Fan review by Simon Gambling.

Elton John brought a little bit of Las Vegas to the UK on November 19, 2008. Sitting behind his red piano, on a platform in the shape of a star, it was a fun filled and very energetic show. Basically this was your typical “Red Piano” concert, Elton and the band taking second stage to the massive screen behind them depicting the stories behind each song. You don’t realize what an in depth view David La Chapelle has managed to give to these songs unless you see and hear it live.

The stage was very smooth, with the road crew polishing it up a little after the support act had finished. For the first part of the show Elton was wearing a black jacket with a red shirt underneath with the top two buttons undone and red shoes. On his right sleeve it said “Treasure Hunter” and higher up it said “Captain Elton” underneath a skull and cross bone. I couldn’t quite make out the writing on his back.

The concert started off a little after 9 pm with "Bennie and the Jets", the intro is very dramatic – lit by a single spotlight from the back of the hall, a group of people in white costumes walk onto the stage and lift the black sheet off Elton’s piano and march off with it. One solitary person remains on stage and plugs the platform underneath the piano into it’s socket to reveal the star shape with white neon lights running through it. Large neon letters slide in and spell out “E L T O N” behind the stage. For the first verse of this song the sound levels seemed too high, Elton’s voice was bordering on being a little ‘screachy’ – anyway, it sounded much better by the end.

After a quick introduction and saying hello to everyone Elton started "Philadelphia Freedom". The first video of the night was shown on the screen behind. Just before the next song, "Daniel", Elton did his normal introduction of not knowing what “take me to the pilot, I’m but a stranger” meant and said he crossed the last verse off to shorten the song. The video for "Daniel" is very good, it’s certainly one of the most relevant videos that are shown and gives life to this otherwise worn out song.

Next up was "Believe". The men in white costumes were back on stage inflating large red roses. One rose did not inflate (to the front right of the stage) and Elton was busy watching this therefore he came in late – missing the first line and half out of the first verse. The video for this song is very pretty and compliments it well – very bright with a single elegant dancer.

With no introduction came "Rocket Man", again the video for this is very good, surrounded by stars with fantastic blue lights on the stage. A quick note here about the large screens to the left and right of the stage. Normally they would show the band and so on, but this time they rotated between two main shot angles for the whole show. One was Elton’s face with the microphone from a camera in front of him, and the other was of him sitting at the piano (which occasionally caught the back of Bob) from the back of the stage. This highlights the fact that the main emphasis tonight was on the stage and the large inflatable’s and TV screen.

"I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues" had a few old photographs on the large screen behind it, somehow I don’t think this song fits into the set list. Elton introduced it as coming from the "Too Low For Zero" album which is unusual as he normally dives straight into it.

"Someone Saved My Life Tonight" was next. The song was introduced as being from "Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy", saying how it was autobiographical. The video for this song is pretty intense, starting off with a young Elton putting his head in the gas oven. A very moving video to accompany an old favorite.

I was pleased to find out that "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" stayed in the set – and it was played next. Again the video was quite dramatic, lots of people snorting drugs and a girl lying dead on the floor. It hammers home the meaning behind this rather “dark” song.

"Tiny Dancer" came next with a neon sign sliding in from the ceiling saying Hot(el) Love. Elton talked about how they forgot this song for a while then how it took off again and is now one of their most requested songs.

"Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word" came next with no video, no introduction and hardly any lights on stage. I thought he may have said that this was the last song Ray Charles ever recorded with him but he didn’t.

"Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me" came next and for a moment I thought he was going to drop "Candle In The Wind". The video for "Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me" was very strange, two dancers portraying a couple in their living room rowing with a live feed of Elton singing being shown from the TV in the corner of the room. The video didn’t fit the song in my opinion but was none the less very interesting to watch. "Candle In The Wind" came next to my delight, Maralyn Monroe on the large screen, just Elton and his piano with no band – this song was a highlight of the night as it one of my personal favorites.

The fun started now – a massive ball dropped from the roof with a bang, the band returned, a casino scene with pinball machines, roulette wheels and Ceasors Palace was shown on the large screen and Elton walked onto the stage wearing a different costume. It was his black blazer with blue stripes along with black trousers with a thick blue stripe running down the legs. The men in white returned to the stage like Centurions working for their Crimson King – inflating a giant lipstick and banana. Behind them lots of neon lights lit up sayng things like “Money to Loan” and “Vacancies”.

Straight into "The Bitch is Back" next with Pamela Anderson dancing on the screen, huge apples, bananas, ice-cream, cigarettes and so on were inflated and the stage came alive. With balloons dropping from the roof being knocked around by the audience, everyone was really engaged no matter where they were sitting. "I’m Still Standing" followed this and had various pictures of Elton at all different ages on the screen.

Finally "Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)" started. Every possible inflatable was on stage now, confetti was falling from the roof and the first couple of rows from Block A were allowed to run up onto the stage and stand right next to Elton’s piano and Davey was handing out guitar picks while playing.

"Your Song" saw Elton return to the stage with a microphone in his hand saying thank you to everyone. The word “L O V E” was spelled out in huge inflatable letters. He said that he played more shows this year than ever before and that he still really enjoyed it. I’m sure he didn’t enjoy it as much as we all did tonight – and I can’t wait for the next
time!

Following is the complete set list of the Birmingham show on November 19, 2008:

• Bennie and the Jets
  
• Philadelphia Freedom
  
• Believe
  
• Daniel
  
• Rocket Man
  
• I Guess That's Why They Call They Call It The Blues
  
• Someone Saved My My Life Tonight
  
• Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
  
• Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
  
• Tiny Dancer
  
• Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me
  
• Candle In The Wind
  
• Pinball Wizard
  
• The Bitch Is Back
  
• I'm Still Standing
  
• Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting
  
• Your Song

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