Fan report by Pam. Photos by Valerie Gomez.

We arrived at the Savemart venue in Fresno around 11:30 am, where we went to the box office to see when the Rocket tickets would be handed out. There was quite a line already, so I just went up and asked a guy who was out there talking to the people.

Come to find out, they were all there to get Sarah Brightman tickets that were just going onsale, and he was not very cooperative in telling me when the Rocket tickets would be handed out...said he was dealing with these onsale, would worry about the Elton tickets later.

Soooooo, we went and found our hotel (never rely on Yahoo maps to give you good directions), unloaded and headed back to the venue. Per the Savemart website, box office would be open day of event at 1:00 pm or 2 hours before show time, whichever was earlier. But they weren't ready to hand out Rocket tickets! Said they had to be printed up....and guess what, you know how the tickets in Europe and England have nice pictures on them of the venue?

Well, the rocket tickets were like that...with the savemart center on the ticket...and what with their new way of just scanning your ticket, you get to keep the whole thing. Only the rocket tickets had the picture, as far as I know).

Well, Elton was the 2nd event to be held at this brand new arena. It is really gorgeous and his fans filled it to the brim!! In talking with people waiting there were alot of first timers and I told them they were in for a treat!!

It was raining hard, off and on, and yet we waited, kept being told a later, and later time to pick up the tickets. So in the meantime, we wandered over to the back end of the stadium where we spotted the trucks, and the long ramp down to the loading docks. We chatted with the guard at the entrance to the ramp and had asked if Elton and the band were here yet, and he said no.

We saw the limo parked down there, but then in a little bit it took off. We asked if that was the limo going to pick up Elton and he said, yeah, one of them. So we waited and waited, went back a couple of times to check the box office. We went back to the ramp and my friend said here he comes....and I'm all where?

Well, my friends, here comes a motorcade, Elton and the bands limos were escorted by a total of 10 motorcycle cops, and 3 police cars, lights a flashing and sirens a blaring! It was an awesome sight to see! There were 4 motorcyle cops in the front, a police car, then the 2 limos, another cop car, and 2 motorcycle cops pulling up the rear.

You could see them when they were coming down off the off ramp what with all the lights going!! So we waved as they drove in and of course, we have no idea if they saw us....standing there in the rain, wind..very chilly......but I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

After that, we walked back over to the box office, where we were told, the tickets wouldn't be ready till 6:00 pm .... this was around 5:00 pm, so we headed back to our room to get ready. Back at the venue, we picked up our tickets. We had sect 1, row J, seats 9 and 10, which were a direct inline with Elton. We were very happy with our seats. We did of course, have one of the ticket agents continue to look for late release seats, but nothing came up. We finally went inside the venue around 6:15 pm, though they hadn't officially opened the doors to the people, we saw people inside, so we just walked in.

We stopped at the souvenir table, Ruth got a program, to hopefully get signed for her neice, but that didn't happen. I chose to wait till after the concert to get my t-shirt, a new one for this leg of the tour Fresno being first!

We walked on down to the floor, finding our seats, and proceded to look around and see who we could find. I went and talked to a couple of security guards, trying to get a set list, one guy said he'd see what he could do, but at the end. He said he couldn't get one. I had asked what was the "go to the stage" song and the one guy had said Holiday Inn, but then when I talked to this other guy, he had his set list in his hand and I looked and confirmed with him again what was the song. He said it was actually the song after "Holiday Inn", which was "Saturday Night".

Well folks, he didn't play "Holiday Inn", and when he started playing "Saturday", well I squeezed through my row, and tried to go up to the stage, only to be blocked by security. Man was I upset. So for the next few songs, I stood there and they started to send people back to their seats. I just kind of scooted to the side to make a long story short, they finally let me go up for the last song. Well, just before the last song, as he did his autograph sweep.

I was clear on the end of the stage, behind his piano, and he stopped just short of me with doing the autographs, so I didn't get one this time, which was fine, I just wished I could have been allowed to the stage sooner.

Details: Suit was black with rhinestone design across the chest and on the sleeves. His shirt was a navy blue (not bright enough to be called royal blue, but a little brighter than navy), hung out of his jacket, all the way around, I believe it went just about to his knees. He wore a dangly earring, it looked like 3 strands of dangly stones ... diamonds I'm sure that were 3 different lengths. For his last song, he had changed into a black warm up suit, white stripes and on his right arm it said PEACE and on the back it said, ANGEL HEART. His getaway shoes were very glittery sparkly tennis shoes.

The show pretty much started on time, at 8:00 pm and he ended around 10:50 pm or so. Elton was in a good mood, smiled alot, and he did a great job, and you could tell he was happy by his performance the way he would stand up after each song, (just about) and give the "yeah" fist thing....if ya get what I mean.

Following is the complete set list of the Fresno show on November 8, 2003:

• Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
  
• Bennie and the Jets
  
• Daniel
  
• Someone Saved My Life Tonight
  
• Ballad Of The Boy In The Red Shoes
  
• Philadelphia Freedom
  
• The Wasteland
  
• Rocket Man
  
• I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues
  
• I Want Love
  
• This Train Don't Stop There Anymore
  
• Take Me To The Pilot
  
• Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
  
• Come Down In Time
  
• Candle In The Wind
  
• Dixie Lily
  
• Harmony
  
• All The Young Girls Love Alice
  
• The Bitch is Back
  
• Tiny Dancer
  
• Levon
  
• Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting
  
• Crocodile Rock
  
• Pinball Wizard
  
• Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me
  
• Your Song
  

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