Shh... Rod Stewart's Coming To Town
/By Peter Sloggatt
psloggatt@longislandergroup.com
Rod Stewart inaugurates the Founder’s Room at The Paramount’s Legends Series with a private show Aug. 30.
If ya think he’s sexy…
….and you’d like to see him up close and personal…
…rumor has it Rod Stewart is playing The Paramount in Huntington this month.
Stewart, who has filled arenas on the scale of Madison Square Garden and Nassau Coliseum, and who recently renewed a year-long residency with The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, will launch the hush-hush Legends Series at The Paramount on Aug. 30.
The Legends Series was quietly announced to members of the venue’s VIP Founder’s Room club and in-house at Paramount shows this summer. A post on the concert venue’s website reads “Ssssshhhhh…” and teases with details of “secret, intimate performances” by “acclaimed arena artists” that will be “unique to the Paramount and are ground breaking.” The announcement promises “the most iconic musicians in the world booked to play private members-only concerts on The Paramount’s main stage.” In addition to a private concert at the 1,000-plus capacity Paramount, ticketholders are promised “full red carpet treatment, including commemorative tickets, a cocktail reception and VIP opportunities.”
They’re just not saying with who. In fact, the performers are being kept under wraps.
Sort of.
The Legends Series announcement invites interested music lovers to send an e-mail to legends@paramountny.com for details.
We did just that, generating a response that spilled the Rod Stewart beans (wow!), along with the follow-up concert in the series, The Eagles’ Don Henley on Sept. 12. (more wow!), with tickets starting at $250 per person.
The Paramount’s partners refused to comment. Paramount’s director of marketing Adam Ellis explained that contractual obligations do not allow the concert venue to publicly market the events beyond the Founder’s Room membership.
Stewart, 71, has churned out hits across five decades, including “Maggie May,” “Tonight’s The Night,” “The First Cut is the Deepest,” “Hot Legs” and “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy.” The Britain-born rocker has sold over 200 million albums worldwide, according to Pollstar, and has twice been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And what’s better than a Grammy award? He has one. He was also recently knighted by the Queen of England on her birthday.
Paramount may be just another feather in the cap of this iconic, raspy-voiced rocker, but he’s hardly the first mega-star to play The Paramount. Billy Joel, who holds the record for sold-out Madison Square Garden shows and continues to build it with his once-a-month residency there, headlined at the downtown-Huntington stage. Other legendary performers who’ve played The Paramount include B.B. King, Ed Sheeran, Jeff Beck, Don Henley, and Joe Walsh, and comedians Joan Rivers, Whoopi Goldberg, and Tracey Morgan, among others.
