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What can I say? It was fabulous!!! It had been almost three and a half years since Elton visited Stockholm the last time. Then, on the Made in England Tour, he played a lot of rare songs, such as Dixie Lily, Come Down In Time" and before it was released, Live Like Horses. Still though, it has only been 159 days since he performed in Gothenburg. Tonight was my third show with Elton and this time I brought my little sister (she's ten years old). This concert was naturally a lot more like the show in Gothenburg (even though the Globe is an indoor arena), which was originally meant to be a Face-2-Face show (We all know what happened, don't we?), than the show in 1995.
Elton signing autographs to the people right in front of me. Even though a bit blurry (by accident) it's a pretty cool picture.
I started the Friday off at home picking up my sister for the commuter train/subway ride to the arena. There we met some fellow Swedish 22nd Rowers and had a pizza before the the gates were opened. We then entered and bought some tour t-shirts and went to find our seats. My friends had fourth and seventeenth row tickets respectively, me and my sister had eighteenth row seats :-( (Well, it's quite alright anyway...). We strolled around among the last rows for a while, hoping to bump into some roadies handing us first row tickets. We didn't...
Almost twenty minutes late Elton and the band finally entered the stage to the opening notes of Circle Of Life.Worth waiting for! I was surprised how good it was live! It sounded pretty much like the studio version (although a little bit "heavier"), but I guess it has to, the studio version is very good as it is. I'm also happy that he put in instead of Can You Feel The Love Tonight. As Elton himself I like Circle... a lot more.
The second song was I'm Still Standing. This is definitely one of the songs that is better live. Still it wasn't enough to warm up the audience. Swedish audiences are sometimes very conservative. Two days earlier I saw Eric Clapton at the same arena (a sold out show), and during Cocaine the whole audience, 14000 people, was sitting down in silence and didn't even stand up after the song!!! Tonight's audience was a lot better, but it took some time to prove...
Everyone recognized the following songs Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Honky Cat but not even the latter of these got everyone going. People didn't seem to understand what Elton meant by "helping" them at the end of the song.
The fifth song's name, Elton explained, is about
his middle name. When he decided to change name to Elton John
he wanted a ridiculous middle name, and chose "Hercules". I've wanted to hear
it live since I bought the video with the Wembley concert from 1984. This is a
song that most people don't know, but now the crowd started moving a little
bit. It rocked great, but I think they could have played it in a slightly
higher tempo.
Hercules was followed by I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues. One of the longest titles Elton ever wrote, and probably one of the most played. He played it on all three shows I've seen so far. But, it is a great song, and he always shows off a great solo. And I love piano solos...After I Guess... he introduced a song from the Madman Across The Water album. Unfortunately Levon never became a hit here in Sweden, so most people didn't recognize. Still the audience response was good, it's another great song, featuring pretty much piano.
Next to my sister were two ladies about thirtyfive years old. They were of kind of audience that are really disturbing. They had probably been drinking something with alcohol before the show because they were screaming, whistling and moving enough for me me to feel when they bumped into my sister. They're the kind that loves Elton in weekend and forgets him completely Monday to Friday, if you know what I mean...You don't? Sorry, not my fault...Anyway, when the first notes of Simple Life started playing we were standing and clapping our hands all four of us. The rhythms are really cool so we decided not to sit down. This lead to that the people behind us stood up as well, and on our sides, and even in front of us. Soon the whole floor was standing, and the crowd was finally warmed up!
After Simple Life, of course, The One and then Sacrifice, two "sit down songs" that is, but when I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That" started people were quick to stand up, and some even started to move towards the stage. Me and "sis" followed them of course and this is where the real fun part began!
We were now pretty close to the stage,
but my sister (her name is Katrin, by the way), wanted to get
even closer so I said "Alright, if you sit on my shoulders" and
"Whenever someone on stage is looking our way, you wave, okay?".
She did as I told her and she got Elton's and the other band
members' attention several times. Not very strange as she's a blonde, pretty
ten year old with her about half a metre above all other heads.
Elton even came to the edge of the stage and waved only to her
at least twice. She was also popular among the cameramen.
My friends say she were on the big screens several times with frozen and mixed pictures and all. Really cool! She also wore my "Hercules FC" cap and the tour t-shirt I bought her before the show.
A few more ballads again, Daniel and Rocket Man. Can't help to be curious about that last verse that was left out from Daniel every time I hear it... Rocket Man was a real long one, very good of course. You could tell the band were having a good time, John J. and Davey kept throwing these small things they play their guitars with (in Swedish they are called "plektrum", maybe "plectrum" in English?) to us in the audience, and John M threw several drum sticks. Unfortunately I didn't catch any...
Time then for the only song in the set list from MIE. I knew the set list in advance of course and had it printed to be able to keep an eye on and remember what happened during the show (of course I managed to forget it at home, but that's another story). Anyway House was really nice. Even though a surprising choice since we're more used to hear Believe or Blessed from that album. It felt like it was meant a little bit for us "Regheads" who like to hear the less played songs.
Same was the feeling with Nikita, even if I bet that everyone in the arena knew it. I think this was a really nice song live and I can't understand why it has been so rarely played live! He introduced by saying that someone had asked him during the rehearsals if they would play it, and he decided to give it a try. I'd say it worked out fine.
Then it was time for me to dance to Crocodile Rock, with Katrin on my shoulders of course. It got really heavy after a while, she's ten after all, but I didn't really care. It was the first time I brought her to a real show, so she was going to have her part of the fun as well and I think she did! John J confirmed to me in an e-mail the other day that he noticed us there in front of the stage. He also confirmed that they were having fun as well.
At this time the band left Elton
alone on stage for a while. He thanked us in Scandinavia for being such a ...
audience through the years. I guess he, at least partly, referred to his "bad"
years. Then he played what we all have been waiting for years. He didn't play
it in Stockholm in 1992, nor in 1995 and he didn't play it in Gothenburg this
summer, but now we finally let us hear Your Song. This has to be one
of the best ballads ever written. Do I have to mention that the performance was
wonderful? He continued alone with Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word"
which is also a very nice song played solo.
After this The Man left stage and Guy Babylon returned to his keyboard set and started off of my all time Elton favourites, Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding. Suddenly a paper tissue came flying from out of nowhere landing on the keyboard Guy was playing. And then there was another one, and another one...Then Elton entered the stage laughing (Yep, you guessed it, he threw them...) and he was still laughing when he sat down by the piano. Then the rest of the band returned and rocked the hell to say the least.
Elton was obviously in the best mood because he immediately continued joking when introducing the next song. "The next song is from the album Made in England", he said. And started playing Something About The Way You Look Tonight just as planned. I think Bob was most surprised, at least he was the one who laughed most...
Now everyone was standing (I think), and
for the rest of the show I was sweating a lot because of someone sitting on my
shoulders all the time (of course that didn't stop me from dancing around). I
love when he plays the rock'n'roll songs and this time Bitch Is Back
was followed by Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting).
Elton left stage to let us scream him back. He took a look of time to write autographs to people in the front rows. I didn't get one (didn't have either pen or anything to write on), but I got an autograph in Gothenburg this summer, so I'm alright anyway. Then he made a nice and clean performance of "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me and slipped out sideways again. Of course I knew he was coming back once more, to do...
Great Balls Of Fire" (dressed in a training suit)!!! I
just love it! Not that I say it's better than Elton's own
songs, but I really think it is the ultimate end of a brilliant show! My
parents have a Jerry Lee Lewis CD at home that I know
Katrin likes. So I teased her almost a week before the show
that I knew which would be the last song of the show. Yeah, she liked it
too...
That's the end of the best (I think) Elton show of three I have been to. Did I miss anything? Of course I did. If I would be able to choose a set list it would definitely not be shorter than 50 songs, but what I remember from the show in Gothenburg this summer was that I really liked Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. I also missed If The River Can Bend and Bennie And The Jets. I could have got som really cool pictures of Elton under the piano from our position... I also missed some of the "oldies"; Tiny Dancer, Grey Seal and Sad Songs. I also liked the cover of Uptown Girl a lot.
Anyway, you can't have it all. Some people helped me to get almost all though. I would like to thank Kent for writing down the set list (he also forgot his copy of list I sent him), Katrin, Per-Gunnar and Louise with friends for nice company, and last but absolutely not least: The Man and The Band!!!
- Circle of Life - I'm Still Standing - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Honky Cat - Hercules - I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues - Levon - Simple Life - The One - Sacrifice - I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That - Daniel - Rocket Man (long version) - House - Nikita - Crocodile Rock - Your Song - Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word - Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding Introduction of the band - Something About The Way You Look Tonight - The Bitch Is Back - Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting) Encore 1: - Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me Encore 2: - Great Balls Of Fire
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