Gig review: Rod Stewart wears it well, with soggy support

• Rod Stewart gave fans a memorable show despite the rain

WE KNOW he can hardly be blamed for the weather, but it was all right for Rod Stewart pleading over the splash of torrential rain for his crowd to "stay with us!" It looked like luxury up on stage by comparison, where he was swanning about in smart suit jackets.

Actually no, it looked almost as hellish for him and far worse for the poor backing singers and the female horn section, wearing red mini-dresses. It says much for Stewart's ability to work a room — or indeed, a water-logged Castle Esplanade — that he averted a full-blown revolt at the mere sight of his dry and stylishly feathered haircut appearing on stage.

There was no let-up from the downpour, sadly. "My dressing room's in about two foot of water out there," he joked, but his attempt to explain away a short break to mop the stage because "it's wet up here" was met with ribbing boos.

"All right, you win," he conceded, "I know you're wet too. Do you know my dad was from Edinburgh, by the way?"

Although otherwise beloved tracks such as You Wear It Well, The First Cut is the Deepest, Downtown Train and a version of the Four Tops' It's the Same Old Song were played to only muted, soggy support from the most devoted fans in the crowd, there seemed a tipping point at which everyone decided to do something about the conditions in which they found themselves. For a few this meant leaving; for many more it seemed to involve simply enjoying themselves as best they could.

That this wave of Dunkirk spirit seemed to appear during the Loch Lomond-sounding Rhythm of My Heart was surely no coincidence. From there, an easing of the mists surrounding the Castle battlements gave the audience an hour of something likereal enjoyment, with Do Ya Think I'm Sexy, Hot Legs and a spirited cover of the Bar-Kays' Soulfinger by Stewart's backing singers inspiring some warming movement in the crowd.

On the other hand, Handbags & Gladrags, I Don't Want to Talk About It, Maggie May and Sailing are all great anthems to misty-eyed melancholy, and there were plenty of people willing to indulge how sorry they felt for themselves with a communal singalong.

Shortly before ten, Stewart announced that the stage lights were starting to fail (the big screens hadn't even been switched on all evening), and it's true that the lightshow was starting to look a bit puny-cabaret. The next evening's show would be in real doubt unless the gig was halted here, he said, so Hot Legs and a perfunctory encore were rather hastily dispatched.

The crowd couldn't complain, with two hours' worth of show rather than two and a half, and — as Stewart pointed out — "we've got to think of the customers". So he mercifully sent this lot home and crossed his fingers that tonight's contingent have better luck.