended his first concert series at the Colosseum of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas this year with another magnificent and extremely entertaining performance. To date, the music legend has played 13 concerts in 2025, including a performance at the FireAid benefit evening for the fire victims in Los Angeles at the end of January. At all his shows, the 80-year-old singer presented himself with a strong voice, in great spirits and in top physical condition. Stewart has lost none of his charm and charisma on stage, even in what may be the last major concert year of his long career. He is and remains one of the best live artists and entertainers of all time.The set list naturally included his greatest hits, but Rod also had a few surprises in store. For example, his song ‘Mandolin Wind’ has become a firm favourite at previous shows and his emotional interpretation of the Simply Red classic ‘If You Don't Know Me By Now’ was also very well received by the fans. Stewart once again proved how good he is when he covers songs and then puts his own personal stamp on them. But of course the fans also want to hear his own songs, which is why they got ‘Tonight I'm Yours’, ‘Young Turks’, ‘Maggie May’ and ‘Da Ya Think I'm Sexy’. For all those who like it a little quieter in between, Rod had ‘Have I Told You Lately’, ‘The First Cut Is The Deepest’ or ‘I Don't Want To Talk About It’ in his luggage.