Rock and pop legend Sir Rod Stewart will be playing the legends slot next year at Glastonbury.
The singer last appeared at the festival 23 years ago and will follow in the footsteps of Dolly Parton and Shania Twain.
The 79-year-old from London is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold a massive 120 million records globally.
His 1971 breakthrough album, Every Picture Tells a Story, topped the charts in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia.
The singer’s third album, Never a Dull Moment, was released in 1972 and reached number one in the UK and Australia and the top three in the US and Canada.
In the late seventies and eighties, Sir Rod’s music style moved away from disco and new wave to soft rock, with most of his albums hitting the top 10 in the UK. Over the years, Sir Rod has received a Brit Award and a Grammy and has been inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame. He also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the music industry.
Away from the stage, Sir Rod lives a quiet life with his third wife, Penny Lancaster-Stewart, 53, and their two sons, Alastair and Aiden.
The family reportedly live in a 10-bedroom, Grade II-listed mansion on the Hertfordshire and Essex border, near the village of Sawbridgeworth, according to The Guardian. Sir Rod bought the property in 2013 for an estimated £4.6million before settling into the home in 2016 after after years of renovation.
Penny, a former Loose Women panellist and special police constable, often posts a glimpse of the couple’s home on Instagram.
The 18th-century property near Harlow dates back to 1712 and is set in 46 acres of land and woodland. It also includes self-contained cottages, a walled garden, a swimming pool, a football pitch, and a croquet lawn.
Sawbridgeworth, which is just 20 minutes outside Harlow in Essex, is a pretty town filled with historic buildings that date back to the Tudor, Stuart and Georgian periods.
The town church, Great St Mary’s Church, is Grade I-listed and was built in the 13th century and includes a Tudor tower.
The town is known for its parks and outdoor spaces, including Pishiobury Park, a registered historic parkland. There are also a plethora of antique, vintage, and retro shops, perfect for exploring on a chilly autumn day.
Maltings Antiques is a family-run centre that houses over 20 dealers and offers an array of items, from antiques to retro.
If you’re visiting on a rainy day, then spend a few hours in The Pinball Office. The friendly Pinball Club has around 25 pinball machines and arcades which are all set on Free Play. Visitors can pay £12.50 to £15 on weekends for a three-hour session on the machines.
For a more grown-up day out in Sawbridgeworth, visitors can spend the afternoon at The Only Way Is Spirits, a distillery, gin school and bottle shop.
Property in the pretty town of Sawbridgeworth isn’t cheap, with homes selling for an average of £481,288 over the last year, according to Rightmove. The majority of properties sold in Sawbridgeworth during the last year were detached properties, selling for an average price of £704,776. Flats sold for an average of £219,445, with semi-detached properties fetching £481,727.
Overall, the historical sold prices in Sawbridgeworth over the last year were six percent down on the previous year and six percent up on the 2021 peak of £453,934.
