Fan report by Stephan Heimbecher.

Once in a blue moon my business travel conincides with Elton's tour schedule and that's how my 120th Elton show became my first ever concert experience in Japan. A few hours after leaving the stage as a guest speaker at Sony's HDR Seminar event at Inter BEE in Tokyo, I found myself in the pouring rain in front of Yokohama Arena - about an hour train ride from my hotel in Tokyo.

Earlier that afternoon I had met there with Eriko, a long time Elton fan and good friend of mine, which I hadn't seen since February 2005 in Las Vegas. Our first encounter goes back to June 1992 when she was "blocking" the Elton John section in a record store in Notting Hill, London. We have shared many Elton travel and concert experiences ever since.

Once the doors opened at 6 pm, the rain washed in a permanent flow of concert goers into the huge Yokohama Arena, which I will certainly not remember as the place with the best acoustics. However, the performance of Elton and the band was flawless, as has been documented by WOWOW, Japan's first private satellite broadcasting and pay television station.

No surprises though as far as the set list is concerned, not even a mention of the upcoming new album. However, a few songs into the show Elton did mention that he is "very happy to be in Japan" and that he will be "coming back soon". So it looks like Osaka and Yokohama were just a stopover on the way to New Zealand with more shows in Japan being added for 2016.

With my last Elton show almost exactly one year ago (Munich, 27 Nov 2014) I was a bit disappointed to find the set list to be basically identical. However, there were some fascinating new musical nuances, e.g. the almost never-ending and powerful instrumental finale to "Levon" or the likewise extended intro to "Rocket Man". Another highlight to many fans, especially those in front of the stage, probably was the fact that David helped Elton out on stage when he was signing autographs right before the final encore "Crocodile Rock". But even before his appearance you could tell that David was around, because of Elton's great mood and his many references to love. He also briefly referred to the Paris attacks and "all the violence throughout the world" and said that this can only be responded to with love.

I might not have liked the set list, but let's face it: There aren't that many 68 year old pianists on this planet that can even make a Japanese audience stand during a 2 1/2 hour set of mainly Rock'n'Roll.

Following is the complete set list of the Yokohama show on November 18, 2015:

1. Funeral For A Friend
   
2. Love Lies Bleeding
   
3. Bennie And The Jets
   
4. Candle In The Wind
   
5. All The Girls Love Alice
   
6. Levon
   
7. Tiny Dancer
   
8. Believe
   
9. Daniel
   
10. Philadelphia Freedom
    
11. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
    
12. Rocket Man
    
13. Hey Ahab
    
14. I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues
    
15. The One (solo)
    
16. Your Song
    
17. Burn Down The Mission
    
18. Sad Songs (Say So Much)
    
19. Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
    
20. Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me
    
21. The Bitch Is Back
    
22. I'm Still Standing
    
23. Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock 'n Roll)
    
24. Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting
    
    
25. Crocodile Rock

Back to Headlines