Writing.
Elton has added a couple of more dates to his UK tour next year. On May 23, he will appear at The O2 in London, England. This will be his 10th–and final–London engagement. Prior to that, he will be at the same arena on the second, fourth, fifth, eighth, ninth, twelfth, thirteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth of April. So in this case, T. S. Eliot would not be correct in describing April as being ”the cruelest month”!
The following month, on 08 June 2023, Elton’s farewell tour will stop at the Utilita Arena Birmingham. He’s got two other gigs lined up here as well: makeup dates from 2021 which will take place on the tenth and eleventh of June.
Tickets for both of these shows go on sale here at 10 a.m., the 7th of October.
Across the pond on Sunday evening, Elton played the Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee. He brought up something which made him ”very happy tonight.” That was the fact that the Atlanta Braves beat the New York Mets.
Bernie Taupin has also been spending time in Nashville. The lyricist was just leaving the city when he learned that one of his heroes, Loretta Lynn, had died. He thought her music was timeless, and would have ”given my right arm to write with her.” Earlier, Bernie had visited the Country Music Hall of Fame, which celebrated a new exhibit (Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock) on the 30th of September with a concert where the likes of Chris Hillman, Vince Gill, and Rosie Flores performed. Incidentally, Hillman has a new SiriusXM show, Burrito Stand, and one of his future guests is to be none other than Taupin.
Talking of Nashville you may like to tune into the recently released podcast with Elton drummer Charlie Morgan, recorded from his home in Nashville.
On the latest episode of Apple Music‘s Rocket-Hour, Elton’s guest was Marcus Mumford. The younger entertainer spoke about his admiration for Elton and working with Brandi Carlile and Joni Mitchell.
Have you heard about the new version of Elton and Bernie’s The Bitch is Back, The Witches Are Back? This is on the soundtrack of Hocus Pocus 2.
DisneyPlus, where the film is streaming, says there are now digital downloads available. But the CD won’t be out until the 11th of November. This brings to mind one of the rarities on Jewel Box, released in 2020: a piano demo called The Witch’s House.
In 2008, Elton took the Guardian to court for ”a nasty and snide” piece poking fun at his AIDS foundation, but lost the case. Nowadays, though, his feelings about the writer, Marina Hyde, have changed. He recently called her to compliment her work. She said he’s a ”total mensch.”
So it’s likely Elton will take a look at her new book, What Just Happened?!, which brings together many of Marina’s columns.
• Another writer, Chris Charlesworth, shared his memories of being on board the Starship plane with Elton. In 2019, the Melody Maker journalist told this website that he remembered seeing Kiki Dee onboard. And he appreciated that they didn’t need to check in. Instead, ”a caravan of limousines” pulled up alongside them, so passengers just boarded from the tarmac.
The Starship, also used by notables like the Bee Gees, the Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper, and Peter Frampton, was dismantled for parts in 1982.
• Some other legends–Legends inductees, actually–have just been selected to join the Museum of Broadcast Communications‘ Radio Hall of Fame. This is a recognition of significant air personalities, programmers and operators from the radio industry who have passed on.
The new list includes a broadcasting icon from Canada: Rosalie Trombley, who was credited with convincing Elton and his record company to release Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’s Bennie and the Jets as a single, which peaked at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart in 1974.
It was this week in 1973 that Goodbye Yellow Brick Road came out (05 October 1973). Around this time, Elton made some unusual comments. He told Phonograph Record that he would like to pen lyrics and do a solo album. It would be so ”doomy and miserable,” it would make ”Leonard Cohen sound like a jig.”
Elton also hoped to do a film, ”a comedy. But at the moment there’s so much to do as far as recording and things go.” Having launched Rocket Records and going on tour, he didn’t have a lot of time, and was enjoying himself too much to stop.
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