Rod Stewart brings the energy to Rod Laver Arena

The 78-year-old superstar was in fine voice in an upbeat show that featured familiar favourites and a swag of rock, blues and soul covers.

Rod Stewart in action at Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday night. Picture: Sam Tabone

Superstar Sir Rod Stewart played his first shows in Australia 50 years ago.

“We all walked out on stage, and someone was holding up a sign that said, ‘F--- off, pommie bastards,” Stewart told a full house at Rod Laver Arena.

“And here I am, all these years later.”

He certainly is, with hits and musical reinventions across every decade, an endless parade of shiny suits, and a knighthood.

Sir Rod arose with a fun-filled greatest hits show, all bound with his cheeky charm and personality, on Tuesday night.

Rod Stewart performing at Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday. Picture: Sam Tabone

He opened with a cover of Robert Palmer’s Addicted To Love before jumping into solo classics and cuts from his band The Faces.

“We’ve got 24 songs and we’ll be here for two hours, depending on the applause,” he said with a knowing grin.

Sir Rod, 78, was energetic and in fine voice, in an upbeat show that featured familiar favourites, tried and true anthems, and a swag of rock, blues and soul covers.

He performed hits including Maggie May, The First Cut Is the Deepest, Tonight’s The Night, and Da Ya Think I’m Sexy.

The bouncy 1981 song, Young Turks, got a tepid response in Perth, Sir Rod said, but it lit up the Melbourne crowd, as did Baby Jane, which, peculiarly, is from a similar era.

His stories, as expected, were hilarious.

Support act Cyndi Lauper was in top gear. Picture: Sam Tabone

He spoke about the British-Australian alliance, then alluded to the AUKUS deal, before conceding: “Who the f--- gets up here and talks about submarines? It would be the first time ever on this stage.”

Five costume changes into the show, he clapped back at critics who sneer at his wardrobe switches.

“I don’t give a rat’s arse,” Sir Rod said in a gold leopard print jacket.

“I’m here to entertain you.”

He dedicated Rhythm Of My Heart, an anti-war song, to freedom fighters in Ukraine.

Australian football identity Ange Postecoglou’s image was beamed on to a giant video screen for You’re In My Heart.

Sir Rod played his first show in Australia 50 years ago. Picture: Sam Tabone/WireImage

Postecoglou, from Melbourne, is the manager of soccer nut Stewart’s team, Celtic Football Club.

Stewart also paid tribute to Ronnie Wood, his bandmate in The Faces.

“Same hair, same noses, same shagging habits,” Stewart laughed.

He also reinstated Stay With Me, a Faces song about groupie love, into the setlist.

Last year, in a Times Radio interview, Stewart said he had axed the song from his repertoire because it was “not appropriate.”

Meanwhile, Stewart’s support act, US legend Cyndi Lauper, was in top gear.

Highlights included a gritty read on Money Changes Everything, a powerful version of I Drove All Night, and tender Time After Time and True Colours.

Lauper still bops.

Rod Stewart and Cyndi Lauper perform at Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday, and A Day On The Green at Mt Duneed, near Geelong, on Saturday.

The songs missing from his concert repertoire

Superstar Sir Rod Stewart has five decades of hits to choose from.

But lately, the knighted rocker has grappled with some of his classics and deemed them inappropriate by today’s standards.

Sir Rod will perform his greatest hits at the first of a two night run at Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday.

However, the 78-year-old has deliberately deleted two songs — Hot Legs, from 1977, and Stay With Me, recorded with The Faces in 1971 — from his concert repertoire.

Sir Rod Stewart no longer performs Hot Legs and Stay With Me. Picture: AFP

Maggie May, which centres around a toyboy singing to an older lover, is still in the set list.

But in an interview with Times Radio last year, Sir Rod said artists had to be careful or risk being “cancelled.”

“I mean (sex) is such a huge part of life — I think what you have to be careful of what you say in those songs,” he said.

“I don’t do Stay With Me or Hot Legs anymore, because they’re not appropriate. They were in the 1970s but they’re not anymore.”

Hot Legs, from Sir Rod’s disco period, incudes the lyrics “you’re still in school” and “bring your mother too.”

Stay With Me, co-written with Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, is about picking up a groupie for a one-night stand.

In an interview with the Telegraph, Sir Rod claimed sex was “always there” for him if he wanted it.

Sir Rod and his wife Penny Lancaster have been together for 20 years. Picture: Getty Images

He said: “I did nothing wrong at all. I never had sex with anybody underage, never forced anybody to have sex. In fact, sex was always too much for me, it was always there and it became boring.”

Sir Rod and Penny Lancaster, his third wife, have been together for 20 years.

They married in Italy in 2007.

While Sir Rod won’t play all his material, the veteran rocker doesn’t regret the lyrics in some of his past hits.

“The lyrics of those songs were very blunt,” he said.

“Rock and roll was, and has always been blunt.”

Meanwhile, Sir Rod haughty anthem, Da Ya Think I’m Sexy, is in his concert set list.

But Sir Rod said the song is questionable for other reasons.

“I was in Brazil for a festival and I heard this song and I just, I nicked it,” he told Nile Rodgers on an Apple Music show.

“Subconsciously I came back in the studio and started singing it and put words to it about six months later. But I put my hand up and I said, ‘Fair nick, I’m guilty.’ And all the proceeds went to UNICEF.”

SIR ROD’S MELBOURNE SET LIST

Sir Rod (right) performs with Sir Elton John. Picture: Getty Images

Addicted To Love

You Wear It Well

Ooh La La

Having A Party

Some Guys Have All The Luck

It Takes Two

Rollin’ And Tumblin’

Forever Young

The First Cut Is The Deepest

Maggie May

I’d Rather Go Blind

Young Turks

Rhythm Of My Heart

I’m Every Woman

People Get Ready

I Don’t Want to Talk About It

Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright)

You’re in My Heart

Have I Told You Lately

Lady Marmalade

Baby Jane

Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?

Sailing