Tribute to aging fans - a new concert experience. Fan report by Mireille.

“Elton John live at the AVO-Session” was the cryptic announcement of this somehow unusual show. First of all: What is this “AVO-Session”? Answer: It is an annual series of concerts in a rather intimate atmosphere. Location is a trade fair hall in Basel. And AVO? That is the main sponsor of the whole thing – a Swiss cigar brand.

Maybe it was owing to this fact that the pre-concert atmosphere reminded me strangely of an old-fashioned smoke room. Expensively dressed couples in their 50s and 60s were sipping sparkling drinks and sampling AVO-cigars. No wonder, we fans felt just so slightly misplaced but still tried our best to mingle. To our astonishment, there was no merchandising stand, just some CDs and Vinyl albums for sale – only about half of them Elton’s! Well, I guess the target audience would rather have bitten off their right arm than wear an Elton John T-shirt.

Still, we received our bit of fan memorabilia because there was a Canon stall – another sponsor – where they printed out poster size photographs of Elton for free.

The exclusive atmosphere made us feel quite uneasy: What kind of concert are we going to see today? Would anyone react to Elton’s music at all? And of course: How would Elton react if the audience did not even move their little toes? At least there was enough diversion in alcoholic beverages to push these dark thoughts aside.

Shortly after 8:00 pm, theatre bells called us into the concert venue. This room with small round tables with a single lamp on each fit very well with the smoke room experience from before: a ballroom dance for senior citizens.

Excitedly and with glasses of red wine in our hands, we took our places. The first sounds of “Funeral For A Friend” were to be heard at exactly 8:30 pm. Elton took the stage and people applauded politely. He was wearing a black suit embroidered with a retro cartoon version of himself on the back, plus a shiny blue shirt.

A crowd of about 30 people was standing directly in front of the stage from the beginning of the show. We certainly joined them after three songs.
“Funeral for a Friend”, “Love Lies Bleeding”, “Bennie and the Jets”, and “Philadelphia Freedom” went by without any special moments. “Rocket Man” and “Take Me To The Pilot” went on forever, and Elton and the Band were visibly enjoying themselves. Even Bob Birch smiled and laughed – more than once!

After “Someone Saved My Life Tonight”, Elton announced the sequence of songs we had all been waiting for. First, he played “Postcards From Richard Nixon”. Even though I love this song on the album, I must say that the live version felt rather uninventive and lacked variations in mood and volume. Afterwards, Elton announced that “Tinderbox” would be his single from the album, to be released next year. With this song, I felt the opposite as with “Postcards…” – it came across much more lively and charismatic than the album version. “Blues Never Fade Away” and “The Bridge” are nice live songs, but nothing could match the energy of “The Captain and the Kid”.

Whereas the audience was not to be heard during the first four songs from the album, they now came to life. “TCATK” is truly a brilliant live song. In our post-concert rundown, all fans agreed that it should become a staple in the set list.

Towards the end of the show, Elton rocked the hall – even the smartly dressed champagne-sippers – with “Crocodile Rock”, “The Bitch Is Back”, and “Saturday Night’s Alright”. After a very brief disappearance backstage, Elton returned for the only encore “Your Song”. The show lasted only 2 hours – very un-Elton-ish but probably due the TV broadcast.

I have seen concerts in an ambience like this with a very business-like Elton playing no-frills versions of his songs without smiles or jokes. But on that Saturday, he was obviously in best spirits. During the band introduction, he said: “Few people know that, but John Mahon was my boyfriend before David.” And Davey Johnstone was labelled to be born in “Tit’nborough, Scotland”. A name which I was neither able to understand nor to place appeared in “Crocodile Rock”: “Me and ---whoever--- had so much fun…” And there was the undeniable Elton-in-good-mood-signal: He jumped on the piano and walked across the stage.

Oh yes, even though I was deeply sceptical whether this concert would be worthwhile for fans I was not disappointed. In fact, I loved it. In retrospect, I must say that I found the pre- and post-concert atmosphere very apt for aging fans – like me.

Notable hair facts: Elton rather unshaved, Guy Babylon with new (and very beautiful!) weave

Some photos from Friday’s show can be found here.

Following is the complete set list of the Basel concert on November 18, 2006:

• Funeral for a Friend
  
• Love Lies Bleeding
  
• Bennie and the Jets
  
• Philadelphia Freedom
  
• Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
  
• Daniel
  
• Rocket Man
  
• I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues
  
• Take Me to the Pilot
  
• Someone Saved My Life Tonight
  
• Postcards from Richard Nixon
  
• Tinderbox
  
• Blues Never Fade Away
  
• The Bridge
  
• The Captain and the Kid
  
• Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word
  
• Crocodile Rock
  
• The Bitch Is Back
  
• Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting
  
  
• Your Song

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