Paul Metcalfe celebrates the genius of Rod Stewart in Eastbourne

The show is coming to the Congress Theatre in Eastbourne on Saturday, August 31 and also playing The Hawth in Crawley on October 9.

Paul takes you on a musical journey spanning six decades from humble beginnings in the R‘n’B clubs through to Rod’s confirmation as a world-famous rock sensation.

As Paul says: “I was always involved in music in some way or other and I got involved with my first band when I was 19 or 20.

"I started off as the drummer actually and I graduated to the backing vocals and I made it the frontline as the singer. I used to make money out of doing pubs and clubs. I've always been a Rod Stewart fan and if I did Maggie May or The First Cut Is The Deepest, people would say that I really sounded like Rod.

"The tribute scene was starting to take off about then and I thought I would give it a go. This was about 25 years ago and it just took off straight away for me. I think I was one of the first people to do Rod Stewart and obviously it helped that, as I say, I'm a fan of Rod, particularly early Rod and particularly The Faces.

“I haven't got to very much hair so I put on a wig and I put on a bit of make-up and I basically just start to think how Rod Stewart would be in my mind and I become that cheeky Cockney and start acting a little bit stupid and by the time I get on the stage I just mess about.

"I get myself in character more or less beforehand. I suppose it's a bit like acting but I think the point is that I have a great respect for the music. I'm a huge fan of Rod’s ability both vocally and creatively and also his performances. It's important to stay on the right side of lampooning and I hope that comes across that I don't do that. I go into the show knowing I'm not Rod and the audience know that I am not Rod and I just take the view that let's have a bit of fun for a couple of hours but I always thank Rod. It's really important to be really grateful that Rod has given us all these great songs that we are singing.

“The format that we have come up with is that the first half is more of a story. I do a bit of a narration to describe how Rod had some lucky breaks, how he was found by Long John Baldry and got involved with Jeff Beck and Ronnie Wood and how he wrote Maggie May and how nobody thought it was a very good song so Rod tried to leave it off the album.

"And the record company didn't think it was a very good song either and the only reason that they had to put it on the album was to fill out the time because otherwise it wouldn't have been long enough. They released it as a B side. The A side was Reason To Believe but a DJ in America flipped the record and because he liked Maggie May better he started playing it. Everybody started hearing Maggie May and thought what a brilliant song it was.

"And that was the big breakthrough for Rod because six weeks after that the song was number one in both the UK and in the US and that set Rod up.”

Tickets from the venue.