Saturday 24^th December 2007

Barossa Arts & Convention Centre

My girlfriend and I went away for the weekend to Lyndoch (Barossa Valley, South Australia) where we stayed at Casa Rossa (a bed and breakfast house). The objective of this weekend was to meet and have dinner with her uncle.

I was under the misapprehension that it was just to be the two of us for the weekend, not an hour after we had arrived on our own, our friends – the kittens and the time lords – arrived to share the weekend with us.  Not only had they come as a surprise for me, they were also keeping a secret regarding the real reason we were there.

I had known for sometime that Sir Elton John, one of my favourite artists would be playing in the Barossa, but seeing as I couldn’t afford to go, I had chosen to omit any further details from my knowledge. It wasn’t until the caretaker of Casa Rossa had mentioned that he would be taking people to the concert that I was reminded of when it was.  I was disappointed.

The next day en route to what I was lead to believe was my girlfriend’s uncle’s house, Vicki handed me something to hold onto, turns out she had had two tickets to Elton John since August. I was so happy I cried all the way to the concert.

With 500 songs (90 singles and 32 albums) he is certainly one of the most successful pop artists of our time. Paired with lyricist and songwriter Bernie Turpin, he has been producing hit after hit for more than 30 years.  Between 1992 (in the USA) and 1993 (in the UK) he founded the Elton John AIDS Foundations – ‘his pioneering charity dedicated to breakthrough work on behalf of those around the world suffering from HIV and related illnesses’ (Laura Croker – taken from the ‘Elton John – Rocket Man’ concert program).

He has collaborated with Tim Rice on two occasions to produce the musicals ‘The Lion King’ and ‘Aida’ respectively, and with Lee Hall for ‘Billy Elliot: The Musical’ which is now playing at The Capitol Theatre in Sydney.

Elton John is a rock and roll legend and at 60 years young, he still knows how to put on a good show.

The concert began an hour and a half after the optimistic start time of 5.30pm, we were treated to the soulful voice of Iran James, a new artist who was very honoured to be the support for Elton John. This was a welcome relief as we had been stuck watching the election which, truth be told, was part of the reason we were there and not at home watching it, we were here to see Elton, not to be bombarded with politics.

Despite the fact that he made the audience wait almost a hour and a half before he actually arrived (possibly due to what I’d call a ‘diva moment’), this concert was truly a once in a lifetime experience.

At 7pm the crowd was regaled with an audience with the man himself beginning his set with the old favourite ‘Your Song’. Sadly, he did not play anything newer than the songs which are featured on ‘Songs From The West Coast’, he stuck to mostly older hits, but didn’t play the song everyone was hanging out to hear – ‘Crocodile Rock’.

He played a special extended live version of ‘Rocket Man’ with images from the solar system projected onto the screens either side of the stage. I watched in awe as my idol’s fingers danced across the piano keys creating pure electricity in the form of music. With a set list of 15 songs he played for about two and half hours with a string of well known hits including ‘The Greatest Discovery’, ‘Daniel’, ‘Honky Cat’, ‘Nikita’, ‘Sacrifice’, ‘Philadelphia’, ‘I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues’ and ‘Tiny Dancer’ which was dedicated to ‘all the little ladies in the audience’.

Toward the end of the concert people rose from their seats and started dancing and singing loudly at the edge of the stage, one girl even managed to get up on stage and was manhandled off.  He played one or two encores and autographed people’s paraphernalia.

He left soon after, that was all we were getting for the evening. We were ‘treated’ to drunken renditions of his songs all the way home on the bus (thankfully we were the first to get off).  *****

Tags: 2007, elton john, rocket man, tanunda, tour