Why Rod Stewart is the right headliner for Isle of Wight Festival 2017

I can't quite work out where the shirt ends and the tattoo starts on this guy who photobombed my picture

I'll be honest, I'm not a Rod Stewart fan. 

I don't own any of his albums, I've never seen him live and I could probably only name a handful of his songs. And the chances are I'd get the names a bit wrong.

But I still think Rod Stewart is an excellent Sunday night headliner for the Isle of Wight Festival 2017 for three reasons.

Firstly, and most importantly - my Mum has heard of him. This may not sound like a great endorsement but it's hard to exaggerate my mother's lack of interest in popular culture. If it's not been featured on Countryfile or The Archers then it might as well not exist. But I when told her about the Sunday night headliner, she paid attention and said "Really, Rod Stewart?". Seriously, that's not bad at all.

Secondly, Rod Stewart fits very well into the semi-tradition of the Isle of Wight Festival featuring a big name heritage act on the Sunday night. In 2004 we had David Bowie, 2007 had The Rolling Stones, 2008 had The Police, 2009 had Neil Young, 2010 had Paul McCartney, 2012 had Bruce Springsteen, 2015 had Fleetwood Mac and 2016 had Queen + Adam Lambert. 

Thirdly, Rod Stewart has never played the Isle of Wight Festival before (feel free to correct me if you think he played with one of his 60s bands, but I'm pretty sure he didn't).

Personally, I much prefer to see bands appearing for the first time, even if it's not my favourite artist. It encourages people to attend the Festival who haven't before, and there's a fair chance they will come back either to see the Isle of Wight in all its summertime beauty or to join in the fun and games at a future festival.

It's also nice to add another name to the remarkable lists of acts who have come across for the Festival in recent years, as depicted on these cups recently.

Cups'r'us @IsleOfWightFest pic.twitter.com/4v92XuxlWK

— John Giddings (@JohnGiddings01) 25 November 2016

​Right then...who's going to headline Friday?...

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