I actually wasn’t looking forward to it, whether I’d been ill or not, as I’d heard really negative things about his performance at the recent Diamond Jubilee concert in London. A fair few folk had mentioned that Elton had been pretty rubbish, hitting a fair few bum notes, and it seemed to be the consensus of opinion that he was well past his sell-by date! Well, that definitely wasn’t the case tonight in Falkirk.
I loved that he was
playing in Falkirk Football Club's Stadium. Not Edinburgh’s Murrayfield, or Glasgow’s Hampden,
but Falkirk’s, em, Falkirk. Some unkind souls had said it was because he wouldn’t
be able to fill Murrayfield or Hampden, but I like to think it was just because
Elton wanted to give Central Scotland a turn for a wee change!
There was no big light show, or dazzling special effects, or
dancers, or fireworks, or guys on stilts – just, in my opinion, a brilliant
singer/musician/songwriter and his fantastic backing band playing brilliant music for two and a
half solid hours. The lively, spirited and most
appreciative Central Scotland crowd were thoroughly entertained by thoroughly good musicianship alone. I
loved that all the razzle and dazzle and flamboyance and nonsense that Elton John's famous for were
nowhere to be seen. He was just a musician whose performance seemed to come straight from
the heart and who seemed genuinely humbled and happy to be there. He couldn’t
have been more appreciative of the crowd and I loved that. And, as far as I
could hear, there wasn’t one single bum note hit. True, he can’t hit some of
the high notes in his old age – but he didn’t bother trying. Songs were
slightly adjusted accordingly, and the crowd happily obliged with the ‘Laaaaa,
la, la, la, la, la’ bit in Crocodile Rock! Me and Gemma were singing and dancing in the aisles - yup, Elton definitely made us feel great tonight!
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| Yes, it is June; yes, it was baltic; no, it didn't stop us having a blast with Elton! |
We saw him about 5 years ago in Newcastle at a fairly small venue too and like you had a great time - great seats about 30 feet from the man and just his piano - as he wandered through 30 years and more of his music. Not a great talker to the audience, he came across as quite shy despite the reputation as an extrovert ut my he enjoyed doing his stuff and getting the reaction from the audience.
ReplyDeleteYou can't afford to miss an artist like that. Who knows when he'll decide enough's enough and retire from touring for good. That's why I'll always be grateful for getting to see Leonard Cohen about 3 years ago too. Unforgettable and my No1 ever concert. Canny beat live any day of the week.
Hope you're feeling better too Jane.