Elton John “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” Tour, Glasgow Ovo Hydro Saturday 17th June 2023

Social Media posts from the venue and ticket agencies had warned that it was an early start. No support and Elton on stage at 7:30. Some must have scoffed at the idea of a rock concert starting at that time and they would be the ones drifting in during the first view numbers. This is the concert as show event. Slick and choreographed down to the finest detail. Sure enough, the lights went down bang on 7:30 and the introductory animation began building the level of expectation in the venue.

Arriving on stage ahead of his band Elton drank in the applause before sitting down at his piano, positioned over on the left-hand side of the stage. While the days of Donald Duck costumes, baseball outfits, boas and flamboyant glasses may be consigned to the past Elton still brought the glamour. Dark trousers topped off with dark jacket decorated in gold with his initials “EHJ” in large gold letters on the back.

As the band made their way on stage the staccato thumbs of piano, bass and drum that introduces “Bennie & the Jets.” The perennial show opener had the crowd singing along to the to the higher pitched “Bennies.”

At this point the mix sounded a little off. The band were so loud that Elton’s piano was getting lost, and his vocals were cranked too high to make them audible. It didn’t stay that way long. With no visible on-stage tantrums (or tiaras) the mix was fixed.

Another technical element that revealed itself as soon as the show began was the stage itself. The back third of the stage was taken up by a single curved form that filled the stage left to right and top to bottom. Two tiered areas of this were cut out, but what I’d taken for ramps at either side were part of a giant screen that the cut-out areas were sat within. The lower tier was clearly for the second keyboard player Kim Bullard, Drummer Nigel Olsson, and percussionist John Mahon. The higher tier looked like a percussionist’s dream and was clearly going to be veteran percussionist and long-time Elton collaborator, Ray Cooper. As we’re talking time served, I’d also give a shout out to Nigel Olsson. Olsson has been a member of the Elton John Band since it was first formed in 1970, making him the only person on stage to have played with Elton since he started touring with a band.

As the crowd applauded “Bennie & the Jets,” Elton and the band were already launching into “Philadelphia Freedom.” Bass guitarist Matt Bissonette kitted out in dark suit, white shirt and dark tie settled in behind Elton’s piano while long time band member, band leader and Elton’s consigliere, Davey Johnstone, owned the right-hand side, also resplendent in dark suit, but with dark shirt and tie, long locks as flowing and full now as they ever were.

With little pause for breath “Philadelphia Freedom” moved on to “I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues.” And it sounded fantastic. Somewhere the mix had been adjusted and now everything was in balance. The band pounded through the track. Live the song is played at a quicker tempo than the recorded version, which makes it feel more like a blues track and it slotted nicely in with the two cuts from the seventies that ha preceded it. By the time the track finished Elton theatrically collapsed over the top of his piano and fanned himself. It was a well-deserved bit of breathing space, and he took the opportunity to really address the audience for the first time and spoke about the lengthy wait for this show to actually take place.

"Hello Glasgow. I never actually thought on this tour that I would actually get to say that, it's taken so long to get here. Thank you so much for your patience. We are here and to make up for the time lost, all we can do is a great show for you."

He then led the band into a double whammy of “Border Song” and “Tiny Dancer,” two of my favourite tracks by him. And they were magnificent. No frills, no fancy rearrangements just delivered like the stone-cold classics that they are. As much as Elton is recognised as a great piano player, I think he’s often under-rated as a vocalist. He imbues his songs with just the right levels of emotion to convey the sentiment of each track. Hearing these two back-to-back just simply confirmed that.

Unfortunately for “Have Mercy on the Criminal” it was the first song that a large swathe of the audience decided would be a good opportunity to nip out for drinks, toilet etc. Their loss. While it qualifies as a deep cut the performance was glorious. Elton’s piano and Davey Johnstone’s guitar weaving together to create magic.

Having dug deep the next song brought a round of applause as soon as Elton sung the opening lines “She packed my bags last night pre-flight, Zero hour 9:00 a.m.” The use of NASA countdown and sound effects at the beginning hinted this might be special but just how special was not revealed until the song had reached what would normally be the end. As Elton reached what many thought was a final “And I think it's gonna be a long, long time” applause began to ripple across the arena, but the band wasn’t done. Led by Elton upping things to an almost honky tonk piano the song grew in an epic instrumental extended ending. It was a fine chance for the percussionists to show their chops while Davey Johnstone got to rock out on his guitar and remind us just what a good player he is.

“Take Me to the Pilot” saw another rush for drinks etc and most likely a lot of people kicking themselves. As they were stuck in queues at the concessions a very brief “…Pilot…” went into “Someone Saved My Life Tonight.” This is why I don’t leave my spot at a gig unless I really really really must. “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” was a sublime as you’d expect. Once more Elton’s vocals were pitched just perfectly, and he carried Bernie Taupin’s heartfelt lyrics off gorgeously.

“Levon” followed, and it was given a subtle reading by the band. They leaned heavily into the whole Americana sound that they dabbled in and out of for most of the evening. The whole American cowboy, and wild west ethos had played as a consistent motif across much of Elton’s classic period as Bernie Taupin had grown enamoured with it on their visits to tour the US in the early 70’s.

Next up was a song that probably is the first one that springs to mind for many people when Elton is mentioned. “Candle in the Wind” was already considered a classic before it became synonymous with the death of Princess Diana. Tonight of course it was performed as it was written, a declaration of love from a young Bernie Taupin to the screen goddess, Norma Jeane Mortenson. Of course, she was better known to the world as Marilyn Munro. If there was anyone in the audience who didn’t know that the mages displayed on screen made it abundantly clear. Mixing footage of the actress with additional film using a look alike no one was left in any doubt who the song was about. It was another faultless rendition and at the end of Elton and the band left the stage.

This was not the end though. It wasn’t even the encores. In fact, after eleven songs, we had only reached halfway through the evening. As I’ve noticed at a lot of gigs the audience were quite clued up that this wasn’t the end. A backing tape had begun even as the band were exiting, and a low wind had grown into heavy rain and thunder crashes as lightning effect flashed across the screen. A low hum started as Kim Bullard returned to his keyboards and he took us into the instrumental track “Funeral for a Friend” that opens 1973 album “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.” Gradually all the band members returned to the stage as their instruments joined the music, the break giving some of them the opportunity to dispose of jackets and ties.

As the track reached its climax Elton re-joined the band and the instrumental segued into “Love Lies Bleeding,” as it did on the album.

Elton was now cutting a brighter figure in a sky-blue jacket that was as embellished with sequins and glitter as his black one, a cat’s head outlined on the back, reseated at his piano he led the band into “Burn Down the Mission” from 1970’s “Tumbleweed Connection.” The album was a big break through for the John/Taupin team reaching number two in the UK charts and number five in the US Billboard 200.

Having revealed earlier in the evening that “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy” was probably his favourite album he’d made Elton now told us that the next song was his favourite John/Taupin composition. That song turned out to be “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word.” Dedicated to lovers everywhere it was given an almost sombre reading that suited the song perfectly. Not surprisingly it was greeted by riotous applause at the end.

Keeping the pace down “Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me” followed. Somehow it seemed to sum up the feeling of most of the audience tonight with this being Elton’s farewell to touring.

After that the band launched into a frenetic rendition of “The Bitch Is Back.” Fighting drag queens accompanied the song on screen as Davey Johnstone’s guitar buzzed and rang with the riff. Elton pounded the piano, though remaining seated throughout, long gone are the handstand s and playing standing up, though he still slams the piano lid to signal the end of a song.

“… Bitch…” was the introduction to the race to the end of the main set. Those who had been unmoved to get up and dance, jiggle, clap and generally take the opportunity to move no matter if they were totally out of time to it did rise, appropriately, for “I’m Still Standing.” As the band shared smiles and nods at being let of the leash a little the screens clipped their way through Elton’s career using archive footage and clips from his sort of biographical movie “Rocket Man.”

The pace didn’t stop as the “Crocodile Rock” blasted across the arena. Kudos to the couple at the front who did a full rock n roll dance routine to it.

“Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting” kept the tempo going and thankfully no one took this song’s title to heart.

And then they were done. Having played for almost two hours the band and Elton left the stage to a standing ovation.

At this point there was the usual few people who must beat the rush and leave before encores. I’ve never understood that practice. A lot of bands keep some of their best tracks for the encore so why miss it. As it was only 9:30 the last train or bus excuse didn’t come into play either. Anyway, for the most part it was their loss.

After a brief wait Elton returned to the stage. As has become normal he was wearing his dressing gown over a tracksuit. Sat at his piano he talked about how he was stunned to have returned to the top of the charts in 2021 with PNAU production “Cold Heart,” a duet with Dua Lipa. He then performed his vocal part of the track sat at his piano, though not playing it. The rest of the song was played on backing tape accompanied on screen by the animated cartoon of Elton and Dua Lipa that was used to promote the song on its release. Now I am a big Elton John fan. I also love pop music and “Cold Heart” is a great track within that context of a cleverly produced song. However, it didn’t work in the concert setting. For me it broke the momentum of the concert. There are plenty of great Elton John songs that could have gone here, “Daniel,” “I Want Love,” “You Gotta Love Someone,” “High Flying Bird,” “Honky Cat,” “Runaway Train,” “Are You Ready for Love?” you get the idea. Personally, I would have given “Cold Heart” it’s mention and then performed “Sacrifice” the 1989 hit from the “Sleeping with the Past” album. This is the track that the where the “Cold cold heart, hard done by you” chorus is lifted from. Anyway, I hasten to add this is my opinion and by the number of people up and dancing it wasn’t one that most people shared.

As the band returned to the stage Elton took a moment to explain why he was giving up touring to spend more time with his family. He said that once he stopped touring Scotland was one of the places, he would be coming back to so he could show it to his sons. He told the audience that: "So many great memories of Scotland. I used to come up here, hire a car and drive around the whole of Scotland in the summertime. I can't wait to stop touring so that I can take my boys up to Scotland. They are dying to come up here. It is one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful place I have ever seen."

He brought roars from the crowd by finishing up saying "As an Englishman, I fucking love you."

Elton’s first hit song “Your Song” was the penultimate track. It’ an evergreen song, sounds as good today as it ever did. Its popularity showing no signs of waning as can be seen by the number of people picking it as their first dance at their wedding. Dedicated to Glasgow, “This is your song, Glasgow!” he shouted with what was most likely the three hundred and twentieth time he had dedicated it to somewhere.

Fittingly the evening was drawn to a close with “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.” The band took their bows alongside Elton and received a standing ovation that went on for a good five minutes.

As the band left the stage and Elton climbed into a lift. It slowly ascended the curve of the screen to where a door had appeared, and Elton exited through it as the screen switched to an image of him walking down the yellow brick road until he disappeared in a yellow burst of light.

In summation it was a fantastic evening. A well-paced show with a great selection of songs that allowed Elton to pace himself and play for two and half hours with only two short breaks for him. The show was as glitzy, slick, and perfectly performed as you’d expect from an artist who has been doing this for almost sixty years. All those years playing ago spent playing in pubs, with Bluesology, backing touring artists and working with Long John Baldry are a long way back in history. Elton John, along with Bernie Taupin, deserves to be remembered as a supremely talented musician and song writer. During that first decade of success, they wrote and created some of the best “soft rock,” “glam rock,” or “AOR” (call it what you want) songs ever. They weren’t just hit makers, that was easy. They crafted whole albums where song after song was perfect. That only three of the twenty-two songs they played tonight came after 1976 shows you where Elton believes his best songs come from. It’s hard to argue with that.

And each member of the band deserves the applause they got when Elton introduced. That tonight was the three hundred and twentieth show on the “Farewell Yellow Brick” and the band showed no signs of weariness shows how into the music they are too.

I’ve seen Elton several times over his career. It’s sad that tonight will be the last, but he left in style. His voice is older, but it was still great, and his piano playing has never been doubted. I hope he gets what he wants, to spend the rest of his life with his family and watching his sons grow up. He deserves it.

Ladies and gentlemen, Elton has left the building.