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Those famous staccato piano chords ring out, the lights swoop up and there he is. Jumbo glasses, tousled mane of hair, rhinestones gleaming as brightly as that impish grin, as Benny and the Jets kickstarts two and half hours of solid gold hits. The man and megastar also known as Reginald Dwight turned 76 last month and these days he gloriously glides around the stage on a motorised piano – but based on his full-throated voice and those flashing fingers at the piano, he could go for another 76.
The opening done, a grinning Elton tells the crowd: “Good evening London, it’s only taken me four years to say that!”
Like so many others, this tour has been long delayed by the pandemic, but it is more than worth the wait. The man himself is also clearly loving every second, constantly pumping his fist and shamelessly, giddily exhorting the crowd into ever louder cheers.
We scream for the hits, but across two and a half hours we also roar in rapture at a dizzying, electrifying succession of extended outros to classic tracks. The ending to Rocket Man alone is over six minutes of dazzling piano riffs – rippling, rising and falling in a stunning, goosebumping display of musicianship.
Elton is matched by his band, most of whom have played with him for decades and are also in their sixties and seventies. With the 02’s sound systems revved up to the max, the two guitarists and three drummers deliver bombast and brilliance, blowing the roof off, while the two giant brass bass drums boom.
Giant screens play superb custom-made animations and videos to each song, amid mixes of Elton across the years and scenes from the Rocket Man movie. Images of Little England accompany I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues end on cups of tea in Union Jack mugs. It couldn’t be more fitting for someone that truly embodies the pride of Britain.
Amid glorious deeper cuts like Burn Down the Mission and Have Mercy on the Criminal it all builds to a triple whammy crescendo of I’m Still Standing, Crocodile Rock (complete with 20,000 of us screaming the “la la la las”) followed by a suitably rocking and riotous Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting).
The main show is brought to a thunderous close as the band and crowd unite on a rapturous singalong to Your Song. It feels like every voice in the room joins in harmony on every single word in an almost holy reverie. I’m not ashamed to admit I welled up at the overwhelming emotion of it all.
There’s the usual first round of farewells, followed by Elton returning to the stage for the finale in a vivid pink robe emblazoned with his rhinestoned name on the back. That mobile piano sets off one last time as we all join in on a triumphant Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, bellowing our love and appreciation to a star who has filled our record players, CDs and airwaves, and our hearts, for fifty years.
The ending is as camply OTT as everything that has come before, Elton John rising up on a moving platform, waving and egging on the crowd one last time to rapturous adulation.
Goodbye, Sir, and thank you for the music.
ELTON JOHN’S FAREWELL YELLOW BRICK ROAD UK AND EUROPEAN TOUR UNTIL JULY 8
