I am still on an Elton high after the past few days. I recently saw Elton in Peoria on March 2nd and in Iowa City on March 6th and was up front at the stage in front of the piano for both! :-) Thanks Joe for helping me out!!!
In Peoria I got there with my online friends (one of which already wrote a spoiler about this) and when we walked in the arena at about 5pm we heard Elton warming up. We found an open door and walked in and saw him rehearsing! Then when we went back out a newspaper photographer latched on to us and later went and got the reporter to interview us. Then my friend Cindy was interviewed on the news!
The concert was awesome. I had a front row ticket and was able to be in front of the piano for the whole show. Before Elton ever began singing he took my flowers... and touched my hand! He also spoke to me and my friends on several occasions and then during Crocodile Rock when myself and the entire audience was singing the La La part he looked at me and yelled "come on!" It was so cool! Later in the show I was able to get 2 autographs and he grabbed hold of my hand!!! It was a night I will never forget.
Then in Iowa City I was again able to be up front at the stage! Elton was again very personable. He spoke to me again which was awesome. The first time he came by to do autographs he passed me by... partly because I was being shoved by the guy on my left so I couldn't raise my arm very high. And there was a guy behind me that thought my back was a punching bag. Thank goodness that they both eased up about half way through the show. My body is still black and blue!
After I was missed for an autograph I felt like crying... So after about 2 more songs I held up my program and Elton didn't come over but he gave me this sad look that said he was so sorry and that he would do it later... which he did! YAY! Then during Tonight which is probably my all time favorite EJ song (if I had to chose) I called my mom in Florida on my cell phone. I held the phone out towards Elton and he looked at me and grinned and wrinkled up his nose a bit! It was so cute! My mom was thrilled to get to hear a few minutes of the show. She was even more thrilled when I told her that the phone got me another smile out of Elton. :-) I also got to touch Elton about 4 times at the end of the show which was awesome!
Elton was really good about posing for pictures. He looked directly at my camera several times. Towards the end of the show my camera battery was starting to get a bit weak and was taking longer to charge. And it won't take a picture if the flash isn't charged. Anyway, Elton looked right at the camera, smiled and held the pose while I tried to take the picture but the camera wouldn't take it! I about died! Then he sang the next line and did it again! And my camera still wouldn't go!!! At this point I was jumping around and yelling at my camera while I shook it around all over the place. <g> And Elton posed again... and held it for a really long time and he was laughing a bit too! This time I finally got the photo! Thank you Elton!!!! He is such a nice person to do that! Of course I was still being shoved by the guy next to me so the picture is a bit blurry but its not too bad. I love it just the same. I also got a really good one of him staring wide eyed into my camera! I really love that one!
The security was really good at this show and allowed a lot of people at the stage. Partly because of inexperience I think. They haven't had a concert there in quite awhile (or so I heard). It worked out to the benefit of a lot of the fans there because they were able to be up at the stage when normally they wouldn't have. Myself, and several others were up there before the show even started! My cousin and her friend were even able to make it up to the stage right behind me towards the end of the show and they had seats in the lower part of the bowl seating in the back half of the arena! I couldn't hardly believe it when they made it up there.
Getting to see Elton twice in 4 days time was so wonderful. It will probably never happen again because I usually can't afford it for one thing. And getting to be up front for both shows was a dream come true! I still can hardly believe it happened. I have seen EJ 4 times now and 2 of them I was right at the stage. It is going to take awhile to calm down from all of this. This has been the best week!!!
Liz
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