In mid August of 1998, Elton John's UK fans received a letter from him announcing that the June 4 1998 Face-2-Face concert that was cancelled would be made up by two November solo shows. The shows would be in Sheffield on the 26th and Manchester on the 27th. Here is the text of the letter.
Dear Friend,
Following the publicised commitment that I made at the time of the cancellation of the Old Trafford Face to Face show with Billy Joel, I am delighted to confirm that I have scheduled two special shows at Manchester & Sheffield during my solo European tour.
I fully understand, and would like to apologise again, for all the inconvenience that you were put to following the late cancellation of the June show, owing to the worsening of Billy's condition. I appreciate that in addition to disappointment over the show not happening, many people made arrangements to take time off work, and had to organise complex travel or accommodation plans.
Billy was devastated at having to cancel the show, because of his illness, but sadly because of the last cancellation we had no time to make the necessary technical & other staging arrangements to turn my portion of the show into the full three hour solo show that I later performed at the subsequent shows. I wanted to give my fans the best value for money & felt that just paying my standard hundred minute set as in the joint show was not enough.
I am really looking forward to playing my full solo show at both Sheffield and Manchester - and at least both venues we will all be protected from inclement weather! I hope that offering you an exclusive advance booking period for this show will help some way to make amends doe the disappointment you suffered. Thanks for all your understanding and hope to see you in November.
With best wishes
(signature)
Elton John