Fans dressed to impress rocker Rod

Leith Valley Touring Park owners Lyn and Terry McLaren show off their Celtic Football Club...
Leith Valley Touring Park owners Lyn and Terry McLaren show off their Celtic Football Club jerseys in Dunedin in preparation for tomorrow's Rod Stewart concert. Photo by Gregor Richardson.
Die-hard fans are bringing out their Scottish apparel for the Rod Stewart concert in Dunedin tomorrow.

Leith Valley Touring Park owner Terry McLaren said his wife, Lyn, was Stewart's biggest fan and the Dunedin couple would be among the 25,000 people at the Forsyth Barr Stadium concert.

Mr McLaren (56) said his wife planned holidays around Stewart concerts and had seen him perform three times: in Brisbane and Las Vegas in 2012 and in Sheffield, England, in 2013.

Mr McLaren said he had seen many concerts and considered Stewart (70) one of the best entertainers in the world.

Mrs McLaren (53) agreed.

''He hasn't lost it at all. In fact, I think he has got better with age. He's still got the oomph and he can really pump it out.''

Stewart was a showman and talked to the audience and answered their questions on stage, Mr McLaren said.

He hoped somebody would ask him tomorrow to tell the ''excellent'' story behind his song Maggie May.

At the three concerts Mrs McLaren attended, Stewart kicked autographed soccer balls into the crowd.

She wanted one but Mr McLaren was yet to catch a ball.

''Every concert I go to I have to put my body on the line,'' Mr McLaren said.

''We've always been too far away but this time we are a bit closer,'' Mrs McLaren said.

The couple have tickets for seats on the turf tomorrow and would wear jerseys of Stewart's favourite football team, Celtic.

In the 1977 song You're In My Heart, Stewart compares a woman to Celtic, before singing ''you're the best team I've ever seen''.

The camping ground was full tomorrow, with the 19 units and 40 campsites booked soon after the concert was announced.

Mr McLaren said the same thing happened when Fleetwood Mac's November concert was announced.

''Getting these big names is great for Dunedin,'' Mr McLaren said.

Another Dunedin woman nearly lost her concert tickets.

Lynn Bennett, of Woodside, fled her home when it caught fire in November last year.

While grabbing her most prized possessions, Mrs Bennett picked up her Rod Stewart concert ticket and CDs.

Mrs Bennett (53) said she had been a fan since the 1970s when she was a teenager.

She was from the Stewart clan, Stewart was her middle name and she would wear a tartan scarf to tomorrow's concert.

Mushroom Group national publicity and promotions manager Maria Robinson, the spokeswoman for the promoter, said about 25,000 tickets had been sold for the concert.

Preparations for the show were going well and tickets would still be available today and tomorrow, she said.

shawn.mcavinue@odt.co.nz

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