WINTER may have only just arrived but Ipswich is today set to be sailing into a summer of music.Rock icon Rod Stewart has announced he will be going on tour next year and will be heading to Ipswich to perform at Portman Road.

WINTER may have only just arrived but Ipswich is today set to be sailing into a summer of music.

Rock icon Rod Stewart has announced he will be going on tour next year and will be heading to Ipswich to perform at Portman Road.

The star has chosen Ipswich as one of just six places he will visit during June and July next year along with Manchester, London, Glasgow, Cardiff and Coventry.

The decision by the internationally famous singer to perform in Ipswich is another step towards the town becoming a major music destination and follows a series of high profile concerts at Portman Road in recent years.

His appearance on July 3 will be the second time Rod has appeared at Portman Road and will come 16 years after the first.

A spokesman for Ipswich Town Football Club said they were pleased to already be announcing a concert for next summer.

He said: “We're delighted to continue to work to bring some of the world's very best acts to Ipswich.

“We're looking forward to this exciting concert and we're sure that it will be welcomed by music fans across the Eastern Region.”

The announcement that Stewart will be coming to Portman Road puts among an impressive line-up of stars who have performed there in recent years.

This summer saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers kick start their UK summer tour in Ipswich and the town's stadium has also played host to performances by Elton John, REM and Neil Diamond.

A crowd of around 24,000 people are expected to pay between £50 and £65 to see the concert.

The spokesman for the football club said Portman Road was becoming an essential performance venue for many big acts.

“With the music world, the success of concerts at Portman Road has really put the place on the promoters map and when they are looking for a venue for the East they look very much towards Portman Road,” he said.

“The stadium team and background staff are now quite used to putting these concerts on and are doing so with the minimum of fuss for the promoters.”

Tickets for the concert on July 3 go on sale at 9am on Friday.

WEBLINKS: www.LiveNation.co.uk; www.rodstewart.com

What do you think about Rod Stewart coming to Ipswich? Are you his biggest fan? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or send us an e-mail to eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk

AFTER starting out with the group the Faces, Rod decided to go solo and released his first two albums -

1969's The Rod Stewart Album and 1970's Gasoline Alley.

He found fame in 1971 with the release of first solo single Every Picture Tells a Story and the smash hit Maggie May - both of which took the Number 1 spot in the U.S. and the U.K. simultaneously, a chart first.

Since then he has notched up an impressive array of hit singles, has released 35 albums and the hugely successful Great American Songbook series has become the biggest selling ongoing collection of new music recordings in history.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, he is recognised as among the best singers in the world.

The hit Maggie May was followed by songs such as Tonight's The Night, Do Ya Think I'm Sexy, Young Turks, Forever Young, Sailing and Downtown.

After the four volumes of the Great American Songbook, Rod released a new album this year called Still The Same…Great Rock Classics Of Our Time.

ROD Stewart is almost as famous for his love-life as he is his music and has had a string of relationships with glamorous women.

Now 61, Stewart and his long-time girlfriend, model Penny Lancaster christened their son - and Stewart's seventh child - Alastair Wallace Stewart in June of this year.

Over the years he has been linked with actress Britt Ekland, Alana Hamilton, model Kelly Emberg, was married to model Rachel Hunter and is currently engaged to Penny Lancaster.

A huge football fan, Rod is famous for supporting Celtic and still regularly plays in a team.

In 2000, he underwent throat surgery to remove a benign cancerous node.

BEFORE making it in the music world, Rod Stewart worked in the funeral industry as a grave digger.