ROCKER Rod Stewart is still playing to huge crowds but here in East Lancashire, impersonator Stuart MacDonald is coming out of retirement to play a charity gig at his local pub. PAULINE HAWKINS finds out what life is like for a man who resembles a superstar.

HOLIDAYMAKERS often do a double take when they see Stuart MacDonald walking down the street.

With his shock of blond hair and his rugged good looks, he could easily be mistaken for rock god Rod Stewart -- and frequently has been, especially after an Atlantic crossing (for the uninitiated, Atlantic Crossing was the title of one of Rod's 1970s albums).

Rod is known for his love of fair-haired beauties, recording an album and single in the late 1970s called Blondes Have More Fun.

But the woman on Stuart's arm, his wife Linda, has long dark locks. Benefits Agency employee Stuart, who at 53 is four years younger than Rod, said: "We go to America twice a year for holidays and I think I am more photographed than Mickey Mouse. One man in a wheelchair came up to me with Rod's latest album and asked me to sign it for him.

"I really do get taken for him a lot, even in this country. But he has a few more millions than me!"

Stuart was born and bred in Nelson and became a bricklayer when he left school in 1962. While Stuart was learning his trade, the other Stewart was starting to make music and played harmonica on the 1964 hit My Boy Lollipop by Millie.

Rod the Mod hit the music bigtime in the early 1970s with solo singles including Maggie May and You Wear It Well and was frontman with the Faces on tracks such as Stay With Me and Cindy Incidentally. At that time Stuart had short hair as he had joined the army in 1969 but, even without the trademark locks, he used to enjoy singing and entertaining in the sergeants' mess. Stuart has been to quite a few Rod Stewart concerts over the years but has never met him and says he has never been tempted to head backstage to chat to his double. He decided to make a career out of being a Rod Stewart impersonator in 1984 after people told him he looked and sounded like the raunchy rocker who had once aspired to be a professional footballer.

Stuart also auditioned for ITV's Stars In Their Eyes about four years ago and reached the last 100 of the thousands who applied, but failed to make it to the small screen.

After 15 years imitating Rod at different venues on three or four nights a week, Stuart decided to retire three years ago and since then has only sung at weddings and birthday parties for family and close friends.

"I got fed up with travelling. On a Friday night you are away, then you come back and you are away the next night. By the time you get back again the weekend's gone and your social life is nil," he said.

He discovered that life as a superstar impersonator was a world away from the highly organised travelling arrangements and glamourous venues that Rod commands. After a tour Rod might unwind for several weeks in the sun or head back to the recording studios but Stuart, playing at clubs mainly in the north of England, was limited to how far he could travel without having to stay away from home.

There were other drawbacks too. "You couldn't leave your kit anywhere, and in some clubs there are 200 steps to climb," he said. "Then there was the bingo. Songs had to finish at a certain time, you couldn't go on after that time because the bingo would start.

"Some agents put you in some silly clubs. Imagine putting Rod Stewart in a Conservative Club. I was there in skin-tight pants and a leather jacket and the blue rinse brigade wanted bingo. They just looked at me. "I have done clubs in Manchester and one night, around 1990, I was in a club called The Talk of the North. I was the first act on and there were 12 people in this massive club -- and not a Rod Stewart fan in the place."

After retiring from the club scene he has been coaxed back on the stage by friends or relatives who have reason to believe (a hit for Rod in 1971 and 1993) that he won't mind belting out a few hits because he enjoys to entertain. Now the skin-tight pants have been replaced with suits as Stuart follows Rod into sartorial maturity. Stuart said: "I say no until I get a few pints down me. But once I get on stage it is like I am Rod -- I don't care who's there."

Sometimes copying Rod's antics has almost brought the house down -- literally. One night at the Prince of Wales in Nelson he swung the microphone Rod-style and accidentally smashed a new light fitting. But because it went down so well with the audience the landlord told him: "They loved that, smash a few more," and put some old light fittings back up.

Stuart will be singing a range of songs, including rock 'n' roll numbers and some of Rod's hits, including Stuart's own favourite Downtown Train, at a charity New Year's Eve bash at the Trafalgar Hotel in Railway Street, Nelson.