Editing Rod Stewart (section)

===1961–1963: Early work and The Dimensions===
Stewart worked in the family shop and as a [[paperboy|newspaper delivery boy]].<ref name="eh-12-13">Ewbank and Hildred, ''Rod Stewart: The New Biography'', pp. 12–13.</ref> He then worked briefly as a labourer for [[Highgate Cemetery]], which became another part of his biographical lore.{{refn|group="nb"|For many years it was said that Stewart had been a gravedigger at Highgate, partly to face a childhood fear of death.<ref name="eh-12-13"/> In his 2012 autobiography he said that was a tale he had gone along with, but that in fact he had only measured out plots with string during a couple of Saturdays.<ref name="auto-22">Stewart, ''Rod: The Autobiography'', p. 22.</ref>}} He worked in a [[North Finchley]] [[funeral parlour]]<ref name="eh-12-13"/> and as a fence erector and sign writer.<ref name="gray4-5"/> In 1961, he went to [[Denmark Street]] with [[The Moontrekkers|the Raiders]] and got a singing audition with well-known record producer [[Joe Meek]], but Meek stopped the session with a rude sound.<ref name="eh-14-16">Ewbank and Hildred, ''Rod Stewart: The New Biography'', pp. 14–16, 20.</ref><!--TBD alt story has it in a church hall -->  Stewart began listening to British and American topical folk artists such as [[Ewan MacColl]], [[Alex Campbell (singer)|Alex Campbell]], [[Woody Guthrie]], [[Ramblin' Jack Elliott]], and especially [[Derroll Adams]] and the [[Bob Dylan (album)|debut album]] of [[Bob Dylan]].<ref name="eh-14-16"/><ref name="cby-375">Moritz (ed.), ''Current Year Biography 1979'', p. 375.</ref>

Stewart became attracted to [[beatnik]] attitudes and [[left-wing politics]], living for a while in a beatnik houseboat at [[Shoreham-by-Sea]].<ref name="eh-14-16"/> He was an active supporter of the [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament]] at this time, joining the annual [[Aldermaston Marches]] from 1961 to 1963 and being arrested on three occasions when he took part in sit-ins at [[Trafalgar Square]] and [[Whitehall]] for the cause.<ref name="gray4-5"/><ref name="eh-14-16"/> He also used the marches as a way to meet and bed girls.<ref name="eh-14-16"/><ref>Nelson and Bangs, ''Rod Stewart'', p. 57.</ref> In 1962, he had his first serious relationship, with London art student Suzannah Boffey (a friend of future model and actress [[Chrissie Shrimpton]]); he moved to a [[bed-sit]] in [[Muswell Hill]] to be near her.<ref name="eh-17-19">Ewbank and Hildred, ''Rod Stewart: The New Biography'', pp. 17–19.</ref> She became pregnant, but neither Rod nor his family wanted him to enter marriage; the baby girl was given up for adoption and Rod and Suzannah's relationship ended.<ref name="eh-17-19"/>

In 1962, Stewart began hanging around folk singer [[Wizz Jones]], [[busking]] at [[Leicester Square]] and other London spots.<ref name="eh-24-28">Ewbank and Hildred, ''Rod Stewart: The New Biography'', pp. 24–28.</ref> Stewart took up playing the then-fashionable harmonica.<ref name="nb-58"/> On several trips over the next 18 months Jones and Stewart took their act to [[Brighton]] and then to Paris, sleeping under bridges over the [[River Seine]], and then finally to [[Barcelona]],<ref name="eh-24-28"/> from where he was deported from Spain for [[vagrancy (people)|vagrancy]] in 1963.<ref name="BBC04">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3964169.stm|title=Enduring career of Rod the Mod|work=BBC News|date= 29 October 2004}}</ref><ref name="eh-24-28"/><ref>{{Cite book|last=Pareles|first=Jon|author-link=Jon Pareles|author2=Romanowski, Patricia|title=The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll|publisher=[[Rolling Stone Press]]/[[Summit Books]]|year=1983|isbn=0-671-43457-8|page=530}}</ref> At this time, Stewart, who had been at William Grimshaw School with three of the members of the embryonic [[The Kinks|Kinks]], was briefly considered as their singer.<ref name="eh-7"/><ref name="cby-375"/><ref name="allday">Hinman, ''The Kinks – All Day and All of the Night'', p. 9.</ref><ref name="notlike">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/raydaviesnotlike0000kitt|url-access=registration|author= Thomas M. Kitts|title=Ray Davies: Not Like Everybody Else|page=[https://archive.org/details/raydaviesnotlike0000kitt/page/21 21]|publisher=Routledge|date=13 December 2008|isbn= 9781135867959}}</ref><ref name="bbc6-keaveny">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016zmyf|title=Rod Stewart joins Shaun Keaveny|publisher=[[BBC Radio 6 Music]]|date=28 March 2013}} Dark period quote at 2:01, autobiography effect at 4:17, Ray Davies quartet quotes at 11:40.</ref>

In 1963, Stewart adopted the [[Mod (subculture)|Mod lifestyle and look]], and began fashioning the spiky rooster hairstyle that would become his trademark<ref name="eh-21-23"/> (it was made possible with sugar water or large amounts of his sisters' [[hair lacquer]], [[backcombing]], and his hands holding it in place to protect it from the winds of [[Highgate Underground station]]).<ref name="eh-21-23"/><ref>Stewart, ''Rod: The Autobiography'', p. 33.</ref><ref>Wooldridge, ''Rock 'n' Roll London'', p. 109.</ref>) Disillusioned by rock and roll, he saw [[Otis Redding]] perform in concert and began listening to [[Sam Cooke]] records; he became fascinated by [[rhythm and blues]] and [[soul music]].<ref name="eh-21-23">Ewbank and Hildred, ''Rod Stewart: The New Biography'', pp. 21–23.</ref>

After returning to London, Stewart joined a rhythm and blues group, the Dimensions, in October 1963, as a harmonica player and part-time vocalist.<ref name="mojo95">{{Cite news|url=http://www.willbirch.com/Rod%20Stewart%20-%20The%20Graveyard%20Shift.htm|title=Rod Stewart – The Graveyard Shift|author=Birch, Will|magazine=[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]|date=May 1995|access-date=4 May 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090515012107/http://www.willbirch.com/Rod%20Stewart%20-%20The%20Graveyard%20Shift.htm|archive-date=15 May 2009}}</ref><ref name="Gray-7"/> It was his first professional job as a musician, although he was still living at home and working in his brother's painting and picture-frame shop.<ref name="eh-29-32">Ewbank and Hildred, ''Rod Stewart: The New Biography'', pp. 29–32.</ref><ref name="rs-intv-70">{{Cite book|title=The Rolling Stone Interviews: 1967–1980|first=Peter|last=Herbst|author-link=Peter Herbst|edition=reissued|publisher=[[Macmillan Publishing]]|year=1989|isbn=0-312-03486-5|pages=118–26}}</ref> A somewhat more established singer from Birmingham, Jimmy Powell, hired the group a few weeks later, and it became known as [[Jimmy Powell (singer)|Jimmy Powell & the Five Dimensions]] (which also included bassist [[Louis Cennamo]]), with Stewart as harmonica player.<ref name="mojo95"/><ref name="Gray-7">Gray, ''Rod Stewart: The Visual Documentary'', p. 7.</ref> The group performed weekly at the famed Studio 51 club on Great Newport Street in London, where [[The Rolling Stones]] often headlined;<ref name="Gray-7"/> this was Stewart's entrée into the thriving London R&B scene,<ref name="rshist-377"/> and his harmonica playing improved in part from watching [[Mick Jagger]] on stage.<ref name="nb-58">Nelson and Bangs, ''Rod Stewart'', p. 58.</ref> Relations soon broke down between Powell and Stewart over roles within the group<ref name="eh-29-32"/> and Stewart departed. Contrary to popular legend, during this time Stewart probably did not play harmonica on [[Millie (singer)|Millie Small]]'s 1964 hit "[[My Boy Lollipop]]"; that was probably Peter Hogman of the Dimensions, although Powell has also claimed credit.<ref name="mojo95"/><ref name="eh-33-39"/> Powell did record and release a single during this period, though Stewart did not appear on it.<ref name="Gray-7"/>